Nigel Pearson - Manager

Gon 2 Villa m8.

 

I mean his 4.2 tackles and interceptions per 90 wouldn’t suggest he struggles defending on the back foot...but I can’t say I’ve watched a lot of him, just thought those number are in incredibly high for someone who perhaps struggles

 

From what I've watched of him they're mostly interceptions - he's very quick and uses that to often nick the ball before a pass has had the chance to reach the player or the player has got the ball under control. However, once opposition wingers have the ball and are running at him then his tackling isn't very good. In close quarters when there isn't as much room and time to steal a march and make interceptions then he's not that effective.

 

What, a cat?!

 

Watford need to wake up and put everyone on the same hymn sheet. They need to appoint a head coach that fits the squad and then recruit accordingly. Not pay a club record fee for a winger and then give him to two coaches that play without wingers. I’m personally Pearson out as I don’t think he suits us whatsoever. We have an ideology at the club to sign young players and sell them on - quite a few South American players. We need to stop going for the cheap option regarding head coaches and pick someone you can build with. Watford are a ball playing squad with some young players that could be stars. Appoint a coach that has a history of building with a club and developing younger players. Marcelino is available - he fits the bill perfectly. Would he come? Not sure, but we need some ambition at this club. Chopping and changing style every season was always going to lead to a potential relegation, we need a complete reset in the summer regardless of what league we’re in.

 

Once Pearson inevitably goes, can we demand Giraldi gets the job? That way we can skip all of the hope and optimism and just call for him to be sacked.

 

The magic cat from ts elliot?

 

THE. DAY. OF. RECKONING.

 

AND. IT'S. LIVE!

 

To my mind, Pearson is a 50% manager. Basically, that's not too flattering, but he needs to strong number 2, in order to achieve success. He has that with Shakespeare. This is why I'm surprised we've done so poorly over the past 11 games.

Without Shakespeare, then I'd have big doubts about him. He's a people's man. He can inspire players and motivate them. That's his strength, although that's sadly been missing over the past 11 games, and certainly since the restart. He's not a tactician, and this is where Shakespeare comes in.

If Pearson does go, then that would invariably mean Shakespeare would go also, and I think losing him would be a shame. If Pearson did go and we retained the rest of the staff, such as Shakespeare, Mullins & Stack, I'd be ok with that.

Pearson is a motivator, but if he's not motivating, I don't really see a place for him. Having said that, I do personally like his approach, I like his thoughts and views and the way he speaks. Throughout this entire run he's been extremely calm and has the appearance of being in control of the situation. He's showing no signs of pressure, which is a strength. I like the way he was onboard right from the off, and every interview he gives it's always "we" and "us" when he speaks.

I want him to do well, and I'd have no problem with him leading us next season, but I have my doubts it will work out and I suspect secretly a decision has already been made. But to my mind, if he keeps us up, and this is being written before the Norwich match, we are still in the best position of the bottom four to stay up. So, if he keeps us up, he deserves to stay and try to build something. Having said that, if we go down, he's probably the best person to take us back up again, but I doubt the owner will see it that way.

 

Guardiola couldn't motivate our bunch of w*nkers.

 

If we lose tonight I wouldn't be surprised to see Pozzo sack him tomorrow

 

Sounds fine, but the trouble with that model is that coaches these days are just as likely to move on after a couple of years as players are - even if we don't sack them. So 'building a club' is rarely in the remit of the manager as it was in GT's day; only the owners can do that.

 

It’s not the managers fault, goodness knows we have tried enough of them.

When will people acknowledge that this **** show is down to a group of average to poor (by championship standards) players who are weak lily livered ****s.

 

....that finished 11th last season and got to a cup final.....

 

The best a Watford manager could ever hope for is to request a player for a certain position and be given a choice of few we then go after. We’d invariably then end up with the 3rd or 4th choice option on that list. That’s as much control as they’d ever get, that and picking who starts.

 

This is how we end up with Zeegelaar, Sema, etc....It's almost not worth the effort of asking.

 

Get Sir Eddie in ASAP

 

Surely they were ninth or tenth choice.

 

"You wanted "a winger", we got you a winger. You wanted "a left back", we got you a left back. Then you don't even play them? Why did we waste our time in finding them for you "

 

This is such a vacuous point though; not only are the vast majority of people on here openly acknowledging that, even in posts they write about the Head Coach, but it also completely ignores the fact that, whether the players are good enough or not, it doesn't change the fact that you judge that coach based on the entire context of their reign to determine how they are performing in the roles they do have influence and control over, whether or not they are hamstrung in terms of personnel.

Now, in terms of your actual point, as The Undeniable Truth has already pointed out, we are talking about the exact same squad who were competing for Europe last year and reached the FA Cup final, so it's not quite as black and white as you are making out. Looking at it another way, if we compare the squads and players that Nigel has had to work with, it's true that we are missing Deulofeu, which is a catastrophe, particularly in this mini-tournament-esque resumption period in which games are often decided by individual moments of genius, obviously meaning a team's best player/s are even more important than normal. He hasn't been missing Deulofeu for the majority of his time with us, and he has had nothing like the bad luck with personnel that some of our other Prem coaches have.

