S-Clarke

Same questions every week really, the answers are probably these: 1 - We don't play that way, we're not the sort of team who will sit back for a game and keep it tight. I'm sure fans would have a right old moan if we tried to do that. You could argue if that's the right approach or not, but either way we'd still lose the game as we don't have the quality to snatch that 1-0. 2 - Romeu and Adams are horrific at the moment, really poor form. But they're the best of a bad bunch. I don't think the problem was Romeu not playing, it was more Diallo in his place. 3 - People have been calling for Armstrong to have a chance for weeks, he's given a chance and now that's wrong. To be fair I agree, I think he's incredibly limited but that's the dice we roll when we only buy from the Champ. He wasn't the worst player, he's just average. 4 - Who replaces Bednarek? It's a very, very poor show that someone as bad as Bednarek is 'the best' of a bad bunch for the 2nd CB. Lynaco is rash and not reliable, Jack Stephens is Jack Stephens. So in summary I'd say the answers to the questions are that we have average players who have dipped in form and the manager is flapping around trying to stop the rut, with more average players.

Who has pissed off on holiday out of interest?

Great post. This is exactly what it is Changing a manager is always the easy option, but without good players nothing will really change. You might get a bit of a bounce with a new manager as the average players want to show a new light, but as they're still shit they'll all return to norm within time. It's fair to say Ralph has been given the opportunity to sign players, but as you said these are players with a development slant often at the expense of the better experienced players (Ings etc). Not a great recipe. That's why the approach of filling a team up with Tino's, Broja's and Salisu's is exciting, but it is a completely flawed approach when they are given the likes of Theo, Long, Redmond and Bednarek to carry them through 'dips'. The club need to stop putting faith in these washed up players we've carried for so long, once we have better experienced players expect the younger players to flourish.

Bang on the money in every thing you've said.

I think that's a fair expectation, certainly needed. 8 new players is quite a lot though. I can see 5 or 6 maybe.

I think it's all Eric Blacks fault tbh.

I think all clubs should have that approach, but it needs to be balanced with some experienced players as well who will improve the starting 11 from day 1. The club need to stop singing the Tino trumpet because whilst he has been a huge success at his young age, it's not a common occurrence that young players without any first team football do what he's done in his first season. You can't build a successful PL team solely on the hope of buying 'more tinos', we need to worry more about the here and now and that costs more money.

I honestly think a lot of it is down to the quality of the player we've got, maybe lacking a touch of experience as well at crucial times. We've got a couple of decent PL players in JWP and KWP who have progressed massively under the manager, but the rest are pretty average or young/inexperienced and when they fall into poor form we end up having to carry them, and the shoulder of that responsibility falls on the two real decent consistent players we have (KWP and JWP) Ralph doesn't help himself with daft decisions and late subs, but I think he's been searching around for answers from a bunch of players that just don't have the true quality required to sustain the style he wants. It must frustrate him as much as it frustrates us, as for times it looks like he has a tune out of them but then Armstrong/Romeu/Bednarek/Adams etc fall off a cliff and the rest is history. That's been a consistent theme over the last few years to be honest. If you bring someone in like Ralph, then you have to back him to bring the players in he needs. I look at his RB sides and the pace/power through that spine which was the fundamental building blocks of the press. When he wants more pace and a bigger press from our attack, we play Long and Redmond or maybe Elyounoussi. That says it all to me.

Maybe we're not, but I think we're closer than we have been given that a lot of that dross is no longer at the club (no more contracts etc). Maybe we just need to suck up one more big sale or two and start again? Salisu and JWP would command around £100m for both I'd say, use that to go and rebuild this squad with players in the ilk of Tadic/Mane/Pelle/VVD etc etc. Part of me thinks that's the only way we're going to see the radical changes we need to see in the playing squad, although I still hold out hope that that takeover is going to improve things.

I don't see a problem with him being third choice given that Harry Lewis is off, I just hope the club don't cheap out and keep him as the 'free' 2nd choice keeper with McCarthy returning as number 1.

I can only assume that Salisu has been sucked down to the Bednarek level after playing with him for so long, Salisu certainly isn't as bad as he's showing right now. It seems most of the time Bednarek and Salisu get in each others way, lack of communication maybe or Bednareks' shitness just expelling over those around him. VVD and Fonte, Fonte and Toby and Fonte Lovren were great partnerships. Strong defensive partnerships is where the success of the team starts. We've gone from that to Jack Stephens, Jan Bednarek, Vestergaard, Hoedt...just what the fuck. We didn't do that for free either! Is it any wonder we concede 60 a year when we've been playing with that absolute shit. Yoshida wasn't great, but I'd have him starting every week right now.

The sad thing is that we did re-invest that VVD money, almost £70m of it but on absolute crap. Just look at who we signed with his transfer fee... Carillo - £20m Elyounoussi - £17m Gunn - £11m Vestergaard £22.5m. So you can't say we went cheap on the replacements, we actually spent a decent amount on the replacements for a club of our size but the fact not one of those has been a success has been a disaster for us, there's not even any sell on profit on any of them. It goes back further than that as well, Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt...all signed for £15m and above fees and each one left on a free. So I don't think we were shipping in the bargain basement, we just overpaid for absolute dross because of some of the worst scouting ever seen at a PL club. That has now meant we've had to shop in the bargain basement in recent years and hope for rough diamonds we can polish, but that's a gamble of an approach and when you have to sell experience to even do that you get yourself into a crappy position. I think we're getting out of the other side of it now with the new ownership, but it just shows that consecutive awful transfer windows, where we spent a lot and got no results, can kill a club like us for a number of years no matter who is in charge. We haven't had the finance to mask the mistakes that larger clubs can do. Honestly, we're lucky we're still a PL club after those level of mistakes.

