Ralph Hasenhuttl

[Hodgey]

Tinges of Poch here - high press, high energy without the ability to rotate as our squad is poor - tired players limping to the end of the season. And Ralph has to shoulder the blame for that if he genuinely has Say on transfers.

I honestly think we need a Palace style clear out of both manager and squad but you need to invest wisely to do that and I’m unconvinced we are capable of doing this. So we will stick

i just hope they stick to a strategy. The courting young big club players frustrated with opportunities is a good one. Offering contracts to good lads around the club like Long and Walcott isnt.

Ralph has done well overall, but he won’t be around forever and we need a plan B. Do we do it on our terms or his is the question.

[MAY-Z]

All the Ralph supporters do is tell us it’s amazing we don’t lose every game given the squad we have. But let’s compare it with what Puel had in the second half of the season that he was sacked for, if you picked a combined team you would probably have as many of not more of Ralph’s team

 

4-2-3-1 probably the formation based on what we have

 

GK: Forster (Ralph and Claude version comparable 

 

RB: tino or KWP beat Soares (Ralph)

CB: Salisu beats Yoshida (Ralph)

LB Bertrand beats Perraud (Claude)

CM JWP (Ralph version)

CM Romeu (Ralph version probably)

AM S Armstrong (Ralph)

AM S Davis (Claude)

AM Tadic (Claude)

ST Adams or Gabbiadini 

 

So pretty comparable teams, 5 Ralph, 4 Claude, 2 draws, Claude probably had some better attacking options but a far weaker defence 

 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Ralph’s tactical genius can be summed up in 3 words. “Salisu’s long throw”!

[Dman]

9 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

So not keeping us in the league for four seasons, despite being consistently in the bottom three of the net spend table?

He’s not wrong though, we are/we’re an established premier league team. When Ralph leaves, In the main he’ll be remembered for 2 9-0 defeats,  not that we finished a couple of places outside the drop zone. 

[Toussaint]

7 hours ago, nta786 said:

You do realise there are also 11 players on the pitch (well 10 in both cases).

Not saying he isn't at fault but those results aren't 100% solely attributed to him, nor is it when we win.

Making no changes and continuing to attack Man U when we went down to ten was kamikaze stuff. Leicester was a freak, Man U was avoidable, Chelsea had the potential to be worse especially as we played the whole game with eleven, fortunately for us they settled at 6 with their focus being on the champions league game a few days later. Villa away was extremely poor also, when you consider their form either side if playing us.

[Convict Colony]

5 hours ago, MAY-Z said:

All the Ralph supporters do is tell us it’s amazing we don’t lose every game given the squad we have. But let’s compare it with what Puel had in the second half of the season that he was sacked for, if you picked a combined team you would probably have as many of not more of Ralph’s team

 

4-2-3-1 probably the formation based on what we have

 

GK: Forster (Ralph and Claude version comparable 

 

RB: tino or KWP beat Soares (Ralph)

CB: Salisu beats Yoshida (Ralph)

LB Bertrand beats Perraud (Claude)

CM JWP (Ralph version)

CM Romeu (Ralph version probably)

AM S Armstrong (Ralph)

AM S Davis (Claude)

AM Tadic (Claude)

ST Adams or Gabbiadini 

 

So pretty comparable teams, 5 Ralph, 4 Claude, 2 draws, Claude probably had some better attacking options but a far weaker defence 

 

Tadic the assist machine could get the Ralph team about 5 places higher himself.

Our no.10s are a problem.

Also why leave out van dijk, Fonte and Jay rod.

 

[Mr X]

I feel the real problem is even the players don't respect Ralphs crazy decisions, how can you play for a manager that clearly doesn't know his best team is after 3 years + ? how can they respect a manager that ditches a player that's had a blinder one game for someone that hasn't played for ages and gets straight in the team.  how can they respect a manager that continually likes to play players out of position? how can they respect someone that after every heavy defeat gives the same old we were really unlucky but our strategy is working?

Get someone in now to give them extra time to work with the team 

[Chewy]

Everyone has a different threshold but I think yesterday was mine - time for a change.

