Amazing how little credit Xisco gets on here. His tenure has seen a significant improvement in performances ,for the first time this season we are playing cohesive football and we actually look like a team . Plus we’ve had decent results. Yes at times his substitutions are questionable but I can’t remember many managers whose substitutions were always spot on. I realise it’s the bedwetters worst nightmare if Xisco gets us promoted but let’s give the guy some credit for what he’s done so far. It could all go **** up still but so far so good.
Had Xisco lost the Bristol C game he would have been sacked. We got a big win in that game, and have progressed from there. Most of the bedwetters wanted him gone after he lost a game, lol
I'm not letting him off the hook until he shows, when TD is fit, that he doesn't walk straight back into this side. If he doesn't then he's got my support. If he does he can **** right off.
See also: cleverley. We are now better than needing to rely on players who try hard, run around a lot, but have limited footballing ability. If he walks back into the side we can forget about promotion.
In fairness we were on a great run before Cleverley got injured, was starting to a decent impression of a prime Abdi! But yes, Deeney is finished, whereas Cleverley might come back into the team when he's fit (whenever that is lol), I think the penny might have finally dropped, I don't think Deeney will be back any time soon...
But who do you drop for him? Even chalobah is ace now. He can only possibly weaken us. Though it seems the manager is not keen on changing winning teams so fingers crossed he' s lashed on the bench.
I agree but don't forget we have two matches over the Easter weekend, I would expect a small amount of rotation between the Sheffield and Boro matches.
It does surprise me just how little credit he's given on here. Before he arrived I thought Chalobah was for the scrap heap and Sierallta would be back playing in the Chilean Primera B within 6 months. Win the next two and he's got a 70% win rate which is close to his farmer's league record
Munoz P 18 W13 D 2 L 3 F 32 A 11 Pts 41 Gd +21 Ivic P 20 W 9 D 7 L 4 F 23 A 16 Pts 34 Gd +7 Wow.......what an incredible job he's doing.
I was a bit surprised when Leicester were interested in Chalobah in the window, but he really is looking a class act and would walk into quite a few PL teams
Don't know if it's coming from him or someone he's brought with him but the increased variation in our set pieces is a massive tick in the box. We have different signals for different set pieces and we clearly have a few routines up our sleeve. The movement today to get Chalobah free at the back post was brilliant, as was the first half routine that got Masina free. I don't care if things don't always come off - it's so refreshing not to see every corner hit flat to the near post area.
Those draws and losses under Ivic is what’s killed us this season. 0-0 at home to Sheff Weds 1-1 at home to Bmuff (not great but acceptable) 1-1 away to Wycombe 1-1 away to QPR 0-0 away to Bristol City 0-0 away to Forest 1-1 at home to Brentford* 1-0 away to Reading 1-0 away to Barnsley 1-0 at home to Cardiff 2-0 away to Huddersfield *first half we were atrocious. 2nd half we battered them, and would have won had it not been for a shocking offside decision. When you look at most of the games we lost and drew under him, it really is poor. Most of those are games that we should have won. Had we been playing 433 from the beginning, like every fan said, no doubt we would be top, most likely automatic promotion already clinched, or on the verge of being clinched. Xisco has done a great job. Granted I’ve been extremely negative towards and wanted him sacked! He has now proven wrong. As the team is improving game by game, so is he. His tactical substitutions are far more effective now and I have to give credit where credit is due. Obviously the next 8 games are huge. I’m glad we’re coming back after the break to a home game against Sheff Weds. That really should be 3 points, with then 7 games to go. If we get promoted and take this team chemistry into the Prem, adding the right players along the way, we could be in for another decent stay in the Prem.
Don't disagree with the thought but playing this particular 4-3-3 wasn't available to Ivic. He had no left back and no Hughes. If he had, I'm sure we'd have played that formation from the start of the season, it's why he kept mentioning the left back situation in every press conference. We'll never know but had Masina not got injured against Scunthorpe, suspect we'd have started the season 4-3-3 with Garner attempting the Hughes role. There was a long period with both Deeney and Gray injured so likely the front three would've been the same.
