Ralph Hasenhuttl

[Lee On Solent Saint]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It was upgraded until we sold Romeu, but now we're probably on par there as we have the same situation when Lavia is out as we had when Romeu was out (too lightweight)

It is strange how we always do this. In some windows we leave CB short (when we didn't replace Fonte), or when we loan out all our full backs so we only had KWP.

This season we have undoubtedly left our striking positions significantly weaker than last season, thinking we can ''make do'' with Che Adams, a kid and Adam Armstrong. That is probably the last position you can afford to play that game with, so we've dropped an almighty bollock imo.

Agree about the forward positions. We need serious strengthing there on 1st January, not 31st January 

[DT]

1 hour ago, saint1977 said:

I’d say that what the constant dripping tap of stories in the background is about to save money. Although most PL manager roles usually have break clauses in at different points in a contract, unless Semmens is even more of an wally than he appears. 

Either way it is typically spineless and unprofessional from the club, no better than how Les operated. 

Yes please to Steve Cooper by the way if he gets the push. I know Forest got whacked last night but their owner has brought in 21 mercenaries and expected them to gel overnight. 

Agreed re Cooper. Excellent manager. Would be great as long term coach for us. Maybe we're waiting...

[Toussaint]

12 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I don't think we thought we could make do, we just couldn't secure anyone of the quality we wanted. There's no point throwing big money at someone like Brereton Diaz when they're not going to be any better than what we've got

You have to wonder where all the Pelle's, Tadic's, Mane's ., Gabbiadini's are lurking, they must be there somewhere out there, just under the radar.  I think one problem we have with Ralph as that he in himself cannot attract players to play for him in the way someone like the "footballing deity" , that was Koeman, for example, could.

I, like someone else said yesterday, thought we would be picking up gems from the German and Austrian leagues with Ralph's connections, but that just didn't happen. (let's not talk about Danso)

[Lighthouse]

14 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

You have to wonder where all the Pelle's, Tadic's, Mane's ., Gabbiadini's are lurking, they must be there somewhere out there, just under the radar.  I think one problem we have with Ralph as that he in himself cannot attract players to play for him in the way someone like the "footballing deity" , that was Koeman, for example, could.

I, like someone else said yesterday, thought we would be picking up gems from the German and Austrian leagues with Ralph's connections, but that just didn't happen. (let's not talk about Danso)

The problem is that those players cost £10-15m in 2014. In 2022 they would cost £25-30m and we just aren’t spending that. Today £15m buys you either unproven kids or Elyounoussis.

[once_bitterne]

42 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

You have to wonder where all the Pelle's, Tadic's, Mane's ., Gabbiadini's are lurking, they must be there somewhere out there, just under the radar.  I think one problem we have with Ralph as that he in himself cannot attract players to play for him in the way someone like the "footballing deity" , that was Koeman, for example, could.

I, like someone else said yesterday, thought we would be picking up gems from the German and Austrian leagues with Ralph's connections, but that just didn't happen. (let's not talk about Danso)

Why did you include Gabbiadini in there?  He was another poor signing.  He managed around a goal every 5 games and most of those were in a brief purple patch in his first few games.

[Archers Road Stand]

36 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

The problem is that those players cost £10-15m in 2014. In 2022 they would cost £25-30m and we just aren’t spending that. Today £15m buys you either unproven kids or Elyounoussis.

We could spend that though. It would mean less signings but we would probably be in a better position right now if we moved along with the market. 

[Toussaint]

6 minutes ago, once_bitterne said:

Why did you include Gabbiadini in there?  He was another poor signing.  He managed around a goal every 5 games and most of those were in a brief purple patch in his first few games.

I think he was / is better than his barren spell would indicate,  that whole team went off the boil. He scored a goal that kept us up, scored two in a Wembley final and had one disallowed when he was not actually offside. Looking at his stats at Sampdoria he has scored 25 goals in 91 appearances, he also plays for Italy.  I  think someone like him would be a big upgrade on AA

[Toussaint]

1 minute ago, Archers Road Stand said:

We could spend that though. It would mean less signings but we would probably be in a better position right now if we moved along with the market. 