We do need to be careful wanting a change - our 2 previous managers were horrific and the football under Puel was dire.

When we get it right under Ralph the football is proactive, aggressive and attacking, the complete antithesis of what we had under Puel and, relative to that, a joy to watch.

But we are getting it right so rarely, and most worryingly the players have stopped working for him. The only one performing right now is the keeper looking for a contract somewhere else.

His selections are baffling, his substitutions uninspired, he’s tactically out manoeuvred by everyone and his man-management skills appear to be woeful. Great coach, appealing football philosophy, but his time here is done.

At least it should be. IMHO of course. 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Chewy

[Bob76]

Big Dave on Solent said he picked the wrong team, wrong formation and was then too slow to change things when it was obvious to all that it was wrong.

Just about sums up Ralph most of the time for me. Well past time to go.

[Toussaint]

53 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Tadic the assist machine could get the Ralph team about 5 places higher himself.

Our no.10s are a problem.

Also why leave out van dijk, Fonte and Jay rod.

 

Would he get in the Ralph team? Would he be played in his best position? Would the team be set up to get the best out of him? Would he run around like a loon trying to plug the midfield holes? Would he play a blinder then get dropped? I’m not sure Tadic is the sort of automaton that would thrive under Ralph. 

[Whitey Grandad]

9 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

How did you feel with two embarrassing 9-0 defeats? 

I wasn’t embarrassed. 

[The Cat]

5 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I wasn’t embarrassed. 

Me neither. I think some of our fans misconstrue how much other supporters give a shit about those results, our club or our manager.

The main reason they are remembered so much on here is Dman refers to them about 17 times a day. Obviously we all know a lot of fans of other clubs and those results rarely get mentioned in conversations I have with people.

[MAY-Z]

2 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Tadic the assist machine could get the Ralph team about 5 places higher himself.

Our no.10s are a problem.

Also why leave out van dijk, Fonte and Jay rod.

 

I left them out cos like I said Puel was sacked on his second half of the season when he didn’t have these players

[tunit]

I've always backed Ralph and I do think he's a good manager. But I think it's time we freshen things up at the end of the season. Get Steve Cooper (hopefully Forest stay down) or Thomas Frank in and start to build under the new owners.

When we click under Ralph it's a joy to watch and we can beat anyone. But there have been too many of these awful runs of form. If we had two less wins earlier in the season we'd currently be in big danger and we can't take the chance of relying on purple patches every season.

[DT]

How bad does it have to get before he gets the push? 20-0? No wins in 10 games? Our threshold seems amazingly high

[Lighthouse]

Let me put it this way, everyone seems to rave about how good a job Dyche was doing and it was mad to sack him (at the time). Yet he was 15 points behind us when he was let go.

[DT]

2 hours ago, Bob76 said:

Big Dave on Solent said he picked the wrong team, wrong formation and was then too slow to change things when it was obvious to all that it was wrong.

Just about sums up Ralph most of the time for me. Well past time to go.

That’s basically his management style in a nutshell

[Sarisbury Saint]

13 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Let me put it this way, everyone seems to rave about how good a job Dyche was doing and it was mad to sack him (at the time). Yet he was 15 points behind us when he was let go.

Seems like a getting shot of a manager has worked well for some clubs this season.

 Equally I do worry that our new owners might be more interested in acquiring other clubs rather than focusing on Saints. This is why it could be difficult finding a better manager.

[M271]

For all of the players to go off the boil and players starting who weren't coming off the bench a month ago is down to the manager and trainers. If we don't replace this summer with a pre selected manager/coach then it has to be next year because if Ralph is planning to retire in 2024 we can't go into the last season with a leader that the players know won't be there much longer or for player recruitment even if the club playing strategy is similar.

