CanadaSaint

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.

The pitiful Mason I almost feel sorry for, because he’s like Bambi on ice with a whistle. Okay, “almost” is an exaggeration. But Dean is in a totally different category. For years he has exhibited a strutting, arrogant approach, meting out his version of justice at will. Almost always, any doubt goes against the player, and (arguably) against some teams in particular - proving what everyone has long known; he views himself as more important than the game itself, and immune to sanction. He even intimidates his gutless peers. I think they WILL take him down because he would be the only fall guy that most fans would accept. NOBODY will lament his disappearance.

I agree, but better to keep some positional depth than to throw a kid into the Old Trafford cauldron or ask Stephens to cover Saint-Maximin. And, with no real alternative, Bertrand isn’t exactly shining - defensively or offensively.

I think they are embarrassed, and I suspect that they are looking for a fall guy - or two. Even they - notorious for doing it - can no longer function with their heads in the sand.

I’m almost entirely positive about Ralph, but with one glaring exception. He just doesn’t seem to realize that, while our style (HIS style) is arguably our greatest strength, it also becomes our most damaging weakness when the chance is there to steal a point or turn a draw into a win. Throughout Ralph’s tenure we have been our own worst enemy - chewing up the clock with meaningless, no end product passing. Every team in the PL knows that they just need to sit back and let us fart-arse around. I certainly don’t see him as arrogant but he is frustratingly obstinate, and he needs to change that because it’s killing us.

Too much in love with our own style when we’re chasing a result. It is Ralph’s biggest failing. Our greatest strength is also our biggest weakness, and it’s killing us.

It doesn't really change the point, though, does it? We surrendered depth in several short-depth positions, in the midst of an injury crisis, to add it in one where we were reasonably okay. That is a surely a money-driven decision rather than a football-driven one.

After that abject disaster I'm trying to focus on the bigger picture, and there are some even more troubling signs: Why would we weaken an already very shallow squad, further ravaged by injuries, by sending players out on loan at the deadline? Are we THAT desperate to get wages off the books? Is Danny Ings effectively already gone because we're desperate for the money, and we're just trying to negotiate the break fee as high as we can get it? I'm normally an optimist, but I have a horrible feeling that things are falling apart financially inside the Club. I can't think of any credible alternative answers to those questions. There's another question I'm grappllng with personally. Why do I keep watching a sport I've loved since I was a kid, when it's now run, officiated and largely played by arrogant, self-centered, greedy bastards.

This sport is being destroyed by faceless, self important bastards and big money, and the more I watch it the more it nauseates me. It isn’t just about today but the sense that football exists to benefit everyone except those who pay for it - those of us who have loved it since we first started walking. Fuck them all.

Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but some time back we lost a player to an early Dean red card, got the shit hammered out of us, and then went on the best run we’ve ever had in the PL.

After that start, and with Prick Dean refereeing, I think I’ll be mentally safer watching the Aquarium Channel.

No doubt in my mind that Dean has a bias against us. Harsh red on Bertrand in the Leicester game and now that!

I agree, but he doesn’t quite have the “bite” that JWP has. Either way, covering the counter will be key today.

I think he will, too. He’s very good at covering the other team’s danger man. But what worries me is our vulnerability to a Grealish counter when JWP takes opposite side corners and fee kicks.

In fairness to Bertrand I think he is, as others have said, totally unsure what Djenepo is going to do next. He looked better after Armstrong came on. Djenepo is like a football version of Tourette’s.

I said after the Arsenal game that we’re too in love with our own style. I really like how we play, but that’s three straight winnable games – Arsenal, Fulham and West Ham – where we’ve opted to pass it around and keep recycling in the late stages rather than go for the three points. Even when Bertrand finally started to push up, after Djenepo thankfully left, we turned back and left him up there waiting. We need to sort out the left side because a Theo/KWP-type partnership over there would transform us. The answer is not Djenepo.

I don't disagree with what you're saying but I wasn't talking just about today. Our style serves us well for the majority of most games, but I think we have a tendency to stick with it in the late stages when we need to find some final-third penetration. Bednarek, in particular, is apt to keep the ball at the back regardless of the score and time remaining, Redmond has lost his zest for taking defenders on, and Bertrand no longer seems as willing to push up. The bright spot is KWP. This isn't about how we play generally, but how we play when we're chasing a result.

It seems to me that we've fallen in love with our own style. Don't get me wrong - I'm really enjoying it and full of admiration of Ralph for instilling it. But when there's a game to be won - or tied - in the last ten or fifteen minutes, we need to find a higher sense of urgency. We need to do less turning and recycling, and start looking for more of the higher risk passes and take-ons, especially in the final third. Still, the club has made massive progress and most of the time we're a joy to watch.

I might just repeat my Father’s unforgettable words as we left Wembley at around 5:30 on May 1, 1976 - “You can take me now, Lord, you can take me now”

I’m still slapping myself for writing off a guy as a total screw up, and then watching him become a rock defensively, an attack launcher, and a goalscorer. I don’t know WTF Ralph puts in Vestergaard’s coffee, but I’ll have some of that. How good are those long diagonals he hits!

The natural instinct at the start of the season was to view this as a game in which scraping a point could be key to avoiding relegation. And it still looks like that. 😎

Watching Arsenal trying to play out from the back, as per Arteta’s instructions, makes me think that Ralph’s press could cause them some serious problems. I’d be inclined to go for the jugular early.

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.

I think we REALLY need Redmond back - with an improved attitude and commitment level. When the utterly unpredictable Djenepo plays, Bertrand becomes tentative and lost without his interplay with Redmond. Giveaways in really bad places are the result. I thought Bertrand was very poor today. Adams, however, was outstanding.