It would be pointless getting rid of him or doing anything at this moment. What would happen? We'd still lose to Liverpool whoever is in charge, then there's just one game left for any new person to shuffle around a very very poor outfit. Absolutley no reason to do anything now, not with 2 games to go. It would be a stupid way to run a club. There's now no excuses for this season though club-wide, last year you could have pointed at injuries but this year not at all. The club need to stop showing faith in players who have consistently failed over many years and be ruthless with the squad evolvement. That's the only way we get better, changing the manager is just shuffling around the same deckchairs and expecting a different result.

You'd hope so and think so, but he's had his hands tied behind his back most of the time. If you look at it he's still having to work with Armstrong, Bednarek, McCarthy/Forster, Romeu who have been the spine of the team ever since he's been here. Romeu and Armstrong, whilst decent, are not top quality and they will drop off as the season goes on. It's not a coincidence that our bad spells often happen when those players in the spine drop off the level or get injured. Best players/captains leaving every year before he can ever start to think about improving areas of the team, let alone replacing the players who have left. So whilst he's brought in players, that's been at the expense of established and experienced (our better players) leaving in order to generate the funds. It's a recipe to stand still and I'm not really sure what any other manager would achieve to be honest.

Deeper squad, yes. More options at full back for a start. Quality is right down though and we haven't upgraded the spine at all in many years.

Manchester United is another example of piss poor scouting and squad building, rather than the managers being fully at fault. They've tried Mourinho, Van Gaal, Ole and now Ragnick and nothing has ever changed. All that money pissed away on manager settlements and manager contracts etc. They need to back Ten Haag in the summer, provide proper scouting and absolutely rip that team apart and start again, right down that spine.

What can he do though? Bednarek's backup is either Lyanco or Jack flaming Stephens. Salisu is the best of a very, very band bunch. McCarthy is crap, Forster is no more than average. Diallo isn't good in a two, and without Romeu we have no other 'number 6' and can be played through like a knife through butter. The spine of this team (which has been the same for season upon season) is absolute garbage and I'd wager that's the actual problem, not the manager.

I would have to agree if that turns out to be the case. Let's wait and see.

Stronger and deeper squad, certainly at full back, but we still sold our best player from the previous year (Ings) and didn't really replace him quality wise. I'd still say we're significantly down on quality, certainly in the attacking third. I was always worried how we'd do if we didn't replace Ings with proven, luckily 'no worse' seems to be where it's going. No where else has really been upgraded, same old same old everywhere else - just more depth. Now we need a stronger 11.

I think it's too early to say 'we have no money'. We certainly didn't have a pot to piss in under Gao, but I think things will be a little different now and this summer is the first real view of that. The owners have at least been visible and are actively looking involved, the club have already said we were presented money in January but decided not to make any moves at that stage. The comments from everyone around us now being able to 'buy' before we have to sell doesn't scream of a club without any money. Ok, we're not backed by a sugar daddy but I'd expect us to be a bit more competitive and at least be able to compete with the likes of Brighton for players. (We were interested in Cucurella for e.g, but Brighton went higher than we could)

You know what's going to happen, don't you? We'll end up winning this somehow, then go on to lose the Leicester game the next weekend. It's just how we do things and why we are such an infuriating team.

That is a fair reflection of our situation, you are right in that in the main we have regressed the quality of the squad season-upon-season and replaced proven players (Ings, PEH, Vestergaard) with younger/cheaper variants whilst promoting the previous seasons backup to the first choice. The fact we are still in the PL whilst operating on that strategy is pretty good to be honest, it's never easy seeing us lose most weeks but sometimes you need to have a look at the players we're asking to perform. Last summer was probably the first window you can say we had a proper re-evaluation of our full back positions, and now those are our strongest positions. (I rate Perruad, got something about him albiet a bit average). So if we can have a summer this year where we totally re-evaluate GK and the attacking third then we'll be getting back onto the right course. If we can do that without selling is the question though.

Basically we're rubbish at football.

Sadly that's probably down to our finances again, we couldn't even bring in proper coaches and had to promote cheapo options from the under age teams. When you look at it from a financial point of view he really hasn't had the support. He's not been able to build his own backroom team, he's only been able to add to the team in bits and pieces over several windows whilst selling the better players from the previous seasons etc. It really is the recipe for 'standing still' and that's ultimately what we have done ever since he's been here. My feeling is that if we ditch him now we put a lot of our summer plans in the bin, potentially miss out on targets and have to start all over again with a new manager and potentially go into a new season with the same absolute garbage attacking players, just without Broja this time.

I don't think he's 'that' bad, but he needs protection around him. Throwing him into a two at this level is just crazy, but it does once again boil down to the sheer lack of quality in our side to choose from to be honest.