I think that Ralph falls out with players and drops them from the starting eleven for personal reasons rather than footballing reasons, no evidence but a feeling that I have. I don't think that he should personally critise individual players in public like Broja yesterday or question the quality of HIS squad, it's hardly motivational or professional.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by M271

[S-Clarke]

If we look at the season as a whole, rather than just individual games or runs (both extremes) we are middle of the pile, in amongst the likes of Palace, Brentford, Brighton, Villa etc. We just get there differently than other clubs, I guess it's the 'Southampton way'. In comparison with last year, we are doing pretty much the same and this is without our best player and goal scorer (Ings). Not bad going if you look at it like that, as the investment we made to 'replace' him just hasn't cut it at all, so we haven't had anyone scoring goals on a regular basis yet we are still doing pretty much the same.

Our lack of investment in recent years has meant we have to stand still, which is exactly what we've done. This summer is a crucial summer and it's not a summer to do the odd bit here and there, we need radical changes to the starting 11 with new players - not squad additions or young players to 'bed in' like Small etc. We need new players ready to go, that costs money...so I hope we've saved some cash in our back pocket from January to add to whatever we have in the summer. We can't keep standing still, because eventually we will drop - unavoidable no matter who the manager is.

The club won't be blind to our lack of quality in the final third. If our output was higher in those number 10 area's then I'm fairly sure we'd be in and around Wolves. We have less quality in attack than last year, yet we are doing the same - that indicates that we've improved defensively slightly, so if we can now improve the attack in this window, keep everyone together then we will hopefully avoid standing still again.

[nta786]

Have to say if we had to do a poll or similar of some sort, sacking Ralph now would be the majority of Saintsweb?

On Instagram there are a few Ralph outs, facebook it seems more vitriol to the players then Ralph.

Dare I say for the first time Ralph’s popularity is falling below 50%?

All the goodwill generated is gone and now the 9-0s + recent form is proving a case to sack him now…

[Lord Duckhunter]

4 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Also why leave out van dijk, Fonte and Jay rod.

 

Because he said “second half of the season”. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Let me put it this way, everyone seems to rave about how good a job Dyche was doing and it was mad to sack him (at the time). Yet he was 15 points behind us when he was let go.

Pretty much everyone  thought it was mad sacking him, how’s that working out? 

[Dr Who?]

14 minutes ago, nta786 said:

Have to say if we had to do a poll or similar of some sort, sacking Ralph now would be the majority of Saintsweb?

On Instagram there are a few Ralph outs, facebook it seems more vitriol to the players then Ralph.

Dare I say for the first time Ralph’s popularity is falling below 50%?

All the goodwill generated is gone and now the 9-0s + recent form is proving a case to sack him now…

I really like Ralf, but even I have to think there is a mentality issue here. The 0-9, 9-0 and recently the 0-6 which could have been double figures. 

The above as well as the last 2 seasons getting to a certain point and just seemingly taking our foot off the gas with a ‘that will do attitude’. The fact that we had only lost once at home all season until the above mentioned on the beach attitude and then proceeding  to lose 5 of the last 6 at home, with Watford, Palace and Newcastle (at the time terrible). So from losing 1 in 14 at home we have lost 5 in 6. Now that is a huge shift and like the 9-0’s is a mentality thing. I will add to this the complete collapse at Villa park at the start of the second half. Within these results we got a point at a poor Leeds, which now seems a massive point and somehow holding on against Arsenal. 

I am not a knee jerk reaction kind of person, but even I think, the 2 seasons of on the beach attitude, with chalk and cheese comparisons and the 2 x 9-0 and the 0-6, with the Villa Park spell, there is a huge mentality issue that needs addressing and this only can come through management. 

[Tank]

57 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

If we look at the season as a whole, rather than just individual games or runs (both extremes) we are middle of the pile, in amongst the likes of Palace, Brentford, Brighton, Villa etc. We just get there differently than other clubs, I guess it's the 'Southampton way'. In comparison with last year, we are doing pretty much the same and this is without our best player and goal scorer (Ings). Not bad going if you look at it like that, as the investment we made to 'replace' him just hasn't cut it at all, so we haven't had anyone scoring goals on a regular basis yet we are still doing pretty much the same.

Our lack of investment in recent years has meant we have to stand still, which is exactly what we've done. This summer is a crucial summer and it's not a summer to do the odd bit here and there, we need radical changes to the starting 11 with new players - not squad additions or young players to 'bed in' like Small etc. We need new players ready to go, that costs money...so I hope we've saved some cash in our back pocket from January to add to whatever we have in the summer. We can't keep standing still, because eventually we will drop - unavoidable no matter who the manager is.

