CamSaint

What are the odds on Ramsdale having 3 consecutive relegations?

Maybe the TO performance is much worse for season ticket holders. Even before the pandemic, work commitments meant that I couldn't get to many matches, so I've never had a season ticket. However, I had an e-mail last week saying that my purchase history made me eligible for Man U tickets. Discussed it with my lad on Sunday & decided we would go. Went onto the ticketing site, selected 2 tickets behind the goal in the Chapel End & paid for them. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. When I confirmed the purchase, it said that the tickets would be sent in the post. They dropped onto my doormat first thing Tuesday morning. For me, it really couldn't have been any more efficient.

44 has F at the beginning of each number like Fraser's name.

Stevens also only has one year left on his contract.

Aside from any safety issues, which obviously would need to be dealt with, would the club have to divert money from player investment in order to fund infrastructure improvements? If so, would people be happy with that or prepared to put up with a green roof for another couple of seasons?

He also only has one year left on his contract, so unless Ralph really does rate him & they plan to offer him a new contract, this could be an opportunity to get a small fee for him.

I think the fact that he played in his 'normal' position is telling. Apart from the tall end of the Bournemouth QF, when he and Stephens replaced Bednarek & Vestergaard, I am pretty sure all of his previous outings have either been as part of 3 at the back or at LB. Given a proper chance in a back 4 he demonstrated exactly why we bought him. @LeG has been extolling his virtues as one for the future ever since we signed him, even when he was unavailable for so long. Last night was an assured performance and an exciting glimpse of what might be to come.

Eight outfield players pretty much pick themselves. With Minamino cup-tied, the remaining slots will almost certainly be filled by two from Tella, Redmond & Djenepo (doubt Nlundulu would be considered for a start), so I guess there is a reasonable chance that Redmond could start today.

He was marking (or rather not marking) Dunk from the corner for the first goal yesterday.

I was about to say the same thing. At that time we saw high tempo pressing, hunting the opposition down, forcing mistakes to turn the ball over. Then with the ball, using the high tempo approach to create space so that we could play those clever little triangles to move us up the pitch quickly. Today that was pretty non-existent throughout the game (apart from 2 or 3 decent fast paced moves) and in many other games we have only been able to sustain it for the first half at best. I am convinced we are suffering from player burn out due Ralph's preferred playing style & frequency of games. Bielsa's teams have often suffered the same fate. Leeds blew promotion the season before last for the same reason, although obviously they overcame it last season & have held their own this season (albeit with only 3 points more than Saints at the moment). Presumably Ralph's current approach of recycling the ball endlessly is designed to try to conserve energy in the hope that one or two opportunities will open up. But that doesn't seem to happen often, mainly since opposition teams seem to play the high tempo press against us and we have nowhere to go. If this suggested 'burnout' is a real thing, we just have to hope that the less frenetic schedule after the international break will help a bit.

But who on here would have wanted to give Vestergaard a contract extension this time last year? Most were offering to drive him to Leicester or anywhere that would put in a bid, but we would have needed to extend his contract then to protect the position now. What price a crystal ball?!

Ferry, Ramsey & Watts played for the U-23s today. They were all on the bench against Everton which suggests that KWP, Diallo & Minamino will at least be in tomorrow's match day squad.

Actually they didn't. They brought in KWP on loan to replace Cedric. In fairness, KWP was injured when he arrived, but he started his first match for us at home against Burnley on Feb 15 2020. I don't know if Valery was injured, but JWP played RB in the few games before KWP's debut & Valery wasn't even on the bench. KWP got hooked in the Burnley match & didn't start a match for us again until the 3rd match after lockdown against Watford, having replaced Valery at 1/2 time in the previous match at home to Arsenal. In the 3 matches before lockdown following KWP's debut, JWP played RB twice & Valery once. Valery started ahead of KWP immediately after lockdown at Norwich and then again against Arsenal.

The free agent market doesn't really solve any problems - you're not going to find anyone who's match fit & ready to go. Even if you could get someone without any work permit issues you'd have to ask whether, even when fully fit (& that could take some time), would they offer anything better than our current 'square peg' solutions such as Stephens? After all, on paper, you'd say Martina would be the obvious choice - PL experience with Saints & Everton - and an actual RB. But would anyone really want him back here? Unless KWP is going to be out for a very long time, bringing in a free agent will just add to the wage bill for someone who may never be in a position to get any game time.

