Lallana's Left Peg

Yeah absolutely - I meant in the context of this game. No clear starters in defence, but plenty in midfield and attack first half. I agree with what you're saying but even then was the quality good enough whether they are starters or not? Plenty of the midfield and attack start games for Saints and I'd expect a need to get touch and fitness but not a feeling I was watching strangers play.

It's not the defence that bothers me, is the midfield and attack being toothless and ineffective.

I know its minutes in the legs time but we're terrible in possession and weak out of it. It's painful to watch our link-up play - it's like a team of trialists.

Leandro Damiao

He'll be very good for Wolves as they play 5 at the back and a defensive midfield. They play on the counter and are very good at it at it but looking good in their defence is not hard. Put him in ours, with fewer defenders, a much higher line and a pressing mentality and he'd seem like a very different player. He's a good player, but don't discount the circumstance in which he is going to be asked to play. Defenders at Southampton have a much harder job. Our defenders have also looked good when we play defensively.

Ralph said it would happen in May and it certainly is happening - we're becoming so much more athletic and powerful as a team.

Very few of our experienced players did anything to show they are the ones to stop the awful runs we seem to go on. No doubt its a risk to have such a large concentration of young players in the squad but having options to rest players and dare I say drop some should hopefully give us a positive net gain over the course of a season. I'm pleasantly surprised with not only how active we've been in the market but also how cut-throat that means we're going to be with some existing players in terms of pushing them out the door.

There is zero chance that with the money and ambition Newcastle have that they will have anything of a pathway to the first team for kids. They will buy buy buy during this first decade of being rich and kids will only go there for the money and then have to pick up the pieces when they hit 20. That is not a criticism of anyone who chooses to do so, as football is a short career with no guarantees and money talks but there isn't a single club in history that wins the lottery and then implements a short to medium term strategy of having a pathway to the first team for kids. It's just not what happens.

In Ralphs system being outnumbered in the 6 position is a consequence of a failure elsewhere - either from looking after the ball in forward positions or the press failing (in terms of the trigger from the forward players and those behind them consequently doing their jobs). The risk of both those things failing is for us to be horrendously outnumbered. Last season our 10's were horrendous in possession which caused us big issues, and we also ended up in a situation where our worst pressing forward was also the only player who looked like scoring for us. That's a tough position for Ralph to be in. Where I do think we need help in the 6 position is to be press resistant ourselves. Neither Romeu or JWP are ball carriers, but you need to be able to do a bit of that now in midfield otherwise teams can shut you down easily with pressing. I'm not excusing either Ralph's inability to see issues and address them quickly, but putting more people in midfield to stop us being over-run is conceding ground and aggressiveness and that's not what Ralph wants to do. If we got the right 10's in, and got the right striker in to help press (Che and Armstrong are good at it but unfortunately too inconsistent when presented with chances) then it would automatically help those in the 6 position massively.

Maybe we are in for him, but its not all over the media because we don't have leaky employees and leaky owners who like to get things out there as a part of doing business?

There may be amongst other reasons accounting / FFP reasons to delay officially confirming things. Saints have form for the latter.

I reckon Ligue 2 is comparable to the Scottish Premiership in terms of quality and we get linked to plenty of players from that league as well as don't seem to mind loaning players to it either 🤷‍♂️

We're about to find out this summer, as ending up with largely the same team and squad come September I'd make us firm favourites for a bottom four finish. This club has no means and the quality of our squad has been eroded on each year for the last 4 years. Clock is ticking.

The players are rubbish and Ralph has showed he can't address our weaknesses. Either they need to be changed or he needs to go. One or the other. I'd prefer to see plenty of them leave before we even consider doing the same with Ralph.

No doubt Ralph has his faults but this idea any good manager gets the most out of his team consistently over a season needs to go. There are only two managers in this league doing that. The issue for me is more where these expectations that we're any better than 15th - 17th come from. Look at any sensible logical information and it'll show for the money we spend we meet expectations over the course of the season - piecing together some good form for 2 months of it does not mean we're better than we really are. That's not to absolve Ralph of any responsibility for this up and down form, but realistically what are people expecting from a squad so starved of investment? We got spoilt for a few seasons and seem to think that is easy to replicate. Be grateful we even survive in a league where everyone else other than Burnley have more means and ambition than us. It could have been us going down this season, not them.