The club won't be blind to our lack of quality in the final third. If our output was higher in those number 10 area's then I'm fairly sure we'd be in and around Wolves. We have less quality in attack than last year, yet we are doing the same - that indicates that we've improved defensively slightly, so if we can now improve the attack in this window, keep everyone together then we will hopefully avoid standing still again.

Call me old fashioned but a team without a week in week out striker is rudderless, we are reduced to relying on set pieces and pot shots from 25 yards which if they go in are something to talk about but they more often are just fantastic efforts.

I have a feeling Ralph is averse to no 9.

Ralph's +'s still outweigh his _'s

 

we were just win away from going a possible 9th

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Tank

[Toussaint]

25 minutes ago, Tank said:

 

 

we were just win away from going a possible 9th

That’s true, but if you took away the freakish win over Arsenal we’d be only 3 points ahead of Leeds and Burnley having played a game more, proper twitchy bum time. The ifs can go both ways. 

[Matthew Le God]

15 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

That’s true, but if you took away the freakish win over Arsenal we’d be only 3 points ahead of Leeds and Burnley having played a game more, proper twitchy bum time. The ifs can go both ways. 

Strange to be using ifs for wins that have happened and put a negative spin on them.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[Toussaint]

11 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Strange to be using ifs for wins that have happened and put a negative spin on them.

I have no idea what point you are trying to make

[Rebel]

it sounds like Dyche and the players had gone stale at Burnley - their results have picked up following his sacking. But who can blame them after the amount of time he has been in charge, the loss of players and the lack of investment.  I'd like to see what Dyche could do at a big club with resources - but not Saints.

With us its as much about the players as the manager - Puel, Pelligrino, Hughes and Ralphs have all failed to get consistency and a winning mentality out of the players we have.

We need to change the manager and refresh the playing squad - and even if we keep Ralph we need 5 or 6 new players at a minimum to refresh the squad and change the mentality - but they can't all be 19/20/21 year old prospects - we need to some experience and leadership in the team. 

I'd take £60 million for JWP if we spend it on 3 or 4 good players.  

But whether he's goes or not we need to replace Long and Broja up front - we desperately need a another CDM to cover/replace/succeed Romeu - we need a RB to replace Tino and LB to cover Perraud -   and we need at least 1 if not 2 No10s as well as first choice centre back - plus a goalkeeper

So that's up to 8 or 9  players more or less.

I do think Foerster, Bednarek, Stephens, Djneppo and Redmond will be moving on though so hopefully we will get some money for them.

Personally I just see more of the same - until we get relegated - JWP and one or two more out and only 3 or coming in.

[Turkish]

6 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Tadic the assist machine could get the Ralph team about 5 places higher himself.

Our no.10s are a problem.

Also why leave out van dijk, Fonte and Jay rod.

 

Not when we don’t have a striker who can finish his chances 

[saintscottofthenortham]

I was wearing thin, but my turning point was after 30 or so minutes in the 0-6 home drubbing by Chelsea. Clearly set it up all wrong, but refused to make a change until we were 0-4 down, and it could've been plenty more. The warning was there when they scored once and hit the woodwork three times inside five minutes, but Ralph knows better. That for me was just the icing on the cake.

The two 9-0's. Give me all the excuses you want, there is no reason any Premier League team should lose 9-0... Let alone twice.

Team selection. Mind blowing starting XI's and bewildering substitutions. 

Tactical nous. He has none. One style, one plan. If it doesn't work, he's fucked.

"No No.1 keeper". What the actual fucking fuck? Who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea? He was adamant McCarthy and Forster would split duties, and almost certainly was leaning towards McCarthy, despite near the entire fanbase calling for Forster to keep his place. Only injury forced his hand, Forster comes in and plays almost exclusively out of his skin, yet they give McCarcrash the new contract!? No wonder Forster wants out, because he knows what's coming.

