StrangelyBrown

Trying to be fair about this our recruitment just hasn't been anywhere near good enough: we just don't have any good attacking players - Edozie looks a year or two away from being good enough, Aribo just isn't good enough, Mara isn't anywhere near premier League level, Che isn't clinical enough, A Armstrong is nothing like a premier League player, Elynoussi is only good against the ball, djenepo is hard working but nothing else, ... Its simple to see what is wrong - we just don't have the quality to consistently compete. And to think I thought we'd had a decent window...

We have a fundamental problem in the attacking third - we only have one player who can retain possession (che) everyone else gives the ball away really cheaply meaning we're constantly defending. Stuey, aribo, JWP, elynoussi all very guilty of this. Aribo really is a waste of a shirt IMO

He might have a mistake or two in him but his quick feet and speed of thought are a considerable upgrade on McCarthy and Forster. In time I think he'll sort the mistakes out and then we'll stuggle to keep him.

I thought Billings looked decent. Some of their players were utter gash though - Christie most notably.

Always seems to me that he doesn't think quickly enough and therefore gets shut down by defenders far too easily.

Will done saints ground out a result - hopefully we can take some confidence from that. Substitutes were absolutely bewildering, but we got away with it. Hope stuey starts over aribo against the arse. Bournemouth really are proper shite though. Very difficult to judge us against them.

Team selection looks ok to me. Can see the logic of not putting aribo and stuey in the same lineup - both are good on the ball and not so great winning it back. Although I would have picked stuey myself. Otherwise not sure what I'd do differently

Djamel Belmadi - looked like he was head and shoulders above everyone in the few games I saw him play. Thought he had enough to be a decent premier League player then just disappeared when hairy redcunt got the boot.

I hope we rediscover the drive and energy that has been missing for the last few weeks, but can't help thinking this will be more of the same. If it is then this has to be the end for Ralph. Result wise I can't see us winning this one, but the approach is far more important for me - if we show some spine, some fight and a willingness to attack then there might be a glimmer of hope. If not then we need to make a change.

That's not a million miles away from our best side (with Lavia injured). Only question for me is where is stuey.. Somehow djenepo, elyuseless and Armstrong will start. Fuck knows how though.

Having thought overnight I'm now of the opinion that we are really missing a leader on the field (I know this has been said many times before on here - perhaps I'm just catching up :)). Ralph and the players comments are about a lack of intensity and it was there for everyone to see. What I didn't see was anyone leading on the pitch - we desperately lack a Jimmy case type of player who can drive the youngsters to up their game. Instead we have JWP who leads by example, but when his example is shit, we also seem to be shit. I'm not excusing Ralph for this... He should make sure he has a proper leader on the pitch

Putting djenepo, elynoussi and Armstrong in the starting line up is asking for trouble. JWP was incredibly poor with the ball tonight. Not convinced we had any sort of plan tonight against a villa side who were absolutely shit. Very poor.

Did you not watch the branfoot era or the Hughes era or the puel era or the Pellegrino era... They were worse than this in my mind, but I take your point

How exactly are we weaker in attack than last season? Ok we don't have broja so comparing with the start of last season you maybe have a case of you ignore aribo, but if you look at the second half of the season we've lost long (so fucking what) and a can't be arsed broja and replaced with aribo who looks like he's got something about him and mara who has something a bit special. I do wonder if some people will ever be happy....

Fantastic to see Ralph celebrating with the coaches and the players. A united management team if ever I saw one. We're finally showing some back bone, strong positive football and exceptional character. Long may this last. Good performances all round and special shout outs to ABK and Salisu who were magnificent tonight. A couple of surprise signings and we may be in for a really good season

Jan is playing football at elite level. It is not good enough to make last ditch blocks and tackles some of the time and the rest of the time be slow to react, out of position, ball watch, etc. At this level he shouldn't just be a reactive player and his speed of thought in possession should be significantly better. That's why he gets stick and deservedly so.

So we went up a few gears and showed what we can do!! I'll give Ralph the benefit of the doubt and say well done for managing Che and Stuey's fitness well. Great performances from almost everyone. ABK and Lavia look like they are going to be very good indeed. Djenepo barely put a foot wrong. Most importantly Leicester Cunty didn't get anything from their relentless diving and niggly fouls. What a thoroughly hateable side they are.

And there is the danger of our approach today, expecting us to keep the ball out of the net with Madison, vardy and Barnes falling over every 2 minutes was always going to result in a dangerous set play. Now we have to have a plan b where we go up a few gears...

Ive wondered the same - it seems like he hasn't been quite fit enough for a whole game/starting position since then. Maybe the club are sensibily managing something we're not aware of

At times we've been really hard to beat and have defended very well - the problem seems to me that we are really streaky and things either click or fail spectacularly. What I can't work out is whether Ralph comes up with something clever, it works for a bit until someone works us out and then he stubbornly sticks to the "winning" formula or just simply that our players are collectively prone to massive swings in confidence/form.

Bear with me on this, but having read through some of Ralph's strangely worded comments (particularly the one about 4-2-2-2 being our DNA) I'm wondering whether the 3-5-2 is his idea or sport republics? It would make sense for the group to want a way of playing across all teams...

Good character to fight back from 2 down. The question is has Ralph learned from this? If he starts with 4 at the back, drops Bednarek, starts Aribo and Mara next time then I think he buys himself a bit more time. If he starts with 5 at the back and Bednarek is in the starting line up he can just fuck off.

So will be interesting to see whether Ralph addresses the obvious problems at half time or does something completely random...

How the fuck does bednarek keep his place? Ball watching for 3 of the goals against spurs, shit for the last 6 months - shouldnt be anywhere near the team at the moment.

Good post - I wonder if the players who have turned on Ralph are the same ones that have been here for ages and have performed poorly for manager after manager (e.g. Redmond, Stephens, Bednarek, ...)?