S-Clarke

I thought we were terrible against Palace tbh, lethargic and slow. Palace could have had more than the 1 goal they had. I'd say we've had about 125 mins of terrible football, only good 45 was the first half today - that's it. The consistent theme has been the high line. We employed it against Palace and Zaha had a field day, we deployed it again today and Son had a field day. Self-defeating style shit with players who will never be adept to playing that way.

Don't expect too much, will be pleasantly surprised if we get more than a loan CM on the final day.

It's a sign of how much the squad has regressed and hasn't evolved since 2017. Romeu was signed as a squad player, he's now a starter every week. Stephens was a reserve/squad centre back, he now starts every week. McCarthy was signed as a backup goalkeeper, he now starts every week. We've let the squad go to the shits because we're lumbered with the likes of Lemina, Hoedt, Carillo etc. But part of me is wondering if they are becoming part of an 'excuse', and we really are totally and utterly skint whatever their situations may be. When you cannot afford a loan for KWP without receiving a loan fee for Cedric first, it hinders you. We are always playing catch-up because we are never able to plan before a departure, we have to sell, make sure we have the cash, then get the player in. Surely it's not asking for much to have a club that can evolve positions in it's squad without having to sell anything that moves first? I cannot think of another club in the PL that acts in this way, it really does make me wonder what really is going on sometimes.

Bedernek looks somewhat distracted, or is that just me? Doesn't look focused and drilled as he was last year, it's like he's taken his eye off the ball. No news on his contract either and he's entering the final 2 years, methinks his head has been turned a little.

That's the thing, we can all see what he's trying to do. It's a very extreme pressing game, but he's trying to make do with sub-standard players for this tactic because he has never been backed. He's performed miracles with this bunch, in my opinion. Own goals today with the tactics for sure, but it must be frustrating for him when he has a clear idea of what he wants but no tools to actually implement it.

He was incredibly exposed, but like you say he's not the right sort of GK for the extreme way Ralph likes to play. He's never been a sweeper keeper and never will be. Ralph would replace him if he could, I'm sure.

The prob we had is that the PEH money was used to sign Salisu and KWP, two positions which were urgent as well. We then have to/had to wait until we made further sales to open up the possibility of replacing PEH. I've seen some fans saying on another forum that we got '18m' for Hoj, so let's spend that on another CM. We can't, it was spent. We just have to see what's out there and string together a few bits of lose change from the Reed deal.

All that shows is that Smallbone isn't really ready. Romeu certainly cannot play a full on high press. It's a position we need to fix otherwise we will have some serious problems.

I would agree that a high line is borne out of our style. I have no problems with our style and the intention of how we play, but the problems I have is evolving the style, but not evolving the players. He has scored an own goal for sure, but you also have to feel sorry for him because he's not being given the flexibility to mould this squad the way he really wants to. In a couple of years time we will regret not allowing him more flexibility to build a squad in his style. There is no way in any universe that Bedernek and Stephens are 'Gegenpress' style defenders, maybe one at a push, but playing both of them is suicide. Romeu is also not flexible or mobile enough in the CM to play the 'full on' Gegenpress tactic. So, whilst Raph has had a blind moment thinking those players can play that way, it's also very frustrating for him as he will never be able to fully implement his style unless he is given flexibility in the market.

So, what do we need then..? New starting top level CM, without question. Another CB, let Jan go as it seems as if his head has been turned. He's attitude has looked shit this season. New GK if we want to play a highline with a sweeper keeper. New attacking winger to replace Boufal and give us more options than Tella. What will we do? Probably a CM on loan on the final day.

Playing as high as we have this season has been an own goal and I'm not sure why. Palace could have had a couple against us, they caught us. Brentford caught us. Tottenham, with their superior quality, have rinsed us. Really be interesting to hear Ralph's views, but it feels as if something has gone on behind the scenes. Maybe Stephens and Bednerak have the pace of Traore in training or something? I have no explanation for why he thinks they can play that high, I honestly don't.

