Dman

To be fair, from what I’ve seen this season, it seems to be Romeu who is the more advanced of the 2, in what I’d call a traditional ‘box to box’ type role, when we attack (similar to Sunday), with prowsey sitting a little deeper. Im sure there is a heat map which will prove that to be wrong, but that was my observations from the games I’ve been to this season. how can I check this @TWar probably partly explains why we’re seemingly so easy to counter against. I dont really rate him as a manager, but for me, prowse would develop really well under the guidance of someone like Lampard who was the king of arrive late from deep and scoring goals.

Agree. As much as I’ve given him shit and was unhappy at our form the back end of last season, I kinda deep down, accepted that we had a rotten run of injuries which would have contributed to that. A year on, we’re seeing the exact same issues. He’s been here what, 3 1/2 years now and I honestly don’t think we’ve seen an improvement in the side, post his initial 6month bounce. If anything, I think we’re arguably getting worse.

You made a fairly decent point to be fair mate and as you said, all that matters at the end of the day is the result. Sunday and last Saturday being an example of that, not playing all that well but doing what’s needed to get a result of some kind. for me, I think a one off heavy defeat (however bad it may be) could be put down to a bit of bad luck or just being off on the night, but for it to happen 3 times now (including Chelsea as I honestly think we were lucky to only concede 6), suggest there is a fundamental issue somewhere.

If it was a one off, you could probably brush it under the carpet a little easier. However these performances and these poor runs seemingly happen every single season. We’ve shipped 9 in consecutive seasons and if we’re all honest, we’re extremely fortunate that Chelsea didn’t do the same again this season. A lot of head in sand with your above comment there.

They’ll still come straight back because of the squad they have. Then if they sell any, they’ll be able to replace them within the restraints of FFP. I still think they’ll have just enough to stay up anyway

Pretty damming assessment of Armstrong if Ralph gets a feeling that Long is a better option than him (despite seemingly training all week as if he was going to start).

Looks like it was Tino, rather than Ralph, who inspired the players 😉 A shame it took an injury to a young kid and they couldn’t find the same desire when 3/4-0 down against Leicester, United and Chelsea in recent years. Might have saved a shit load of embarrassment….

Trent looking out his depth again defensively. Gordon has him on toast.

Oh you’ve got me, 85% then.

I don’t really have an answer to why we have a spell of games a season where we look unplayable, despite being fucking rubbish for 90% of the season. If I did, I’d be working for the club I suspect. Player confidence or lack of is probably a big part of the issue.

Football clubs have whole departments to analyse teams. If you’re just trying the same thing over and over again, you’ll get found out. It happened last season, it’s happened again this season.

He won’t find any because he’s wrong. He’ll probably move the goal posts though. Ralph walked a year before the end of his contract due to ‘uncertainty’ about them offering him a new long term deal.

They weren’t prone to ‘brain farts’ from January - March though. for what it’s worth, I think it’s a combination of the manager becoming stale and certain players not being good enough. I think Ralph’s tactics are a huge issue for us though.

We looked better, controlled the ball better but didn’t really create any clear cut chances. The tide turned in their favour after the offside goal though and last 10/15 was all them. Regardless, the game is played over 90 minutes and going 2-0 down in the first half isn’t good enough.

True, although those brain farts seemingly happen every week. Underlying issues…

Try again, Yes he did.

1 win in 9, that’s why it’s “Ralph out!”.

Did it though? 2 brilliant strikes got us out the shit there. We didn’t really look like scoring outside of those 2 efforts.

Not a bad result from being 2-0 down obviously. Half hour of being on top but very poor for large parts of the game and in the end, lucky to come away with a point.

Redmond has been shite today hasn’t he. How many touches has he had

Thought this. Horrible to say, but Tino going off is a bit of a god send. Means we need to play players in thier actual position.

Can’t see it. If he does, it’ll be because they’ve not landed about 5 of their other targets.

Great strike. Perfect

Tella has looked bright to his credit.

He walked away from RB, to be fair.