beatlesaint

He's the best central defender we have had since VVD left. I think he will go for big money in a couple of years time.

Looks a proper striker to me, we haven’t got any others given we don’t play to Armstrong’s strengths. Christ knows why it’s taken Ralph so long to start him but I’ve stopped trying to work out his decisions long ago.

I know criticism of JWP is frowned on but I thought the midfield was more fluid today and moved the ball quicker without him slowing things down.

No

for me, yes 😂

The lad is basically another Gareth Bale whereby its obvious he has far more about him than just playing full back. I bet he doesnt play right back for England U21s. But as you say Ralph is stubborn so we can forget anything other than right back for Tino for the forseeable future.

Ok, so lets say Armstrong comes back into the team as soon as fit enough and Ralph continues to ignore the possibilty of playing Tino further forward and insists Tella must be played as a striker. That means you can only pick one of the following four - who do you go for ? Which one is the best, ranked in order 1-4 The choices of course are Elyounoussi Walcott Redmond Djenepo

Problem is, if you look at the last couple of years especially, we tend to collapse, as you put it, late on in games with 11 men so going down to 10 doesnt make a great deal of difference.

With the exception of Ralph we would all pretty much like to see that.

Got your wish

There’s no knives, it’s a forum, people are entitled to their opinion, right or wrong, it is what it is. If you can hand on heart say you’ve been satisfied with the form in 2021 then good for you. The negative comments, as you would call it, are only because people are pissed off with the same old same old week after week.

I wonder if he's sick, he wouldnt still be on holiday. If he is ill and they arent saying to give him and his family some privacy thats fair enough. Obviously I hope he is fighting fit but it all seems very odd if he is.

I feel exactly the same way. Absolutely loved Ralph when he arrived, was so pleased when he signed a four year deal to commit to the club but yeah since the turn of the year the decisions have got more confusing, the football has often been too laboured and when we do play well its only for an hour tops in a game and the opposition make hay when we go off the boil. I understand the restrictions hes under with no money being pumped into the club from the owner BUT the issue I have is that he has the players to make this a half decent team but he either ignores them for his favourites or he plays them out of position or sticks to his rigid formation even when its blatantly not working in a match. He must be one of the very few, if not only Prem League managers to survive with a the record of W4, D6, L17 under his belt.......and thats ignoring the 2 x 0-9's

I cant even begin to guess what he puts out tomorrow.....aside from Redmond, thats the easy bit.

Some of the shite that’s poured out of Ralph’s mouth this week is unbelievable, he’s quick to highlight what Tella’s weakness is (over keen from what I can make of it) and where Tino needs to improve yet ignores the very same faults and worse in other more favoured players shall we say.

We had two stand out players last year, Armstrong and KWP. Ok one is injured but what of the other one ? Hes dropped him for an 18 year old, albeit a very very good one, and when he does play him he sticks him over on the left. Its not fair on the player. Now anyone worth their salt would surely look at Tino and immediately think, umm, rampaging forward, comfortable on the ball, decent cross.....lets try him right side of midfield with KWP behind him and offering the overlap......umm, that could be a real threat. But no, lets go with Redmond, Moi or Djenepo instead and let the kid run himself into the ground both attacking and defending while the guy in front of him - Redmond, Djenepo or Moi carry on being totally ineffective. Its fkin crazy he heasnt tried it yet !!!

Yeah but that was only after they had reached the Premier League wasnt it ? Either way it was only when Howe had money to spend it went tits up for him, he/they bought a load of rubbish and never addressed their main issue which was they couldnt defend to save their lives. He wouldnt have any problem with spending a lot of money here ! Having said that I dont want him at Southampton thankyou very much.

didnt look like that against West Ham a fortnight ago

Yes he has and no I don’t think it will. Ralph has a total blind spot when it comes to him.

When has he ever got hold of a game and driven us forward ? He’s a free kick specialist who at present can’t even take a fkin corner. Last year he was very good, so far this year he’s reverted to the days when every manager (Poch, Koeman, Puel, the Argie bloke) picked him then ended up having to drop him cos he was ineffective. Basically this season we haven’t just lost Ings, we’ve lost JWP as well. The biggest problem yesterday was the front four were totally ineffective. Adams and Armstrong aren’t gonna score enough to keep us up despite some people wheeling out their “they only need to score 6 or 7 each” bloody stat. Redmond and Moi are unable to feed the strikers, Moi has more about him than the other bloody fool but he’s not very quick at doing it. Half time should have seen Broja, Tella and Perrard on with Redmond, Moi and Adams off and use the pace of Tella down one side and Tino on the other to just run at them and get the ball in the box. But no, we fuck around with JWP or Romeu coming back towards the centre backs to pick up the ball.

I agree that the recluctance to try Tino and KWP on the right together is crazy and its doing my bloody head in. Try it Ralph, ffs, it cant be any worse than watching Redmond tit around. It was the biggest thing I couldnt understand about RH's decisions until yesterday, then it was gazumped..............................Shane Long 🤦‍♂️

I’d rather have Armstrong than Adams

The Long sub today was one of the most bizarre subs he has ever made. The guy was an unused sub against Sheffield United in the week so he didn’t even get a brief run out ready for today. Yet the player who wasn’t wanted last season and was packed off to Bournemouth is suddenly trusted to come on and get a goal while a player Ralph raved over at the end of last season and who played well mid week is left sat on the bench. Fkin unbelievable

Is that all he is, 26 ? You're right he looks much much older and very much like his old man. Shame he's with such a gobby bugger but she's good so he should have a decent run.

As soon as I saw that twat with his chirpy cockney persona was involved in the draw I knew it would end badly 😆