pimpin4rizeal

He had 5 league games plus the Pompey match...it’s not the initial dropping I find weird as we went away from the two up front at the time, and I agree with long keeping his place at the moment But it’s the way he went from starting every game even in front of ings for Bournemouth to hardly been seen since.. and not really getting enough time off the bench to make any impact. Also I find it really nuts how every player not in the team all of a sudden seems to become worse and a terrible signing. Consensus at the time before he got dropped was that he just needed a goal and had been a little unlucky, but now all of a sudden he’s another poor signing? He was very unlucky not to score twice against Sheffield united and did little wrong there

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/transfer-news/i-am-absolutely-convinced-southampton-3673608.amp Some comments from Ralph.. still gotta say I find this treatment weird.. why Obafemi even seems to get more time ? Also giving only 5 minutes here three minutes there is probably more likely to dent his confidence more ?

Gotta say great performance by long vs villa such a tenacious presence up front, did a lot of good things in this game like the shot that rebounded to ings.. the flick on which put redmond through and just a solid game.. deserves his place in the team atm and with ings scoring for fun pressure doesn’t fall on long so much that he has to score

Would think he should be at least 50m, as at the end of the day if another club wanted him they would have to pay enough to tempt us into selling.. and he’s crucial for us

I think it’s a tricky argument so didn’t really wanna touch on it.. Obviously it can make a difference to players who lose a lot of pace but there’s plenty of examples of ones that improve too or stay the same level.. for example long hasn’t lost his pace.. ings isn’t going backwards.since you said average players I won’t go off on listing a load of world class players who are still killing it at older then romeau.. but there’s probably many examples even with the more average ones ..

How does this work then? He’s the one picking the players? If players were being difficult wouldn’t we have more Lemina type situations ?

Main point is ask the question of would another manager be able to set us up in a better way to what RH is right now..the puel comparison imo proves the defence are capable of clean sheets, maybe it’s just a more conservative approach and set up needed Other factors could include things like when we press hard under Ralph and teams break that initial press we are left unorganised and the weakness of our defence is left with no protection??. When we played city I actually think we played a really good defensive game went a goal up and then made ourselves hard to break down and lesser teams may not have with those tactics. I find it hard to go into the players being in a lot worse physical shape then they were back then it’s only a couple of years and none of them are really over the hill, and if Cedric wants out wouldn’t that be motivation right there to impress future clubs? As for league improving a great deal meh really, maybe general standard may have improved a smidge, but like every years there’s good and bad sides.. the big six clubs look in the worst shape they have for years only Liverpool city and Leicester being super strong. The rest are beatable if you get it right on the day

Main point I was trying to make was even after van dijk was injured puel managed to keep around 6 clean sheets in the league plus shutting out Liverpool in the cup to qualify.. and two of those clean sheets were also against Liverpool and united... huge ammount of posters on here claim our players are completely useless and it’s not Ralph’s fault and the defence are all absolute useless, I’m not saying they are not btw but puel was capable of setting up the same defenders in a solid way, which shows it’s possible with our squad if the tactics are right. We potentially have a better attack then we did under puel with ings djenepo etc in the mix. So maybe getting the right balance is about being more disciplined like Derry suggested above.

Yeah i guess we were so spoiled after having poch and koeman before puel it seemed like a downgrade at the time, keep hearing on here that Ralph is some super amazing manager that we are lucky to have but this kinda shows that we have got players in the squad capable of getting clean sheets and better results. It’s just about getting the tactics and team selections right and rectifying problems which at the minute I’m not seeing we are going backwards from last season and it doesn’t really matter what Ralph did at Leipzig sometimes it’s horses for courses.. burley did well at teams before us.. koeman was great here but failed at Everton etc

Someone made a good post on twitter showing the similarities in quality between our squad under puel and our current squad . I think this kinda highlights that it’s not all down to the players being rubbish.. if puel could get clean sheets playing a Stephens and yoshida cb pairing with romeau etc in midfield why are we so incapable of keeping a clean sheet now.. ok under puel we were not scoring so much but it’s down to the manager to find the right balance to eat the results at the moment I’d say Ralph isn’t getting this right

Agree it’s worrying Ralph doesn’t see it, Ings and boufal should be the two we build our team around imo. I’m getting pretty close to thinking we should pull the plug on Ralph we are not improving, look as bad in defense as we ever have since returning to the prem, team selections and tactics still weird and I don’t think his cast iron favourites like redmond jwp Bednarek Hojbjerg being unstoppable and always getting in somewhere really helps either.. for example if he were gonna play Hojbjerg and romeau in cm prouse would be converted into a winger in the 442 rather then drop him, so someone like djenepo or boufal would make way. . Its just looking like we are nailed on for struggling to survive this season under Ralph so might be worth trying to change this and get someone that can organise us better and improve us rather then sitting back and seeing the same every week

we have played 16 games now so pretty close to playing everyone once. . just to clarify im not quite saying that ralph is as bad as pelle and hughes. more that just i find it a bit weird the ammount of excuses rolled out for him in comparison

