The team selection for last night was awful, it would have been better to have played Sema at LWB with Zinckernagel in front of him and played Ngakia in his proper position at RWB with Saar in front of him. Chalobah should have sat in front of the back four with Cleverly and Hughes in front of him and Pedro up front. Basically a 4123 morphing in and out of a 433
Xisco is just a smiley bloke amazed anyone would offer him a job at this level in pro football. He won’t be here in 6 months.
He has taken a job he isn’t up to but I don’t blame him for that. The owners wanted a yes man and someone who the players wouldn’t object to. His appointment is a reflection of how badly the club is run. I don’t have any feelings towards Xisco one way or the other. I haven’t listened to one pre or post match interview because it doesn’t really matter to me what he says. He won’t be here past the summer, may well go earlier and the merry go round will continue.
He certainly seems more clueless than any of our previous managers, but at this point I don't think it really matters.
He plays his set formation every game and then waits to see what the opposition does. Trouble is by the time we've worked it out he doesn't seem to have a clue what to do about it. I haven't seen any evidence of a game plan for any of his games so far, just the same turgid ***** which relies on Sarr, a Deeney penalty or a mistake from the opposition.
So, second best win percentage in our history, and also has made the joint best start (7 games) of any Pozzo-era Head Coach. Not the easiest start with Norwich, Swansea (A) and Stoke (A). But then on the other hand, his line ups largely stink and his subs are very predictable, and he isn't seeming very tactically flexible. Add to that his lack of experience and some odd press conferences and I can sympathise with those who want him out. Personally can't be arsed with more upheaval so would like to give him more time.
The club leadership need to accept this is going to be a 3 year+ rebuild, choose the right coach for the task, and stick with them. Xisco isn’t it. Pearson probably was, so was Ivic. Unfortunately short termism demand for an immediate return to the PL has clouded judgement.
In the last fortnight, forum members were saying this about Xisco… "Still feels like a nanny for the primadonnas, but can’t fault his results so far." "Got it right tonight. Could tell he wasn’t happy first half. Sensible subs at the right time. Tonight let’s all have an xisco." "I like that he subs players that are already on a yellow & walking a tightrope, rather than risk them getting sent off. It seems like the obvious & sensible thing to do, yet very few managers actually do it." "I like what I’ve seen of xisco so far. Ok results have put my yellow tinted glasses on. The Swansea game was a bit soon yes he had the Norwich game straight away but as proved I think the Swansea fixture was harder. Towards the end of tonight’s first half he wasn’t happy and he was down screaming instructions motivating and getting his point across. I think the more time he has the better we will come. Can picture bigger clubs coming in for him a bit like Slither scenario if we go up and perform. (That’s if we keep him of course) the players look like they’re enjoying the game again I guess anything after ivic would be enjoyable. But for me he seems to be providing that vibe that slither brought with him." "Apparently working on his pro license. I’m just getting at his style of man management slither bonded the team had them enjoying football the vibe around the club was supposed to be the best it had been for a long time. I think xisco is bringing that vibe with him." He got it wrong last night, most of us know that, but let's see how the next few games go to see if he can put it right.
Never going to happen if the players can decide when a manager goes. And I don’t think many were too disappointed Ivic went tbh .
Can you post a selection of what 'forum members' were saying about him that represents the opposite view, in the last fortnight or at any other time, then?
Whatever you think of him, if we sack Munoz now we risk exacerbating our reputation as an impulsive club to the extent that we'll never be able to attract a serious manager again. Give Munoz until the end of the season, see how he does. If things pick up and we start to develop a real style then maybe we keep him. If not, we part ways in the summer with him having failed to achieve the objective and we try and attract a compelling new manager. But can't see anyone good wanting to join a team where the manager is sacked after 4 wins in 7 league games.
Good point - we’d end up with another random unknown for the players to pick and choose when to like him or not .
As far as is possible given the condition of the hull, that ship has already sailed at this point. It's somewhere on the horizon by now.
End of the season might be pushing it if results dip. I believe the owners want a promotion push this season. But yes, the idea by some of sacking him after 1 unexpected loss prior to which he wasn't doing too badly, is comical. And I wouldn't take too much notice of Chumlax, he's a bit of a doom and gloom merchant lol.
I supported Ivic when he was playing the kids and was prepared to give him as much time as he needed, even if it meant mid table for a season or two. I stopped supporting him when he stopped doing those things.
I don't think the style of football helped during this lock down period helped - seemed to make people even more angry Much like last season which was a bit of throw back. It won't bring us a goal scoring striker or creative midfielder... Or get anyone like Perica who could be more useful fitter quicker.
Aside from your general insane gaslighting and terrible opinions, your comebacks and pettiness are also just absolutely abysmal, despite how much you whine about it in other people. Genuine doddery-old-man-level responses.
I think in your own meandering cryptic way, you are saying "thanks for your input, but we will agree to disagree on this one".
Just seen this on Twitter (Tom Bodell) It's pretty depressing. Very little improvement and we've actually gone backwards in many areas.
The reaction we see against Cov (if any) should give us some indication as to how much the players really do like Xisco & want him to stay around for a bit. They must know that another half-assed display could get him the boot.
Why would Gino sack him? He came as an inexperienced nobody, and he’s managed to be exactly that so far. Pozzo knew what he was hiring, so why would he sack him for being exactly that?
Two options could be: They know how awful we are, so another manager to blame keeps the paper over the cracks a bit longer He is just a stop gap while they get someone else lined up. Maybe the bloke just sacked by Bournemouth was the target all along.
The problem is the squad, or rather certain personalities in it, and has been for years. When the Pozzos first came in we had a bunch of largely hungry wannabe winners in and around the team. That's no longer the case. We can switch head coaches as often as we want, but it's not going to make any appreciable difference until the squad issue is resolved. Unfortunately, we got relegated at a truly diabolical time: TV revenue drop for both our last season in the Prem and our first season down in the Champ. Complete loss of gate money, concessions, very likely a drop on merchandising, probably a drop in sponsor revenue. Other teams don't have any money either so we can't offload the players that we need to move on, and we don't have the money to bring in new players. There's just no quick fix for where we are. It's going to take a few years to complete the rebuild work that needs to happen because the financial situation is utterly dire.
I don’t think any manager can get Gray scoring or ensure we might have a fully fit squad to pick from . But I am not sure why we kept playing a central midfielder out wide when we we had 2 wide on the bench .
Once the rebuild work is complete we will have returned to being one of the smaller clubs in the league with expectations hopefully rebalanced too.
Indeed. When the Pozzos first bought us we inherited a lot of Udinese players who went on to form the nucleus of a very good team. But the players we brought in last time wouldn't qualify for work permits now, so that route is essentially closed for a lot of players (even if Udinese had the squad depth to send to us, which they currently don't seem to). This may force us to explore different recruitment methods: domestic players like Dan Gosling, and a shift towards South American imports. Equally, I can see a case for the Pozzos deciding to sell up; they've just lost a massive competitive advantage thanks to Brexit and Watford is not a big club by Championship standards, so the challenge of promotion without Udinese sourced players is significantly increased (particularly when you have sizeable contracts for players you can't offload chewing up your finances).
Yes they will be, and should be, kicking themselves for not selling up 2 years ago when their investment’s value was at its peak. It will never recover that value.
