VectisSaint

I am firmly in the "not sacking" Ralph camp, but the one thing that I think he is to blame for, at least partly is the squad size and depth. He was very public in his desire to work with a much smaller squad, hindsight though being a wonderful thing he did not take into account this last crazy year, with far more intense schedule due to Covid, lack of facilities for recovery etc. This desire for a small squad has come back to bite him (us) very badly, I don't think this factor can be wholly blamed on others, although of course the club management were instrumental in downsizing. I also don't believe that Valery and Vokins would have left if Ralph had not sanctioned, even encouraged it.

Actually I don't think that's the case. Our reaction after the disallowed penalty, the disallowed goal and after going 1-0 down was actually pretty decent. It wasn't until they got the 2nd that we seemed to give up. I thought we had a good chance of getting back into it after their early 2nd half 1st goal. Until we went 2-0 down we actually played quite a decent game, and should have been 2 up at half-time, even without the disallowed goal, we completely dominated them without having too many clear-cut chances. Problem seems to be that Ralph/players don't seem to be able to adapt when the opposition tweaks things at half time, as they invariably do.

He didn't lie about his system. Surely you don't take every word he says as gospel do you? He's not MLG. No one who watched the match and has even a modicum of understanding of systems and formations can possibly believe that we played 4-2-2-2 throughout that game.

Regardless of what Ralph might say, we did not play a straightforward 4-2-2-2 or 3 at the back. We actually played very smartly a fluid back line with Bertrand slopping back into the back line as needed, and when he did the 3 CBs shifted across. Occasionally the opposite happened and Djenepo slipped into a RB role, and the others shifted across. We may have even had 5 at the back a little. It's diffIcult to say JB played traditional RB, but he certainly did at times. Was quite impressed with how the back line operated, very fluid and covering each other well. Beds was the one finding it most difficult, there were times he clearly wasn't sure who to mark but he didn't do much wrong. Djenepo was awful for the first 15-20 minutes but he really grew into the role and put in a massive performance. I'm guessing he is struggling to walk today, some of the treatment meeted out to him, would have made Brian O'Neil or John McGrath proud.

A team without KWP and Armstrong has no energy and no creativity. They aren't necessarily the best players of the season, but they do make us tick, and we are ponderous without them. The folly of such a small squad this season (with games coming thick and fast and limited recovery facilities) is really coming home to haunt us at the moment. Think I'll find something else to do this afternoon, rather than watch this potential shit show 🙄

Not sure I would take the view of KK as being particularly insightful. Not exactly the best manager was he, especially when it came to defensive tactics. I don't particularly disagree, defenders are next best choice to midfield for sure, in my view strikers and goalkeepers are no-nos, but the reality is that someone in the middle of the pitch is the ideal, just doesn't always work out that way.

Rubbish. Why does it have to be down to the manager? If there are these mythical people thinking we won't get 7 points they probably realise like most rational people that our problems are not down to a single factor like Ralph. Indeed if they were looking for a scapegoat the more rational approach would be 'Gao out'.

Almost, but not quite. Not long ago they kept telling us that we were closer to the top 4 than the bottom 3. Not any more, not even the top 6 now. I'm not saying we will go down, just that it is not beyond the realms of possibility as some would have you believe.

10 points now between us and Fulham. I always consider 10 points as a rule of thumb as the size of gap that can be closed. More than 10 points and its pretty safe. (Hopefully MLG won't be along to try to discredit my rule of thumb)

Doddsy might be a better bet. Could also help out with the B team coaching.

Not B Team but I see the U18s were smashed 7-1 by Brighton today. That's not good is it 😬

Given we can't play golf at the moment it doesn't help anyway, no matter how bad you are.

With no crowd and Ralph being able to vocally coach effectively from pitch side, and with the set plays and triggers it really isn't so much of a problem. It becomes more of an issue when we get crowds back in the stadiums. What if Ralph was not at pitch side, sent to the stands or something, or even when he was self isolating, Richard Kitzbichler is certainly not the vocal coach that Ralph is. People underestimate the role of the captain, but it is certainly not as important in the current climate.

