Munoz is a classic case of Gino simultaneously underestimating the role of a manger and overestimating the quality of our squad. He thinks they’re good enough for a happy clappy simpleton to come in and be their mate and they’ll do the rest, well they are nowhere near good enough for that. If you put City in the championship and put Gino Dicampo in charge they’d probably still just about win it, but Watford? No. There must be thousands of examples over the years now of a jolly number two taking over after the manager has been sacked, who is the players mate and gets results for about five games. After that 99 times out of 100 performances fall off a cliff. In football eventually you need an actual plan, tactics, the players need their specific jobs drilled into them every day in training so they know what to do within a specific system, you have to tactically outwit the opposition every time you play. You need to understand the oppositions strengths and weaknesses as well as your own and adapt accordingly, you have to play players in their most effective positions. At the moment we’ve got a manager who clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing and players nowhere close to being good enough or motivated enough to overcome that.
I just can't understand why we never fly out of the blocks at the start of any game. It's always so slow and careful and the first instinct is always a sideways or backwards pass. I don't think it's a lack of confidence, rather a negative mindset, but why I don't know. I thought Munoz would at least encourage them to attack more but it's not happening. Even when we take the lead - Deeney (pen.) - we rarely press home the advantage and go for another goal. We can moan all we like about the personnel, lack of signings, formation, tactics or the manager but if the intent to attack and dominate the game is not there from the players they are never going to be successful.
I always think we are slow starters so I was surprised to see that we had actually scored the most amount of goals inside the first 15 minutes.
Ditto, except it will be me and my son scaring the dog and my wife saying "calm down, it is only a game", which is guaranteed to make us feel less calm.
I really want to see what they do in training. We have a couple of players in our squad who have been coached by Ferguson and Mourinho, I'd love to know their thoughts on the Spanish grinning machine.
I think you may be right but the position gets less and less attractive every time. Who would be prepared to come and manage this club this time, given the lifespan of the last 2 appointments ? People say we should go all out and try and attract a Howe or similar but there isn't an iota of a chance they would come here under the current regime. It would be another european with poor recent cv, no experience of the championship, and immediately available. Rinse and repeat. Whereas Muff genuinely could attract someone like Lampard given their connections ....and the fact that they aren't an utter laughing stock.
I get your point but the geezer has won the Europa with Valencia I am sure training isn't turn up piss about have a match and go home. You would like to imagine that he understands how training works despite his inept tactical decisions. Although his managerial credentials are poor he still had a better career than most of our players.
Why not if we played 352 against qpr we would of had more of a chance of winning ,lost count how many times there wing backs crossed the ball one had to lad on Austin's head ,imo they won the ball in the centre of the park cos they had 3 players against our 2 then played out wide for the cross, just baffles me how managers in whatever league thinks 2 cmids can get control of a game against a 3 ,so just play the same formation against each team just my thinking that's all
Oh no I'm not suggested they turn up, have a laugh and go home. I'm sure they do actual training which makes the performances even more worrying. Clearly what he's telling the players is a load of crap, being a good player has nothing to do with it.
Fair point I think the last few performances have been mainly down to team selection. Hopefully now Sema is fit we will have more balance. How long are Massina and Kiko out for?
You'll have to wait for the pre-match press conference to hear anything on that, and then do the maths in your own head if they're still out to work out how long they say it will translates to actual real world time. That being said, the slightly odd excuse of 'minor knocks' was used as the explanation for their absence in the first place, so theoretically they should both be back for Coventry.
Apart from the fact that I believe the mindset that makes a professional football manager means that 99 times out of 100, they will back themselves to do better than their rival/predecessor, and think that they can see and do something the others couldn't that will lead to more success (they are, after all, importing the way they see the game to the team when they are hired, theoretically), I actually think that Munoz's specific appointment might help us out a bit in that regard. It's far less explainable when Ivic was given the chop, but when it comes to Munoz any manager in the frame to replace him will instantly think 'oh yeah, they somehow ended up with an unqualified spin instructor as the coach, of course he didn't last very long; I wouldn't expect anything less, and whatever happens I'll look pretty great to boot'. The really damaging time to be seen as a basket case hire-and-fire club was when we were struggling to survive whilst attracting a certain calibre of coach in the Prem. Nowadays, the coaching situation is taken as writ, and I genuinely believe that most coaches we could ever realistically be in for will see it as a challenge that they can potentially profit quite a lot from (financially, it's guaranteed) and, given the fact that our reputation is set in stone, now, see their own remain relatively unscathed however badly the job might end up going.
Not having a pop at you but this is the general consensus of the fans isnt it? 3 poor games and you're gone? Lose to Coventry and thats it? WTF is going on at our club? WTF is going on with football these days? GT would not have been given the time with Pozzo to settle in and find his feet. Before anyone jumps, I'm not saying that Munoz is GT, anything but. However the decision makers have to be blamed for not finding a manager that they believe in and allow mistakes to be made. The 1 year Ivic contract was a piss take when they had moons to find a new boss. I'd rather let Munoz take us to 8th in the league, restructure the playing squad next year and have another go. Then next year if we're 10th after 12 games stick with him. How can the constant chop and change work in the long term? If we had kept Pearson into the championship, we would be in a better place I am 100% certain. If Munoz is not the man for the long term, what are we doing appointing him? And in honesty is Munoz the problem with WFC right now? Or a scapegoat?
