Saint Fan CaM

Agree with most of this, but do wonder whether JWP is a key part of the problem. His highly negative play is either of his own making or because he’s been instructed to be ‘safe’. I tend to think it’s the latter because I’ve noticed that when we’re chasing a game he changes and shows a willingness to attack more, albeit not entirely successfully. One of the important missing elements of our game is effective link up play from midfield…JWP could be the answer if only he was given the green light to be more positive. IMO of course.

I’d say that we’re looking very Norwich-like at the moment and ultimately Pukki didn’t manage to save them did he? I don’t think he’s the answer - we’d end up having three Championship level senior strikers who can’t find their feet and still be relegated.

Arsenal are not Newcastle and let’s face it, it’s a rarity nowadays to see a move as fluid and quick as the one that created our goal.

Indeed.

Yes, so I go back to my original point of being interested in what that difference is. To me it looks like the coaching and management rather than the players.

Not sure if you’re aware, but last seasons GF and GA don’t carry forward into this season! Oh yes, and they improved they’re squad since last season. Can’t be new manager bounce because they were doing ok anyways.

They’ve got better players, particularly in midfield and have a better manager who knows how to get the best out of a team, unlike Ralph who persists with a system that doesn’t work. They’ll trounce us 0-3…perhaps worse. Would love to go into a home game against a club like Newcastle thinking we’ve got a fighting chance, but those days are long gone. We’ll see JWP get his pass completed stats up by going sideways and backwards 95% of the time. We’ll see a lack of attacking guile to pass through defensive lines, with most going out to the wing before being recycled back to a defender or Bazunu. We’ll see a small number of shots on goal and some fluffed chances. Hovering just above the R zone, think this one will mark the beginning of the end of our EPL tenure unless SR find the balls to sack Ralph and the money to buy a very decent striker early doors in January.

Because they’re in a position in the table that we should aspire to? Maybe they’ve not got better players, but they score more goals and win more games, so what should we attribute that to?

I would suspect that should he be recalled, he’ll revert to being ineffective because (a) he’s found his level now and (b) he’ll be operating under Ralphball conditions.

Brightons strikers interest me - are there any names that we would have said “yep, that guy will do a great job for us”? But they’ve not spent mega bucks to assemble a potent strike force have they? Especially in comparison to what we paid for Adams, Armstrong and Mara.

Has he gone yet?

That’s because Ings actually moved into dangerous positions and created chances for himself.

True. The difference between us and Palace? They’ve a better midfield (inc. Zaha) and are coached to move the ball faster in transition.

Let’s be clear, the improvement in defence has come about because we’ve signed better players that have gelled better than our previous misfits. This is not because Ralph has devised some tactical master class. Remember the confusion, panic, poor decisions etc we saw with Bednarek and Co? Well we’re now seeing a similar shit-show in midfield and up front. Losing Romeu has effectively made JWP a worse player and we’re relying on a youngster to fill the gap, but it’s exposed how weak JWP is in reality. Going back 4-5+ years I remember thinking he was a luxury player - a lad who could take a mean free kick on goal, but offered little more at CM unless he had a great player next to him. If JWP is the best player in our midfield, then it’s clear there’s a big problem that’s not been addressed. Up front we have two good Championship level strikers in Che and Armstrong who have just not adapted to the EPL and the tragedy is this has been evident for at least 2 seasons but not rectified. We signed youngsters that have not been good enough, Tella being an example (but doing well in a lower league). in essence we’re doing what Lowe did several years ago…thought it was sustainable to progressively dilute squad quality over successive seasons with unproven youngsters, managed by struggling managers. We all know what happened there. Could these players do any better with a different manager? Possibly, it’s difficult to determine, but after such a long extended period of underperformance something needs to change and quick.

This completely. Ralph had the opportunity to try something slightly innovative today given we needed an extra man in midfield. Go 4-1-2-3 with Djenepo at RB, Lyanco as a DMF enforcer working across and protecting the back four and JWP/Diallo pushing forward to assist the forward line when needed. That effectively plays five at the back but provides an out path and quick break option. But what do I know?!

Utterly dross football and until such time it can be proven somehow that it’s the players rather than the training and tactics that’s at fault I’m afraid it’s Ralph out and an overhaul of coaching. The problem now is that it will take quite sometime to repair the damage and it’s increasingly looking like we’ll get relegated before any change has a chance to take effect.

Sure, but look how isolated the lad is on the right…not many chances to run at the defence and create chances which is what we needed him to do.

Here we go, knocking it about at the back like we’ve got 30 minutes left.

Yes he is - he’s not a RWB though.

But that’s not how he’s playing and as a young inexperienced player it’s not going to be natural for him. Ralph risking another youngster to try to save his own scalp.

WTF? Edozie on at RB?!?! Not a freaking clue!

Another terrible miss from Adams - unforgivable.

JWP giving the ball away just after passing it backwards again. Just completely broke up the passage of play.

We all knew this would be the deal today. No cohesive or convincing game plan from our tactical genius Ralph.

Goal was coming - so much of our game relies on tippy-tappy crap football from our defence. They’ll be fawning over it on MOTD.