Spurs 2-1 Saints - Game thread

[hackedoff]

Things must improve soon,I mean how many more ways can they find to lose games ?

[LiberalCommunist]

Well that was a rather frustrating defeat. Looked like spuds were there for the taking for quite some time, but alas it wasn't to be. Any melts having bedwetting drama over that should go watch some re-runs from February. We had half a plan tonight, progress. 

[the colonel]

2 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Nothing will change for next season, giving where we have been told we are going to doo our recruiting.

 

Yes there will be one major change, we won't have a purple patch, and must already be amongst favourites for relegation next season.

 

 

[SaintZamboni]

There were times tonight we looked like we were playing a 4231. Ings and Adams were dropping in and it seemed to help us. Armstrong and JWP looked like a good midfield combo.
When we lost Ings I assumed Armstrong would fill that 10 void until he was moved. Didn’t work for us after that. 

Diallo seems to have lost some of his initial sparkle. He’s getting bullied a bit and losing the ball too often. 
 

Salisu had a decent enough game. Enough that I’d pull Bertrands contract offer and let him go.

[John Boy Saint]

The whole shit-show is summed up in the letting in of the penalty - I’m a fat lad sat watching in north Hampshire and knew which way McCarthy was going to dive for that penalty 3 weeks ago. Every penalty taker in this league knows that both our keepers default setting is to dive right. Just like the discipline of just about every defence in the league is drilled hard not to foul any of our players just outside the box. We are being read like a book -and looking at all the squads at Southampton (Ladies excluded) seems this fabled play book isn’t proving to be a best seller.

Since Koeman left it really has been a steaming pile - the way we fade is pretty shabby Poch had the team playing for 90+ plus minutes - Jack Cork said that you needed 2 hearts to survive his training sessions. Turn back the clock to Strachan before he got into them the atmosphere in the ground changed at 80 minutes as we held onto a lead (often failing) - once WGS had his way the last 10 mins were often the best as he had them conditioned for 120 minutes. You can’t say “oh the game has moved on since then” Just about every other team is pushing us in the latter stages of the game and we are blowing out of ours arses, the disallowed goal, once again KWP is exposed because Armstrong is spent to make the covering run.

I have been a glass half full Saints fan for many years - but my glass is beginning to look a bit empty.

Hey-ho a weekend off.

[austsaint]

26 minutes ago, SaintZamboni said:

There were times tonight we looked like we were playing a 4231. Ings and Adams were dropping in and it seemed to help us. Armstrong and JWP looked like a good midfield combo.
When we lost Ings I assumed Armstrong would fill that 10 void until he was moved. Didn’t work for us after that. 

Diallo seems to have lost some of his initial sparkle. He’s getting bullied a bit and losing the ball too often. 
 

Salisu had a decent enough game. Enough that I’d pull Bertrands contract offer and let him go.

Interesting point about Bertrand.  Though Salisu is no LB,  he did a decent job on Bale, and stiffened the defence compared to the Bertrand of the past 12 months or so.  Apart from his ever diminishing amount of left-side crosses into dangerous areas, Bertrand wasn’t missed, and the case for extending his contract looks feeble; but he must be replaced.  Pity the intensity dropped off in the 2nd half; the loss of Ings and the formation shuffle in the midfield seemed to cost us and embolden Spurs.  Thought KWP, Bednarek, Armstrong and Adam’s were all good.  It was much improved on the WBA capitulation even with the familiar ending.

[Vancouver Saint]

Missed the game. Saw the highlights. So predictable. Seriously, when will we not lose a game of football? 

I have been a huge Ralph supporter forever, but seriously, it can't go on like this.

36 points is not enough I don't think. I reckon we need at least another win to be safe...looks like the Fulham game may well decide our fate and theirs.

 

 

[GarrettIvo]

I don't want to make excuses, because Christ we've been awful for so long it's not funny.

But you have to wonder when something will go our way again.

I like Adams but he really is quite limited. He never should have given Lloris a chance to make that save early.

Bale somehow manages to squeeze that shot past three defenders and a keeper from a ridiculous angle. That is skill, but it probably gets blocked 8 or 9 times out of 10.

And then the penalty.... ugh.

We're not going to go down. We're just not. Fulham are where they are for a reason. And we'll still finish ahead of them no matter what.

But we have massive issues, built up over several seasons. And they won't be fixed in the summer regardless of what we do.

