saint michael

Strikes me that the board will not sack him because he is compliant on the way the club will be run. Mutual agreement. We let you manage how you want and support you. We will not spend on older players without resale value. A position of harmony and to date Ralph has delivered what is needed…. Just keep us in the prem

I think even if you throw a great centre back into this defensive debacle it wouldn’t make a difference. dawdling at back. Holding ball until confronted and then no skills or help to get out of being boxed in is defence training 101

I thought Ralph was the manager. He seems confused when asked questions he turns into a reporter, reporting on what happened.. no shit Ralph, I think we all saw what happened, what I want to hear is why it happened, what you were thinking of doing, how you change it next time not to happen.. He is completely out of his depth and hoping that he discovers the right answer..this is going to be a rough ride

Zero defensive coaching. Zero defensive tactics. One tactic is press until you are knackered not surprising we keep getting this shit really i just don’t know where this ends… him getting sacked.. us continuing with this awful football

No but the cushions on the seats are to help people sleep through it better

I see gk mentioned above…am I the only one worried we haven’t solved our defence and GK problem. This is our main threat to this season. We are going to need to score plenty unless a miracle has happened to our defence coaching and strategy

Weaker squad than last year at this moment. Really poor defence and tactics. Awful goalkeeping situation. Loss of ings will hurt us if not replaced. A lot depends on how the three promoted teams do and the others fighting at the bottom at the end last year do. Therefore another year of ups and downs in a relegation dog fight. Think we have every likelihood of getting in a really bad run like last year so will be amazed if anything not in bottom 3. Manager and coaching team key to me with the poor squad we have.

Do you think this will fund Edouard from Celtic rather than Armstrong

So following what you say then his decision to be to move him, them on. He has never spoken about a new gk or coach to my knowledge

I don’t think anybody is blaming Ralph for financial performance. he does have a responsibility for coaching and improving our defence and GK. I am critical of him here because if Dave Watson can’t improve them and their tactics what is he doing? He’s been here long enough to be responsible. Great job I reckon… also our defence tactically is dire. What is he trying to do and how successful does he think he’s been

Gk is absolutely a key position and absolutely agree we have two very average keepers. I don’t think it helps though playing behind a piss poor defence which is why Fraser probably looked ok a few years ago because defence was good. I think we need both sorted and at the very least have a defence coach that knows what the f he is doing

RiP Jimmy. Was indeed great player and loved watching him as a kid

What gives you the confidence that this season will be better than last? Not writing season off but I haven’t seen or heard anything that changes from last year enough yet

Send him down to Bournemouth with Parker in exchange for winger

Add to that zero positive effect of any coaching going on with those groups and you have the full calamity

They will go for Howe

Challenge this year is to be better than 3 other teams. start to build some defensive nous….it’s called coaching Hope we get some coaches in have a plan B that means we are not exhausted by minute 45 stop passing sideways and backwards. stop passing back to our keeper when attacking … take our chances when they come simple game really

Very good read. Thanks

I think it’s appalling timing if nothing else. Complete Shyte football and all that’s been going on in the world. I guess it will pay for a rise to players like Redmond though. They need more ££££ on their millions. Football has truly lost the plot. might be called Southampton FC but has nothing to do with the club I started supporting in 67. Wake up Saints

I would like to understand what Ralph’s play list is all about. What I see cannot be what he really wants surely. unable to defend against direct ball, unable to defend against crosses, all of which gets worse as the game goes on starts with high energy closing down and this declines as game goes on loss of midfield ideas as game goes on and more and more of recycling and tippy tippy around loss of width and any balls behind opposition defence as games go on, with more and more tapping around in front of an opposition defensive shape. waiting for the opposition long ball counterattack sucker punch and goalkeeper error. I don’t believe this style suits us and also seems that individuals are coached in their role, but I don’t see defensive team, midfield team and attack team showing enough connection. Ralph then comes out and bemoans bad luck or individual mistakes but generally looks satisfied things are on plan. Although started to complain about the lack of depth of squad. for me we should play tactics to the team we have and develop and build around this not have a set of tactics and relentlessly continue with this and then say we haven’t got the squad to play this or the money to build in what is needed Please sack Ralph he is truly clueless and unable to recognise he is out of his depth. Shaking his head when the inevitable described above plays out

Two new young centre backs who are getting the easiest game of their lives. No wonder Koop said he was confident of them

I think our defence is poor due to injuries i think we lack composure up front due to injuries I think we pass the ball backwards and sideways because of injuries

Can you explain what you believe Ralph is adding to the team performances please. I believe everyone should be given chance to turn things around and think he has had that time. The biggest sin for me is not the results but the lack of team set up and tactics. I’ve never seen worse defensive coaching in all my time supporting saints. If you can’t defend you can’t win. That’s the cycle we are in. Our forwards scoring lots and great form helped earlier on. We now have the combination of a very poor defence and extra pressure on team to score lots just to be in a game. That’s why I believe a change is necessary

There is a difference between reporting and controlling....Ralph reports poor performance and doesn’t take accountability for the performances, nor does he change anything about them. We just keep rolling out the same stuff and Ralph says we were not good enough... ignore the table positions, I’ve not seen a performance that gives me hope that we can make a sustained change to the way we play. I also don’t believe that it’s all player related.. yes we have some poor players, but they are not being pointed in the right direction. As has been said many times.. the definition of madness is to keep doing the same things and expect a different result. This is the most worrying thing for me. There is no coaching that suggests we are going through a bad spell and will suddenly pull out of it.

I don’t know why it’s so surprising. Its the mirror image of majority of games in this half of the season. who sat there at HT and thought we would win? I would like to hear the manager talk about what specifically he has been wanting them to do that they are not. If he believes the tactics are right, if he believes the training is right, then something must be wrong.... what is it. If he believes it’s the players try something new, it can’t be any worse than this surely....what could be worse than 9 0 i truly believe the players aren’t as bad as this but the coaching, tactics, match set up and management stink