Match Day Thread cattivi contro Santi , Venerdì 16 Settembre, ore 20.00

The final whistle was great tonight.

 

Did our Nige say that?

 

The thing with Ralph is he has no concept at all of balance in the side, or how to tactically bring people into the game.

If you’re playing Ely… He runs a lot but he’s **** on the ball so you need to play someone that is good on the ball. Same with arma. You CANNOT play these players at the same time.

If you rely on JWP, you need someone bigger next to him (Romeu/Lavia) for physicality

If you play salisu, you need a leader next to him

If you play young players, you need experience. Etc

if you play our **** players.. you need to play high press. Tonight I don’t know what he was thinking

 

Anyone remember the last time Elyou scored or assisted?

Genuine question btw.

 

He did score last season. I think it bounced of him or something?

 

Doesn't count apparently. That was last season

 

Managed to wake up 2am local and watch with Bintang replacing Palm beer obviously the wrong combination for which I apologise. It looked like a team of strangers cobbled together on a Sunday morning after a rave. Past commenting on the managerial merry go round. From Chelsea to this perfectly demonstrates the rollercoaster ride being a Saints supporter is.

 

Worryingly, we haven’t kept a clean sheet for 13 games now.

 

Why do people study history mate, if it’s not important? Perhaps because it provides a context for the present, and helps us understand why things are the way they are.

 

Right. If a striker scores 30 goals in a season, you don't suddenly bench him at the beginning of the next season, and make him re-earn his place in the team. You continue to play him because his previous season's exploits show you how good he is.

The whole 'disregard last season' thing is nonsensical. Might as well disregard every single game once it's finished.

 

One positive that I think we can all agree on, is that we look better defensively compared to last season. We are conceding 1 goal per game as opposed to 3. That's a start. Plus we have to acknowledge that Bazunu and ABK need time to settle. We've also got Caleta-Car and Livramento to come in/come back. For once, defending is not really a concern to me.

But, the old adage that your attackers are the first line of defence, is definitely true. Your attackers should be able to lessen the load on the defenders by doing their job adequately up top. Unfortunately if you never create much, and hardly take a shot on target all game, then eventually a bit of luck will go against you; you lose 1-0.

If Ralph can just play our most threatening attacking players, instead Elyou and Djenepo, then I'm confident we will start winning games like last night comfortably. I really don't see what other teams in the whole division would put either of those two in their first team.

 

Yeah. Think this nails it.

 

How's that possible? We've only played 6 games this season.

 

Last seasons run in as well.

 

I gathered! Just continuing the joke that last season doesn't matter

 

Think that's up there as one of the worst football matches I've ever watched and I only saw the second half! Possibly second only to England vs Algeria at WC 2010.

Don't think there's too much to read into it but our 'performance' was definitely up there with the worst of Pellegrino and Hughes era. Grim as **** and feel for those who trekked upto Brum on a Friday night. Said it before but I think it's poor that Ralph doesn't go over to the fans whenever we lose but loves to lap it up when we win.

Can't help but feel the failure to land that striker might define our season. As if a CB gets Che in his pocket then we have next to zero attacking threat and look like we couldn't score on Empress. As we look like conceding every game then struggling to score could be the difference between midtable and a relegation scrap.

Thought Prowsey was dreadful with his constant ability to go backwards and hide from the ball. Albeit think he would always struggle in a 2 with Diallo. Crazy that we can sign an 18 year old with no first team experience and he's instantly our best midfield player.

On a positive note. At least Villa were complete dogshit too else that surely would have been another hammering.

Everton a huge game for Ralph. UTFS.

 

Just heard Ralph’s post match assessment. Nailed it! “Didn’t have much to do with football”! Yep, we certainly didn’t do it play much / any. Maybe should have gone & queued up!

 

This ^^^ Edit: Apart from “we look like conceding every game”; we are / we do!!

 

Having reflected on last night I still stand by what I said. If last season isn't totally irrelevant then it's having little impact on this season. We've been playing well up until last night. We've looked more solid at the back and we've been showing resilience in coming from behind. But apparently Ralph doesn't know what he's doing. I accept Ralph got it badly wrong last night but I thought there was a general consensus to give him until the WC break? I've seen nothing to suggest this should change. Ok, if we play like last night at home to Everton then I might get concerned.

 

Conceded in our last 18 away games…..with city up next