Ronald has come in at a very tough time, completely cold with no grace period like Klopp had to test out all his players. That's what he's been doing this season up until now, deciding who he thinks is good enough and who isn't, and he's given almost all of them a fair crack of the whip to prove themselves. He's also given them the chance to prove they can play passing football, they clearly aren't up to it yet, hence the back to basics stuff we've seen up until this point. That'll change after a couple more transfer windows.
Given how the board ballsed up summer it has made his job even harder, but him and Walsh have had time to assess targets now, primarily for the summer id imagine, and the next two windows will see him mould his own squad, get rid of
Moyes' remaining surrender monkeys and Martinez's absolute no hopers, of which there are plenty.
The top 6 are exactly where you'd expect them to be given what they've spent and the solid basis they all had, and yet he's got us best of the rest so far. It's not been pretty but it's proving effective, I think he's doing a fine job so far.