[Lord Duckhunter]

18 minutes ago, GarrettIvo said:

I don't want to make excuses, because Christ we've been awful for so long it's not funny.

But you have to wonder when something will go our way again.

 

Yes, that terrible WBA offside decisions was an age ago. 
 

I guess the agenda against us is really starting to hurt. 

[GarrettIvo]

5 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Yes, that terrible WBA offside decisions was an age ago. 
 

I guess the agenda against us is really starting to hurt. 

Well yes that one was kind of stupid, but in the end that result when the way it should have anyway.

I'm not suggesting there's an agenda.

Just that (I feel) it's been a while since we've had a bit of luck that made a difference to a result. You could certainly argue we don't deserve any of course.

[Chapel End]

12 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Had it happened up the other end, the same clowns claiming no foul would be screaming for it. Must be var, referee and pundits all against us. 

All we are saying is that everything should be reviewed and it wasnt.

 

[Pilchards]

Will be interesting if WBA beat Leicester as they will be level on points with Fulham with the extra game in hand.

Yes they have been shocking all season but they have perked up in the last two games and you never know what could happen.

[Saint_lambden]

12 minutes ago, Chapel End said:

All we are saying is that everything should be reviewed and it wasnt.

 

It was reviewed. 

[Maggie May]

24 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

Will be interesting if WBA beat Leicester as they will be level on points with Fulham with the extra game in hand.

Yes they have been shocking all season but they have perked up in the last two games and you never know what could happen.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they battered Leicester, making our performance on Sunday even more disappointing.

It could be 2005 all over again...

 

[rooney]

Sadly once we  began to tail off in the second half as we always do, our subs simply did not have the quality to pull us back. It has been the same since Christmas. The overall squad is too thin and lacks quality. I just cannot see what we can do about this unless we sell our  best players to buy new and off load the dross.  

[macca155]

39 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

Will be interesting if WBA beat Leicester as they will be level on points with Fulham with the extra game in hand.

Yes they have been shocking all season but they have perked up in the last two games and you never know what could happen.

If there is a threat it will come from WBA. However it really isn't a credible one. Saints are 75/1 to be relegated, whilst WBA are 1/8.

Yes weird things can happen but even our shambolic team can squeeze a few points out of the remaining 6 games.

Great we survive probably 16th or 17th. Next season, without something changing, we will be almost dead certs to be relegated.

I remain hopeful that the powers to be at the club recognise this as well.

[M271]

We just can't seem to rip up the losing script. A 2-1 loss away at Spurs or a 1-0 loss at Wembley to Leicester are not on paper a terrible result but the manner of the second half against the former and the no show at Wembley are an embarrassment. If last night we had a terrible first half and went in 2-0 down but had a storming second and narrowly lost 2-1 the feeling would be better but the losing from winning positions again hurts, especially with late freekick becoming penalty is a kick in the teeth.

Losing 2-1 to Spurs is not the problem in an overall even game but losing and being outplayed in recent weeks by WBA and Brighton is. Every team bar Sheff Utd seems to have raised their game while ours has regressed. Our poor run (half a season) started with VAR decisions and injuries, and should have got something out of the Aston Villa, Wolves and Leicester games, but then the losses sap confidence and belief so that even when we have a nearly a fully fit squad and recovery time between matches we are not ready mentally to win matches.

Like yesterday our midfield when on their game can control the game but in recent matches we go through spells of a match or whole matches where we lose every 50/50, get harried off the ball, misplace passes and we endure wave after wave of attacks.

This team were bigger than the sum of the parts early in the season but are under performing the last 3 months. I don't think that the players are as bad as some make out on here but Ralph has to find a more solid match lasting way of playing and managing a game especially from winning positions. Even though we only drew I thought that our way of playing against Chelsea was more solid and made us difficult to break down.

If we lose to Fulham and they are then only 3 points behind us after that I will fear the worst looking at both of our last 2 matches because I can't see where are next points are coming from in the last 6 matches, apart from the Fulham match.

EDIT: When is the Palace match scheduled for?, I can't find it anywhere and had frankly forgotten about that one as a chance to get points.

IMO

Edited 22 April, 2021 by M271

[macca155]

1 minute ago, rooney said:

Sadly once we  began to tail off in the second half as we always do, our subs simply did not have the quality to pull us back. It has been the same since Christmas. The overall squad is too thin and lacks quality. I just cannot see what we can do about this unless we sell our  best players to buy new and off load the dross.  

