TWar

I love the competition we have all over the pitch. I think Lyanco has only really worked in a back 3 but he does give us more options tactically so that is good. Can't see him being a regular starter as would require us to change our formation but I like him as an option off the bench or if we need to really park the bus.

https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/worrall-southampton-nottingham-forest-transfer-6175950 Sounds like we told Worrall we were going to sign him and then the next day signed Lyanco and he is fuming about that fact.

I can see the logic for both Trent and TAA being used. Alexander-Arnold is both long to say and long to type.

Or we play teams off the park to such a degree we make their managers look completely incompetent!

Wonder if he gets back in over Bednarek. Obviously a great player but we have been clean sheet machines since his absence.

I think Smith and Wilder are both fine lower half managers, Wilder is better imo as his team was god awful. Villa spent a lot but they had to tbh, that team that came up was dogshite. It reminded me of that summer fulham spent a lot and still got relegated. Grealish played so well though that he got double/triple marked, he tracked back really well, could hold the ball up well, and could create a goal out of nothing. These traits made relegation level players like Mings, Targett, McGinn, Luiz, look not wank. And mid table at best players like Watkins and Cash look like top level players.

He wants Smith to carry on at Villa because he thinks Smith won't turn it around, owing to not liking Villa he considers this a good thing. Like how I don't like United so I hope they keep Ole forever.

Villa have always been shit since being promoted, they were made to look good by one player who was far too good for them and then he left and they look shit again. Last season without Grealish they were like 17th in the form table. Season before they should have been relegated if not for an incredibly unlikely goal line tech glitch. Now they are failing again. Ralph would be mad to go there imo, the squad is full of mediocrity.

Pretty unlikely he goes tbh. Lateral move to a team who could easily be in a bit of trouble. Could happen, hope it doesn't though. Ralph is our biggest asset (even more so than JWP probably)

This seems such an obvious conclusion to reach I think to not get there you have to be wilfully choosing not to

I think he did pretty well, Pep/Klopp might have done better, Howe/Ole might have done worse. He did what I would expect a top half prem manager to have done in that sort of situation. Stylistically, a manager who didn't play his high tempo style wouldn't have been as likely to have had so many injuries but on the other hand, such a manager wouldn't have had us soaring so high considering how little we spent pre-injury. It's also worth noting such a thing is hard to judge, given the massive constraints of fixture congestion and recovery time our team was placed under the freak COVID season. I think it hurt high tempo teams disproportionately and we saw Liverpool struggle a bit too. Similarly massively blighted by injury.

Thats one decision you disagree with, in a vacuum. Maybe Redmond had been better in training, maybe Adams was carrying a knock or a tight muscle, maybe he felt (correctly) the game would be pretty cagey and that he needed more creatively and that Redmond could provide that. Who knows. It was one choice. How is Vesty and Bertrands lack of pace down to him? He didn't sign them? He clearly wanted a quicker CB thats why we brought in Salisu and Salisu would have been playing much earlier if it wasn't for injury. That's down to poor recruitment pre-Ralph as Vest was basically never good, Ryan should have been replaced way before he was and Ralph clearly wanted fullbacks in Jan and we didn't give him any. Stephens in midfield was again due to necessity due to injuries to Romeu and Diallo coupled with Armstrong being needed further up, Smallbone being out, and Jankewitz being not up to the level. The goalkeeping thing was clearly to assess his number one for the following season after we were safe, similar to how top teams give youngsters a run out near the end of the year. I didn't like it but it had logic. Flexibility comes with having more players, you can't be flexible if you don't have options. It will take a lot more injuries and suspensions as we have a lot more depth, that is literally the point.

I'd say 90% of the time if a teams quality dramatically drops for a sustained period of time its an injury to a player (or multiple) or drop in form of a player (or multiple) who was more key than people thought, if it comes back when the player returns then that goes up to 99%. The very rare times a manager tends to make an impact of that size it is a positive one with change of formation or giving some new lads a chance. People love "sack the manager" as it is an easy thing to grasp and get your head around but it rarely is the root of the problem (occasionally is, but pretty rare). Dean Smith is an example, he's the same guy who managed them the last 3 years, the thing that has changed is they lost their most important guy. Obviously if they can upgrade on him they should (same with any manager ever) but some fans are calling for him to be replaced by John Terry or Frank Lampard and I just feel like, his team isn't that good right now, that needs to be addressed primarily.

