I am not sure honestly what this guy did to make people falling in love with him and getting him off the hook for whatever kind of performance he set us play. He obviously have huge fanbase somehow.
Football management is not only theoretical tactical setup, you have human beings there that you should speak with, explain what they should do, and also judge if they can do what you want. From what I can see, those players are absolutely lost on the field, our positional setup is comedy, it is not suitable for U10 team. No running patterns, they can't even execute counter anymore, and people saying it is great tactic cause they are chasing the ball in rivals half as headless chicken losing all energy so they are not capable to finish chances after that or do anything with the ball if they win possession. He is here for 3 months already, I can't see absolutely any improvement, and I am sure we won't see it as those players don't have physics or mentality to play that kind of football, even if they are trained well. Their body is not made for that, their point of gravity is not suitable for high pressing, and their close technique is not on that level. We have bought players not to play high pressing but to play fast, direct football and use spaces to run on defenders and behind lines. Ole knew that, and his team was playing great football when they are fully fit (not enough this year of course). Ralf doesn't know that obviously, and pretty obviously can't get the best from those players.
I am not saying players are not the guilty ones, they have to give their best whatever is going on in the club. But, also they are human beings and whatever happens around affect them. They are terrible selected in terms of dealing with pressure, in term of ball control and technique, and also not selected for high pressing game new manager wants them to play. Also, many of them not with high football IQ and none of them bar McT willing to go in tackle for a 50:50 ball (AWB likes to tackle, but not those kind of balls). For me, our scouts should first look at those things: hard working, football IQ, technique, passing and ball control, capable to run and recover, dealing with pressure. It looks like the first thing they look for is how good freestylers they are and number of followers on social media. But at the end you can't change 20 players in one transfer window so they are here to stay and with their salaries this is what we have for next 5-6 years.
Pep has had 6 years and over £1b. It would be a fecking disgrace if he got out played by a bloke who has been here a few months and not had a bean to spend.