Totally this, Djenepo was a loose cannon and you can see the other players don't trust him. Diallo is a youngster, plenty of promise but that Spurs midfield is strong, he was never going to make an impact.

Squad needs a major overhaul, doesn't have to be major signings. Just needs experience and depth.

[Shroppie]

8 hours ago, SaintZamboni said:

There were times tonight we looked like we were playing a 4231. Ings and Adams were dropping in and it seemed to help us. Armstrong and JWP looked like a good midfield combo.
When we lost Ings I assumed Armstrong would fill that 10 void until he was moved. Didn’t work for us after that. 

Diallo seems to have lost some of his initial sparkle. He’s getting bullied a bit and losing the ball too often. 
 

Salisu had a decent enough game. Enough that I’d pull Bertrands contract offer and let him go.

Agree with that, especially about how we fell apart when Ings went off.

The defeat was particular frustrating as we were looking something like our old selves in the first half: energy, pressing, movement, getting the ball forward quickly. Ings and Adams together were a key part of that.

I agree that Armstrong is a better partner fur JWP than Diallo. He can still make his runs forward and we have options to replace him further forward. Salisu was a definite upgrade on Bertrand.

Ralph's reorganisation when Ings went off was logical enough and should have been ok, but it just didn't. It came at the time some players, especially Adams, Walcott and Tella, were tiring and it broke up our cohesion.

In hindsight, maybe a straight swap with N'Lundulu for Ings would have been less disruptive and worked better, but difficult to predict. We would still then have had Redmond, Djenepo or Minamino to liven up the press. As it played out, we ran out of steam.

I actually think last night would have been a great time to bring on Long if we had him. We were one up and he would have hassled their defence against the ball as Adams faded and been an annoyance chasing long balls.

The only positive I take is that the starting eleven looked better. But now no Ings.

[Charlie Wayman]

Same old post-match day, same old disappointment. Nothing ever changes. What's the point of the same old comments on our performance.

Ralph clearly rattled in his post match presser. Perhaps he is approaching the end game in this drama?

Edited 22 April, 2021 by Charlie Wayman

[East Kent Saint]

A game of two halves  , again again .... you mean ?

[Toussaint]

I'm not buying the bad luck stuff, when Ings went off we could have gone 4 5 1 with Wankybitz coming on into midfield or bought Stevens on for a 5 4 1 , either option to try to hold on to what we had..... or we could have bough Minimouso on as a straight swap, instead he brings on two out of form lightweights.

[macca155]

14 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

I'm not buying the bad luck stuff, when Ings went off we could have gone 4 5 1 with Wankybitz coming on into midfield or bought Stevens on for a 5 4 1 , either option to try to hold on to what we had..... or we could have bough Minimouso on as a straight swap, instead he brings on two out of form lightweights.

Yep you make your own luck, any Prem side from Sheffield to City should have the ability to adjust and hold out for 30 minutes. Not Custer's last stand just sensible controlled football. Exactly like Leicester did to Saints on Sunday, when Rodger's saw that his team were tiring and that Saints had suddenly decided to actually play a bit, he adjusted both personnel and tactics. Nothing major but it did the trick. In contrast Saints just fell apart, it really is sad to see.

Bale was always going to have a 'moment' so a draw would have been creditable and a stepping stone to progress.

The squad is paper thin so Ralph has a tough job, we all know that, but glaring errors as you have identified are making it tough to cut him some slack.

Why on earth he didn't leave a system that was working alone is anybody's guess. Minimano for Ings was an easy swap. Then Redmond for a tiring Walcott for the last ten or so minutes. That would have allowed Diallo to come on for Armstrong if necessary, I get the feeling that he can fit into a tight system but isn't experienced enough to play the more expansive role JWP and Romeu are capable of.

Oh well going forward you have to take the crumbs of positivity and build from there.

Forster is our best goalie .... play him, I doubt Bale would have chipped him quite so easily.

Salisu is looking good, pretty much MOTM for Saints imo and he was up against Bale. Raw he may be but he is at least improving

Armstrong has held on to his form that is at least something

Tella seems to be forging a place ... just

JWP is knackered needs a rest

 

err that's it

 

[tpv01]

We were terrible in the second half and didn’t deserve anything but to concede a penalty in the 90th minute is hard to take. do we have an answer if the awarding of the pen was legitimate? Has that “handled in the build up to a goal” rule quietly gone away in the second half of this season or if it hasn’t can it be applied to awarding of a penalty (which is basically a goal, especially if taken against a Southampton keeper)?

