i think the thought amongst many supporters and the Southampton Board is they have brought on players of enough quality to stay up and team management is what is lacking. Whether Jesse has that or not remains to be seen. Detractors do note, his last two gigs ended in sacking (a 5 month and a 12 month tenure) - teams that had marginal talent when compared to top teams in their respective league. Southampton is not different in that respect - so that is a definite red flag.
Southampton squad quality-wise is not that much different than most of the bottom 10 is the thought. of course that is a matter of much debate. But you hear comments like, "with this roster a good manager could keep this lot up". However, in regards to roster - i still think striker and goalkeeping has been this year's achilles heal that Ralph and Jones could not overcome.
The WHINING of the Starting XI/formation announced the hour before matches is palpable on Southampton boards. Most thinking Ralph and especially Jones would never get it right. - wrong formation, wrong players, in wrong positions. Maybe that happens incessantly in most if not all PL fan boards, i dont know.