CanadaSaint

I’m afraid I rather lost it the third time he did that. Failing to clear the first defender is a cardinal sin. And, while we’re on the topic of making ourselves vulnerable to fast breaks, it is cretinously stupid to get Salisu to take a throw in at the far right corner flag when his defensive remit is 120 yards away.

We've grown accustomed to Ralph fielding a decent starting line-up but failing to adjust properly or quickly enough at, or just after, half time. Today was the complete reverse. If Ralph wanted to play three up front, he had to use one of them to counter a side that uses a central defender to sweep and/or launch attacks - pushing one in on VVD and forcing him to mark rather than sweep and launch. As it was, the front three didn't dovetail together very well and didn't make things uncomfortable for VVD. That effectively took us down to 9 versus 11, which will never work against a side of Liverpool's quality. If Ralph wanted to counter aggressive wing backs he should have played touchline-hugging midfielders to give them something to think about other than bombing forward with abandon. Risky? Sure, but so was playing three strikers. As it was, our width came from Livramento and Perraud, but it made us so vulnerable to the wide counter. Ralph's changes were good, and he finally gave Tella a chance to prove his worth, which he did. Hopefully, it didn't pass unnoticed. We have the capability to be a very decent team, but not if we don't get BOTH our starting line-up and adjustments right.

It was eerily similar to Watford away. We were totally dominant in the first half, and then almost overrun in the second. The only difference was that, somehow, Watford didn't score. Chez, I'm not sure that the issue is "identifying areas weaknesses and addressing them during the break" because we didn't really have many in the first halves of those games. We'd been well on top and should have been several goals ahead. The issue is more Ralph's inability to respond effectively to the opposition's game-changing adjustments. It's almost like he's pre-planned his substitutions and is going to make them come hell or high water.

I voiced real concerns about him playing there after the Watford game, but nobody was having it. This IS NOT about whether Perraud is a better player than KWP - he certainly isn't. It's about the fact that we lose a lot of structural integrity when KWP is playing there. His "wrong foot" tackling and crossing are weak, and he ends up turning back or getting caught upfield. This forces Salisu to hedge his bets between covering KWP and defending, and that back-left quadrant looks way weaker. Watford sussed it at half time and so did Norwich.

Not sure I'd want to be going into a relegation dogfight with Dele and Barkley in my team - or some of the others being mentioned. They're loan-available for a reason.

They're trying to copy the Saudis, who did both at the same time when they bought Newcastle. Our business models align perfectly - we both buy stuff and sell it on at a profit. Pretty much done and dusted.

I appear to be in a minority of one, which is a pretty good indicator that I was wrong. Tough to handle because I've never been wrong in my life before. 😂

I’m not sure whether he’s trying to be too accurate or not accurate enough. He’s getting himself into great positions but seems to lack a little composure at finishing time. He’s “snatching” at his shot rather than taking that extra millisecond. But there are signs that he could go on a scoring tear soon.

That’s fine - we each call it as we see it. But there is no way that we “dominated the game apart from the last 5 minutes”. We completely dominated the first half and should have been out of sight. After Ranieri’s HT changes we played much of the second half on the back foot.

I was okay with him starting, but the pattern change after HT saw almost all of Watford’s penetration coming down our left. Salisu started to look much less assured. My first change would have been Armstrong on for Mo - ten minutes earlier. My second would have been Perraud for KWP - especially because Salisu was on a yellow. This is maybe our biggest Achilles heel - Ralph failing to respond to major opposition pattern shifts.

As much as I like KWP, we were vulnerable with him at LWB today. So much of Watford’s threat came wide down our left, and KWP is much weaker tackling with his ‘wrong’ foot and less accurate with clearances. He’s a better player than Perraud but we can look more vulnerable defensively, and that exposes Salisu as well.

The way they’re attacking us, Salisu is really vulnerable to a second yellow.

We need a new stat - points lost from Ralph’s stubborn refusal to respond to the opposition’s adjustments. Doing my head in.

Armstrong for Elyounoussi is urgently needed.

What a jewel Salisu is turning out to be. A top player and, as this shows, a top guy as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1cAoTh700 He doesn't fit the mould of the self-centered, privileged footballers that are infesting the game these days, probably because he's so conscious of his family and his roots: https://www.timeout.com/accra/travel/where-to-go-in-ghana-kumasi That's why this sport needs to protect its roots at all costs.

Really! Thank you. He took a physical step forward last night but I hope he didn’t take a mental step back. There’s a decent squad player in there.

I’m drawing a blank on this, but who was taking those corners in the last four minutes? They were hard, quite flat and damn near deadly. And we had two CBs up there who looked willing to go through a brick wall to get on the end of them. There were many good signs last night, but that one could be huge, given our challenges in scoring from open play.

Lyanco brought some solid defence tonight, dovetailed well with Salisu, occasionally looked like a Brazilian playmaking CB going forward, and gave us a real threat at corners, not just a token tall man presence. But he brought something else that we've lacked - and grown too accustomed to lacking - a bit of PASSION. He's not a "ho hum" type of player, and if celebrating getting a free kick fires him up, it fired me up too. One swallow doesn't make a Spring, but at least he looks like a swallow.

It's a long time since I've felt so positive after a loss, but there was so much to admire tonight. Guys who haven't played much performed admirably, Lyanco was outstanding, Salisu grows with every game, we got a sniff of a RWB/RWB combo on the right, and Ralph got most things right. Theo probably played himself farther down the pecking order; great guy but his sell-by date is pretty much up. Hopefully, the squad will pick Smallbone up because he's shown a ton of character in working his ass off to get back. And, to set the seal on it for me, a lot of those who drown this form in a torrent of negativity are struggling to find anything to post about.

Yep. Missing it is one thing. Damaged confidence much worse.

I thought Longy was going to fall over looking for a penalty.

Regardless of the result, this feels like a turning point for or season. Lyanco discovered, multiple line-up permutations work, we absorb the arrival of Long and Theo without missing a beat. And all that against Chelsea. Lots to like tonight.

Our squad depth is light years ahead of last year.

Trying hard not to pre-judge these subs, but shit.

No, but the point is that their interplay down the right is causing Chelsea some problems, which is what many feel would happen with a Tino/KWP combo.