He has it in him to be a top coach, but his decision making process is alarming and his stubbornness has cost him and us in the process. If he was making these mistakes and appeared to learn from them, or at least react to them, fair enough. But he doesn't. His chances with me are used up, as is his time. I want him gone or fear we're a certainty for relegation next season.  

[Dman]

32 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Not when we don’t have a striker who can finish his chances 

I know there have been many, endless, ongoing debates around Broja. However, if he had tadic behind him, he’d have scored a shit load more goals. Imo of course. 
 

For me our 10’s (or lack of) is the biggest issue in our squad. We simply have no creativity. 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Dman

[Winnersaint]

1 hour ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

 

His chances with me are used up, as is his time. I want him gone or fear we're a certainty for relegation next season.  

Just like some on here had us relegated before the season started?

[DT]

2 hours ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

I was wearing thin, but my turning point was after 30 or so minutes in the 0-6 home drubbing by Chelsea. Clearly set it up all wrong, but refused to make a change until we were 0-4 down, and it could've been plenty more. The warning was there when they scored once and hit the woodwork three times inside five minutes, but Ralph knows better. That for me was just the icing on the cake.

The two 9-0's. Give me all the excuses you want, there is no reason any Premier League team should lose 9-0... Let alone twice.

Team selection. Mind blowing starting XI's and bewildering substitutions. 

Tactical nous. He has none. One style, one plan. If it doesn't work, he's fucked.

"No No.1 keeper". What the actual fucking fuck? Who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea? He was adamant McCarthy and Forster would split duties, and almost certainly was leaning towards McCarthy, despite near the entire fanbase calling for Forster to keep his place. Only injury forced his hand, Forster comes in and plays almost exclusively out of his skin, yet they give McCarcrash the new contract!? No wonder Forster wants out, because he knows what's coming.

He has it in him to be a top coach, but his decision making process is alarming and his stubbornness has cost him and us in the process. If he was making these mistakes and appeared to learn from them, or at least react to them, fair enough. But he doesn't. His chances with me are used up, as is his time. I want him gone or fear we're a certainty for relegation next season.  

Spot on. Still in post, nothing from the club. Dare say he will survive until the end of the season. Then there needs to be a big clearout. At this rate we may finish below Everton

[Chez]

If, as someone posted on the Broja thread, we are offering Long a contract, that says a lot about our finances. If we don't have money available to upgrade on a striker that offers nothing, then you know things are going to be a little tight. If we have to pay £12-14m to Ralph if we sack him, that is going to seriously effect incomings this summer. Not necessarily a reason to keep him, but it is a factor. Survival this and next season, is the number one priority of our owner I suspect. Ralph has kept us up and I guess they will trust him to do the same next season too.

[saintscottofthenortham]

1 hour ago, Winnersaint said:

Just like some on here had us relegated before the season started?

We're going to finish around 3-5 points from Safety, despite having looked like threatening a top 10 finish. If you're happy with that, bravo. We are fortunate there have been some consistently abysmal sides in the league this year... Both of which we've lost to this season. Ralph has orchestrated many good results, do not get me wrong. But he has orchestrated some as many, if not more, shocking results. Added to his systematically woeful decision making in both team selection and how he handles players, I do not see how he can take us forward. Mind blown how anyone can even fight his corner now, if I'm honest. I didn't even mention in my points how he has handled Adam Armstrong, which I agree with the majority, has been disgraceful. 

If he can't be trusted to pick a strongest XI (from the fans perspective), how can we trust him to spend a transfer kitty and build a stronger squad. I genuinely fear for how he'd go about it.

I've had serious concerns over him for a long time, but now the masses are starting to turn too. It looks like he has lost the players already, so...? Days are numbered. 

[Wade Garrett]

.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by Wade Garrett
Shit quote function

[Wade Garrett]

2 hours ago, Winnersaint said:

Just like some on here had us relegated before the season started?

We won’t be too far away.