 

I am not a fan of VAR and would get rid of it and go back just to the goal line technology, but I would just like to know if awarding of that penalty was wrong by the rules or not?

[Saint86]

Obviously it's not good enough. But the only point I do want to make, is that we played an awful lot of games in quick succession with basically 12 fit first team players. Our sqaud is jaded beyond anything I've seen before. 

Edited 22 April, 2021 by Saint86

[disconnect]

Was Bertrand banned / injured, or just dropped (presumably as it’s looking less and less likely he’ll be here next season)?

[jawillwill]

46 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Obviously it's not good enough. But the only point I do want to make, is that we played an awful lot of games in quick succession with basically 12 fit first team players. Our sqaud is jaded beyond anything I've seen before. 

As have many other teams...

[beatlesaint]

40 minutes ago, disconnect said:

Was Bertrand banned / injured, or just dropped (presumably as it’s looking less and less likely he’ll be here next season)?

Injured apparently although christ knows how with the lack of effort he's put in lately

[John Boy Saint]

2 hours ago, macca155 said:

 

Salisu is looking good, pretty much MOTM for Saints imo and he was up against Bale. Raw he may be but he is at least improving

 

 

 

I think if we had held out for the 1-1 Coleman would have given Salisu man of the match, going by the amount of deserved sunshine he was blowing up his chuff.  

[Noodles34]

40 minutes ago, John Boy Saint said:

I think if we had held out for the 1-1 Coleman would have given Salisu man of the match, going by the amount of deserved sunshine he was blowing up his chuff.  

I was wondering who the welsh guy was, talked a lot of sense.

Our next manager no doubt.

[Roo1976]

4 hours ago, Toussaint said:

I'm not buying the bad luck stuff, when Ings went off we could have gone 4 5 1 with Wankybitz coming on into midfield or bought Stevens on for a 5 4 1 , either option to try to hold on to what we had..... or we could have bough Minimouso on as a straight swap, instead he brings on two out of form lightweights.

Arnt they all out of form?

[hasper57saint]

Plan B doesn’t exist. If it does it begins with ‘B’ and therefore is BOLLOX! Why is it when the ball is on the 18  yard line it’s a pen yet when it’s on the goal line it’s not a goal? I have been a Saint for almost 65 years now and these are the most repetitive abject performances I have witnessed. We are not even Championship standard at present. To be honest I can’t see where the next points for us will come from. We are so predictable. 

[Teddeer]

6 hours ago, M271 said:

We just can't seem to rip up the losing script. A 2-1 loss away at Spurs or a 1-0 loss at Wembley to Leicester are not on paper a terrible result but the manner of the second half against the former and the no show at Wembley are an embarrassment. If last night we had a terrible first half and went in 2-0 down but had a storming second and narrowly lost 2-1 the feeling would be better but the losing from winning positions again hurts, especially with late freekick becoming penalty is a kick in the teeth.

Losing 2-1 to Spurs is not the problem in an overall even game but losing and being outplayed in recent weeks by WBA and Brighton is. Every team bar Sheff Utd seems to have raised their game while ours has regressed. Our poor run (half a season) started with VAR decisions and injuries, and should have got something out of the Aston Villa, Wolves and Leicester games, but then the losses sap confidence and belief so that even when we have a nearly a fully fit squad and recovery time between matches we are not ready mentally to win matches.

Like yesterday our midfield when on their game can control the game but in recent matches we go through spells of a match or whole matches where we lose every 50/50, get harried off the ball, misplace passes and we endure wave after wave of attacks.

This team were bigger than the sum of the parts early in the season but are under performing the last 3 months. I don't think that the players are as bad as some make out on here but Ralph has to find a more solid match lasting way of playing and managing a game especially from winning positions. Even though we only drew I thought that our way of playing against Chelsea was more solid and made us difficult to break down.

If we lose to Fulham and they are then only 3 points behind us after that I will fear the worst looking at both of our last 2 matches because I can't see where are next points are coming from in the last 6 matches, apart from the Fulham match.

EDIT: When is the Palace match scheduled for?, I can't find it anywhere and had frankly forgotten about that one as a chance to get points.

IMO

It is only 3 points for a win even for Fulham.

