pimpin4rizeal

For all those wanting to back Ralph, do you really want to persist with a manager whose first name on the team sheet is ward prouse.. a manager that was here for over half a season last season yet didn’t recognise or rectify the defence in the summer, what makes you think he will in the next window? A manager who it seems really struggles to see obvious things like McCarthy being better then Gunn and dropping players who are a rare creative light like boufal. The line ups are bizarre, there’s no signs of improvement or him rectifying the problems or even seeing what is wrong, I keep hearing people blaming it on how poor our players so nothing he can do.. but he was quick enough to freeze out the likes of gabbi and lemina, so in my opinion this is his team and he also finalised the deals for Danso etc No more excuses

But don’t you think the success and top ten finishes we had under her leadership were more the rock solid foundations and awesome squad with ambition that Cortese put together which got took apart bit by bit since.. Mitchell and the black box is part of those foundations also which continued to bail out kat after cortese had gone. Would have loved to see how this panned out if she didn’t interfere and let him carry on. And to those who think he was spending money he didn’t have, think of how much the club was worth when he persuaded the liebhers to buy it compared to to the worth when it was sold.. no way did NC cost them money

Actually I agree with this, I don’t think gao is a decent owner but in my opinion is no worse then kat was, I think they basically sold him the idea that they bought cheap and sold for big bucks and were all self sustaining so his ownership has basically followed on from how it was run under kat...funnily enough the majority on here seemed to be perfectly happy with it when it was kat in charge ?

I assume the majority of jwps creativity stats are based on setpieces.. you really think he’s more likely to open up a defence or produce a piece of game changing magic then boufal?

McCarthy Cedric Bednarek Danso Hojbjerg Stephens romeau Boufal. Armstrong. Redmond Ings This won’t happen but would be my pick... give Stephens a chance to see what he can do in dm role he has decent attributes for this position both dms instructed to prioritise staying back and protecting defence... Hojbjerg did ok filling in at lb so keep him there whilst Bertrand suspended Armstrong in a ten where his movement and engine can help support both attack and defence and then the pace and tricksy of boufal and redmond can give us a bit more in attack then we had Tuesday .

Agree on valery, actually starting to wonder if jwp would be a better option at left back if Cedric isn’t fit,, plus would save him taking up one of the more advanced roles since Ralph is gonna play him anyway

McCarthy so much better then Gunn. Let’s hope Ralph can see it finally. Thought we looked really good near the end when we got Adams and redmond on.. some good pressing in the last twenty minutes or so also.. was a nice solo effort from boufal also unlucky not to score..

Mmmmm kind of mixed feelings with the lineup... really happy to see boufal and Armstrong start and McCarthy ... but defence potentially looks worse then we fielded at Leicester.. jwp starts again .. and Ings and reckon benched not great

If this is true though.. how come they haven’t received the Lemina treatment and been frozen out? My biggest gripe with Ralph at the moment is he seems to have really poor judgement in player selections, majority of the forum was in agreement boufal had been good and looked creative what’s the reward for that gets dropped, jwp slow doesn’t really offer anything from attacking standpoint defensive standpoint or physical standpoint but gets thrown in cm, attacking wide position, left back, defensive midfielder it seems to Ralph it doesn’t matter as long as he’s on the pitch.. then you have Gunn and vestergaard playing crap but he keeps using them.. Danso signed with Ralph’s final say but yet doesn’t try him.. It just doesn’t feel like Ralph is seeing the obvious things everyone else can and he seems stubborn in continuing to pick his favourites and yielding the same poor results

Are you serious? We were in a worse position when Ralph joined last year we would be an attractive offer for any one wanting a crack at the premiership championship managers included.. or do you think the likes of Gary Johnson(not saying I want him) would turn his nose up at us as he’s waiting for big six job lol ?