[Forester]

Finding this really difficult to call one way or another.  Trying to be balanced, and conscious there are theoretically nine points to play for:

 

Case for defence:

- three and a half seasons under Ralph and we have avoided feeling seriously at risk of relegation (excluding the salvage half season when he arrived).  Ask lots of clubs in the championship if they would swap places

- when it’s good it’s very good.  We go on good long runs of points and can compete with top teams when we do, and style of play when in this form is attractive to watch

- genuinely good guy who has bonded with fans

- he doesn’t throw toys out of pram with board and accepts financial constraints (up to now)

 

Case for prosecution:

- we are not improving, are unlikely to finish with either more points or higher in table than last two seasons

- the supposed “bigger squad” has not helped the final third of the season

- the Ying to the Yang of “attractive football” is that we struggle to keep clean sheets, which were the cornerstone of the four top eight finishes (check the goals conceded column), meaning we often have to score twice to avoid defeat

- firing a manager for finishing eighth and taking us to a cup final en route without conceding a single goal a few years back shows how far the bar has shifted

 

On balance I think I would like to see what Ralph could do with a much better budget , and hopefully the Dragon will give him this.  And I would expect a better plan B which should not always involve just two central midfielders 

[The Kraken]

50 minutes ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

I've had serious concerns over him for a long time, but now the masses are starting to turn too. It looks like he has lost the players already, so...? Days are numbered. 

I doubt very much his job is at risk. Despite his limitations he’s got us comfortably safe in the division in all his seasons with us. I also don’t see our new owners being very hands on to the extent that they’d push through a change right now. Plus we can’t really afford to get rid of him mid contract. In fact I think the owners will enjoy having Ralph as he’s on board with getting cheap youngsters as opposed to banging the door down for more transfer money. Nothing about our ownership suggests we’re going to do anything other than make up the numbers in this division, there’s no big pot of gold incoming IMO.

[Suhari]

He continues to make some strange selections and poor substitutions.

He continues to have no money to spend, and a squad lacking quality.

Sometimes we're great, sometimes we're shit. It's on him, but I'm mindful of the resources he has.

Last summer was the best window we've had for a while.

Let's see what we can do this window with the new owners. Hopefully further squad improvement. Then see where we are after 10-12 games next season.

[danjosaint]

I wouldn't trust him with a summer budget, he'd sign a marquee signing and play him out of position or not at all then coach any skill out of him so he fits his auto bollocks systems that don't work 

Edited 1 May, 2022 by danjosaint

[Teddeer]

7 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

If we look at the season as a whole, rather than just individual games or runs (both extremes) we are middle of the pile, in amongst the likes of Palace, Brentford, Brighton, Villa etc. We just get there differently than other clubs, I guess it's the 'Southampton way'. In comparison with last year, we are doing pretty much the same and this is without our best player and goal scorer (Ings). Not bad going if you look at it like that, as the investment we made to 'replace' him just hasn't cut it at all, so we haven't had anyone scoring goals on a regular basis yet we are still doing pretty much the same.

Our lack of investment in recent years has meant we have to stand still, which is exactly what we've done. This summer is a crucial summer and it's not a summer to do the odd bit here and there, we need radical changes to the starting 11 with new players - not squad additions or young players to 'bed in' like Small etc. We need new players ready to go, that costs money...so I hope we've saved some cash in our back pocket from January to add to whatever we have in the summer. We can't keep standing still, because eventually we will drop - unavoidable no matter who the manager is.

The club won't be blind to our lack of quality in the final third. If our output was higher in those number 10 area's then I'm fairly sure we'd be in and around Wolves. We have less quality in attack than last year, yet we are doing the same - that indicates that we've improved defensively slightly, so if we can now improve the attack in this window, keep everyone together then we will hopefully avoid standing still again.

Not sure we are around most of the sides you mention. The way it's going we are likely to be sitting just above the bottom 3 come the end of the season.

[Smirking_Saint]

5 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Strange to be using ifs for wins that have happened and put a negative spin on them.

What exactly does this mean ?

We got away with one against Arsenal, and without those three points we would be bang in trouble.... in fact... I think it will be decisive come the end of the season

Back to Ralph... Ive never really been Ralph out, he shows fantastic periods of form but when it goes wrong he doesn't seem to have an answer, and unfortunately every year we somehow fall back into a relegation battle (to certain degrees) despite some blistering mid season form... there is an argument that one year this could catch us out

We need more consistency, im not sure if its Ralph, his high risk high reward tactics, a lack of leadership or a mix of all of them but moving forward we need to do better

[aintforever]

6 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

The way it's going we are likely to be sitting just above the bottom 3 come the end of the season.

