We were always a stepping stone for Hojbjerg. Edit: he was honest about it and I bear him no ill will.
Lincoln please chill. Just because those in charge of a club are greedy arrogant twats doesn't mean all of their fans are
Yeah, I mean, we're probably not well-positioned to suggest that club ownership is a reflection of their fans...
I think Lemina is a really good player. His problem is that his attitude sucks. Ralph doesn`t trust him, and neither do I. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn`t work hard and all that.
We're not, but would it surprise you if that were to be the case? Our record since January is abysmal and the worse thing about last night was that the only surprise was that we looked good for a while. When a team is in a run like ours it can hardly be a shock that fans become disillusioned. Coming from the team where the fans used to sing 'We're ****, and we're sick of it' - which I thought was a great chant, btw - I'm shocked that you should think otherwise.
For me he’ll always be the guy who caused us to concede from our own corner at West Ham - we’d all been singing “Mario Lemina, never gives the ball awaaay”, when yet again, he did. No discernible football brain imo.
Totally agree. But attitude and trust is now over 2 years old. Maybe he's matured a bit. Certainly he shows more of the fighting quality at Fulham that Ralph wants to see.
But working hard for 60 mins .....wins f..all too. Ralph needs backing in the transfer window properly, which I doubt will happen. For starters, Tella and Salisu need to play more. Walcott and Bertrand need to play less...a lot less.
Lemina would be absolutely fantastic in terms of sparking movement within the team. The problem is you would need to have a world class CDM alongside him to cover up for all of his inability/lack of desire to track back. Which funnily enough we don’t have.
More self-destruction than bad luck Won’t get relegated, but maybe next year We had you in our pockets for 57 minutes Then we moved our best player off to the right wing and fell apart We must easily be the best worst team in the league
The irony is, LincolnSaint is probably the person who would most agree with you out of any of us! No idea why he's turned down the opportunity to lay into the team on that point. I agree with that point, but think it's the owners who are to blame primarily. Ralph has shown that this style of play can work - post-lockdown last season, and the first third (maybe?) of this season, it was getting us results. We were the form team over those periods, but both required a few months rest and recuperation before going into those periods. I think if you get Ralph in, you are getting him in to play this style of football - a style that does work. It clearly can't work for prolonged periods with the thin bench we have, and lack of appropriate players and squad depth (yes, he has sanctioned a load of outgoing loans for players who don't fit this style). It wouldn't even surprise me if Ralph persists with it precisely because it is a chip which he can present to owners at the end of the season - this is the style we play, it can work and has been proven to work, but it can't go beyond a few months into a season without some more players.
I agree, no point in having talent and ability, which in fairness we think he has, without the attitude of 'my ball, my space, my responsibility, I make a difference for 90 mins' etc. I maintain the view that there must be some tetchy and very direct conversations at board, management and team levels going on as the pressure is building fast. As fans there's not a lot we can do but HOPE that this tunnel we're in does eventually come to some daylight. Emotionally I've turned off for the rest of the season now, interested obviously, but have had enough expecting a decent result. Roll on next season!!!!
Not disagreeing with you exactly but the danger is writing off players like Bertrand and Walcott. Summer needs to see the squad strengthened without losing first team players so we have more options to change things from the bench. More hungry players required. Walcott especially is good option to come on late in the game with his pace.
The fact that we're chasing free transfers of people who haven't made the grade at Everton does rather tell you where we are right now though, and why we have some of the problems we do (I don't see Theo as in the same category as Ryan or KWP on that front by the way).
My take on the Diallo substitution when Danny went off was that, it appeared to me, we were already beginning to struggle in midfield. JWP and Armstrong were already beginning to run out of steam and Spurs were getting a grip on the game. I’m no manager, but I think I may well have done the same. If we’d had Oriel to really give us some steel in midfield, we’d be totally different. Diallo is still incredibly young and needs time to find his feet. On his day, he’s excellent, but throwing him into such an important position is tough and I’m sure Ralph wouldn’t want to do it unless he had to. Danny was excellent, all over the pitch, but, Armstrong (and possibly Salisu) aside, not many other players ran as much as him (of course JWP did his usual, but he’s anchored on the back foot a little nowadays). As soon as we lost him, Che’s mobility seemed to vanish. Theo and Moussa seem to give us very little and I just don’t know why. So many times I see Moussa in a position to get down the line, drop his shoulder and go, and he doesn’t. He dwells, looks for support .... that’s not what I thought he was bought for. It’s so ****ing frustrating - I’m just glad I’m a long suffering fan and not a manager.