Does Joe Ralls fit into our style of play?

Not knocking Ralls, as he is a good player, however, I am not sure he fits into our new style of pass and go.
Watched him yesterday, he seemed to be hindering the fast play, either he took a few seconds on the ball, or he turned and looked for a pass to someone behind him.. he lacks pace .. hence why I believe Morison kept him on bench and not first choice.
However, he has a lot to offer, just not sure if he a starter or a ‘off the bench ‘ .

Not knocking Ralls, as he is a good player, however, I am not sure he fits into our new style of pass and go.
Watched him yesterday, he seemed to be hindering the fast play, either he took a few seconds on the ball, or he turned and looked for a pass to someone behind him.. he lacks pace .. hence why I believe Morison kept him on bench and not first choice.
However, he has a lot to offer, just not sure if he a starter or a ‘off the bench ‘ .

JR was my mom yesterday but I do think you may be right. He does take too much time and hence slow the passing down. Possibly he’d be better playing away from home - he was great at Wigan - when there needs to be more of a physical presence in midfield.

Definitely should start - otherwise we get overrun in midfield. The biggest disappointment for me so far this season is Sawyers- no doubt a talented player in his day, but I feel that day has passed or if he still has it he needs to demonstrate it and apply himself fully in matches.

I wrote this on the motm thread, but its probably better here

I'll explain my reasoning for believing Ralls is a very good player at this level.

We are a championship club playing against championship players. The one thing you can't be in the championship is a soft touch. There is a footballing groupthink on how the game should be played especially in the championship with the new breed of coaches/managers, all doing the same thing. This is why a "dinosaur" like Warnock has his own way, the team that wins games generally makes fewer mistakes, and the closer to your goal you make the mistake the more likely you are to concede.

Wintles is our first genuine defensive midfielder there to protect the back four but also keeps the ball ticking over. Ralls and Rimonhota are there to steal the ball and stop the opposition from playing and get the ball to one of our attacking talents. Whether that is a simple lob over their full back or knocking it into a target man then so be it. I think that unit generally win its battle, defensively we are very suspect and upfront there are very few options except Robinson who is not clinical but gets in good positions.

Our goals from Wigan came from Nkounkou breaking lines and causing chaos, yesterday both fullbacks rarely traveled forward.

I think we are a very functional and systematic squad with very little flair or anyone with the x factor, Joe Ralls exemplifies that as he is very good at playing in this squad. Hopefully, Colwell and Davies increase that metric.

Championship footballers would be in the premier league if they could pick a key pass and win the ball, the reason they are in the EFL is they can't do both. Sawyers has been my biggest disappointment because i thought he could win the ball as he is classy on it but he can't.

I have never bought into this "progressive" stuff, its a fantasy. Winning is fun though.

I didn’t see much fast play yesterday so for me it wasn’t only Ralls who was slowing.He was my MOTM.

In a sentence you can’t play three holding midfielders.

In a sentence you can’t play three holding midfielders.

Those three are often taking on four and holding their own, we lack the class up front to do anything with the platform. They are workhorses, there to get the ball and give it to those who can hurt the opposition, but that's the flaw in the plan, we don't have anyone. Gimme Holliet and NML as my outlets and this wouldn't be a conversation.

Sawyers is classier on the ball than any of them but we lose that dog then. Adams will be interesting but we still don't know how he manages the two league jump.

The problem is up front, like it has been for seasons, cos they cost bucks

Definitely should start - otherwise we get overrun in midfield. The biggest disappointment for me so far this season is Sawyers- no doubt a talented player in his day, but I feel that day has passed or if he still has it he needs to demonstrate it and apply himself fully in matches.

I agree on sawyers, did bring it up on here that out of all the signings he's been the most disappointing. Only because I expected more from him and many of others were unknown quantity. I don't doubt sawyers ability, he's just not showing enough atm

I’ve been saying since Morison took over that Ralls does not fit this style of play.

He’s not mobile enough and he does slow the passing down as he always seems to want to take an extra touch.

For me Wintle is first choice midfielder with Rinomhota second, after that it has to be a creative player like Sawyers or Colwill. You only have to looks at Ralls low number of assists (for a midfield player) over the years to see he doesn’t create much.

It was quite telling that despite us halving his wages in the summer he couldn’t get another Championship club to pay more than us and he’s ever been linked with bids from elsewhere in all the years he’s been with us.

He’s fine as a backup player but isn’t good enough to play in the first XI in my opinion. If he plays against the Jacks they’ll just play around him like they have done the last few derbies and he won’t get near them.

To be fair, he did have a decent first half yesterday and put a couple of tackles in but he was pretty awful in the second half and two straightforward passes where he failed to find his man with simple balls from 15 yards away were embarrassing and just not good enough.

No way should he be captain in front of Wintle.

Just please don’t start him in the derby it NEVER works

Shocking without him tonight........Showed the difference when he came on.

Shocking without him tonight........Showed the difference when he came on.

Last nights game wasn’t anything to go by really, all our midfield were shocking so it wasn’t that hard for Ralls to make a “difference” even though he never.
Ralls does NOT fit into this team and I’ve always said it. First choice should be Wintle, (he also should be made permanent captain), Rinomhota & Colwill when fit, Sawyers when Colwill is not fit.
Ralls is truly overrated

Shocking without him tonight........Showed the difference when he came on.

Last nights game wasn’t anything to go by really, all our midfield were shocking so it wasn’t that hard for Ralls to make a “difference” even though he never.
Ralls does NOT fit into this team and I’ve always said it. First choice should be Wintle, (he also should be made permanent captain), Rinomhota & Colwill when fit, Sawyers when Colwill is not fit.
Ralls is truly overrated

Sam, I've agreed in the past with your choice, however Sawyers was absolutely awful last night. We can't have passengers v the Jacks.
Allsop
Romeo NG Kipre Nelson Niels
Wintle
Rhinamota Ralls

O'Dowda
Robinson