That’s not underperforming for our squad IMO.

[sydenhamssocks]

Danny Röhl……….. he knew 🤫

[Dark Munster]

4 hours ago, Dman said:

I know there have been many, endless, ongoing debates around Broja. However, if he had tadic behind him, he’d have scored a shit load more goals. Imo of course. 
 

For me our 10’s (or lack of) is the biggest issue in our squad. We simply have no creativity. 

Probably true. But since Broja is probably off, we need to find a new Tadic and an Ings.

I've said many times that a goal-scoring forward lifts the whole team. We've been shit since Broja went off the boil, there is no one else in the squad who can find the back of the net regularly.

If we'd had Ings this season (and at his peak, not injured) we'd probably be upper mid table, and no one would be calling for Ralph's head.

[Smirking_Saint]

11 minutes ago, Dark Munster said:

Probably true. But since Broja is probably off, we need to find a new Tadic and an Ings.

I've said many times that a goal-scoring forward lifts the whole team. We've been shit since Broja went off the boil, there is no one else in the squad who can find the back of the net regularly.

If we'd had Ings this season (and at his peak, not injured) we'd probably be upper mid table, and no one would be calling for Ralph's head.

Our final third press has gone off the boil, and Broja profited from many of those traps

Its not just an issue of Broja failing, its symptomatic of our tactics as a whole since Jan/Feb

[RobM]

I said the same many months ago, but Ralph got the signings he wants, had a full pre-season, has no disgruntled players and dodgy contract situations to deal with, and no significant injuries, so has no excuses. Do well, take the credit. Don’t do well, take the blame. 
With three games to go, it’s hard to say he has done well. I’m not pleased to say that, but there are teams around us who most would say have had a bad season and we’re on similar points and playing without any desire or interest at all. 

As others have said, I can deal with bottom half finishes and losing games. But Ralph has no excuses for the lack of effort and desire, nor the poor tactics and slow reactions when change is needed, or for the fact our players looked utterly lost and devoid of a plan yesterday. He can blame ‘automatisms’ not working, but he has no excuse for not trying to change things. 
 

Combine all this with the fact we need to buy a few players for the first-11, and the uncertainty about how long Ralph will stay with us, and it would make a lot more sense to start afresh with renewed energy and commitment to the longer-term. 

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, RobM said:

I said the same many months ago, but Ralph got the signings he wants, had a full pre-season, has no disgruntled players and dodgy contract situations to deal with, and no significant injuries, so has no excuses. Do well, take the credit. Don’t do well, take the blame. 
With three games to go, it’s hard to say he has done well. I’m not pleased to say that, but there are teams around us who most would say have had a bad season and we’re on similar points and playing without any desire or interest at all. 

As others have said, I can deal with bottom half finishes and losing games. But Ralph has no excuses for the lack of effort and desire, nor the poor tactics and slow reactions when change is needed, or for the fact our players looked utterly lost and devoid of a plan yesterday. He can blame ‘automatisms’ not working, but he has no excuse for not trying to change things. 
 

Combine all this with the fact we need to buy a few players for the first-11, and the uncertainty about how long Ralph will stay with us, and it would make a lot more sense to start afresh with renewed energy and commitment to the longer-term. 

I think you've got to look at the bigger picture though. Those clubs who'd claim to have poor seasons I'd assume are Leicester and Villa, which undeniably they have - they have much more quality than us all over the pitch, so you'd expect them to be doing much better.

I still think we're about where we should be, there's potential for a Top 10 finish if things go our way and everyone stays fit for 95% of the season - but that's not realistic. We're doing pretty much identically to last season, and that's without anyone scoring double figures and no real striker bar a loane. When you look at it like that, I don't think we can be expected to have done any better, it's just the extremes that infuriate.

Edited 1 May, 2022 by S-Clarke