[Shroppie]

4 hours ago, macca155 said:

Yep you make your own luck, any Prem side from Sheffield to City should have the ability to adjust and hold out for 30 minutes. 

Why on earth he didn't leave a system that was working alone is anybody's guess. Minimano for Ings was an easy swap. Then Redmond for a tiring Walcott for the last ten or so minutes. That would have allowed Diallo to come on for Armstrong if necessary, I get the feeling that he can fit into a tight system but isn't experienced enough to play the more expansive role JWP and Romeu are capable of.

Forster is our best goalie .... play him, I doubt Bale would have chipped him.

 

The first sentence is bizarre. Any team should be able to hold out for 30 mins? So if you're 1-0 up at 30 mins you should never concede? Simply ridiculous.

It's easy to agree with the second para in hindsight but what Ralph did wasn't an unreasonable move. Unfortunately it seemed to reinstate the Cup team formation and we dried up.

Mccarthy is our best keeper. If you think Bale scored with a chip, you weren't watching. It was a hard-hit, perfectly accurate shot intl the far too corner. Either brilliant or lucky, but no keeper gets anywhere near it.

 

[rooney]

13 minutes ago, Shroppie said:

 

Mccarthy is our best keeper. If you think Bale scored with a chip, you weren't watching. It was a hard-hit, perfectly accurate shot intl the far too corner. Either brilliant or lucky, but no keeper gets anywhere near it.

 

They would if they were not in no mans land.

[JustinSFC]

6 hours ago, M271 said:

This team were bigger than the sum of the parts early in the season but are under performing the last 3 months.

4.

We've taken 10pts in the last 4 months.

How is he still in a job.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Noodles34 said:

 

 

Edited 22 April, 2021 by Whitey Grandad
Deleted: superfluous

[SaintZamboni]

1 hour ago, JustinSFC said:

4.

We've taken 10pts in the last 4 months.

How is he still in a job.

Because over the entire season, which is ultimately what counts, we’re 13th so far. The massive over perform then under perform we’ve seen shouldn’t hide that. 

[DT]

2 hours ago, Shroppie said:

The first sentence is bizarre. Any team should be able to hold out for 30 mins? So if you're 1-0 up at 30 mins you should never concede? Simply ridiculous.

It's easy to agree with the second para in hindsight but what Ralph did wasn't an unreasonable move. Unfortunately it seemed to reinstate the Cup team formation and we dried up.

Mccarthy is our best keeper. If you think Bale scored with a chip, you weren't watching. It was a hard-hit, perfectly accurate shot intl the far too corner. Either brilliant or lucky, but no keeper gets anywhere near it.

 

But Bale might not have thought about trying to chip Forster, given his size. God knows why he was dropped. I thought McCarthy looked as slow and ponderous as ever - useless distribution and authority and gives the back line collywobbles. Ralph's man management is another big cross against his name

[Totton Saint]

8 hours ago, macca155 said:

Totally this, Djenepo was a loose cannon and you can see the other players don't trust him. Diallo is a youngster, plenty of promise but that Spurs midfield is strong, he was never going to make an impact.

Squad needs a major overhaul, doesn't have to be major signings. Just needs experience and depth.

Dieneno had no need to tackle the player in the box .There were so many saint splayers in front of him no way he could he have shot and score

[Totton Saint]

3 hours ago, Roo1976 said:

Arnt they all out of form?

I agree why Stephens was not brought on .We should have parked the bus and won 1-0 like we did against Liverpool. I would not have put Diallo on. No reason to drop Forster 

Surely Tella could hve carried on to the end as well

[Chapel End]

22 hours ago, Archers Road Stand said:

If that's handball then so is the one from Vestergaard seconds before. 

I hope Djenepo is on the out list in the summer. He isn't good enough. 

Difference is it hit Vestergards hand and Alderweireld  controls it with both.

[Chapel End]

6 hours ago, disconnect said:

Was Bertrand banned / injured, or just dropped (presumably as it’s looking less and less likely he’ll be here next season)?

Injured 

[Billy the Kidd]

6 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Obviously it's not good enough. But the only point I do want to make, is that we played an awful lot of games in quick succession with basically 12 fit first team players. Our sqaud is jaded beyond anything I've seen before. 

You make a good point about the number of games, but to my knowledge there are 19 other teams who play a spookingly similar schedule, and they done have the issues we do.

