Holmes_and_Watson

Cannon

He'll have been secretly training Redmond for all this time, just to activate him against Liverpool. Watch for the trigger sentence "You are a footballing genius Mr Reed." 🙂

100% managerial record. Well, from one game managing Kilmarnock.

Bound got half a dozen appearances, I think.

Anchor

Desperate to improve their goal difference, a tired Liverpool push up, allowing Broja space to run onto a counter attack. 1-0. Later a van dijk clearance ricochets off of late sub Long's head, loops over Allison in goal...but hits the bar and goes over. Not even in fantasyland, is Long scoring... 🙂

Super news.

For me the fixture list plays a part in that. Ralph said that,after a cliff dive last season, that the start of this season would be tough for the first 7 games, after which there were games that we'd be expecting to win. If we get those winnable games right off the bat next season, and our form is the same, then a decision os going to have to be made sooner. While I'm typing, and wearing my tin foil hat... 🙂 I think it's been a combination of factors that's led us to this:- The automaticisms that made us play so well are sapping to maintain, and it obviously helps when the players buy into it fully. The focus of the training commited build up that style of play. If your are independently minded you are not long for first team selection, and while departures may be prolonged, due to our resources, they might not be great - Betrand and Ings body language at the end. Unfortunately, when the tactic doesn't work, we've a team of limited automatons who struggle to come up with an independent plan of their own on the pitch. A lack of leadership kicks in, as strong egos and leadership are not necessarily a good fit with Autocrat Ralph. Ralph's focus on his play book has resulted in tactical limitations. The lack of fexibility from his approach consistently fails to deal with the game at hand. When everyone else can see it going pear shaped, he's either incredibly optimistic that his playing style will win through, or simply hasn't come up with and trained the team in other approaches. Ralph's autocratic approach is a key driver when things go well, but a liability when it comes to adaptability, when they don't. It builds in mental fragility in a squad not trained to think for themselves. The tactics getting found out so much that Tuchel gave a quick how-to, after our match with them, has been a big factor. Other teams had been looking to exploit the weaknesses of it prior to this. I remember Norwich doing it, just not having the personnel to make it pay off for them. I think Ralph has struggled to impose an alternative. We got the Arsenal win, with very few efforts on their goal. But then tried to utilise something similar, in a game where we could easily have done better had we been more attacking. I got the feeling there was a bit of tactical grapsing around for something that would work, and they've not found anything. I think Redmond got so much game time in part because he does exactly the job that's asked of him. He's a credit in that system, even as any creativity is stiffled. I'm not singling out Redmond for criticism here. It's a compliment. Tino would be another one, whose early attacking sense, has been trained out. It's looks good when it pays off, but when it doesn't we're more vulnerable. As it won't come off more often that it will, it's considered to be better to minimise the risk, in favour of better opportunities. We're apparently the team allowing Salisu to take long throws *knowing* full well that they are not very good. It's been worked out we should win more second balls, and failing that, be in a more robust shape for their attack. It's an analytics, risk based approach right across the team and its actions. There's the risk that we *can't* adapt to anything significantly different for a change in fortunes by the end of the season. That lies with the coaching team, which has been mentioned contains a lot of very quiet people in front of their boss on match days. And an awful lot of goalkeepers. Having a top striker in Ings is a tremendous help in the tactic paying off. A rookie kid, with a different career path in mind, and a guy who hasn't made the step up from the championship, means we've not taken the chances created. A risk averse rest of the team aren't capable of stepping up, with excpetion of JWP, primarily through set peices. Stu had to be instructed to take long shots, which soon became shoot on sight before that went. Other factors include:- Ralph announcing that he's considering retirement. If your working as a robot, and the guy imposing it, hints at going, there's a little slack that creeps in. Contract negotiations behind the scenes - Redmond gets frozen out, Romeu's hint at moving on just before a form drop, Salisu's drop in form, possibly part of AA not getting picked etc. And the tradtional mental uplift from reaching safety (even if not mathmatically so). Right. tin foil hat off, as it's needed to cook the sunday dinner... A win against Liverpool will be a good start in showing that the team aren't affected by any of the above in the slightest. 🙂

We're going to be gutted when it turns out that Camping was really Glamping. 🙂

Not a massive surprise. Let's see how effective our recruitment team are. I liked Forster, but I'll be happy to welcome Mr McCarthy and Mr Cabbalero to the cl....hang on... 🙂

It's easier for them. They're playing with boots on a football pitch, while our are playing in flip flops on the sandy beaches where their minds are. 🙂

I was hoping we'd see our team run out after they lifted the trophy. 🙂

Blowin'

Times

Something he clearly regrets. Just heard him on the radio, getting his team to play in yellow. He's inspired by '76.

Altar

Lamb

Rubber

All hail King Brian the Blessed, whose shouty voice can be heard around the Empire!

I was watching Arbroath fail to get a goal past, at times, 8 man Inverness Cale Thistle. Thistle had a sending off, made 4 subs, lost a player through injury and had another sending off. They got a man back, when allowed to make another sub in extra time, but briefly lost a player due to a head injury. Cale won on pens. A poor quality game, but only one missed penalty.

Vanish

That's a key point. If we stick with Ralph then it's a probably a variation of the formation/ set up we've had. Targets would have been drawn up (helped by our departing to Leicester staff member) around that. Is he likely to radically alter what we've seen, which has had spells of success? If it's a new manager then , unless he's Ralph's lost twin, then it's a different formation/set up. So different targets needed, to some extent.

Wiki might... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Allan

https://novacns.com/spinal-reconstruction-and-revision-spine-surgery/

I warmed to his unsung ability, as he was a bit in the shadow of some of the others. But in catching more of his games... pretty much what Badger said.