Its an interesting conundrum. You're right that Romeu has only missed the one game, but before his return in the Villa game he was out for about 4 weeks (he last played before that on 29th December against West Ham). KWP, on the other hand, last played against Arsenal in the cup on Jan 23rd, so although he's missed 3 matches, he's only been out for 2 weeks. Of course, we have no way of assessing the extent of the injuries they suffered. I agree with you about Vestergaard. It wasn't even clear if he has returned to full training, so I'd be very surprised if he was risked, but who knows? (Ralph, I suppose!)

When we got our first win of the season at Turf Moor, Burnley were without Tarkowski, Mee, Gudmundsson, Cork & Rodriguez through injury and their bench was so young the commentators kept referring to the fact that they only had a tiny number of PL appearance between them. I think Burnley's injury problems hit them hard at the beginning of the season.

We won the PL U-21 League Cup in 2015. Some may remember the screamer Gallagher got in the 94th minute in the 2nd leg to win it. You can find the full line up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014–15_Under-21_Premier_League_Cup, but the squad included Gazzaniga, Targett, Gallagher, Reed, Seager, Hesketh, McQueen, Sims, Sinclair & Slattery. That was almost 6 years ago, and I seem to remember that we thought that we had a pretty good cohort there. Yet only Targett has really developed into a PL player. Reed might establish himself in PL depending on Fulham's fortunes. I seem to remember that group playing together for the U-21s regularly, creating a 'team' but now the minute anyone seems to show any promise they are promoted to the first team squad & actually play far less football. Does being thrown into the first team pool too early inhibit their progress or is it a basic lack of the 'spark' that's needed? After all, if some of the awful signings that we have made had turned out to be decent, we wouldn't be relying on the youngsters - we would be waiting for one or two of them to force their way into contention.

Unfortunately presumably Tierney will be back for them as well to go marauding down the right hand side of our defence.☹️

Interesting choice for the bench. Given the OP's premise that everyone is fit, I guess Nlundulu, Salisu, Smallbone & Obefami could also be in contention, without even considering Long!

Although.....it all makes perfect sense (as Roger Waters once sang). Arsenal get to recreate the dream defence of Cedric & Ryan on the training ground (not sure either would get much first team football) AND Ryan & Danny can car share on the way up to training in North London!😀

No trying to unsettle anyone before the next 2 matches then? (Yes I know RB can't play on Tuesday but I would hope he'd play tomorrow).

'W' Formation: 1 GK 2 & 3 RB & LB 4 & 6 Right Half & Left Half 5 Centre Half 8 & 10 Inside Right & Inside Left 7 & 11 Right Wing & Left Wing 9 Centre Forward No substitutes

While this has been a bit of a strange season, it is difficult to imagine that Arsenal would finish top 4. Not impossible, of course, but probably unlikely. So unless they win the Europa League, they wouldn't be able to offer CL football next season. So that would just leave Spurs, who have more than a decent chance of finishing top 4.....

Don't distract me. I'm still trying to get to grips withe the country about to exit from EU transition rules.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. Ralph's signings to date have been Danso, Djenepo, Adams, KWP, Diallo, Walcott & Salisu. I suppose Danso made a bit of an impact but for all the wrong reasons. Djenepo got his wonder goal against Sheffield Untied, but he wasn't really a regular starter. I know that he has had injury problems which didn't help, but I'm not sure that Ralph expected him to slot in as a permanent starter straight away. KWP came on loan in January (injured, of course) but didn't get a start until Burnley at home. He got hooked in the 2nd half when we were chasing the game and thereafter played 2nd fiddle to Valery and even JWP at times. Even when we restarted after the lockdown Valery got the nod for the Norwich & Arsenal games. It wasn't until Valery was hooked at half time against Arsenal that KWP came in and made the spot his own, which obviously has continued this season. Diallo clearly isn't going to displace JWP or Romeu in the starting line up any time soon but hopefully will be a useful sub option/fill in for injury or suspension. Adams is slightly different, as if I remember correctly, he was a regular starter at the beginning of last season but got relegated to the bench as his confidence disappeared. Since he got his second chance he has blossomed into an excellent player. Walcott, with his experience, is most likely to make an immediate impact, especially with the injury to Ings. I seem to remember when we signed Salisu that someone said he was 'one for the future'. I can't remember whether that was Ralph or one of the ITKers on here. Clearly it is disappointing not to have seen him even on the bench so far, but our decent start has given the club more breathing space. I guess we just have to hope that we don't experience any injuries/suspensions/major drop in form with the current CBs until he is ready. I wonder whether the first time we see him might be the 3rd round FA Cup game in early January.