Ralph sacked as Saints manager

Best point you’ve made all day Tom.

Only kidding

 

Not really. We would choose the candidate we think would be best for the club. Tory party members vote for whoever benefits them the most.

 

Excuse me, I've just said no politics on this thread please.

 

Bloody duplicate posts!

 

I took a long time to change my vote to out but I don’t regret my decision.
I had previously been defending Ralph, over the last 2 seasons, by pointing out that his style of play, namely the high press with everyone working closely together made a poor squad of players look better than they actually were.
Even when we lost we looked a decent team and were often unlucky not to get a point or three.
Since we have dropped the high press, the quality of the players has become more transparent, despite some new players being decent and showing potential.
I think the back FOUR has improved, despite the cover being provided in front of them being almost non existent, since Lavia’s injury, but there has been no improvement elsewhere.

Ralph could change this and return to the high press, if he wanted to, but he seems to have decided (or SR have decided?) that it is no longer an option.
Ralph has tried various formations but he doesn’t seem capable of getting them playing to a decent level, for the majority of the game, which makes me ask if he is a one trick pony.

 

Really, I thought it was our in ability to pass and keep a ball.

 

Okay, so if we pull the trigger based on fans expectation looks like we need to compete with Wolves, Leicester, Leeds, Bournemouth, Everton, Liverpool. Crikey let's hope there are lots of top managers out there, not sure we will be top of many lists.

 

Just changed my vote to in to skew these stats

 

I said on the match thread this feels very similar to how I remember 2004-05 feeling. Plodding through one disappointing performance & defeat after another.


I’m still unsure on Ralph in or out. If he goes what’s the alternative?

a) Another up and coming manager from abroad? Risky, no guarantee it improves us

b) ‘solid’ lower Prem manager. Not as extreme as Allerdyce but something in the mould of Mark Hughes again. Think we all felt when he left that he did the required on but not a route we’d ever want to go back to. I think I’d accept Dyche but not many others

c) Experienced mid-higher tier manager. (Eg Brighton get De Zerbi, Villa get Emery). Cannot see us going this direction but a yes from me if the option is there

 

Why do you think that was? Did our players suddenly forget how to play football... or was our system and shape to blame?

 

Don't be silly, I can pass the ball ten yards, so these so called professional players should be able to. That purely comes down to a lack of focus and concentration on a player. Regardless to 5-3-2 to 3-5 -2 to 4-4-****ing 2, just pass the ball to a team mate

 

That is my exact point. The players can clearly play better than in the first half, but they need a capable manager to set them up to do so.

It isn't as simple as "pass to a team mate" - if it were every team could do that. The formation, tempo, tactics etc dictate everything. For example, it is much harder to pass to a team mate if either you or they are under pressure from the opposition.

Ralph is to blame for the first half and what I was more annoyed about is that he waited until half time to address it. The problem was clear after 15 mins, if he made changes then we might have got a point or more.

 

I do partially agree a change needed to be made, but it is extremely difficult to legislate legislate for so many individual errors in moving the ball. If course we can always blame coaches and managers, but what I mainly saw in the first half was ineptness of players

 

Exactly! It was the players today who missed th chances, regularly passed to the opposition and left massive gaps at the back.
The manager hooked a player at half time, replaced him with another - and the team looked much better and should have won but for the missed chances.
You can’t put that on the manager.
I simply don’t see a replacement out there who would make a huge difference with these players
I’m hoping that we’ve identified some new faces for the break …..

 

So spot on

 

Sorry sir.

I didn’t see your earlier post. Also I was pointing out why the political analogy wasn’t valid.

 

He has to go.

- keeps playing diallo/Jwp in a two. ****ing ridiculous

- we have signed much better defenders. Still terrible at defending

- doesn’t know his best side

- no attacking patterns of play

- press has gone

- we will be relegated if he stays

One mitigating factor is that we haven’t signed a striker. But it doesn’t excuse these points ^

 

I was Ralph in and have been until very recently, although as people correctly identify, it was the players that left a lot to be desired today…. It’s his job to work with them and motivate them and make them better players or play a system that makes them look better players than they are. Sadly, that stopped a long time ago. I’d rather we went for someone so that even if we do go down, we go down with a fight, with style and not the whimper this is turning into….

 

How can we use the excuse that we didn't sign a striker, to defend Ralph now? He's the one who tells the board which positions we need to strengthen in. He obviously didn't regard it as a priority.

 

It is odd. I don’t actually blame this result completely on Ralph. Why did we sign those Man City fullback kids when the funds could have gone towards a striker?

Che was awful, he had 3 (?) great chances and should have put one away.