Agreed, we went quantity over quality. 

[Saint Garrett]

2 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

The problem is that those players cost £10-15m in 2014. In 2022 they would cost £25-30m and we just aren’t spending that. Today £15m buys you either unproven kids or Elyounoussis.

Yup - and the scouting of other sides has improved, we just seemed to be very good at that point, and had been on an upward trajectory for quite a while. When you're stuck i the bottom half not really doing anything, it's less appealing for your Alderweireld;s, VVD's, Wanyama's Osvaldo's, Lovren's, Tadic's and Pelle's...

The dutch market has gone mental mainly because of Man Utd. No-one should be leaving that league for the sort of money Anthony left Ajax for, and it's inflated the whole league as they can now pay higher wages than a few seasons ago.

[pimpin4rizeal]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It was upgraded until we sold Romeu, but now we're probably on par there as we have the same situation when Lavia is out as we had when Romeu was out (too lightweight)

It is strange how we always do this. In some windows we leave CB short (when we didn't replace Fonte), or when we loan out all our full backs so we only had KWP.

This season we have undoubtedly left our striking positions significantly weaker than last season, thinking we can ''make do'' with Che Adams, a kid and Adam Armstrong. That is probably the last position you can afford to play that game with, so we've dropped an almighty bollock imo.

Problem is securing a striker upgrade in January will usually end up being harder to do a deal or more expensive . Who wants to lose their striker half way through the season ?

I still can’t really get over it that we didn’t sign anyone bar Mara..even wolves when the new guy got injured moved fast to get Costa at least..

[Dusic]

Its about the only remaining argument in Ralph's locker but its still a very good one:

- We haven't permanently or temporarily replaced Ings or Broja.

- As Ralph correctly said, all our best spells have come when a forward has been in a period of good form (Ings and then Broja).

- Currently our best attacking player is either Che Adams, Joe Aribo or KWP.

- Thats not a recipe for success when many teams fans want us to compete with have a genuinely good attacker, and usually multiple.

- It should have been addressed this summer and if its not in January we will get relegated whoever is in charge because its a stronger PL this season and of the sides below us Leicester will almost certainly finish well above us, Palace have had an horrific start fixture wise but have a great run til the WC and Wolves have a much better squad than their position reflects.

Worrying times.

[beatlesaint]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

This season we have undoubtedly left our striking positions significantly weaker than last season, thinking we can ''make do'' with Che Adams, a kid and Adam Armstrong. That is probably the last position you can afford to play that game with, so we've dropped an almighty bollock imo.

How much of this though is down to Prof Clever Arse insisting on playing one upfront throughout pre season and in the first game ? 

Who was to know that just 8 games in we would be on our third formation reset and he would decide to revert to two strikers which of course we haven’t got ?

Edited 4 October, 2022 by beatlesaint

[Kenilworthy]

2 hours ago, Toussaint said:

I think he was / is better than his barren spell would indicate,  that whole team went off the boil. He scored a goal that kept us up, scored two in a Wembley final and had one disallowed when he was not actually offside. Looking at his stats at Sampdoria he has scored 25 goals in 91 appearances, he also plays for Italy.  I  think someone like him would be a big upgrade on AA

The week after the 4-3 win at Watford Gabbiadini was injured away at Spurs. He never seemed quite the same player after then.

[Appy]

59 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Its about the only remaining argument in Ralph's locker but its still a very good one:

- We haven't permanently or temporarily replaced Ings or Broja.

- As Ralph correctly said, all our best spells have come when a forward has been in a period of good form (Ings and then Broja).

- Currently our best attacking player is either Che Adams, Joe Aribo or KWP.

- Thats not a recipe for success when many teams fans want us to compete with have a genuinely good attacker, and usually multiple.