You have been saying it so fair play for that.. I have to disagree with a couple of points though.. 90 percent of our squad not good enough for the prem seems pretty crazy and exaggerated apart from our centre backs who yes most of them are shocking, we have enough decent options in attack and mf and wide positions as the majority of the rest of the bottom 10.. Also I don’t think it’s deluded that changes like say McCarthy in place of Gunn boufal or Armstrong for jwp depending on formation wouldn’t make any difference etc.this could make a lot of difference. How about trying Danso as well as romeau in dm and trying a 4231.. to protect the defence better whilst still giving us some pace and creativity we could play Armstrong in a 10 with boufal and redmond wide behind Ings in that formation or differnnt variants.. Also Ralph had time last year to learn the squad and know what we need and didn’t need, If in all his time since January he didn’t notice we need a decent cb then he probably doesn’t deserve the job anyway as he is blind. We can’t keep laying this on recruitment all the time.. for example koeman signed the likes of pelle Tadic clasie martina etc and others.. Pellegrino even signed Carillo..there is no reason Ralph couldn’t have signed a cb of his own choice or one recomended by the scouts,as far as I’m concerned he had final say on Danso, and now deems him not good enough to start or he doesn’t have the authority over the board that koeman had, either is worrying

Isn’t it kind of strange that Pellegrino and Hughes got absolutely slaughtered on here but Ralph gets every excuse in the book that it’s all the owners fault or past recruitments fault,, no one was giving these excuses for Hughes etc We also now how lowered our self to blaming the early fixtures, yet the likes of Brighton can give spurs a beat down Newcastle beat utd, really there’s only Liverpool and city to truely fear the rest are beatable if you play a decent game and have your tactics right.. I don’ have any confidence anymore in Ralph even recognising the mistakes in the starting line ups. Jwp being his main man shows how dreadful his judgement is.. so expect more jwp gunn vestergaard brilliance for the rest of the season if he stays..

Ummm even Hughes and Pellegrino wasn’t as embarrassing as this.. I’m not even gonna put it down to this result but his team selection this season is shocking..also summer recruitment was shocking and even if that wasn’t down to him then his authority is shocking.. koeman brought in players he wanted

I’m kinda sorry having to say this as Ralph is a super likeable guy.. the way he took in the last christmas song last year was totally endearing... but even before this game I was starting to think the player selection and other aspects is going totally nuts.to start with I think gabbiadini was better then Austin and long for sure.. but Ralph gave no chance to him.. Cedric probably also better then valery.. but sent packing but now seems to be back in contention.then you got this season with the weird Danso moves.. dropping boufal who was our most creative player.. and to be honest if Ralph being manager means ward prouse is the first player in the sheet and out talisman we are in serious trouble for that alone he looks blind for me

Don’t think there’s any need to say he’s a poor signing just because he’s out of the side at the moment , Ings simply earned his place by starting better then Adams and is in the side scoring goals, so really no need to threat over the striker position if Ings is dining well.. as for Adams he can still be a decent squad member or maybe break into the team later.

The result was ok but this whole Jwp obsession Ralph seems to have is really starting to make me think ralph isnt the answer..Ward prouse is shoe horned into the side at any cost, we dont have any creativity so we need two of redmond boufal or djenepo starting as the midfield trio aint gonna create much service, yet ralph seems to love jwp playing the ball sideways and basically being to slow to the ball defensively and offensively. and to make it worse now ward prouse gets put at right back,defensive midfield or whatever other position when we make subs just to keep him on. we will be subbing gunn next and putting prouse in goal. Bizzare

Yup starting to lose all faith in Ralph tbh.. seems blind to the fact boufal has been our stand out creative player.. same crappy favourites with prouse hoj red fitted in at all costs.. vestergasrd and Gunn still playing my god

mccarthy cedric if fit/valery . bednarek . danso . bertrand armstrong . romeau . hojbjerg boufal ings redmond think this is probably our best side gunn hasnt been great and mccarthy decent in the cup so time to change.. i think armstrong is much more pacy and creative then ward prouse i see no reason he couldnt do better then jwp as he has such a great engine to get up and down the pitch. dont have much faith in ralph to agree with this line up though for some reason jwp and hojbjerg are the first names on the team sheet and will be shoe horned in at any cost. i dont even have much faith in him bringing boufal back to the starting line up even though hes looked our most dangerous player in pretty much every game. i like ralph but its time to start making sensible line ups and getting us results now. i think early on his passion was so contageous it made us fall in love with him but tbh team selection and tactic wise hes not exactly pulling up trees