The obvious leader is Danny Ings. That said I'm not a great believer in the captain being a striker. The best captains are always midfield, for obvious reasons. I don't think JWP is bad actually. I do wonder whether Armstrong might develop into captain material, but I suspect he is too "nice". We've lacked a proper captain since Steve Davis. Oh for the days of the likes of Alan Ball. Meant to say that Stephens is the other obvious candidate, but until/unless he is a regular in the side it won't happen

Alex's suspension was for 3 PL games, wasn't it. Not available for Chelsea if that is the case, but I can't find a definitive statement. The FA Cup game definitely didn't count. Daft thing is that a 3 game suspension for a sending off after 75 seconds effectively means a 4 game suspension.

Beginning to feel more like 1973 to me.

Big concern for me is that we look like we lost KWP again. He didn't have his best game today, but he and Armstrong make this team tick, and without one of them again we are going to struggle, indeed does anyone know if Armstrong going off was purely tactical?. We just fell apart once they got their lucky penalty (though they had been on top from half-time), no ideas what to do and the second became inevitable. Really disappointed in Minamino today, offered nothing, Redders was OK-ish (deserved an "assist" for Ings' goal). Not sure what else to say, not going to blame McCarthy for the goal, still have more confidence in him that Forster. Thought we looked reasonably calm and in control in defence, at least while we had our first choice 4. Romeu and JWP dictated the middle for most of the game, just possibly Romeu backed off a bit after his yellow, understandable knowing that Diallo is not fit yet. Armstrong was superb, his run for Danny's goal was absolutely brilliant. Ings looked to be back to his best, especially with his work outside the box and in defence. What else to say, we just were shocking when something went against us an couldn't shake ourselves out of it, and that is the real concern. We simply have to find a way of turning these defeats into at least draws. Getting past that 29 point mark is becoming a bit of an albatross round our neck. I don't think we will get sucked into a relegation fight, but while we are still not past 30 you have to say that mathematically you cannot be certain, who is to say we will still not be there after our next 3 league games.

Much as expected, Ralph had hinted that Redmond was going to play in the striker role. I know he got some stick for the Cup game in midweek, but if you just watched the highlights you would actually think (mistakenly) that he had a good game. Would still prefer Adams, I think left sided midfield is somewhere we really need to improve in the summer, we can do better than Redmond/Djenepo.

But we have. If he has a good loan spell then he becomes more of an asset that we could potentially sell. If he doesn't play he won't get in the shop window, and if he has a disaster then his stock would be even lower.

Its what Dad's did. To be fair he never took much interest in footy after he left the Navy which was a year or two earlier, think he used to go to Nottarf Krap with his mates when he was younger, probably either side of the War. Most of my Mum's family (on the Isle of Wight) were Pompey supporters although one or two would go to Pompey one week and Saints the next. Dad actually came from Burley in the New Forest and his grandparents lived in Newtown (Bullar Street) just over from St Mary's (his Grandad was landlord at the Antelope Hotel when Saints played at the Antelope Ground in the 1890s) so there was actually good reason for him to be a Saints supporter, but I guess he hooked up with the Skates because he lived and worked there from when he was 15.

They are both left-sided CBs. Seriously doubt they would work together. I know some (on here) that scoff at this concept, but time and again it is proven to be the case. Two left-sided CBs do not work. Salisu was brought in to play on the left side, and at the time Vest was playing like a donkey, so seemed a good call, to balance up our defence. But with the new improved Vest Mk2 I don't see Sally Sue getting a look in. My opinion, we will see. I also don't think he did enough tonight to warrant dropping Bednarek or (controversially) Stephens. He did well, but it was no worldy performance.

Shows the difference KWP and Armstrong make to our game, Chalk and cheese tonight with them back. Need an upgrade on Redmond, really has lapsed back into the hopeless category. Salisu did OK, but got caught out twice, can't see him replacing Vest though and can't see them playing together, still good to know we have a decent backup if injuries come back again. Good win.

We have some hope with KWP and Armstrong back, pace on the wing and drive and some guile in the centre, hopefully they will both be firing on all cylinders. Would have played Adams rather than Redmond, but at least he is an option and a good one off of the bench

Unlike MLG my reply was meant to be humorous. Ceefax was definitely a thing by the way, 1974 it was launched. Of course we didn't have it on the Isle of Wight until much later 😉

That's what Ralph said in the Presser, but later pictures from training (for Thursday) clearly showed Stuey which gave rise to the idea that he might be available after all. Mind you the pictures also showed Minamino despite him being cup-tied.