- It should have been addressed this summer and if its not in January we will get relegated whoever is in charge because its a stronger PL this season and of the sides below us Leicester will almost certainly finish well above us, Palace have had an horrific start fixture wise but have a great run til the WC and Wolves have a much better squad than their position reflects.

Worrying times.

Not buying that at all, our awful period aside from a purple patch earlier this year started in January 2021 after we beat Liverpool, which crosses over with Ings and then Broja being at the club, to say it’s purely down to a lack of striker now at the club is naive. 

[Pamplemousse]

Adams has all the intelligence, work rate etc. to be a top striker. He just misses so many decent chances. Infuriating.

[Lighthouse]

42 minutes ago, Appy said:

Not buying that at all, our awful period aside from a purple patch earlier this year started in January 2021 after we beat Liverpool, which crosses over with Ings and then Broja being at the club, to say it’s purely down to a lack of striker now at the club is naive. 

Our form as a team over the last few years reflects our leading strikers form very well if you ask me. When Ings had long Covid and was looking for a transfer, his form dropped off and so did ours. Last year we were decent up until the end of February, around the time Broja lost form.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Kenilworthy said:

The week after the 4-3 win at Watford Gabbiadini was injured away at Spurs. He never seemed quite the same player after then.

I think he was mismanaged at Saints. Apart from the team failing to feed him, despite him offering some great movement, I felt that he was left on the bench far too often.  He scored twice at Newcastle, didn't score in next three and was dropped, not getting a start  for another 7 or 8 games. The manager just didn't seem to rate him. For me, there was a proper player in there, but we failed miserably to take advantage of it. Too late now.

[Chez]

16 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Our form as a team over the last few years reflects our leading strikers form very well if you ask me. When Ings had long Covid and was looking for a transfer, his form dropped off and so did ours. Last year we were decent up until the end of February, around the time Broja lost form.

you can play well, but if you don't take chances, you draw and lose games. Play pretty shit, but Ings scores with his one shot of the game and you win games you have no right to. 

Until we put a side out that is top notch, dominates and creates loads of chances (I wonder which decade that will be), we will be reliant on strikers to get us out of jail (do their job). Armstrong, Che and Mara are going to have to hit a purple patch or we are in trouble,

[TheDevilishSaint]

Agree that we definitely need a striker and that's a reason why we're struggling. I'd argue it doesn't change the fact that 50% of our players are playing worse than they have previously tho. We've completely lost our pressing identity and our shape doesn't look great. We're shit but Ralph isn't exactly getting 110% from everyone.

The lack of goalscorer is making life harder but Ralph isn't exactly making life easier. If we're to survive we need to set up in such a way to concede as few as possible. We need a system that doesn't change every 3 weeks, one which the players are going to be comfortable and confident with. (It would also be great if we could stop our inability to defend set-pieces...)

As much as I hate to admit it Everton have perfected this. Whether you think he's clueless or not you can't deny Lampard at least has the minimum brains required to understand they aren't going to be able to just score their way through results. So he's cleaned up Everton's defense and made it much more solid. Which is the example we need to follow.

Maybe Everton have better defenders but I do think it's more of a tactical issue we're having in defense. We could have bought Coady and Tarkowski and I think they'd also be lost from the constant shape changes and loss of tactical ideas.

[Alan Sugarfree]

28 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Adams has all the intelligence, work rate etc. to be a top striker. He just misses so many decent chances. Infuriating.

Absolutely, he seems to hit it straight at the keeper when you think he’s a cert to score. He did it again on Saturday.

[OldNick]

35 minutes ago, Alan Sugarfree said:

Absolutely, he seems to hit it straight at the keeper when you think he’s a cert to score. He did it again on Saturday.