When koeman was here he seemed to stamp his authority on signings in my opinion you could see that it was him behind the likes of pelle tadic. Clasie martina etc they didn’t all work out but tbh as a whole it worked out great.. maybe koeman was more forceful about who he wanted and what he wanted and acted more like a manager whilst ralph chills back and is a coach to the player he’s given by recruitment as I still don’t understand why he wouldn’t be screaming for a centre back to them. Why take danso and then only play him out of position when our cbs are rubbish ?

I think it’s time to give Armstrong a try in a midfield three .. he’s got the engine and the pace to get up and down the pitch and is no more lightweight then jwp to be honest plus is a intelligent dynamic player that shoots well and can score goals.. I could actually see the working brilliantly and Armstrong could give us the player we wanted from lemina but I just don’t think he’s in Ralph’s plans or that Ralph sees him as more of a cover for the boufal redmond positions

To be honest I’m starting to feel on the fence with Ralph it’s probably worth giving him some more time but I’m starting to wonder about him. Quite a lot of strange decisions coming from him really packed off Cedric on loan last season with the excuse of throwing valery constant game time.. now Cedric has came back and it seems to be valery finding it hard to make the team.. Then we have the weird team selections this year playing full backs on the opposite sides. Dropping boufal who had been our most consistently decent performer this season. If you make decisions like this and they pay off suppose you gotta say fair play but they haven’t and have contributed to lost points and worse performances.. Also think Ralph needs to take some responsibility for the danso situation I don’t know whether he knew of him himself with the Austrian bundesLiga connections or he was found by scouts and Ralph just ok’d the deal, but either way this was a priority position Ralph should of been bashing recruitments door down for a centre back so for him to probably ok this deal and now doesn’t see danso good enough to play over our absolute shower of s**t at centre back is extremely strange especially when he is thrown in at lb and rb instead. Last thing is the pressing game really working for us currently at times it seems when teams break through the intitial pressing it actually leaves our already shocking defence horribly exposed, are we carrying out these tactics well enough and do we have the personnel to play this approach ?? I’m kind of in two minds right now

Actually I think jwp -the myth of him anyway would have a lot of takers if we are talking players other premier league clubs and fans wouldn’t mind having.. think he has a lot of people fooled bar the saints fans who have to watch him every week .. people see the beckham esque technique and hear the hype and believe it.. look at the way the sky commentary and pundits always big him up.. By top level though I was meaning more like when we used to have the mane and van dijk, lallana alderweireld etc really top class players big six clubs would go for... of our lot only maybe boufal and djenepo are probably capable

Actually most of our fans were creaming themselves over elyounoyssi and vestergaard.. go read the original threads. I always find it a bit hippo-critical for people to bash read or whatever for signings the w**ked over and celebrated over at the time even though it’s not our jobs.. but for example I was super excited when we signed the likes of Osvaldo Gastón and clasie but I’m not gonna turn round now and whine about the signings because I agreed with them Osvaldo in particular looked super ambitious on paper getting an Italian international from Roma who was up their with top scorers in serie a the season before. I still think it was a ambitious move

Tbh don’t think things were any better under her anyway.. all the ambition left with Cortese.. koeman done a amazing job and we carried on nicely for a couple of seasons after that the lack of ambition caught up with us.. don’t think gao is doing anything worse then her..

Could be this but then when you look at koemans reign when he was bringing in the likes of pelle tadic, Clasie martina elia etc suggests he was stamping a lot of his own authority with the transfers.. danso does kinda look like a Ralph signing with the Austrian bundesliga connection.. but I find it weird that after approving this signing he’s not seen fit to walk into this lame defence .. I’d have been absolutely kicking recruitments door down for a centre back if I was rh