Quique Out

Hiring Flores may well not be the right move but at least the defence is better! Looking back at the West Ham thread the state of the defence was what everybody was talking about and even yourself said you didn't know if anybody could sort it out.

 

Actually, we lost 3 and drew one. And in all of those games we created chances by playing to our strengths. In all games under Flores we've conceded 15 (!!) and scored 4 - and haven't looked like getting many more. And that's with the 'new manager bounce'! Christ alone knows what'll happen to us once that's worn off!!

 

Are you Churchill in disguise?

 

I didn't agree with this for so long. I was still pro-Pozzo despite only getting an aged, past it CB and a winger, when we desperately needed a striker and at least one quality CB with pace.

Then they re-instated QSF.

I'm not sure if Gino has been influenced by external forces, or if he's tired/ bored or too focused on getting us official energy drink sponsors. But it was an abysmal decision. You can read the original QSF Out thread, and see all of the failings we currently see in the squad.

It's so boring and predictable, I'm not sure why I'm even bothering creating new posts. From now on, I'll just C&P my original post on the Second Coming thread:

 

Have you noticed?

Since the QSF return not heard 'Amathing' once. Sign of the times.

I reckon Pozzo will give QSF the 4 x November fixtures, which other than Chelsea will all be deemed by management as winnable games. If there is no win odds on we will have a new one jettisoned in early Dec.

 

I did not go to last nights match, but friends and family did. They say lots of anti QSF feeling among the away support. Once you lose the hard core fans as a manager, you need to quickly turn around results or you are toast. I suspect a draw against Chelsea and Norwich might be the beginning of the end. He really must get a win against Norwich.

 

I'm all for remaining positive in the face adversity, but I think you're clutching at straws. The game plan of sitting back and attempting to hit teams on the break worked away against a very average Spurs team but employing the same strategy at home against sides like Bournemouth and Sheffield is not going to get us out of the sh 1t. We have to score goals to win games and cannot rely on our elderly defenders and erratic goalkeeper to keep us in this league

 

Sorry, I forgot about that magnificent point at Newcastle. City away was an absolute disgrace and is probably why we set up how we do currently because it was clear we couldn't defend with four at the back. All coaches have a style but very few are able to do all aspects well. Flores is a more defensive coach and was brought in because our defence was a mess. It made no difference if we had a bundle of chances as we knew full well that we would need to score a minimum of 2 to get a point. As it stands the defence looks fairly sturdy and we are not giving away many chances while still creating some very decent chances ourselves. The fact is, against Sheff Utd we should have score at the very least once and probably twice. At Spurs we had golden chances to extend the lead plus the non penalty. Bournemouth was a bit tighter but we still had chances to win the game. With a fair wind we could easily have had 9 points instead of 3. The problem is we won't don't have a natural goalscorer that can get us 15-20 goals a season. Even last season when we scored the 8th highest in the league, two thirds of them were worldies and that will just not continue to happen. We scored very few scrappy goals or tap ins whixh are more the bread and butter goals. I would loves to see us be more attacking and play how we did vs Arsenal but I fear we would end up conceding lots again.

 

Funny, I was there and didn't hear any of this.

I did hear his name being sung though.

 

Good point. Under Gracia we were scoring 'worldies'. But Flores' approach has seen us struggle to get over the halfway line at home to Bournemouth and Sheffield. Bring back Javi!!! Flores Out!!!!

 

Regardless of formations and personnel, sitting back and counter attacking is clearly what we’re going to see home and away against all opponents. And from comments from the manager himself he’s not actually sure what to do with the attacking part and it’s fairly clear he’s hoping the players we have will be able to find ways to attack and gain confidence to score the goals we need.

Not looking good is it.

 

We badly need a forward that can hold the ball up. long balls up to Pereyra or Delefeou are as much use as a one legged man in and ar5e kicking competition

 

True. But it’s at the cost of everything else. I’m sure there might be a defensive minded coach who does not sacrifice everything offensively. The annoying thing is this was completely known about Flores! He is just doing what he does so it’s no shock. I’d genuinely be happier with Allardyce.

 

I agree that Flores takes it to an extreme but it's maybe what he was tasked with doing, sort the defence and then work from there. If that's the case I'm fine with it but I am concerned that this is how we are going to play for the foreseeable future without any hint of different options. I would stick with it for the time being and see if we can get some wins on the board

 

They won't be quitting Udinese. Their home town team.