Have we a specialist coach for the strikers? We have one for set pieces and goalkeepers, why not have somebody coaching the striker to score, to get their mindset right and focus for shooting

[rooney]

2 minutes ago, OldNick said:

Have we a specialist coach for the strikers? We have one for set pieces and goalkeepers, why not have somebody coaching the striker to score, to get their mindset right and focus for shooting

But he never will as he simply lacks the quality. It happens every week and another manager will not make an iota of difference.

[OldNick]

2 minutes ago, rooney said:

But he never will as he simply lacks the quality. It happens every week and another manager will not make an iota of difference.

I do agree but he is so close to being the next level up, getting a little cuter would perhaps make a difference. 

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

33 minutes ago, OldNick said:

Have we a specialist coach for the strikers? We have one for set pieces and goalkeepers, why not have somebody coaching the striker to score, to get their mindset right and focus for shooting

What's Beattie doing nowadays, he loves the club (as per his recent video reminiscing on his goals and admitting he didn't want to leave), and had the absolute spot on mentality for a striker. He was a bit of a prick on the pitch, wanted to score constantly and knew how to hit the target with power, which seems to be Adams' drawback.

[Saint Fan CaM]

14 hours ago, Verbal Kint said:

Really? So you don't think those clubs have significantly better attacking options than us? I'd swap our attack in a heart beat for Villa's. Wolves have injuries but when fit they have much stronger options as well. Do you not think Gordon, Gray, Calvert-Lewin, Maupay, Onana, McNeil are stronger than what we've got?

We had a decent window defensively but are in the bottom 3 or 4 clubs in the league in terms of attacking options which is costing us. Even on Saturday when we were poor we still had enough chances in the second half to win the game, but Adams missed a 1v1 and Armstrong, as usual, was hopeless in front of goal. What an awful player he is, unbelievable that the club thought he was worth 15 million.

 

We’ll, I agree that Adams and Armstrong are poor options, however I more strongly believe that the manner in which we play (i.e, style) does not match the strengths of any of our forward line. And if there were improvements in the playing style and tactics, I also believe we would see an improved goal tally from a number of players in the team. Ability is there - lacking direction.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, OldNick said:

Have we a specialist coach for the strikers? We have one for set pieces and goalkeepers, why not have somebody coaching the striker to score, to get their mindset right and focus for shooting

I remember Owen in an interview saying he could finish as well as he ever did by the time he was 16. The rest is just experience, decision making, movement, communication, physically beefing up etc.

In short, I think this is simply as good as Adams and Armstrong are, finishing wise, and they’re pretty limited in that regard. Both are hard workers and basically Shane Long on a good day, but there’s a reason we got them for £15m from the Championship.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, TheDevilishSaint said:

Agree that we definitely need a striker and that's a reason why we're struggling. I'd argue it doesn't change the fact that 50% of our players are playing worse than they have previously tho. We've completely lost our pressing identity and our shape doesn't look great. We're shit but Ralph isn't exactly getting 110% from everyone.

The lack of goalscorer is making life harder but Ralph isn't exactly making life easier. If we're to survive we need to set up in such a way to concede as few as possible. We need a system that doesn't change every 3 weeks, one which the players are going to be comfortable and confident with. (It would also be great if we could stop our inability to defend set-pieces...)

As much as I hate to admit it Everton have perfected this. Whether you think he's clueless or not you can't deny Lampard at least has the minimum brains required to understand they aren't going to be able to just score their way through results. So he's cleaned up Everton's defense and made it much more solid. Which is the example we need to follow.

Maybe Everton have better defenders but I do think it's more of a tactical issue we're having in defense. We could have bought Coady and Tarkowski and I think they'd also be lost from the constant shape changes and loss of tactical ideas.

going to five at the back at the start of the season seemed bizarre to me. In general, players seem to struggle with that formation, with CBs pulled out wide and lots of players back, but no one actually getting tight. I guess we were leaking goals right left and centre, so something had to be done, but the obvious thing seemed to be to add the extra player in the middle to ensure there was more protection for CBs. I still think that is the way to go, especially with B-K looking OK.