Mazzarri managed to keep us up with very little fuss with a group at one point so ravaged with injury he had to name five youth players to his squad for a Premier League match. Other coaches have had similarly bad periods; he has in fact been one of the luckiest, notwithstanding the inexplicable nature of injury pattern that has afflicted Cleverley, Chalobah and Janmaat, who seem to be cursed players over the lifespan of several incumbents.

In the broadest sense, if you take Nigel's supposed MO as a coach and compare that to the effect he has had on our players, then yes, a portion of the fault can indeed be laid at his door.

 

Everyone trying to blame one single element (squad, manager, owner...) but it’s broadly all of them. And the one thing that encompasses all of it is the ‘culture’ at the club and ethos the club works to.

Quite frankly what we do doesn’t seem to work anymore. The club always boasts of having a framework and the players and coaches can come and go whilst the framework remains. But what has been overlooked is that the ‘framework’ is stale and no longer really seems for for purpose. If we keep things as they are, we are destined to keep getting coaches who all ultimately suffer the same fate, a few mercurial talents who perform a couple of times a season and a lot of sub-standard players who don’t earn their wage at all.

The way the footballing operation is set up at the club is a ticking relegation time bomb. Stay up this season, and a very frank assessment is needed of every member of staff at the club - from the top down. If they are part of the problem or don’t want to buy into the necessary changes, they’ve got to go.

 

That are on the brink of a humiliating relegation.

Yeah great reply.

 

It is if you engaged your brain.
You've said the players must be **** as we have tried so many managers with no success. I pointed out the same players finished 11th and a cup final only a year ago so clearly are able to perform a hell of a lot better than they have this season if properly managed.
There, now do you understand ?

 

I mean technically, seeing as we are out of the relegation zone, if we are on the brink of anything, it’s survival not relegation.

But I get your point.

 

It's easy to get angry with the plight of Watford right now, and it's natural to start blaming everything with a hornet logo on it.

However, I do sympathise with the owner. The Pozzo family are not rich (in football ownership terms). They cannot maintain a Premier League club through their own personal wealth, unlike the vast majority of Premier League clubs who have sugar-daddy owners or rich consortiums.

They have placed us in a league we naturally have no right to be in. They've put us there through their own skill and ingenuity. Is it going to be easy from there on in? Of course not. It is going to be a struggle. They've sailed close to the wind a couple of times, and got very lucky that we stayed up when Mazzari was in charge.

Could they have done things to mitigate this season's events? Yes, of course, and that's their failing to think the defence was strong enough. It was not, and has not been good enough for years. It badly needs a major overhaul. But they felt they wanted Sarr at all costs and spent all pre-season chasing him, tying up all our money in that one deal and not looking at other areas. That decision could come back to haunt them, but it's all opinion before the fact when these decisions are made. You have to be shrewd in your judgement, and the majority of these decisions they have got correct, but when it's a judgement call, you'll obviously get some wrong. The task is to get more right than wrong.

So, if we go down, I will not blame the Pozzo's. They are punching above their weight running a Premier League football club, and they've been very good at doing it. We are unfashionable as a club, and if they went, then would we attract richer, better owners? It's unlikely. It's more likely we'll go back to being a middling-to-struggling Championship club chasing the dream one day we'll be promoted......and if that day ever did happen to be able to stay up, which is an even harder thing to do.

For my mind, the Pozzo's are the best we could ever get, and we have to live with or even embrace their limitations.

 

'The little old Watford' complex. Which despite our owners, the CEO and virtually everyone involved with the club has been at pains to try and stop since we've been promoted, it endures with much of our supporter base.

Won't ever change. Just keep clapping and try and enjoy the day out.

 

T

They got hammered in one of the most humiliating cup finals ever and only finished 11th due to a good start to the season. From around the Feb of that year they have been rank.

If you can’t see an awful team then maybe football is not the game for you. Take your nonsense elsewhere.

happy clapper.

 

The happy clappers rounding on anyone who calls out this horrific group of players are a complete shambles.

 

And just wait until 8pm...

 

Yes they were rubbish from the FA SF onwards. So actually they were good enough to be 7th before then. Its a matter of fact that they finished 11th on 50 points and got to the cup final. THE SAME PLAYERS. So to suggest that the players simply aren't good enough and that manager after manager has been unable to get results out of them and so can't be at fault is plain stupid isn't it ??!

 

You're not very bright are you ? Moog, is this one of your parody accounts ?
HIGHGRADE is that you ?

 

If he picks Deeney tonight he can **** off.

 

I think the fact that it is the same group of ageing, past their best and unmotivated players which is one of, if not the biggest issues.

The team peaked and reached the end of its cycle with the cup semi-final and were in desperate need of a refresh afterwards which hasn't happened. See this thread for more details:

http://wfcforums.com/index.php?thre...ford-fc-04-07-2020.57172/page-13#post-2860473

 

Yes but it's odd as it's only a year on, it's not like comparing Troy now with promotion-winning Troy. I think at their best this squad should be achieving 40-45 points. I think motivation is an issue, particularly for some, morale is poor and the players don't seem to have the backbone to roll their sleeves up. The bonus issue clearly didn't help but there is something wrong there, you don't get the impression that they are acting like a united squad as they were at the turn of the year.