 

Yes this is how QSF plays and that's just how it is. Keep it tight at the back and hope one of our forwards can nick a goal. It's exactly what he did in his first season here. He cant be blamed, the Pozzos knew exactly what they were getting and we should not be surprised one bit.

It is nothing short of miraculous that he's tightened up that defence after their woeful displays at the start of the season.

It's now up to our forwards to prove their worth.

Unfortunately our record signing is dogshit and our new striker is a crock.

When we get relegated absolutely none of the blame can be directed at QSF, IMHO.

 

You're only saying that because you're still in love with him, sweaty armpits n'all.

 

I have to say I spent the match last night marveling at how even at 12 years his senior, QSF out-hunked marco silva in every single regard (pits notwithstanding).

And marco is no slouch in the hunk stakes.

 

If we don't score in the next two games he's gone in the international break surely?

 

Yeah, but at least he would manage to actually hit the target once before he became totally ineffectual.

 

That’s us stuffed then.

 

Just got more of a bulldog spirit than many on here.

I think I could end up being last man standing (as I was only runner-up last season).

 

Quique spends his pre-match press conferences telling everyone how nervous and lacking in confidence the squad are. Then after games he comes out and says we had no confidence, I wonder why that is!

I know the squad have to take a portion of the blame but it feels like he's laying the blame at their feet at the moment. He's been here long enough now to have kick-started an underperforming squad but he hasn't been able to do it. Other clubs seem to get a new manager bounce and it hasn't worked with Quique, yet!

 

I thought it was generally accepted that the 'new manager bounce' is actually nothing to do with what the new manager does in his first weeks but the players reacting to the change. They want to get/stay in the first team and try that bit harder to impress the new man. That's why the bounce effect usually tends to dissipate after 3 or 4 games. You have to wait much longer than that for a new managers methods to have a real effect. Unfortunately in our case the bounce was restricted to just the Arsenal game, after which we came up against Man City in top form and that was that.

 

Bringing in Quique to replace Javi is the Watford equivalent to Huddersfield bringing in Jan Siewart to replace Wagner.

Quique and Siewart are nothing but very average managers with very basic football philosophies - which is.... Any point will do.

In a time where we’ve needed a boost in confidence and a change in our football tactics, we’ve decided to go dull and defensive, fighting to stop other teams scoring... And when they inevitably do... We are f@cked (See the Everton result).

I thought we were impressive against Arsenal but with recent results, it shows none other than an anomaly - especially considering 2 of the 5 goals we’ve scored all season were in that single game.

Now that Huddersfield have brought in a young promising manager with a good CV, they’re starting to turn around their incredibly poor form and are beginning to claw their way out of what seemed to be a certain relegation.

We on the other hand look closer and closer to relegation as each week passes on.

I hope I am wrong but I just don’t think Quique is the right man for the job - regardless of how nice he seems and how good his chant is...

 

A fair argument put well. I have the same critical doubts about the style of play. At some point you have to attack with purpose as a team & that is not in QSF's tactical armoury. It's too one dimensional & limited for PL nowadays. Only club that can get away with it is Burnley as they have the right manager & personnel to deploy that style effectively with the addition of goals.

QSF deserves all the November fixtures, of which 3 are winnable, for steadying the ship defensively. Pretty confident Pozzo's will roll the dice again if we don't win any of those.

 

This last sentence is the crux of it. Firing Gracia was regrettable but understandable. Re-hiring Quique was nuts. We sacked him (ignore the mutual decision break clause ********) because he couldn't snap a team out of a long period of poor form, so we rehire him... to get us out of a long period of poor form. It's a ridiculous appointment and we deserve to go down.

 

Ah yes but he can't because they're only as fit as a pub side so he couldn't possibly do anything with them. I'd rather have 2006 Aidy Boothroyd back, we'd be playing the same long ball football but at least he'd be telling everyone they're the best players in the world, not that they were a bag of ****.

 

We just need to kick the ball better and save more goals and kick more goals to us and then we ll be better than all those other teams that are really good at kicking goals and everything .

This forum.

 

It's a philosophically sound argument to be fair.

 

I am not sure when QSF will get sacked. After failing to beat Norwich, the start of the next international break. In time to spend Christmas in Spain. Just before the third round of the FA Cup, Easter or after the relegation party. Whatever. He won't be here for next season. First time for a while I have heard the crowd booing a substitution. Makes you wonder what the support will make of another Spanish/Italian Mark Hughes. Personally if we go down, get the brothers at Huddersfield in.

 

See he’s chatting more **** tonight.

(this comes from a massive QSF fan from his first spell with us)