I think a lot of people on here are unfair on Ivic, because as you say SLB, Vlads options were a lot less than The Kids have been. Personally I think Vlad did a bloody good job with the limitations he had to operate under and I doubt The Kid could have done the same. Having said all that I have to admit that Vlads tactics were very drab to watch, although in the main they were also very effective. Furthermore The Kid has definitely brought a feel good factor to the team and has improved with his tactics in recent weeks. All in all as I have said before I think both managers deserve praise for their contributions to the team and maybe had they been together as a managerial unit from the start we might have already achieved promotion by now.
Vlad was extremely cautious at times, QPR away springs to mind, but judging by his angry reaction at home to Rotherham when the players coasted in the second half rather than go for the jugular, I definitely don't think he's naturally ultra-defensive. I still like him, and would have been interested to see what he could make out of this current set-up, but I can't deny that the players seem to like Xisco's cheerier approach than Vlad's disciplinarian ways
Not that I'm overly bothered at this stage given that Hughes, Gosling and Sanchez have all come in and done as good if not better than him, but I wonder if that sort of set-up would have suited Garner better than a 2 man midfield
Sheffield Wednesday away wasn't *that* bad, first half when Murray was just looking completely out of place, sure, but Perica came on and looked a threat. Bournemouth maybe we could have gone for it a bit more at 1-0 but we still had enough chances to kill the game off. Reading we started off relatively brightly, but TDB went off and then they scored and we just looked utterly toothless after that, think that was more a personnel issue as Hughes was out. Barnsley I don't think we had a shot on target, Sarr had his man on toast but just couldn't put that final ball in. Forest and particularly Bristol City away I can kind of understand the tentativeness seeing as we had players missing out because of Covid at short notice. Not going to even try to defend the others, they were awful
Just a small correction, as you probably are aware, Sheff Weds was away. On to the point over Ivic. He was far too cautious and that performance at Huddersfield told me the players didn't want to play for him anymore and engineered the defeat. By then he had to go. But, would we have gone on to do what Munoz has done under Ivic? It's highly unlikely, as the moral was far too low and the rot had set in. Ivic didn't have Hughes available to him, so that is a mitigating factor, but he did have Sierralta and didn't use him. The team has evolved over the season, but I do think Munoz got a bit lucky. He was standing on the edge of the sack himself and had we lost the Bristol City game, he would have surely gone also. The fact we won 6-0 and haven't looked back since makes that thought look ridiculous now, but I do feel things fell into place for Munoz but to his credit he recognised what was working and left it alone. This is where Munoz has done well. He's kept faith in something that is working. Ivic would never have done that. He was far too protective of player's health. He made them out to be so fragile. No way would he have put a settled side through the grueling run Munoz has. Plus Munoz has improved on the job. His handling of the squad has been brilliant. No coach can win 9 out of 10 matches if there is not unity and harmony within the squad. I'm a big fan of Deeney, but even I have to concede we've looked better without his influence, although I do stand by Bournemouth away as being his type of game and he would have been very useful on that occasion. The Pozzo's have made far too many mistakes over the past couple of years, but right now, it's going very well. How they come across this formula is not the way I would have gone about it, but if it pays off then who's to say they were wrong. But we have to wait until the end of the season in order to judge how they've handled this season. It's only justified if we go up.
Can't really disagree with any of your post. I wasn't happy at all with the Xisco appointment and agree he probably would of gone if we hadn't won the Bristol City game. But he's making me eat my words and I'm extremely happy with this and I'm enjoying watching us again. DeeKnee being injured, the change in formation is all there for everyone to see. Apart from the Muff game which we mishandled it's been a remarkable turnaround and Xisco and the staff have massive credit for this. Even when we were not at our best yesterday we dug in and secured a good result, we could and really should of had a couple more goals too. A good time for a break now to recover and really have a go at the final 8 games.
I wonder if that'll actually help us in the run-in? We only had a handful of players who were definite starters when fit under Ivic, I wonder if the likes of Chalobah and JP being rotated, and Sierralta hardly being used will help us?
I think this is perhaps more interesting than potential summer transfers. Although he has done a tremendous job so far, do we think GP will trust him next season? Personally, I would like to see him at Watford next season.
He doesn’t have the necessary coaching badges to qualify him to coach an EPL first team? Has this changed?
We'll have no manager next year. Just an extra kit man called Munoz who makes some decisions on the line up.