macca155

Counting all the money he'll have I suspect.

I doubt Ralph will be sacked now. They'll want to sort out the back room staff first. Plus it will happen when they have a suitable person aka 'Frank' available At the moment Ralph is toast for many because we are losing games. The players are knackered, struggling, and there doesn't appear to be a regular line up. Its perm 11 from 20. The strategy seems so one dimensional as well. On the other hand Ralph has overseen some great runs so he can do it. Given some investment can Ralph find more consistency. Add a GK, decent CH and a back up to Romeu to that squad and it would be interesting to see how Saints performed. With exception of Puel I've always been pretty patient with managers, but this is testing me.

I thought Redmond actually put a reasonable shift in. Good defensively but just doesn't offer anything going forward. Adams was poor, constantly lost the ball. He had exactly the same chance as Zaha but messed it up. Taken off too late. Agree on Tella it looks like he is being coached into Redmond Mark 2. We could all see what was coming. Palace could sense a winner and went for it. They were bigger, faster, and more committed as the game entered the final quarter. That is when Ralph should have locked it down, taken the draw. Now ridiculously we are looking over our shoulder.

Quite right, positive mental attitude always essential with Saints. It just feels a little more precarious at the moment. Probably just me having the wobbles.

It's easy to criticise but a draw is a good result against a side who are well drilled, and have caused plenty of other sides problems. However Saints were improved after the enforced change of Tino (I hope he's ok). That begs a legitimate question on Ralph's selections this year. The fact remains that Saints look spineless (or headless to be more accurate) at the back and toothless up front. The summer works are obvious. As often said the League table doesn't lie and Saints are probably in the right place. There have been good games .... I'm sure I remember a few😲, but the way their form can drop off a cliff is alarming. How much longer can Saints survive like this? With Utd needing to replace half their team in the summer, odds are that JWP will be off. He deserves that move, so no problem as far as I am concerned but that will leave a big hole. So all in all, good result today. Feels a hell of a lot better than Thursday but I can't help feeling that it asks more questions than it answers.

They better kick on 2nd half, or I shall have major resentment like @Monk. That is principally brought on by the fact that I'm stumping up for our season tickets this week. Ralph's job will be on the line if this run continues. I think everyone's patience is wearing thin.

No one really .... KWP was ok, that's about it.

Agree with nearly all that but you could change Bendarek/Salisu for Stephens/Lyanco, and I contend not notice much difference. Same in other positions, there lies our problem. Those who are auto selections, all play in the same position! Broja should be used as a sub. He'll go back to Chelsea so we best use our own resources and plan for next year. Perhaps Smallbone for Romeu. The fact that I am hoping for a draw against Brighton is tragic.

A tad harsh, I didn't think he was the worse yesterday. However he didn't add much either.

You are right the bar is getting higher every year. Newcastle have now made it a top 7 to contend with. That's 14 games where even a point will be hard fought for. West Ham have a 50,000+ paying customers. They are bigger and I suspect will become the 8th. Leicester have owners prepared to spend much more than ours. You can add Wolves and Villa to that list as well. If Everton survive I can't see them being garbage next year either. That means the league of teams that are genuine peers of Saints, is becoming smaller every year. Probably 8 rising to 10 with a couple from the list above having an off season. That doesn't mean Saints can't survive, or even flourish but more investment is definitely required and perhaps a different approach.

Oh this is terrible, have to do better

When you look at the difference between KWP, Forster, Perraud, and the others you can see where the problems lie. Woeful tonight

Fair point, they are all over the place so far

Good goal with his wrong foot, not sure Bendarek could anticipate that. Forster shouldn't be working this hard. Armstrong and Romeu very poor so far

After that performance this is not the time to make judgements. Need to view it a little more objectively. Both FF and AM are the wrong side of 30. Both have great games but equally both can mess up. All goalies do that occasionally but most are consistent. The lack of consistency at GK and CH has been the core problem for Saints these last few years. Frazer knows that going forward he will inevitably become No2 to a younger goalie. That is probably the reason he'll leave at the end of the season. I think McCarthy has already accepted that as his future. Interesting conundrum for the club.