They need to rip up whatever the plan is and start again after this shitshow. Need new additions in ASAP. Hopefully this signals the end of Romeu, Stephens et all. Not good enough, this has shown up every limitation of Stephens game.

All Ralph has done is hang Stephens and Bedernak out to dry, anyone with a braincell can see that McCarthy, Stephens and Bednerak cannot play such a highline. They are too slow. Maybe this change is an adjustment for Salisu, but make the fucking adjustment when he's in the side, not before. Why does Ralph score own goals like this tactically?

The coaches and ralph have adjusted our line during pre-season, we play a higher line now. Why they decided that is beyond me and why they continue to play with it and put players like Stephens and Bednerak to the sharks, is beyond me. Really, really staggering.

This defensive highline is insane, what on earth are we doing? Need to replace Stephens, we have since 2017 really. Bednerak is decent, but still not amazing. McCarthy is bog-standard. If we continue to play this high line, then we will finish bottom of the league on single figures. If we want to play a high line, we need a new GK, a new CB and Salisu in from next week. That won't happen though, so to preserve our position we need to scrap this insanity.

The inconsistency is driving me insane, and the media are driving it. Why have some EFL clubs allowed fans back in today? (Boro) when that entire area has been locked down? So, has it, or hasn't it? Why do we have to wear masks in shops, yet most of the workers inside the stores don't? In fact, why do I have to wear a mask inside Supermarkets, but I don't have to in pubs, which have much higher concentrations of people? Sorry, not a place for that sort of chat - but you get my point. It's either lock it all down 100% or let us all bloody well get on with it.

I would imagine he's one of the 'group' which we identified for renewal, if he doesn't sign a new deal this window is probably the height of his value. We may decide to cash in, and then replace? He certainly looked off it last weekend, even to be subbed at HT was a bit strange. He looks distracted, I'm not sure if that's just me reading too much into things though.

It looks as if the market is starting to move now, so we may see things change a little for us and rumours begin to surface.

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has hinted Demarai Gray could leave the Foxes. The winger is in the last year of his contract at the King Power Stadium and has struggled to cement his place under Rodgers. He said: “It’ll be up to him. He’s in his last year and he hasn’t signed another deal but, for me, I will always respect Demarai and what his wishes are. “He is working very hard to play a part while he’s here. We’ll see how it evolves over the course of the season."

Not sure if you watched their Docu on Amazon prime, but that was fairly clear from day one. Jose pulled Ali into his office to moan about his lack of application/attitude. Maybe we can bring Ali in on loan...! 😉

This is the problem, I thought Gao was supposed to help with further 'investment'. He's killing us, really. But let's not go into that debate again.

I do agree with the averageness of some of our players, It felt to me as if we may use this window as an opportunity to 'upgrade' and evolve some positions, it certainly started that way with Salisu (I'd say he's going to be an improvement on our current two) and KWP is certainly a level above Valery. I wanted to see us go out there and buy a midfielder to replace Romeu, someone who could start every single week alongside JWP. Surely we can find someone? If we sell Boufal, let's go out there and get a starting wide player...not a squad player, someone who can start. Otherwise we will just fall backwards and it's boring and painful watching that.

Yeah he certainly won't play in our game, 110%. Doubt he'll be with the squad either, but they'll want to announce it before the game I imagine. Good PR for them.

RLC springs to mind. Hudson-Odoi needs game time, could be an opportunity to be a regular here. McTominay at Man Utd? (now they've signed Van De Bekk) Davies at Everton? (Given that they've redesigned their midfield). Delph..?

I think how you explain it is how it played out. Ralph has said today that he wanted to give the players 3 weeks off in the summer, they needed a break. But that meant they had 3 weeks with zero training. Then most of our players had just 1 week training with the club before our first game (that's because of international duty etc). It doesn't take long, maybe 5 days, for an elite athlete to lose his top level conditioning if he steps off of it.