Ex Lion Tamer

It's been said before on here, but I'll say it again. The guy had Covid. Even when you're over the sickness, your energy levels can be down for months afterwards. We saw with Armstrong that it can take a while to get back to the level needed for Premier League football

Or that their philosophy takes too much out of the players in a hectic fixture schedule. The similarities are striking, and I'd back both to bounce back next season

Assuming we can do enough to stay up this season, I'd still like to see Ralph have a go at next season with proper fullback cover and a less hectic fixture schedule. The good times have been good enough that we should show faith in him now. We're not close enough to the relegation zone that we need to pull the trigger yet.

I still think it's our system rather than a lack of "leadership" but there you go

Which game was that?

Sunderland didn't lose every match 8-0. Why did they capitulate in that game? Cattermole should have shouted at them to pull up their bootstraps and keep it at their usual 4-0

Sunderland lost 8-0 to us with Lee Cattermole in the midfield

Our pressing style makes our players over perform, but it also means that they get tired in the second half if they've been playing a lot of games, and that they struggle when they've only got 10 men. I'm not at all convinced our players are a bunch of pussies who can't hack it when they're losing

Everyone is assuming it was a financial decision. If it was then it helped to fund Minamino. But it might simply have been that Ralph knew he wasn't going to be able to trust Valery so he might as well leave and get some experience in a lower league

He wasn't good for Norwich. My Norwich mate warned me about him straight away, and initially had to eat his words when Redmond started quite well for us

Were we lacking a leader when we were the fifth best team in the league across 2020? We're struggling at the moment because we've had injuries and the players who are fit need a rest

Because we play a high intensity game and are in the middle of our most hectic fixture schedule ever?

I doubt Salisu would accept an extension on the same wages, but if he starts playing and showing quality that justifies an increase, then we should get on it

I don't know if this is a slip by Sky but the live blog refers to health problems as well as injury

It was a bit weird that he was only on the bench against Shrewsbury. Maybe he'd been told he'd get games this season. Personally I don't blame him for being ambitious. If he wants to drop down the leagues to get first team football than fair play

Roy Keane made a few appalling tackles in his time, he was still a pretty good player

The club need to do some PR for the lad, get some lines out about how he was just trying too hard and apologised in the dressing room afterwards

I prefer her selling to Gao to her staying and mismanaging the club because she can't find a wonderful owner. Let's be honest, Gao has overseen the overhaul of the senior staff and the club has improved under his ownership

So we have an injury crisis and Ralph suddenly wants to bring in a ton of average players to fill the gap? That won't have been budgeted for and isn't a sensible way to run a transfer policy. We'll be better off next season if we don't spunk a load of money on a short term fix. I think Ralph gets that really. Of course in an ideal world we would have a wealthy owner putting in loads of cash but the reality is that only the lucky ones don't have to be self sustaining

He has to stay. The rebuilding job is ongoing. We're improving season on season. I can even cope with one 9-0 loss a year if it means we're pushing top half with Ralph getting the absolute most out of the players most games

Can we please stop blaming Gao for the size of the squad? Ralph wanted a smaller group to work with, not anticipating that we would have this sort of injury crisis. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17383445.southampton-manager-ralph-hasenhuttl-wants-much-smaller-squad/

I can see Ralph offering to leave and being told to stay again. If he leaves after this result is he really going to walk into a top job? He's better to stay

Well done to all of you who watched the whole game, I couldn't stomach it. Can't see how anyone can blame Gao for lack of squad depth - Ralph has said all along that he wanted a smaller squad with youth players on the fringes. We just have a terrible injury crisis. I do wonder (having not watched it) whether Ralph's pressing style simply doesn't work with 10 men

Maybe Ralph thinks that more senior midfielders/Stephens covering at full back will do a better job than Vokins and Valery? 🤷‍♂️

I found it a plausible account until the point when he claimed all those signings would have come good if only the circumstances had been different. Total delusional nonsense. The policy of not paying compensation for managers was ridiculous. It's the most important position at the club and should be treated as such.