It’s quite amusing to me the ammount of slack Ralph gets cut around here...actually worst ppg then Pellegrino at this stage of season. Results go bad excuses are made that the players are totally terrible,, tactics are wrong hmm maybe Ralph needs a new assistant or defensive coach ? No body gave this much leeway to to Pellegrino and Hughes or even purl who finished 8th and got us to a cup final, just saying

If this last window was anything to go by 2 windows would be generous.. still not quite sure wtf happened there there seems some huge disconnect on the summer business.. did Ralph ok the deals ? Is it recruitments fault? Who knows but surely it’s not difficult to sign three players that go streight into the first team in positions we need and we are going to actually use (especially if the players are as bad as most on here make out ) yet only djenepo is getting starts right now. I mean really 1 highlight weakest positions in our team that needs strengthening 2 sign a player you think is better that goes streight into the first team, that’s improvement! So why have we wasted a window on yet more squad players? As for Ralph let’s face it he hasn’t been great.. his first full season sees us with a record defeat, less points per game then Pellegrino at this stage of Boths first season and strange player choices and tactics are not really working not seeing a great deal of improvement here he talks a good game in interviews etc but is it really translating to the field?

Since his starts earlier in the season, it’s not really like he’s had any chance to make a impact anyway.. doesn’t matter if your Harry Kane if your only getting odd 10-15 minutes occasionally at the end of the game it’s hard to make much impact.. I think it’s a bit weird man management by Ralph to have him starting first five or so games and now to be pretty much out of the picture even obafemi hs started in front of Adams

kinda agree, i dont trust valery at all. his dribbling is getting quite good but theres something very nonchalant and naive about his defending

wasnt boufals best cameo today, but hes so much better then redmond and djenepo even when apperently injured.must be 4 or 5 games in a row now hes got to the byline and created yet another great pullback chance today for bertrand its becoming a trademark

Don’t think we really know how good he is yet, pretty weird treatment of him by Ralph,starts the season playing every game but now seems to be behind Obafemi and long too. I think he offers some things the others strikers don’t he seems to old the ball up well and is quite powerful and also pretty fast for a bulky guy. Basically though Ings started the season better and then we changed shape and che was the victim but I think it’s slightly harsh how reduced his game time has been since then

You could argue rewarding players like boufal on form would be good for motivation levels, would also give under performing players like redmond a boot up the a@@ to try reclaim his place.. you know if your boufal your coming off the bench and at a lot of times looking the best player on the pitch changing games and creating chances off the bench isn’t it going to be a bit demoralising if your still on the bench next week and the next week.. good form like that should create competition not to be just classed as a impact sub

Don’t think that’s a fit argument really, 1 he’s not getting enough time on the pitch to produce big stats.. a lot of time only getting the odd ten fifteen minutes here and there but is still making an impact in that small time..and two he is creating chances hit couple of assists anyway put chances on a plate for djenepo and long last two games set up the equaliser against Everton... mane stats prob wouldn’t be great if was only getting the odd run or fifteen mins at the end of the game either

Absolutely .. I’ve been saying for ages that boufal absolutely murders redmond as a attacking player.. frustrates the crap out of me that Ralph seems blind to this.. and Hughes was no better falling out with him and packing him off to Spain... he’s came back with a super attitude created many chances, beats players for fun we always look more dangerous with him on the pitch then not. I think he’s a world class talent ready to explode

Strange examples we actually threatened a lot offensively in both games ? Look at the stats. I just think we get a lot more chances when he’s on the pitch and he has the ability to operate in tight spaces and still create beat players and cause problems

I like this. Also think a decent option would be to have Adams in place of Obafemi in the formation we used the last two games think Adams has that bit of muscle and ability to hold the ball which would could help link nicely with all the pace and skills of boufal djenepo and Ings

It’s absolutely criminal how Boufal keeps ending up on the bench.. every time he’s on the pitch we look ten times more dangerous ., his skill and quality on the ball allows him to beat players again and again..for those saying he has no end product..he’s creating chances every game, put it on s plate for long this game, djenepo last game . Came on and created our goal vs Everton the assist for redmond earlier in the season, he just makes things happen

It also got us to where we are now and is not sustainable, a lot of the core behind our good period was put in place over years where we also had ambition under cortese including mitchelll, but bit by bit we got taken apart and found out we haven’t got some god given right or formula to replacing better every time we sell. I’m not completely deluded and can see we are not that high up the food chain and it’s gonba be hard to keep our top stars but I dunno this Southampton way bs just seems a bit like trying to brainwash us into embracing us being a feeder club. Wonder how Leicester fans would feel if they sold Maddison tielemans Ricardo vardy next summer then they got fed how this is a great thing and it’s the Leicester way ?