That's a very good question, but also one that is kind of redundant, given the way the Pozzo have very clearly demonstrated they operate the club and its managerial appointments. For me, it isn't three poor games and you're gone; I would have been very happy with 0 games and you're gone. We were insane to appoint him and just like many said at the time, it makes no sense. That simply now appears to be being borne out, even despite the dual advantages of a dead-cat-bounce exacerbated by the fact that he was not Vladimir Ivic, and the fact that despite their horrible attitudes and assorted issues, we have one of the more talented squads in the league. Constant chop and change is a problem for this club and football in general in a wider sense, yes, but contextually we cannot ignore this particular scenario. The club has made even more of a rod for its own back by doing such an irresponsible, illogical thing as to appoint him in the first place, but Munoz himself has done nothing to demonstrate that he is in any way a man capable of even contending to 'restructure the playing squad and have another go' - there is far more reason to believe that he will not be capable of playing any meaningful or effective part in that. What we need is to appoint someone worthy of sticking by and restructuring. It's not Munoz' fault he was hired, we've done all that to death by now, but keeping him purely in service of 'continuity' and 'sticking with someone' is just ill-advisedly throwing good money after bad. Pearson is a very different character, and apart from anything is actually a professional football coach with a CV to demonstrate it. If anything, what we need is to appoint a Pearson-comparable figure and then stick with them.
No matter the results or the performances (unless they get so drastically bad that we fall out of contention altogether), all Xisco needs to do is not piss anyone off and he's safe
A fair sentiment, but why should we be voluntarily hamstrung by tethering ourselves to an absolute no-hoper just because it's 'not his fault'? That way madness lies.
Nice way with words, I had to google Charybdis. Yes, the weather has been appalling since last September, the only good thing last month was the all too brief period of snow. COVID has a lot to answer for, to think we could have been celebrating survival and partying at Arsenal in the glorious spring sunshine...
Isn’t that basically the same thing? This season reminds me somewhat of 1996/97 - good defence (apart from a few panicky moments), hard to beat but equally hard to watch, mediocre record against the top sides, and despite picking up many points, not looking a very happy or confident side.
So going imo with what formation the other team play ,cov play 3421 so zinc gets his first start alongside sarr with pedro up top, the 3 and the 4 pick themselves ,we might get a bit of attacking play from the start of the game
Fairplay, but again, I think there is a significant body of evidence that suggests that of all of them, Munoz is not that one.
Remember when our fans used to defend our coaching hire and fire record, because they believed that Gino knew something that the other thousands of pundits, journalists, commentators, pros, managers and fans didn't. Like, Gino had discovered this unique secret of hiring badly and firing quickly.
I agree with part of what you say, apart from anything about keeping Munoz. He should never have been hired. He shouldn't still be here and we absolutely should not pin any medium or long term plans around him. Pearson was the man to build with. Someone who had a reputaion, credentials, personality etc. To lead a rebuild. Unfortunately he wasn't a yes man and was sacked.
Issue is, we've seen at this point it really isn't the Manager now. I wouldn't go as far as call him a scapegoat but he is a sympton of the larger malice behind the scenes and lack of foresight. It doesn't matter who we appoint as the toxicity from certain individuals within it ruin any chance of developing a style of play that doesn't fit square pegs in round holes.
Barring that promotion Season spell where a lot of it was enforced for various reasons, up until Gracia's sacking there was a fairly obvious reason why we hired and fired as frequently as we did. Gracia was the first one where there didn't seem to be a fairly solid consensus it was the right call and it's only gotten worse. Zola was because, not for a lack of effort or care he stopped getting a tune out of the team. "Beppe" Saninno because he was a task master who lost the squad due to not being able to speak English, but did want to see his face on the pitch. Recruitment error. Garcia had that heart issue. (There's a joke in there) Joka was the first one where it wasn't really a clear cut upgrade. However, given Joka's performance for Fulham and that QSF kept us up, that can be called the right decision for its time. QSF was because we were ******* dreadful after January. Mazarri was the wrong team and wrong philosphy. Recruitment error. Silva. Hsss. Gracia had the best highs and most consistent. Although we were obviously badly undercooked in Pre-Season and our early form was diabolical it felt like (Except perhaps his last game where we played 5 atb v Newcastle when the writing was on the wall) he was still trying hard like Zola to turn it around. QSF 2.0. No. Recruitment error of the highest order. Pearson was one we should have stuck with at this point. I have no doubt about that. Issue was he wasn't a Yes man and therefore got booted. Players didn't like getting told to get stuck in and concentrate. Between Ivic or Struber, we should have gone for Struber. That said, Ivic made sense with his demeanor and that he was good at blooding in youth. Either we stuck with him all the way or we didn't. Players didn't like his hard work ethic and we didn't like his style of play. Recruitment error. Xisco. Recruitment error culminated due to list of errors above.
To be fair we actually got promoted with 4 managers in one season and with the exception of the last season we were never really in a relegation fight, you could say it only really had an impact last season.
No, I don’t think it’s the same at all. I think the players are confident in their own ability, but the mindset is to try and keep the ball away from the opposition and eventually a goal will materialise and they win 1-0. However the stats show that it doesn’t work, they don’t dominate possession and often lose control of the game.
I don’t agree multiple managers are recruitment errors because the players don’t like a hard work ethic. I’d say the recruitment error is our lazy petulant players, not the managers.
I think there was a clear plan in place in terms of managers until it went sour with Silva, QSF to keep us up, Wally was an honest but ultimately failed attempt to get us to progress in that tricky second season, and Silva was supposed to get us to the next level. We really tried to persist with him, but once it became untenable we brought in Javi, who I don't think was ever really intended to be anything more than a stopgap. Then, we had our best season in over 30 years with him, including a memorable cup run, but that season, just like the previous season, it all went sour in the end. I think the only thing that saved Javi from the sack in the summer of 2019 was that semi-final, and to be honest, if we'd have moved on then, and brought in basically anyone other than QSF from the start of the season, we'd have been fine. Oh well, it is what it is, better get used to being a bang average Championship team again