[Chez]

7 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I remember Owen in an interview saying he could finish as well as he ever did by the time he was 16. The rest is just experience, decision making, movement, communication, physically beefing up etc.

In short, I think this is simply as good as Adams and Armstrong are, finishing wise, and they’re pretty limited in that regard. Both are hard workers and basically Shane Long on a good day, but there’s a reason we got them for £15m from the Championship.

I agree with this. I don't see any amount of coaching converting them into something else. However, confidence is the key thing for strikers. Armstrong. was clearly on a roll at Blackburn. Maybe we can get him back in that groove, although in the end it will be down to him to just start striking the ball as he did in the championship. He's had a few chances. its getting to the now or never stage. 

[Chez]

45 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

We’ll, I agree that Adams and Armstrong are poor options, however I more strongly believe that the manner in which we play (i.e, style) does not match the strengths of any of our forward line. And if there were improvements in the playing style and tactics, I also believe we would see an improved goal tally from a number of players in the team. Ability is there - lacking direction.

can you be a but more specific about what that playing style would look like? Not sure what our style actually is now, so if you can sum that up too that would be good. You might be right, but I struggle to know what would suit both players best.

[Lord Duckhunter]

4 hours ago, Dusic said:

Its about the only remaining argument in Ralph's locker but its still a very good one:

- We haven't permanently or temporarily replaced Ings or Broja.

 

Perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to if they wanted to re-sign/sign for Ralph. 

[hypochondriac]

8 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It was upgraded until we sold Romeu, but now we're probably on par there as we have the same situation when Lavia is out as we had when Romeu was out (too lightweight)

It is strange how we always do this. In some windows we leave CB short (when we didn't replace Fonte), or when we loan out all our full backs so we only had KWP.

This season we have undoubtedly left our striking positions significantly weaker than last season, thinking we can ''make do'' with Che Adams, a kid and Adam Armstrong. That is probably the last position you can afford to play that game with, so we've dropped an almighty bollock imo.

And yet so many people on here said it didn't matter at the end of the window. It was obviously a huge problem. 

[saintant]

22 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to if they wanted to re-sign/sign for Ralph. 

In the proverbial nutshell.

[verlaine1979]

55 minutes ago, Chez said:

I agree with this. I don't see any amount of coaching converting them into something else. However, confidence is the key thing for strikers. Armstrong. was clearly on a roll at Blackburn. Maybe we can get him back in that groove, although in the end it will be down to him to just start striking the ball as he did in the championship. He's had a few chances. its getting to the now or never stage. 

I remember around the time we bought AA, someone from the Blackburn forum came on and said he wasn't that quick and needed 5 chances to score 1. Dazed by his highlight reel from the season just finished, I assumed it was just sour grapes, but they were spot on. He's not that quick and his finishing isn't that great (though he's capable of better finishes that Che).

Adams on the other hand was just an obviously poor finisher from the moment we started being linked to him. You could see it from the kind of goals he scored for Brum.

[Greenridge]

29 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to if they wanted to re-sign/sign for Ralph. 

IIRC our one genuine ITK said that any ‘issues’ between Broja and Ralph was BS and that he, and his family, were keen for him to come back. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Interesting piece on Leipzig on the BBC football page. Basically saying how they are struggling to find a new identity now. Mentions Ralph in the last paragraph as his RB would brutally capitalise on the mistakes of their opponents. Says this was the hallmark of the side under Ralph. 

[Wade Garrett]

15 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Interesting piece on Leipzig on the BBC football page. Basically saying how they are struggling to find a new identity now. Mentions Ralph in the last paragraph as his RB would brutally capitalise on the mistakes of their opponents. Says this was the hallmark of the side under Ralph. 

They’re welcome to take him back.

