Sheaf Saint

Uh oh. That's not going to go down well with Ducky 🤣

How is that not a back pass then?

Doing more than alright. Giving them a proper game so far. Tactically, I think Ralph has got this spot on. Maybe that's why it's so quiet on here tonight - the anti-Ralph posters don't have anything to complain about.

Valery just tried to walk the ball past two defenders.

Unusually quiet on here tonight. Where is everyone?

How on earth did the ref / lino not spot that shirt puling?

Well we're certainly getting stuck into them, but the gulf in quality on the ball is obvious.

http://hockeyweb.site/daily/news/chels26/

Ah, taters just said.. KWP at RB, Salisu at LB and Valery in the centre. Hmmmmmm.

Only just got a working stream. What does our formation look like?

Good to see Stu is deemed fit enough to start. Whatever team Chelsea put out, the thought of Valery at RB worries me. Him aside, it's a strong looking team.

I've never got my head round IPTV streaming, but I know my Samsung TV includes some IPTV apps. Can anyone please point me to an idiot's guide to finding and setting up a suitable provider?

Can't say I'm filled with confidence TBH. Last time he played (at Sheff Utd) he was dreadful defensively. I'd be very concerned about playing him at CB against a more competent team.

Yes, it seems expectations are too high among certain fans. Many have such a simplistic view of the current situation that they are incapable of thinking anything other than "it must all be the manager's fault, sack him". It's idiotic to not take other considerations into account. We are a cash-strapped club with a relatively poor squad, and Ralph currently has one task and one task only - to keep us in the PL until such time we can secure the investment we need to start competing again. He's on course to achieve that as we're currently 4 points above the relegation spots having had the toughest set of opening fixtures of any team in the league. And he's doing that while getting us playing attractive, entertaining football, and having drastically improved our defensive setup. We *might* have got a few extra points by now if Redmond or Moi or Theo were better finishers, or if Bednarek didn't keep having brain farts and making costly errors, or if JWP hadn't have been sent off at Chelsea. These are all things that are out of the manager's control, so to blame him for them and want him replaced is just plain stupid. If we change managers now, our squad will still have the same limitations and it won't suddenly make us the world-beaters that some people expect us to be. People are saying we should consider form stretching back to last season as well, but the difference in our performances now compared to the painfully bad ones being served up last winter/spring when there were so many other factors in play is so obvious that I can't agree with that. It's how we're performing in the here and now that matters. We're so much more organised and have become much harder to beat, and have only really lost one game that we shouldn't have (Wolves). We were on course to get a creditable draw with Chelsea until the red card, and we lost at Goodison where we always lose anyway. Aside from that we have been competitive in every game and our defensive record is better than Man Utd, Spurs, Arsenal, Leicester and Everton. I'm not seeing any evidence that we are as bad as some of the doomsayers are making out. They must be watching different games from me. Of course we need to start translating some of our good performances into wins. But we've already played 5 of the current top 8, and with much more favourable fixtures in the 2nd qtr of the season, and with Stu & JWP returning, I absolutely believe we will. If we don't, and we're still where we are having played everyone, THEN I'll start to get concerned. Until then, I prefer to remain confident.

How about the hardest set of opening fixtures on paper in the entire league? Wolves aside, which games *should* we have done better in? Burnley? They're a well organised team who know well how to grind out draws, and better teams than us will fail to beat them this season. I'll agree these two things demonstrated poor judgement, and we all make mistakes in life, but come on - showing he "doesn't have a clue" is a ridiculous exaggeration. What about the tactical change he made at HT against Chelsea to get us back in the game? If you're going to criticise his failures then at least acknowledge his successes. Like Ducky you seem to be intent on painting an unfairly negative picture of him which I just cannot agree with. Yes, things *could* be better right now, but the way we're set up and playing as a team, which is the remit of the manager, is not our main issue.

If we were playing badly every week and getting humiliated time after time, maybe you would have a point. But we're not. Ralph may make one or two questionable selections, but overall the performances have been a massive improvement on the appalling dross we saw in the second half of last season. You go on about how we only beat Leeds because they had 3 key players missing, while ignoring the fact we've been without our best attacking player (Stu) since the start of the season and without our captain for the last two. We're playing OK. We're creating chances but not putting them away. That isn't Ralph's fault and it doesn't make him a poor manager who's been sussed out. If we weren't creating anything and getting carved open at the back then I'd be worried, but that just isn't the reality. The way you go on about it, anyone would think we were getting out-fought and out-thought every week. Ralph isn't perfect by any stretch, but I don't know how much more you can expect from him with this squad. If he was good enough to get this bunch consistently over-performing then he'd have been poached from us by now. I'll follow all this up by saying if we're still where we are after we've played everyone once then I'll be concerned. But I'm confident we won't be.

Not a campaign? How else would you describe your relentless berating of anyone who dares to have a viewpoint that differs from your rabid opposition to Ralph's tenure? Your hatred of the man has obviously made you so blinkered that you think people who, from what I can see, are objective enough to recognise the improvement in our performances and the mitigating circumstances for our current league position are some sort of deranged fanboys. Literally everyone posting on here who doesn't want him sacked has acknowledged his flaws and accepts there are things he could do better. You don't like him and want him gone - fine. We get the message. You don't need to bleat on about it day after day and use every draw or defeat as a stick to beat him with. Even when we beat Leeds you still got on his back and wouldn't give him any credit. It's getting incredibly boring now.

Yes.

So let me make sure I understand you correctly - not subscribing to your Ralph Out campaign means being an apologist and part of a cult, yeah?

I take your point, but he's only really deputising for Stu until he returns to full fitness. So we do have better alternatives. Given he's only a backup player and will be dropped as soon as Stu is ready to start again, I'd say his performances have been about as good as we could have expected from him.

0-4 at HT. OGS can't have long left, surely.

Please not Valery. He was hopeless against Sheff Utd last time out.

Ralph doesn't always get his selections perfect, but our performances so far this season have been as good as we can realistically expect with this squad. It's individual errors that are costing us, as shown yesterday. Sacking Ralph and bringing in Howe won't make Redmond a better finisher or Bednarek a better defender. He's got the squad he wanted after 3 years. Sacking him now and starting again from scratch would be madness. He needs to be given at least a full season with this squad before deciding on his future.

Fair points. Giving him his dues, his overall performances recently have been much improved. His assist last week, his early ball in for Theo's chance yesterday - these are the kind of things we have been crying out for from him for the last couple of seasons. Good on him. However, I won't apologise for berating that miss. You can't be missing chances as good as that in the PL and still expect to win games. It probably didn't impact the result overall because it was still 0-1 at that point and we wouldn't have then gone on to score the two goals we did if that had gone in. But imagine him missing that in the dying minutes of a close game with the scores even. Would we still be calling for people to go easy on him?

At least we didn't capitulate like Everton did. 2-1 up at home with 10 mins left and then losing 2-5 is unforgivable. Won't be long before the Everton fans turn on Rafa.