I was there yesterday. We started brightly but the way we collapsed and heads dropped after they scored first was alarming. And when the second went in a few seconds later a miserable sense of inevitability settled.
The mental fragility is very worrying and I think that extends to Ralph as well. We can look good when we’re controlling a game but fall apart as soon as we’re behind. Not surprising because you can see the sense of despair over finding any way to score other than a JWP free kick or penalty. None of our so-called strikers have scored since February.
Maybe it is a general fatigue generated by the stress of inconsistency: we never seem to have one bad result - it’s always the start of a bad run.
I have always been a fan of Ralph but the last couple of games I’ve got worried that he’s burnt himself out. He’s has tough times: no investment, injuries, a couple of 0-9 results and every time we seem to be moving forward we crash and burn. Not surprising that he finds it hard to keep the motivation and drive going. If he sticks with his best eleven, who were winning but then started losing, he’s accused of doing nothing to put things right. If he tries something different and it doesn’t work (like yesterday) it’s still his fault.
We certainly need a reset, partly with new players and partly by getting the current ones’ heads back in the right place. I agree that Salisu looks distracted by the possibility of a big move. Same for Livramento before his injury. Broja must be wondering what the Chelsea situation will do to his career.
Should Ralph go? I still hope not, but wonder how many more setbacks he can cope with. Will JWP be lured by big money and a “big” club or is his loyalty real? Will the new owners stick rigidly to buying potential or look to bring in one or two proven players? Not necessarily the right thing. I could cite all the players we bought last time we tried to step up and who ended up as highly-paid failures out on loan bankrupting the club.
I suppose it’s a natural feeling if depression after a poor performance and all clubs go up and down but I feel this is going to be a difficult corner to turn.
This is what I always think when the call goes up to invest in proven top players. For starters, a club with Saints business model doesn’t allow that. We don’t have funding that isn’t generated by the club itself, we have to be self sustaining, and buying in fully developed players at the cost and wages of fully developed players can’t be done. And when we tried, with Ramirez, Osvaldo, Carillo, look where it left us.
I think most people accept that we won’t be going after proven players but there ought to be an attempt to buy starting players in certain positions. We need to improve that team, not the squad. Last year the narrative was about needing a bigger squad. Ralph got that, talked about how happy he was with that squad, yet somehow we have gone backwards.
We need to at least start looking in to the next tier of players for circumstantial bargains. This shouldn’t be that hard in replacing Bednarek, Redmond, Djenepo, Walcott et al.
The fact we are flirting with the drop means we don’t have time to wait a year for players to find their feet like we did with Salisu.
The goalkeeper situation is odd. It now looks like Forster will leave and McCarthy will be reinstated as first choice, with either a new young back up joining or 41 year old Willy staying on. McCarthy has been underwhelming over the last two years so that’s not inspiring confidence in me.
It’s important to remember that we’ve also had expensive flops who weren’t proven buys. Angus Gunn for instance.
I think we are in need of at least:
A goalkeeper;
A fullback (on account of Tino’s injury);
A centre back (better than at least one of the existing starters);
A defensive mid in the Romeu mould;
A number 10 (better than at least one of the existing starters);
A striker who can score 10 goals a season.
Some of those are more critical than others but I personally think the CB, #10 and striker need to be good enough to go straight in to that team. A goalkeeper too probably but I think we’ve fucked ourselves by giving McCarthy a new deal and probably on improved terms.
Players likely to leave:
Forster;
Willy (probably but equally wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed);
Long;
Djenepo (on loan because nobody will cough up a fee for him);
Stephens (will be out of contract, unless he has signed a sneaky and unannounced extension like McCarthy);
There’s the rub. We’re known to be a selling club, so any time we get a reliable scorer they’re going to move to somewhere the money’s better so we can turn a profit. Until the new sugar daddy shows up that’s always going to happen.
Anyone doing FPL this year actually knows that there are no decent strikers around.
Kane obv now he is over his strop & then Ronaldo who is a dinosaur.
Antonio just started scoring again but then?
Dennis.
At Watford…
…a striker who can score 10 a goals a season. And if he’s not injured and is being played routinely as the first choice number 9, he can score 10 goals a season.
It’s still possible that we’re the ones in the shitty seat … if those teams all get 2 more wins and we don’t get anything (equally plausible results), we’re in the bottom 3. Suddenly real people …
Leeds and Burnley’s remaining games are Chelsea, Brighton, Brentford, Spurs, Villa and Toon. I’d say that both sides getting two wins out of those would be quite unlikely.