Last week when the 4th goal went in, Forster thumped the ball into row HH. He was an angry man who doesn't like conceding goals. No surprise that he meant business yesterday. Great performance, well done big man. I'm not sure about the change to a more passive approach. We'll see more draws that way I suspect. I don't think that was the major factor yesterday. The changes in defence were the bedrock for that performance. Lyanco was put in the middle of the defense. He had experience on one side, pace on the other. That meant we had cover what a difference. He is fast becoming one of my favourites. KWP did a great job at RB. He stifled Saka (what a player) to the point where he swapped sides. Waste of time as Perraud was an equal match. I also thought Long and Redmond were great when they came on. Long is so experienced he immediately became a bloody nuisance. Redmond got stuck in like a man who wants to force his way back in the side. However, probably best not to get carried away. Arsenal had the majority of possession and looked dangerous. Going to be a very different game on Thursday. Let's see how they adapt.

Plus three ar the back with Valery in. As you say need players who give a shit

What is good about this and other forums, is that after the inevitable (and fully justified) 'sack them all' reaction, a concensus starts to emerge as we all come to terms with the performance. Ralph's decision to make so many changes against West Ham, has clearly impacted on the players. The difference between Feb and March is stark. We may have won that game but at what cost? I think the players lost their rhythm and just don't know how to get it back. Same has happened to Utd and Everton, somehow Ralph has to find a way out of this. He has to respond to other team's strategy against his tactics. I like Ralph still believe in him as our manager, basically the good outweighs the bad. However the new ownership need to do a reset with this squad. That defence cannot cope with an all out assault. One of the bonuses of the Cup changes was the emergence of Valery as a central defender. He was excellent against Chelsea in the cup and Ralph was talking him up. He's shown potential so why not play him. He has pace and would have been a better opponent for Warner than Bendarek, or as it turned out Salisu. Anyway its no good doing what ifs for too long, pretty pointless really. Arsenal next different prospect. Let's give them a game of footie and try not to get hammered..... please.

They do do that and it often works well. However Howe, Hodgson, Gerrard, and now Tuchel, have all worked out that we are often exposed in midfield when pressing. Romeo can cover when on his game, but he was struggling today. JWP is good but that isn't the best part of his game As a result Loftus Cheek was destroying us with ease. They had so much room it was ridiculous. Just horrible, forget it move on. Who'se watching MOTD then 😲

100% this, ridiculous set up against the European champions. They played 3 at the back and 1 up front. So where did the rest play Ralph? 2 in midfield for us was never going to work. Tuchel got his players to target Salisu and Armstrong. It meant every ball was played in a hurry and mistakes crept in. As a result JWP had nowhere to pass. Forster, Adams and KWP put in a shift. Valery was an improvement (says very little), the rest need a long hard look at themselves. Chelsea were good, very good, but that was to be expected. So were City but we harassed them into a draw. This reminded me of Liverpool away. Terrible tactics at the start and got a spanking. 2nd half they improved. Ralph has to have a different playbook up his sleeve when other teams work you out.

https://cricfree.top/soccer/leeds-united-southampton-cfrdli76?l=1376427832

Hame turned on the penalty. Absolute stonewall no arguments. What on earth was he thinking. Game fell away from that point onwards. Too many chances missed, but their defending was very good, always close to the man and never gave up. Better performance but the two CHs struggled. I wonder if all the changes to our team have dented our confidence. Take what positives we can and move on. Build for next season and give Adam A a run of games. He either cracks it or needs to move on. Anyway better than the last team we lost 4 1 to in the cup.

Away fans are part of the fun/agony of going to a football match. Be boring without them. Some of my best and worst experiences have been at away games. Spurs was epic, as much as Rochdale was the lowest point ever. Yes some are arrogant idiots but the sheer, joy surprise, shock, relief of the Watford fans on Sunday was quite funny even if it was at our expense. When they started the 'we've got the ball' chant on 10 minutes things were looking bad. We've all been there! The club just needs to sell the tickets to Chelsea fans from their club's register .... and keep the money 💰 They can then go bust and we can laugh. There fans need to suffer for living beyond their means for so many years, but they've got the right to watch it.

Sort of agree but I don't think Elyounoussi had a good game. He was off the pace and left Perraud exposed at times. He's been great so certainly not bashing him, defo a 1st team player. I think he was a victim of the tactics more than anything. He just doesn't have the engine for box to box work. He does have a box of tricks in close play and knows where the goal is. Probably our most obvious No10 at the moment. Redmond has pace and energy, and certainly would have supported Perraud more, best part of his game frankly. However he will be ring rusty and there is nothing to suggest that he can offer anything different from what we have going forward. Djneppo (God help us) is probably in front of him.

I think it's more about giving squad players a game. Like it or not that seems to be the clubs way forward.