I like Ralph, think he gets one last chance for the first 10 games next season, but he is very stubborn to his system.

I also struggle when people say about his team, getting his stamp on it. I believe he is our longest serving manager since Dave Jones, and is approaching 3 years. I think he has had a fair crack of the whip.

That said, a good summer doesn’t make a swallow and all that...

[S-Clarke]

8 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

You make a good point about the number of games, but to my knowledge there are 19 other teams who play a spookingly similar schedule, and they done have the issues we do.

I like Ralph, think he gets one last chance for the first 10 games next season, but he is very stubborn to his system.

I also struggle when people say about his team, getting his stamp on it. I believe he is our longest serving manager since Dave Jones, and is approaching 3 years. I think he has had a fair crack of the whip.

That said, a good summer doesn’t make a swallow and all that...

If you think about it though, the core of this team is still the same team who have struggled under Pellegrino and Hughes - and to a certain extent with some of them, Puel.

So, Ings, Redmond, JWP, Romeu, Bednarek, Bertrand, McCarthy, Armstrong, Vestergaard. I wouldn't say any of the core players are his signings, apart from KWP - and he has significantly improved us in that position.

I think with a fairer crack of the whip and more ability to build his own squad more suited to his way, it would be a different story. Certain players will always have flaws and I've seen these flaws in this core group across 3 different managers now. Decent technically in part, but the wrong mix and certainly not deep enough squad wise to play this way over a season.

As I've said before - the club either back him, because this is the way he plays and that's it. Or they let him go and we bring a new manager in, maybe someone more conservative and less gung ho. But the reality is we'll probably finish in similar positions, just less extremes.

Edited 22 April, 2021 by S-Clarke

[JustinSFC]

1 hour ago, SaintZamboni said:

Because over the entire season, which is ultimately what counts, we’re 13th so far. The massive over perform then under perform we’ve seen shouldn’t hide that. 

No fan of any club should be making excuses for 10pts in 4 months and a 9-0 thrashing chucked in.

The form table since new year's Day has our points haul as 5 worse than fucking Sheffield United. (I think. I can't remember it was mentioned on Sky lastnight).

That is piss poor whichever way you slice it with this squad because our squad isn't great but it isn't 10pts in 4 months bad. 

[Nemi]

7 minutes ago, JustinSFC said:

No fan of any club should be making excuses for 10pts in 4 months and a 9-0 thrashing chucked in.

The form table since new year's Day has our points haul as 5 worse than fucking Sheffield United. (I think. I can't remember it was mentioned on Sky lastnight).

That is piss poor whichever way you slice it with this squad because our squad isn't great but it isn't 10pts in 4 months bad. 

No matter how bad the other teams are though, each of them (maybe except Fulham, which probably explains their struggles) has an experienced/leadership figure on the pitch who can help turn it around on the pitch. We don’t have that. There’s been some failings from Hasenhuttl too but there is no-one on the pitch who can help in out in that regard. You can always hear him barking orders and encouraging from the sidelines, but where’s that coming from on the pitch?

[JustinSFC]

13 minutes ago, Nemi said:

No matter how bad the other teams are though, each of them (maybe except Fulham, which probably explains their struggles) has an experienced/leadership figure on the pitch who can help turn it around on the pitch. We don’t have that. There’s been some failings from Hasenhuttl too but there is no-one on the pitch who can help in out in that regard. You can always hear him barking orders and encouraging from the sidelines, but where’s that coming from on the pitch?

That's a fair point.

On that basis I'd stick with Ralph if he, or the club, bring in a PROPER no2.

The bloke needs help.

But Ralph has enough reach/stock/influence whichever word you like, within this club and the board to get a No2 if he really wanted one.

If he's too stubborn and/or arrogant to bring one in then that's another conversation.

As for Captain/leader on the pitch, we haven't had that since Jose Fonte.

 

Edited 22 April, 2021 by JustinSFC

[JRM]

23 minutes ago, JustinSFC said:

No fan of any club should be making excuses for 10pts in 4 months and a 9-0 thrashing chucked in.

The form table since new year's Day has our points haul as 5 worse than fucking Sheffield United. (I think. I can't remember it was mentioned on Sky lastnight).

That is piss poor whichever way you slice it with this squad because our squad isn't great but it isn't 10pts in 4 months bad. 

Last 15 games 

Edited 22 April, 2021 by JRM

[JRM]

Our 39 goals conceded in that time is a stand out stat.