Some of the best coaches in the world have tunnel vision and seek complete buy-in to the way they want to play and refuse to adapt. They also have the luxury of spending money on good players though - and Ralph does not (and not that I am comparing him to the best coaches in the world either). What is lacking in the squad is an overall quality of player who is consistent. We only have two or three consistent players and that absolutely wrecks any planning you can do - how do you know who on earth is going to turn up for 90mins each game?

Nothing is really surprising about this season given the patterns of previous seasons have emerged again. What it has done is rubberstamp the thoughts I wondered heading into this season: 1. We're a momentum team that has a fragile confidence. When we have momentum its great, when we lose it it takes a long time to regain it. A lack of leadership and mentality doesn't help. 2. Our performances and stretches of form are because we recruit players with potential and have to watch their ups and downs in developing played out on the pitch - and those who are senior pros aren't good enough to move on elsewhere so the youngsters can't be dragged through matches when they are going through bad periods. Salisu is having a tough time right now, but there isn't a natural partner for him who can help him through it, for example. 3. Ralph is struggling to address his weaknesses and he is a finished article as well (I still think we're punching above our weight with him as our Manager though). The only thing that will break this cycle is new players or a new manager. I'd rather see what Ralph can do with a better quality of player, as too many of this squad have proved they have ability but not the consistency to be a top half player in the Premier League. Ralph has made mistakes, but player ceilings are not his fault. He continually sells his best players and has to do with bargain bucket replacements. No other club has been like this than us over this period of time in the Premier League - maybe that is why my expectations are low and nothing surprises me.

Palace spent £75m+ net in the summer. Whilst I think the players look lost at the moment we've no right to be beating them as we spend fuck all. We string a few wins together and people change their expectations. Our expectations should be low because we spend no money and expect to compete.

Be interesting to see what happens this summer. I know the owners are trying to get a competitive advantage via analytics but you have to spend money in this league to stand still. We lost to a Palace team today who spent £75m+ net in the summer.

Exactly this. No doubt Ralph gets things wrong but he's also working with some poor players for this level.

I agree. After our transfer activity last summer I'd have been elated to be told that by mid-April we'd have 39pts and be comfortably safe. If we had achieved that points total by beating the teams around us and losing to all the bigger clubs we'd probably all feel a bit 'meh'. The up and downs of our performances are interesting though. It's happened too often now. The outcome is fine over the course of a season, but I think it is a pattern and it is a concern. How can these players play like Championship players one week and Europa League contending players the next? Is it their mentality / consistency as footballers that is the issue? Is their confidence so fragile and is that down to their ability as professionals or the management and coaching? Why can't Ralph solve it? Consistency is the most important thing in football to have a career at the top level. As the owners of this club, you can't accept inconsistency as it wrecks plans and confidence. I think it was fine when we were scrabbling around for money and our goal was just to exist in the league. If you have a little more means and ambition, you won't accept these sort of performances. Ralph has earned the right to be backed. But he needs to figure some things out quickly - either as a Manager or in terms of his squad (maybe both) or he won't be around much longer.

It's like Dave Gorman and Jason Dodd are in charge. Even a reaction in the second half only makes the first half worse. On one hand I'm hardly surprised that a back three of Valery, Bednarek and Lyanco are shit, on the other our form is so up and down its the biggest question mark I have against Hasenhuttl. Our confidence appears so fragile - either its a consequence of our players costing very little (and a reason why they do), or there is something more systemic due to the coaching or the club itself. This would be the biggest thing I'd be getting to the bottom of if I were the new owners. We've no right to play near the top of our ability all the time as don't spend much money, but its genuine Jekyll and Hyde stuff.

Hojbjerg half way down the M3 as we speak.

The trouble with thinking we can do better than Ralph is the lack of realistic alternatives. I'll take Ralph keeping us in this division with fuck all investment every single season, even if it means up and downs rather than getting points here and there steadily. If the new ownership means we get a little more investment I'll change my expectations but honestly what do people expect this club to be able to achieve considering the amount of money we spend and who we spend it on?:

Because he is young and still learning the game, and doing it in the Premier League against clubs who have a budget for their Academy greater than we do for our first team. We absorb the up and down performances as he learns his craft and sell him for four times the amount we paid him. This is quite literally the model the club operates under. As for today, everyone has had an off day and the same club who suffer from a gross lack of investment in the squad has run into one which does not and is on it. Yes we've given them gifts but this is why our players play for us - they are up and down and do not have the consistency. The moment they do, they are off to a club who will pay them more. It's been like this for years, I don't know why people get so upset when we get thumped by the big teams.