CanadaSaint

I agree with you. It's frustrating that we loaned him out to get some match experience, but he didn't really get it. With hindsight he was always unlikely to get much time in a league where physical stature counts for a lot. He's a really thoughtful, intelligent player who reads most situations very well, and his shortcomings seem more related to lack of experience and maturity.

There's a whole new dimension to the window compared with the last two years. The emphasis is less on how good we think players are right now, and more on what we think Ralph can make of them. He's transformed half our squad already. Real quality players have become unaffordable for a club of our size - and very risky, judging by our buys over the last two years. Buying potential and letting Ralph develop them is likely to be much cheaper and much more effective. I'm ready for some guys I've never heard of.

Losing him for three games, including Tuesday against Cardiff, may be even worse than the result for Brighton. He should have gone in the first minute of the Palace game but there was no avoiding it today.

Well that's interesting considering that we haven't replaced Reed. Any idea who's compiling the list of targets and priorities, or has there been a Ralph-centric change in approach?

He's a totally different player under Ralph and a huge part of the team, and I'd probably pick him as well. But not by a country mile. Hojberg has been excellent, and has become a real leader on the pitch - something we lacked. Beyond him, JWP has contributed a key role and not just key goals, and it's no coincidence that our backline improved significantly when Yoshida came back into the reckoning after being inexplicably omitted for so long. And it's great to see the old Romeu back.

It seemed to me that Ralph's early-game plan was to absorb pressure, try not to give up clear chances, and hit them on the break with fast movement and slick passing. I love seeing those angled passes through defences. Phase two, if they could get a lead, was to consolidate in midfield and force everything wide. On a side note, how snakebitten is Yoshida? He could be sitting on 10-15 goals for the club but has been denied by woodwork and crazy saves.

It's indicative of the job that Ralph is doing that you could make a credible case for five or six players as MoM. I was sitting here thinking we need Romeu->Sims and Long->Ings, and two minutes later he does it. Huge change from the WTF subs we've seen so often in the last three years.

https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/2019-premier-league-table-man-city-dominant-saints-the-surprise-package-but-where-do-liverpool-rank

One of Ralph's first priorities will be to assess during pre-season whether some of that is currently out on loan - no transfer budget needed. He has already turned around several careers (JWP, Redmond, Sims and even Romeu after his poor last year). Even if he just improves them to sell them it's progress.

And two of those losses were brain f*rt losses to Cardiff.

It will be interesting to see what Mark Clattenburg has to say. He called Atwell out last week but Friend's blown calls were far worse - especially the violent conduct that happened right in front of him. And then there's Lee Mason - yet again. It needs someone like Clattenburg to really ignite the discussion about the abysmal standard of English referees. It's no coincidence that we had no ref at the World Cup for the first time ever.

We see enough of reviews over here to realize that they even disrupt games that have a lot of natural breaks - baseball, hockey, (American) football. I hate the idea of introducing them to (proper) football, where one of the attractions is the constant flow of the game. It's even more annoying that a good 80% of the need results not from really close plays but from weak officiating - not keeping up with play (Jon Moss), the well-known big team bias (Atwell), and complete and utter incompetence (Friend, Mason). But today's performance from Friend was on a whole new level. He's been sh*t for years but today he 'graduated' into dysentry.

Diving. I thought he'd ditched that habit.

Until this season he wasn't opening defences up much - constantly opting to circle back, but he's doing it regularly now. The next level for him is finding a moment of composure after he's created the opportunity. If he can do that he'll be a 10-15 goal man.

Oops! He's my other candidate for "Biggest **** With a Whistle". It was a Friendian Slip.

Sims is a great fit for Ralph's style and I'm really glad he's had a chance to show it. Excellent half time adjustments transformed the team. Valery's doing a better job defensively and finding the knack of popping up in the right place up front, and JWP's goal was stunning - again. Without the two denied penalties last week we could have picked up 6 points from Man U and Spurs. How that tw*t Lee Mason is given a whistle every week I'll never know. Two early bookings to make key tacklers nervous, no free klck for Vertongen's high boot, and no red card for Sissoko's head butt - both right in front of him.

I'd like to know WTF is going on in the player health/fitness department. We're fragile mentally (better under Ralph) but we seem unable to keep key players fit, and the injuries last for ages. And now Obafemi has done his hammy again. One who isn't fragile and can be counted on to be a mental presence and a physical presence is Yoshida, who - inexplicably - wasn't picked. Again.

IMO there has long been a big problem with the goalkeeping coaching at the club. Weaknesses seem to remain unaddressed. Forster's were glaring, Gaza had a decent skill set but needed guidance he clearly wasn't getting, and McCarthy's game is now on a downward trajectory), so god knows what they work on. For me it's time to pick Gunn and stick with him, but weak coaching will end up producing the same result with him. For those who sit close enough to hear, what's the communication at the back like? I seldom see McCarthy doing much shouting, and a lot of our errors seem to come from lacking awareness.

I agree with you, but if it's a choice between Obafemi and Long I'd go with the kid every time. I actually thought we played reasonably well today until we hit the final third - again. There's nobody to get on the end of an early ball, and nobody looking to play one. That back row will continue to leak stupid giveaways until Yoshida's back in it. He won't make us solid but he's a much better reader than any of the others. FWIW I think Armstrong was a big miss today - he has an ability to be more direct in the final third, and to take a decent crack every now and then.

Whoever would have thought that we'd be left pinning our hopes on 18 year-old Obafemi?

Strike options of Long or Austin or Gallagher will leave you over-elaborating around the box trying to create the un-missable - lots of passes, lots of possession, f*ck all to show for it. Add that to mistakes at the back and a tentative keeper and it's a recipe for disaster. Whether the manager is Hughes or Hasenhüttl.

Did anyone see how Ings got injured? I think it might have been contact with Heaton on his one-one chance but he seemed okay after. I didn't see anything else. Given Hasenhuttl's style and the importance of the front runners, I'd be amazed if he isn't as angry about Long's last ten minutes as us. His hold up play involves nothing more than trying to con the ref into a free kick. When I saw Austin warming up I honestly thought he might take Long off.

Long is there for hold up play because he doesn't contribute much else, but it was pitiful in that last ten minutes. I was expecting Taylor to even it up after half time, but coming that late it was hard to take. Crouchie was all over Stephens who otherwise payed quite well IMO.

Agreed on both counts. We saw last night what can happen if we don't have solid flank options. We will hopefully soon see Bertrand back, addressing that issue on the left side. But letting Cedric go, for all his faults, and just on loan, was a major clanger if they didn't have a replacement planned in advance. It's all the worse for the fact that Cedric could play both sides. Either we still have a Reed-esque "all rumour and no reality" scenario, or we really don't have the funds right now. Either way it's troubling.

I thought Palace did a good job of taking away the shunt space, where our back three tap it off to Romeu or PEH and leave them to move it forward. Palace sat back and forced Stephens, Bednarek and Vestergaard to pass between themselves while they shut off the pass options. If they didn't pass it early the opportunity disappeared. That often left them with the only option of hitting it long or trying to carry it forward. But let's not forget that when they tried to take it forward in the first half they committed some scary giveaways. We could easily have been three down at half time. The key, for me, is that neither Valery nor Targett is good enough (at least yet) to provide a solid flank option. That side with Bertrand and even Cedric in it would have looked much better tonight. We need another right wing back in a big way, and we need Bertrand back. I think Valery is going to be decent one day but he needs to develop his confidence without the heavy pressure he's facing in that team at the moment.