I never said Ralph was perfect. But if a team under a guy is top half of the table competing for europe and then after an unprecedented number of injuries drops to being relegation form the obvious assumption is that the injuries cost you not that the manager lost his mind. You couldn't make that link in January which was a bit dim. Flash forward 6 more months and the injuries are sorted and depth has been added, suddenly the team is doing well again. The obvious answer is to say that confirms the injuries and squad depth were the issue not that the manager suddenly un-lost his mind. You can't make that link now which is very dim. I'll make it simple, the things you moan about: - Not making good subs: easier to do when you have Broja on the bench over N'Lundulu, Perraud on the bench instead of Valery, Diallo on the bench (and not on the pitch due to Romeu's ankle injury) or Jankewitz... - More defensively stable. Livramento and Salisu are miles clear of Bertrand and Vestergaard its not even funny - Tactical flexibility. Well you can change how you play up top if you have three quality talented strikers (four if you bare in mind Redmond has massively improved) who all have different skillsets. Last season it was "play Ings and Adams or play dross". This year we have a genuine other option in Broja. Furthermore we can be more flexible between a back 3 and back 4 when we don't have 2 fit CBs like we did for a chunk of the run in. Finally with three fit prem quality mids you can play a 3 man midfield, this wasn't possible with Romeus broken ankle. From this you can easily see that the reason Ralph can do the things which you are crediting him for now isn't because he suddenly, out of nowhere, decided they were good ideas. It's because our team got fit and we signed well. The big benefit of this thread is it shows the casual onlooker how stupid the "failures and successes are on the manager and no one else" mentality is with a good working example of how - surprisingly - having a better playing squad does matter a bit.

Easier to address things if you have the players to do so. Hard to be tactically flexible when you have like 12 good players. This stuff should be obvious, thinking Ralph is the factor that has changed after the number of players we brought in and sold in the summer is pretty dim

So what changed between last season and this one? Or between the first half of last season and the second? Was it a better starting 11 or does Ralph's managerial ability swing from good to bad almost at random?

We were banging last year before the injuries set in, and when they did we weren't good. Now we are doing well again with good squad depth. Sensible fan: "Well, I guess our back ups last season were crap and our first team was good unless they were being rushed back too soon from injury, lucky we have more depth now! Good work club for backing Ralph" Duckhunter: "Actually Ralph was a good manager at the start of last season, then forgot how to do it for the second half, and now has remembered again, funny how that happens"

Maybe the defensive solidity comes from better defenders? And better depth in defence? Maybe the better substitutions come from having a better bench? Maybe the better tactical flexibility comes from having more options to choose from for his tactics? Nah, I bet he just went to a secret manager school in the interim and they told him to do subs earlier. Whats disingenuous is that fans who knew what they were on about said "keep him and invest in squad depth and he will do better" and the club did, and he did. And now you are trying to say "I wasn't completely clueless, he just became a better manager out of nowhere and it has nothing to do with the squad". Right...

I think Ely, Redmond, and Stu are doing well but would have liked to see us bring in Lookman in the summer or someone like that instead of Walcott to add a bit of invention.

One of my highlights of the game! A real "son-in-law" challenge if you ask me.

You often will when the other team is chasing the game. Felt like we had a few chances to at villa.

He was always a little overrated on here. I remember people calling for him to start over Adams. He had pace and was an OK finisher but that was about it. Combined with constant injury issues we did very well get get rid and get money for him. Wish him the best though as he seemed a good lad.

I thought that, then again they made ruder puns on bake off all the time and got away with it back in the day.

I think Ralph has traditionally been very streaky because we had a thin squad and a high tempo style. This led to big problems with injury and fatigue that our squad couldn't deal with. Either important players were out or they were underperforming from being rushed back. This season our depth is pretty nice, we have genuinely great competition all over the pitch (Livra/KWP/Perraud, Broja/Arma/Adams, Redmond/Armstrong/Ely/Djenepo/Tella, JWP/Diallo/Romeu). This should mean we are much less streaky as our team can be rotated a lot more.

Looking at this Macca is having a pretty solid season, our forwards not so much.