Saint Fan CaM

Our corners are dogshit considering we’ve supposedly got one of the best set piece deliverers in the country!

What is the point of Aribo? I want him to succeed, but just don’t see anything that tells me he wants to.

JWP caught ball watching in our area. Aribo looks behind the pace and disinterested. Tactically no different from Ralph. It’s going to be a long afternoon.

I think the emphasis is we should give up on Championship players until such time the overall unit can sustain the risk of a struggling player. We urgently need a proven EPL standard striker, even if it’s a youngster such as Broja. Both Adams and Armstrong were top scorers in the Championship before we gave them the opportunity in the EPL (in consecutive seasons IIRC), but only Che has just started to show some of the promise expected. AA is a significant work in progress - a luxury when we’re struggling to score IMO, but still a safer bet than Mara at the moment.

Can’t be any worse than AMN surely?!😜

I wouldn’t touch another Championship striker like Adams and Armstrong who’ve both struggled to gain traction in the EPL, especially when the risk of relegation is so stark this season. We need to think bigger and better, established at a high level if possible, otherwise what’s the point of another squad filler???

Yep. What’s the betting that’s going to mean another high % of sideways and backwards passing with JWP leading the stats?! We may start the game trying to impress, but Arsenal are a much better drilled unit now and they’ll dictate exactly how the game flows. We’ll retreat to the safety of tippy-tappy, nobody takes responsibility mundaneness within 20 minutes of the first half. Arsenal will have 60+% possession. And we’ll lose 4-0. Or will Ralph confound us all and magic a draw, so gifting himself another reprieve? We can but hope, but realistically this will be a repeat of the City game.

One thing the Bournemouth game proved was that we can score (e.g. when Che gets himself into the perfect position). But it also showed that we’re still not resilient after going ahead and all over the place defensively…it just so happened that Bournemouth were worse than us in attack. And that means we’ve not really improved in terms of team performance. And Ralph is still tactically missing something. For the reasons above, plus some key missing players I see nothing but another big defeat on the cards. 4-0 Arsenal.

Make no mistake, that was a Championship level game played under the banner of the EPL. An awful advert. Bournemouth actually seemed capable of passing the ball, but lacked decisive quality in the final third but were coming into the game. Great to get the win, but nothing has changed for me…we were very poor indeed and change of management is still required. Che deserved his MOTM - he actually did well in relation to the rest of the team. Diallo looked good when came on late.

Based purely on results and trajectory for both teams, there’s no other way to predict this but a win for Bournemouth. If the lads click and put in a real shift we may come away with a 1-1 draw, but I suspect we’ll not score more than 1 goal and let in 2 before the end.

Yeah I get that and agree to a point. Thing is, we’ve no guarantees any new manger, temporary or otherwise, will be bring about the improvements we all want. The important thing for me is that we have enough evidence now to suggest that keeping Ralph will mean more dismal performances and likely end in relegation. I just don’t think Selles would be a bad caretaker manager choice to shake things up a bit.

Of course not, but four subs at one time tends to suggest he’s lost faith in nearly half his team. Do you think that helped matters?

This. Basically an admission that he’s messed up the starting line-up!

True, but then JWP doesn’t have the vision to play forwards typically - unless we’re chasing the game and he gets a rocket up his backside it seems. Not sure, but perhaps he’s instructed to play ‘safe’ because his previous forward pass completion stats were so bad? 🤣

So you’re confident that Ralph does not have the final say and Selles plays a significant part in the management of the first team? Really?!? And by that logic, changing Ralph alone will not make a difference…mmm, not sure about that.

My fear is that the club (and maybe SR) decided some time ago to adopt the style of play we’ve seen from RH’s tenure and that any change will expect a new Manager (or caretaker) to adopt the same sideways/backwards boring shite. Having said that there are some incredibly straightforward basics that I’m amazed RH is not getting right. For example, WH had the ball on their right wing attacking Perraud but he positioned himself to invite the player down the wing to then put in a cross. Given that we play narrow and they have more strength in the air, this seems an obvious issue that should have been drilled into him in training. Also, defenders standing off centrally placed attacking players just outside the box allowing time for a shot, as in their goal. Whichever way you cut it, RH is a busted flush and so are the tactics/training. We need a fresh injection of style before this young team completely collapses.

Completely predictable in every single way. Just like our relegation if RH is not shown the door…there is no salvaging this team and his tactics after three years of dismal performances.

Still recycling the ball too much, but looking a little more about us. JWP set pieces still poor.

Even if we were, he would chose the alternative. That’s how we roll.😏🤣

Marked lack of activity on this thread given the importance of the game…is there an apathy creeping in? Wouldn’t surprise me to be fair…just look at the dire football being dished up by Ralph and Co. Apparently Ralph was angered by the sideways and backwards passing in the last shambolic performance(s). Well what is he - the Manager - doing about it I wonder? There doesn’t appear to be any answers and my bet is that there’ll be none on display at Wet Spam either. We have been consistent in displaying all the attributes of a relegation bound team.

Stinks a bit this one - we’ll never know, but with just one years contract and now he’s off there’s been some skullduggery going on. Perhaps stretching it, but I wonder if he had an adverse hand in Broja not coming back here? But now the damage has been done with a less than completely successful summer window thanks to this charlatan, the critical future for the club lies not in the recruitment department right now but in the results on the pitch. We’re truly at a crisis point and I suspect there are some very squeaky bums around the Saints Boardroom and beyond right now as the master plan for the first team appears to have been written on dissolvable bog roll.

Unless Ralph goes, this will result in a predictable loss and that’s mainly due to lack of tactics leading to no goals.

I just don’t get it. What advantage will it bring other than risking injury in ‘friendly’ games? If these guys are not motivated to play EPL football for Saints given their high salaries, then perhaps they need to re-think their career choice! The whole idea is a distraction from the real problem - the quality of coaching and management of the first team.

Again, not the result we wanted but stock horror it’s the one we largely expected. I’ll not bother repeating player ratings because until our Manager/coaching team change the style of football we play, those stats are largely meaningless IMO. I do think the summer missed out on two critical positions (in the hindsight Romeu was going)…DMF and Striker. Ralph needs to go with immediate effect and his replacement needs to be pretty damned good to be able to shake the squad out the stupor Ralph has installed in them. It’s not looking at all positive or promising.

I honestly think that we’re looking as bad as I’ve ever seen us and there’s little or no chance of survival. If we claw a point from Bompey it’ll be papering the cracks. There is some potential in the squad, but Ralph is definitely not the man to find it. The Board have to act quickly now and get him out…