Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only one who held such an opinion. I remember him having a good game in our away win at Wolves, other than that I thought he was just average.
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And yet he was an automatic selection in a team which came second - I thought he'd handle the Premier League better than he did, but Id be happy enough with him in our central midfield all next season as long as we sign someone to replace Gunnar and someone else who can provide good quality cover in that area.
Warnock calls Ralls his "Ralls Royce" and has definite Premier League quality. He's got limitations but he's a Championship midfield player. I've come away from plenty of games this season thinking he was our best player, which is either praise or an indictment on our squad. Either way, I think Warnock will put him in the team and have him as the first player on the teamsheet.
Ralls blows hot and cold. When he returned to our side early this year, he was our top performing midfielder for a while, yet I don't see him as a midfielder who offers any drive or purpose to our midfield, while his passing isn't the best, certainly not at PL standards.
I'd have him as cover but, for me, our midfield needs a complete overhaul. The only centre midfielder I'd have from last season is Camarasa, yet I fear he'd drift in and out of games in the Championship, where things are more competitive. Arter would be ok, but that's it.
Joe has always been a bit marmite,for me,he’s a good option in midfield,yes he doesn’t always pick out the right pass but I’ve been struck by the lack of forward movement by our strikers which often makes our midfielders look static,my worry is that Neil rates Bacuna so highly, every game he’s played at home he’s been anonymous and the game seems to just pass him by, lots of names have been bandied about on here for this position next season, personally, I think it’s going to be the most vital part of the team to get right but I don’t think there is an obvious affordable option out there, hopefully we can pick up a rough diamond going cheap somewhere!.
Any midfielder from Bristol City. If only to annoy the shit out of them again.
Ralls was decent in the Championship and will be better for the experience of last season. He's already here and with holes to fill in midfield, I would be shocked if we didn't use him.
Bacuna, I'm willing to give him more time to settle in. He's only just arrived and definitely got better as he got more starts.
What we need is someone who can play deeper and pick a pass. He doesn't need legs really, as long as he has a footballing brain.
As has already been said, the front four look as good as anything in the Championship.
I think a Pato and Ralls combo would work well.
I don’t think Ralls showed he’s premier league quality at all, but in the Champ he was a top performer for us.
It's my concern too. I'd hate to think that we'd start the season with Ralls and Bacuna together in midfield and that he'd also go with Peltier (yeah, I know he does well whenever called upon, but we need a rightback who can get forward more). A new starting rightback and NOT a squad player who is cover for Peltier.
Yeah, why on earth would Warnock go back and pick the players who got us 90 points last time we were in the Championship.
He must be mad...
Lads, Morrison, Ralls, Hoillet, Patterson are proven at this level and in fairness didn’t do too bad this season when you look at what they were up against.
We’ve got enough to do to sort the 2 other spots in midfield and a 20 goal striker without trying to fix things that certainly aren’t broken.
I think any team in the championship would take Joe Ralls.
That was 2 seasons ago. Please tell me you don't automatically think that every single player who did well for us in the Championship 2 seasons ago are guaranteed to do the same. You've been around football longer than I have to know full well that won't happen.
Ralls will be fine next season, would be good if we can find 2 new midfielders to compete alongside him Bacuna and Paterson - a youngster and an experienced head would be a good combination (Arter would be a good addition in the Championship but wages and willingness on his part means that won’t happen, guess the same with somebody like Joe Allen). Vaulks and Matt Smith would be good - be nice to have some “Welsh” players in the side - Vaulks might be more realistic than Matt Smith though.
We’ve got to find a goal scorer too - I’m not convinced we can rely on Zohore again.
We massively defied the odds that season. We never looked like we were playing within ourselves, it always seemed like we were punching above our weight and the football was often dire. It would be a big ask two seasons later for the same players to go through that again.
Every game was like watching a Cup Final, they left everything they had out on the pitch, it was probably a factor why we had so many injuries and players not declared fit enough to start. You can get away with that one season (as we obviously did) but it's a BIG ask to expect them to repeat that.