Its all very simple. Just watch David Brent in the office. It's not rocket science. Free love on the free love freeway.
Give him his due, he got the defence tightened up and is now starting to get a tune out of the rest of the team, including Capoue
Came with a reputation as a tactical guru and he hasn't disappointed. Different systems in all of his three games so far, against Stoke and last night all of the players looked like they knew exactly what their role was. This squad is more than good enough to stay up, it just needed a bit of organisation and confidence. Great appointment by Gino and Scott!
I'm delighted with what hes done so far. But same with QSF and Zola and Mazzari and Silva. Then it went pear for all of them. The potential problem with Gracia is could we fall into a pulis style attritional side? Its just up to the board to buy him some defoleu or Richie style players to stop that happening.
I disagree entirely about attritional style, what we saw last night was the 'high press', no different to what Man City, Tottenham or Liverpoo do, and we have creative players who can generate chances. Pulis never had nor never wanted those types of players. We had 21 shots at goal last night, that's not conducive with attritional football.
The sheer joy on Javi's face when he was interviewed.....you would never have seen that from the surly one.
That win if nothing else justifies the change of manager - and shows that the players themselves were not the problem
I was very surprised with how we played, I thought we'd sit deep and use our pace to launch counters. Full marks to Gracia though, the pressing from the front three was superb and we won it a number of times high up the pitch. I guess he noticed that all of the Chelsea back three look like they're towing a tractor when they run!
He may turn out to be the best of the 5 we will have this season. I even heard the words "Zeegelaar" and "excellent positioning" in the same sentence.
To actually have to come in and start coaching when we have so many players out injured - and to get that performance out of that starting 11 - and, to be so positive about using the strengths of who is available... as QSF would have said 'amazing'.
It did not really happen - we dreamed it. It is not possible to play football when we have so many players injured - we have to lose every game. Oh sorry no, Slither has gone.
I agree and I was delighted when we appointed him as I knew how good he was at Malaga. Ok, there is the usual new manager bounce, and we've certainly seen this now. I accept that Chelsea have their problems, but just look at that Watford side selected last night. It had Holebas a centre back, Mapps, Zeegelaar and Janmaat, all back up players, Capoue who hardly played under Silva, no Cleverley, no Gomes. We had a kid on the bench. Yet we take on the Champions and thrash them. Deulofeu has made a big impact, and it's clear he's lifted everyone. The work rate was exceptional and infectious. Get Cleverley, Chalobah and Kiko back and the final few games could be quite enjoyable. Gracia has stripped it back to basics. It's not rocket science. Players have to be organised, but also totally committed and have to put a shift in. They are now organised and are all working hard. Players will always work harder when they believe in something. Under Silva I felt they got to a stage where collectively players would think we're working hard but getting nowhere. This makes them give up a little, which is why you see a nosedive in form. That's all changed now. Players like Capoue are being given a chance. He's playing for a new contract, so is putting it in. Deeney has sorted his game out and looks a lot fitter. Right across the field you can see players have raised their game, because they are believing once more. I think we're now firmly back on track and from what I've seen in the last couple of games, we should be totally fine.
They say a week is a long time in politics - it is in football too. I really feared we were in for a proper relegation fight - and might lose it. One win cannot change it by itself but the belief it inspires is infectious
I thought Gracia would likely keep us up but the football would be boringly dire. Yesterday proved me wrong on that score. I think Deeney was superb with so many little flicks on and other slide rule passes. He does puzzle me though. He looks knackered almost as soon as game starts. Yesterday 15 minutes in and he looked strained and sweat was pouring off his face but he kept running well all game so is deceptive.
I know this will be an unpopular opinion as there's understandably a lot of ill will towards Silva, but I think he deserves some credit for at least part of this season, including last night. He put together a squad with a lot of attacking quality and with a much greater team spirit than was displayed all throughout last season and the closing weeks of Flores', something that was apparent even during this season's darkest days (look at the way the players went over to acknowledge the fans at Leicester in Silva's final game - how often, if at all, did that happen during Mazarri's reign?). Memories like Southampton away, the joyous outpourings after last-gasp goals against Swansea, West Brom and Arsenal (even if most of them have proved to be poor sides) are hard to erase. But what Gracia has done is built a much stronger TEAM that defends from back to front, and is not simply built on outscoring the opposition or keeping possession, moulding the individual strengths while compensating for weaknesses into a more reliable whole. Still early days, but the encouraging signs are already there that he could be the best manager for us in the Premier League - he has the defensive solidity of QSF while able to get more out of our attacking talent as Silva did, with the tactical flexibility of Mazarri that hasn't been lost in translation over the Channel and much better interpersonal skills.
He held the ball up really really well. He's not the traditional forward who thrives on attacking balls into the box with his head but he's great at holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Works well with both widemen able to cut in and shoot rather than get to the byline and cross.
Not sure what he built. He had no control over transfers, a key issue behind his big sulk. He can take a modicum of credit for speaking the same language as richarlison and Carillo i suppose. We haven't attacked anyone since October, he gave us eight games of exciting attacking football (none of which was better than yesterday) at the expense of defending, and then sabotaged our club. We haven't played remotely in his style, whatever that turned out to be, we were appalling for twice the amount of games we were good, and all his staff have been sacked, so I don't see how he could have built anything. Even the players he partly influenced to come are much better without him.
He deserves credit for what he did until Everton approached him. He deserves shame for just about everything that happened after that. For a manager to switch off because he did not get what he wanted is downright pathetic. I have seen the occasional player go into a sulk and refuse to play but do not remember another manager doing it. Everything last night was purely down to Gracia - Slythrin had almost all of those players available and did nothing and they had picked up his lack of interest.
I suspect Richie's much more central positioning really helped both of them. Deeney had an outlet & Richie wasn't stuck in a cul de sac near the corner with 2 defenders all over him.
I would say we played a pretty good attacking game against West Ham, Newcastle and against Man U for a large part, but your points are otherwise mostly valid. But Silva, whatever his crimes post-Everton, did establish a positive ethos of a team that wasn't afraid to attack teams home and away, whatever calibre - 11 goals in 7 games against the top 6 and only two away defeats prior to that hat-trick of sendings off and performances falling right over the cliff are testimony to that. He was part of a team integral to taking this club to the next level. I wouldn't say last night was totally different in style to our best performances under Silva - there was a return to that high-energy, high-tempo game with pace up front and a precise possession-based game that made our team so enjoyable to watch up until the end of November, just with added grit and tougher tackling. The early games must surely have influenced Gracia's approach (who has a reputation for being a bit of a defensive manager) as I imagine Gino would have made it clear to him that he wanted the team to be playing as it was at the start of the season. Perhaps I'm giving Silva too much credit, but I thought it would be mildly useful to provide a bit of balance. I still think it would be highly amusing if he were to go back to Hull (who have not improved one iota under Nigel Adkins) and finish the job he started, horrible club and they deserve each other.
Yeah me too, but I'm wary of truly committing again after my QSF experience. I just don't want to be hurt again.