saintant

No disgrace losing to a team that has now won 5 out of their last 6 games and have a far stronger squad than us. Add in the fact that Ralph is trying to get our players up to the required fitness levels which is always likely to hit home during the busy Xmas fixture schedule and it is not surprising our levels dropped last night. Next two games will obviously be tough so we need to see what, if anything, we get than go again. Our first aim is to finish above 3 sides and, looking at some of the dross at the bottom of the table, we should manage that comfortably.

"Ryan Bertrand not a fan of Mark Hughes." Is anyone?

People seem not to have noticed we were without Bertrand, Cedric and Lemina. Or maybe that doesn't affect us?

Still...at least we've stopped Space from scoring tonight because we always make sure he is tightly marked.

Keep hearing that there are 3 worse teams than us. Can anyone name them?

I reckon we would win a lot more matches if defenders were allowed to mark opponents in dangerous positions. I hadn't realised this wasn't allowed and, come to think of it, maybe the rule only applies to our defenders. Strange really that you are called a defender which implies you should at least make a token attempt to defend yet our lot are quite happy marking that very dangerous opponent Space who has never scored a goal. Wonder why Mark Hughes, who has been in football a long time, can't do something about this problem which is costing us lots of points. Maybe he doesn't think we pay him enough and it should be someone else's job. I do wonder what goes on at the training ground.

In my opinion, although not in the bottom 3, we are the worst team in this league. We have had relatively easy fixtures and not made the most of them. That is going to cost us dearly.

We should no way be above Bournemouth. They are better run, better coached, fitter, more hard working, Have better players - oh and they have lots more points than us. In fact if they didn't play again I'm not sure we'd get enough points to overhaul them. We are one of the worst three teams in this league and anyone who claims different is deluding themselves. We have had a relatively easy run of fixtures since the start from the season and look where we are. It is only going to get worse.

How do you think we will amass 20 points?

Agree with the comment that Hughes did not keep us up - we stayed up due to Swansea having a shocking end to the season. I said it at the time.

The club is a shambles and nothing has been done since the new owner came in. Kat promised she would never sell to anyone who could not take the club forward. I'm afraid she lied and has completely disrespected the dream and aspirations of her father after all the work and money he put into this club. Disgraceful and she should hang her head in shame.

Kat has disrespected her Father's dream I'm afraid.

Hughes out!!!!

Which is why he fits into this team so well.

Time to ring the changes again. The dinosaur didn't work. Who thought he would?

They all lack fitness for 90 minutes!

We cant score goals. Armstrong gets 2 so Hughes takes him off. Go figure!

If we lose today then surely Hughes must be shown the door. He has shown that he is incapable of taking this team forward. Not sure why he was given a 3 year deal. Absolute madness.

Yeah, defender...ermm, what's my job? Should I just stand in a space or should I mark an opponent.

And that is mainly down to the manager.

But the even bigger clown Hughes continues to select him.

It's only a guess but I imagine you have to go a long way back to the last time we came from behind to win a league game? Whereas if you look at the times we have taken the lead and either lost or drawn.....

Wasn't long ago some were describing him as a future England captain :-)

A look at the number of times we have thrown away possible wins from leading is an indication that Hughes is tactically inept, makes poor choice of subs or the players lack fitness or more likely a combination of the three. Fitness seems to be a major issue based on the fact that we often seem to wilt in the second half and capitulate towards the end of both halfs in games. Unfortunately, if the pre-season work wasn't done to the level it should have and the ongoing work is less intense than required it will be very difficult to rectify this key area and we will continue to fade in matches.

So we've won one game in God knows how long and Ralph claims that his daily discussions with Gao are all sweetness and light. Either Gao is a clueless businessman and easily satisfied or Ralph is being disingenuous. Who would shell out on our football club and be happy with how we are being run and the appalling record of the team? Makes zero sense.