CanadaSaint

My hunch, with nothing to go on but facial expressions and body language, is that Redmond is a sulker and a pouter when things are't going his way. That would not endear him to Ralph, and it also makes him a worse player. Hopefully, now he's taken a defender on and scored, as he used to do, the reverse syndrome will apply. I did say "hopefully".

This is quite interesting. It seems to me that goals come when you run at defenders. Who'd have thunk it?

http://www.hesgoal.com/news/75820/Bournemouth_vs_Southampton.html Working for me

What frustrates the shit out of me is that we only really have one "take responsibility" player (maybe two) and a ton of "shift responsibility" players. Armstrong is usually looking to make something happen with a bit of directness and aggression, and KWP can do that if he knows he'll be used when he pushes forward. More often, with KWP, he pushes up, isn't used, and has to scramble back because the ball has been played back into our own half. Pretty much everyone else is looking to shuffle the ball to someone behind or beside them - and players who are capable of taking on a defender don't even consider it. The main responsibility-shifters are Bednarek, JWP, Bertrand and - of course - Redmond. Sadly, Djenepo and Tella are in the process of joining them.

I hear you, but our recent run makes me think that bravery on the ball is not being drilled INTO them but OUT OF them. When we continually see "turn and recycle" rather than "take them on, get in behind, play it early", that has to come from somewhere. If Ralph thought turn and recycle was the problem, he'd have sorted it.

I've been very pro-Ralph all along, but: when a team defending a lead has more attacking intent and urgency than the team behind, when one of your central defenders is being used as a main creative midfielder, when you are perpetually stuck in a recycling vortex, when you’ve forgotten what an early ball looks like, when your manager is too obstinate about his style to change, even when you’re losing again and in freefall, and when it’s too late to change him and no clear replacements … … all you can do is hope to god that there are three worse teams.

Stephens looked like an exhausted cat chasing a laser pointer. Not a team to play against when you're a man down in midfield. Hopefully that sets to rest any desperate notion that he might be better as a DM.

I know match threads aren’t known for balanced comment but some of the shit on here is ridiculous. We’re playing the team that’s running away with the PL, and we’ve given them a game. Undone - as most who play City are - by giveaways. Sure, there’s stuff to criticize but at least be reasonable FFS.

I’m struggling to recall one pass, tackle, interception or tight-mark from him. Just floating around doing SFA.

It would help if Stephens could be more than a pylon out there

I posted pretty much the same comment after we we surrendered a two goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to United in November: "It's an extremely demanding style - especially if (like us) a club doesn't have the depth. It's a vulnerability in the micro context of an individual game, but it's also a vulnerability in the macro context of an entire season. The danger is that we'll have a really good first half of the season followed by a really bad second half. I'm not looking for high-priced signings in the window - just good players giving us more depth in key positions." This isn't about tooting my own horn but about the utter ineptitude at the club. We didn't INCREASE our depth in the window - we REDUCED it, and now we're paying the price. We can only hope that t won't be the ultimate one.

It’s happening for one simple reason - our squad depth isn’t compatible with our style, and it was very predictable from Day One. In the micro context of an individual game, we can sustain our style for 30 minutes or so, but then we’re left with decent forward possession but no real penetration because there are no early balls and - often - nobody in the box to aim for. We fart around trying to keep possession – hanging onto our style even though it’s not getting us anywhere, and we become really vulnerable to counters. So, we’re crap at holding onto leads and crap at chasing a result. The lack of squad depth means that we can’t replace like-for-like – just throw on an inferior replacement or a square peg for a round hole. In the macro context of an entire season, we can sustain it for 10 games or so, but then the high-energy style starts to take a heavy toll in accumulated tiredness and injuries. When we lose key players, our lacking depth means that our ability to play Ralph’s style goes with them. KWP was a vital cog in our system, and there is literally no back-up. For me, this isn’t on Ralph – even though he has dropped his fair share of line-up and tactical clangers. It’s down to the lack of support he’s getting from the club. My hunch is that the “powers that be” are looking to hang on, with minimal investment (and even some disinvestment – loan-outs), until new ownership arrives. That's a hell of a gamble, because this isn’t going to get much better, and – unthinkably, given how we started the season – we have some relegation six-pointers coming up.