It would be a Burley-esque departure.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Im certainly in the Ralph out camp .. but at the moment it’s a pretty hard situation for him .., if we go at teams we will probably get smashed as their attacking options are much better then ours..

we can keep it tight which we have been doing in a lot of games to be completely fair but then it comes down to who takes their chances.. and this isn’t our strong point ..if adams Armstrong etc are putting away these chances the hostility towards Ralph would be a lot differant.. not defending him really but it is tricky due to the personnel we have up front 

Edited 4 October, 2022 by pimpin4rizeal

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to if they wanted to re-sign/sign for Ralph. 

 

1 hour ago, saintant said:

In the proverbial nutshell.

I genuinely can’t tell if this is a wind up or if you guys actually believe something this daft. 🤷‍♂️

[S-Clarke]

10 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I don't think we thought we could make do, we just couldn't secure anyone of the quality we wanted. There's no point throwing big money at someone like Brereton Diaz when they're not going to be any better than what we've got

If our scouts couldn't find better than Che Adams and Adam Armstrong, after months of scouting reports, then that's a little worrying.

[Lighthouse]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

If our scouts couldn't find better than Che Adams and Adam Armstrong, after months of scouting reports, then that's a little worrying.

I’ve no doubt they could, just not for £15m in 2019-21.

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I’ve no doubt they could, just not for £15m in 2019-21.

Well exactly, that's why we can't play in that market if we're serious about doing anything of note.

[verlaine1979]

39 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I’ve no doubt they could, just not for £15m in 2019-21.

Che and AA are the best value pair of 15m (or under) strikers signed in top-level European football during that time? I can't be arsed to look at the numbers to validate that claim, but I'd be stunned if it were true.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

 

I genuinely can’t tell if this is a wind up or if you guys actually believe something this daft. 🤷‍♂️

I would just say there is no smoke without fire and there has been an awful lot of smoke.

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

 

I genuinely can’t tell if this is a wind up or if you guys actually believe something this daft. 🤷‍♂️

How was Danny Ings’ relationship with Ralph? 

[Lighthouse]

4 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

Che and AA are the best value pair of 15m (or under) strikers signed in top-level European football during that time? I can't be arsed to look at the numbers to validate that claim, but I'd be stunned if it were true.

Every club in Europe is out there looking for the best value players, we don't have any god given right to them. So what if Monchenglabach found someone better for £8m, or whatever. We can't afford the best players in Europe, not by a long way, so why would we have the best scouting set up?

They're about what you'd expect for that price, decent Championship players. They're not hidden gems but we haven't been mugged off either.

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, saintant said:

I would just say there is no smoke without fire and there has been an awful lot of smoke.

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How was Danny Ings’ relationship with Ralph? 

So if only we had a more competent manager, those players would have turned down Champions League football at Chelsea and a monster pay rise at Villa, respectively?

[Lord Duckhunter]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

So if only we had a more competent manager, those players would have turned down Champions League football at Chelsea and a monster pay rise at Villa, respectively?

How was Danny Ings’ relationship with Ralph? 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

If our scouts couldn't find better than Che Adams and Adam Armstrong, after months of scouting reports, then that's a little worrying.

We scouted Elyanoussi for seven frigging years!

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

So if only we had a more competent manager, those players would have turned down Champions League football at Chelsea and a monster pay rise at Villa, respectively?

I accept those things but believe that Ralph struggles with man management and is an autocrat. Maybe those things didn't affect Ings' decision to join Villa or Broja's to return to Chelsea. You will disagree and that's fair enough but there have been more than enough rumblings coming out of the club along the lines that he doesn't handle the man management side of things particularly well.  These stories persist and, if there was no substance to them, I think they would have gone away.

[Lighthouse]

9 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

How was Danny Ings’ relationship with Ralph? 

I haven't a clue and neither do you. I've no reason to believe it was anything other than professional and he's done absolutely nothing in a Villa shirt which would lead me to believe he's flourishing, now that he's finally free from the shackles of Ralph.

Even if they hated each others guts, and whichever Twitter rumours you're referring to are completely true, it's not relevant. No player in their right mind is staying when someone waves a cheque that big in their face.