OttawaSaint

If the keeper isn’t making howlers or letting in soft goals every game the defence gain confidence and don’t panic all the time knowing one mistake could cost them. This confidence flows through the team letting the DMs and other more forward players relax a bit and play their own game. A few good stops per game is worth lots of points that we are just not getting with our current keepers.

That’s what I saw too. We came back out half asleep, conceded a very preventable goal and most of the players and Ralph said, “oh well, not our day, not much we can do about it..”. Only one result after that. In ice hockey, when one team has all the momentum like that and look certain to score again the coach will call a timeout to try and break the momentum. In football we could have say on 55- 60 minutes, brought on Stu and wasted a bit of time subbing Theo and getting him on to break their momentum and let our players reset and readjust.

That’s what irks me the most. I think the team is easily good enough to be in that 10th-14th pocket but Ralph sabotages nearly every game with either bizarre selections (McCarthy, Theo etc) or stands like a deer in the headlights when we are getting overrun. When will he get it into his thick skull that even the most well drilled team still needs a tweak here or there during the game.

Ah I see. Ralph was going to pick the better of the 2 shit goalies but loser fans prevented him. Then he wanted to haul Theo off at HT but those pesky losers wouldn’t let him. McCarthy was going to collect that ball left by Salisu but heard the loser talk of the fans and didn’t. Then at 1-1 with us losing the midfield Ralph again was victim to you guessed it, those fucking loser fans. Fuck the fans eh, Ralph and the team can’t seem to shake them off. Poor lambs...

We look like Sheff Utd. The whole demeanour of a beaten dog. Either Ralph needs to change his ways (stubbornness and weird subs) or leave and we get in someone who looks at our deficiencies and works on them. You never hear him say, “we concede too many, we’ve got to get the defensive tactics and organization right and then go from there”.

Schoolboy stuff that. Never duck under the ball in the area if you are not 100% sure the keeper is coming. Even if he’d have headed it straight up in the air he’d have at least had a chance to regroup. I wonder whether the rotation of keepers is confusing them. Like “oh shit, forgot, this one doesn’t come for crosses...shit”.

Also, JWP isn’t match fit. He’s not good enough to walk straight back in. Sends a shitty message to the others too. We have the backups to bring him back in gradually. He was blowing out of his arse 10 minutes in.

Loads of “interesting possibilities” too Tella, Armstrong (either in place of Romeu/JWP, or Walcott/Djenepo), or go nuts and put in KWP and move Timo further up the field. Heck he could have even made it one up top with 3 lines of 3 behind it to hit them on the break and win back the middle of the park. Nah, he just sat on his hands and waited until we were losing.

And before that we had a throw in after a dejected looking Richarlisson passed to a sub who was warming up. It’s like our player thought, oh no, how unfortunate, I’ll give them the ball back and maybe they’ll be nice to us later. Saints throw ins are one of three Saintsy flavours 1) The throw it straight to an oppo player 2) The wait ages for the other team to get in position (aka the Bertrand) 3) The throw to neatest player who then hoiks it up the pitch to the other team.

Classic paralysis by analysis. The game is a simple one and it’s often keeping momentum or disrupting another team’s momentum that wins games. He needs to be smarter and have courage in his convictions. Theo was ineffective so there’s no harm swapping him out, he can just quickly chat with Theo and just tell him he’s saving him for other games. Unleash a hungry Armstrong who’s probably a bit pissed off about not making the starting XI. It’s well worth the risk. No one is asking him to make a crazy three sub change but to realize we were getting overrun and perhaps adjust the shape to contain the other team and give a mis-firing player a break and get someone on with a point to prove.

I don’t like all this “we haven’t won there since 98” or “we never win the first game” talk. Everton were there for the taking and we did what we’ve been doing all year, burning ourselves out by HT and then conceding the most ball-achingly soft goals to piss away momentum and then just bending over for the oppo. This culture has to change or we’re down!

If this is automatism we need a fucking reboot or software update...

Also it’s always excuses with this guy. The sending off made it too difficult for us... And yet... The other team going down to 9 men made it too difficult for us...

Too stubborn and inflexible. Time to go Ralph! He was found out in January and has not changed anything since. Piece of piss to play us. Teams know that they can conserve energy in the first half and then either: a) apply some second half pressure and we’ll fold like a cheap suit or b) just wait for us to totally implode and gift them a goal or three

Absolutely. Fucking shocking from Salisu. What on earth was he thinking there. Killed us in an instant.

Probably because he’s not respected by the other players. They were probably looking all starry-eyed at DCL and Richarlacunt.

Yep, Jimmy Case, Glenn Cockerill, Andy Townsend, Barry Horne. You think any of that lot would be doing the JWP shrug after a goal against?

Another aspect is how the players just shrug their shoulders and go “oh well” when we concede. We are so meek and fragile.

Team is really missing a pro that leads by example, that is vocal, keeps the team ticking over and intensity high. A simple shout from Salisu or McCarthy and we stay 1-0 up, crowd on Everton’s backs. Even before that it was clear we were dozing off. Why wasn’t anyone voicing to the others to keep the concentration?

Cooling off a bit. I thought Adams was immense. Feel bad for him, he didn’t deserve that result.

Nope. It’s like we just go, “ohh well, not sure what happened, see you next week, Team is Alex...”.

Sorry to say but Ralph has to go. With a club like us, the players we have, his stubborn inflexible approach doesn’t work. Players know that if they get in Ralph’s good books they’ll get picked. There’s no competition for places and it shows. Then there’s the not addressing frequent problems, the keepers, the lapses, the throw ins, the corners. He’s been worked out by other managers. Imagine being in the dressing room of the oppo. You’ve just been outrun and are down 1-0, all the manager needs to say is, they’ll tire, now’s the time to up the effort, they’ll crumble and won’t react until it’s too late, keep the faith and just up the intensity a bit.

We do so many good things and then it all gets undone with piss poor mistakes. I can handle losing when the other team are better and score class goals but it’s always the same problems. Concentration errors, throw ins straight to oppo, letting ball bounce in area, letting forwards go free in box etc. We’re our own worst enemies and then we’ve got Dr automatism making the same changes at 80 minutes on the clock regardless of what’s going on on the pitch. A class manager recognizes that Walcott was a passenger and hauls him off at HT. That sends a message to the other 10 that they better stay awake otherwise they too lose their place. Nah, they probably just put the audio on and have a bit of a Karaoke. Cunts!

What a shower of absolute cunts. Get our hopes up abs then yet again mail in a dire second half. Everton were there for the taking and we’re now losing 3–1. Fuck off!

Fuck off Ralph, we needed to force the issue bring on fresh legs before now. Same old rabbit in the headlights...