Minimino FFS

He certainly has his limitations but we are so vulnerable to pace out there, and Bednarek is reading it like a covering CB, not a FB.

Whoever thought it was okay to go with one natural RB in the squad - even if it was Ralph - is an idiot.

Hell of a cameo appearance from Tella

The problem is that it’s so long ago we can’t remember it, but he used to skin defenders and he could score. But in reality it’s only 12-18 months ago. He hasn’t benefited from Ralph’s arrival like most others.

The problem with Redmond is that his head goes down when it’s not working for him, and then it’s a downward spiral - the bad gets worse. It’s all between his ears because he does have the talent.

Salisu’s body language suggests that he’d love to take it forward, but Ralph has told him to keep it simple and defensive.

Sorry, I meant Bertrand

KWP and Salisu vs Traore. Should be interesting.

Salisu looks confident, considering it’s his first run out. Nice crisp, well weighted passes and good awareness. The part that concerns me a little is his tendency to drift well to the right, leaving only Bertrand to cover acres of space.

I'm with you. McCarthy has made some errors but they are more to do with awareness, and trying to play out from the back when he didn't grow up with that being a key prerequisite for a keeper. His technique is generally quite sound, and he has made a fair number of brilliant reaction saves. Forster's technique is - and always has been - dreadful. His footwork is diabolical because he spends most of his time on the flats of his feet, drastically limiting his speed and reach, and making him vulnerable to low shots. He is slow off his line and doesn't take advantage of his height when aerial danger threatens. The only two areas in which I might put Forster ahead of McCarthy are distribution and communication.

I’d like to set aside DaGrosa’s character because few, if any of us, know enough about him to assess that fairly. I’d like to talk about the model. There are three ways to succeed in the PL – buy most of your talent, develop most of it, or take a hybrid approach by being really good at developing talent, and then using this as the income stream to fund player acquisitions we couldn’t normally afford. Option 1 (buying talent) is largely off the table for a club of our size, and it’s futile to keep hoping for an owner who’s going to throw sheik-like money at a club like us. We did very well with Option 3 (develop and sell) for a number of years, but then things went pear-shaped. The academy started to dry up, and we wasted a lot of the income from talent sales on garbage players – compounding this by giving them insanely long contracts. So, the key to our future rests in a) being better at developing talent, and b) being better at replacing the players we sell. Our academy, alone, is not the key. Most other clubs have replicated what we did under Nicola Cortese, so we’re all out there fighting for the same kids. I really like the DaGrosa model for two reasons. It has the capability to greatly broaden our player development base by expanding our academy geographically, and it increases the likelihood that we can replace departing talent with good, young players from within the network of satellite academies – not risky, high-priced acquisitions. Effectively, we become – within the network – what Liverpool and Spurs have been to us. I’m not so quick to blow off DaGrosa because I think the model is not just the key to a better future, but probably THE ONLY route to a better future in a PL in which all the odds are stacked against clubs like us.

I think our style works very well and I wouldn't want to see it change. However, I think it would work even better if we complemented it with some occasional early delivery into the box or angled passes inside defenders - before the defence and midfield has had a chance to get set. Both Ings and Adams can do stuff in tight spaces, so getting the ball into them quickly - without the sometimes laborious build-up, would yield fruit. It's all the more important when we're chasing the game. What drives me nuts is watching the CDs farting around - especially Stephens, who has a habit of dwelling on the ball, looking around as though he knows what he's doing and is choosing his best option, and then giving it away when everyone has pushed forward. One trick ponies don't do very well in the PL over the longer term because they get sussed and countered. The only other concern with our high-energy out style is that it's not sustainable with a squad that lacks depth. We can easily lose effect in the latter part of games, and there's a cumulative effect too - a drained squad in the second half of the season. Ralph needs to do some compromising on his style, and the club needs to realize that they must support him if they want to keep him.