There's a lot of blaming and finger pointing going on right now and understandably so, but for whatever reason Javi Gracia doesn't appear to be getting much of it. In my opinion he is more responsible than any other manager or player for the season we've had. We came into this season unorganised, unmotivated & unfit. The performances at home to Brighton and West Ham were disgraceful and set the tone for the rest of the campaign. Picking up one point from an easy opening 4 fixtures is what set us up for relegation.
Nothing to do with the players then? I get what you’re saying about Javi, we went stale under his leadership, but I think that’s more down to the player power in the dressing room and clear undermining of him from certain factions. The players have let us down and to be honest they’re so rotten to the core it’s amazing we lasted this long in the league!
Should be pointed out that we got ourselves in a good position pre-lockdown, but come the restart, we looked very sluggish again. Can we really put any of that down to Gracia? Maybe if we'd got off to a better start, they'd have been more motivated, but I think it's more that our squad is both old and has got stale
Pozzo, Duxberry and Giraldi are to blame, first and foremost. That's a fact. It is their mind-blowing arrogance and stupidity last summer that left us with such a painfully obviously unbalanced, lacking squad. Their approach to this entire season has been embarrassing and negligent. The managers have been useless, the players have been a disgrace, but it is the board that failed to invest in the required areas of the squad and then made the pathetic decision to bring the likes of Flores back in desperation, who are the blame. They left us with this squad.
For years we've been buying the next big thing out of Chile, Brazil, Venezuela (add country of choice here) - but still our plan A is for Dawson, Cathcart and Marriappa to hoof it to Deeney, with Andre Gray to come on as plan B if that doesn't work. It's baffling.
There are a lot of contributors to this relegation season, but the only person you can blame is Gino Pozzo. The buck stops at the top.
This. With a smaller budget than most, we needed to spend that budget wisely and keep the whole club United and pushing in the same direction. Last season was a perfect example of what not to do. It's hard to blame any of the coaches given they have so little say over the players they have, the team they pick, the training methods and even the team tactics without Giraldi's steer.
Any side that gets hammered in a showpiece final needs to be picked up. People say well shrug it off get up and carry on. It's not that simple. Devastating defeats have had long term psychological implications for teams in a variety of sports often followed by continuing bad performances against the same opponents or a decline in form and confidence. Nothing was done: 1. to rebuild confidence using psychologists 2. nothing was done to rebuild the side which was ageing and needed new blood and a little more swagger and fearlessness that youth brings 3. lackadaisical preseason preparation Regarding number three. Who is responsible ? Most of that goes down to the coach. Last season we were physically tip top and started the season with a bang. This season even in the preseason friendly the team was labouring. It's no coincidence that we conceded so many late goals as the players were out on their feet approaching the last ten to fifteen minutes. Gracia and his staff are the ones to blame for that but then there is the question did the players play some part as well. Player power and their own complacency that after last season they are good enough to do the same. The lack of player turnover means the dressing room becomes cliqued, stale and far too many are assured their places are safe. And because of the age of the squad more prone to injuries. That recruitment issue is down to Gino. They always favour buying offensive players in the belief they will get more money in the long run. Javi unfortunately may have been far too nice a guy in the end and fell to player power after what he achieved last season. And that issue perhaps will now be tackled by some of the bad smells leaving the dressing room and others thankfully at last being moved on having overstayed their welcome.
When things were going well, we were told in these club articles that every aspect of a player's fitness was monitored and data sent back to Italy, all of this to give the impression that it was part of a Pozzo master plan. The players wear GPS vests and are constantly having their ears pricked for a little bit of blood and their muscles tested. The lack of fitness can't exactly have come as a surprise. Seems strange to blame Gracia, we were supposed to be a professional club from top to bottom, and he was, by all reports, a workaholic. Hardly seems likely that he thought the best way to build on last season was not to bother with pre season this time around. Seems far, far more likely to me that the bonus row that rumbled on to the eve of the season meant that senior players decided not to put the effort in and this left us brutally exposed all season. Then they repeated the trick when a group of them returning to training after the enforced break later than the rest of the squad.
Was going to post exactly this, I thought as you say we had a standardised training regime with all the players monitored etc. This system was heralded as why we can change the manager so easily and frequently because the club controlled so many variables. Unless this has changed I’m not sure how much control Javi had over player fitness and indeed if we’re monitoring it how he could’ve been allowed to under prepare the players.
Gracia left early in the season, no reason to blame him. The club had loads of time to turn around their fortunes, but results and performances were not good enough this season.
Its over now lads, we're already down. None of this bickering is helpful at this point Best thing we can do now is put all of this negativity to rest and unify in our blame of Andre Gray
On the subject of fitness, Javi is hardly the first player to suffer with a clearly unfit squad. If you recall, one of the eventual briefings against either Quique, or Wally, or both (god knows) was that the Pozzos were unimpressed with the fitness data that was coming out of training sessions, and that they didn't believe the players were fit enough. Add to that the fact that, for a shining example, Troy has probably been what both we and he would agreeably consider 'fit' for him for less than 50% of matches over the past few years, partly spurred by a mixture of wilfully turning up to pre-season heavily overweight and partly by inexplicable decisions from the hierarchy about how and when injuries he's had should be treated and operations scheduled. Basically, something is very odd about the way our teams prepare, and despite the fact that it's their chief responsibility, it seems rather suspicious that it could be the down to the Head Coach in that sense when multiple incarnations keep seeing the same outcomes and being accused of the same thing...
I've always maintained that in the Pozzo era the players we most fit at the beginning of the 14/15 season, Beppe Saninno, despite his unpopularity got those players in tip-top condition to get us through that season.
Well it is certainly not his fault because who would turn down the money offered even if you knew you were out of your depth. Also an earlier poster mentioned GPS and stats so changing managers often is not necessarily a problem . However these tools should be used as a help in conjunction with someone watching with their own eyes. Because stats without context do not mean anything. For example 2 centre backs completing passes amongst themselves under little pressure will result in good passing stats whereas an attacking player under heavy pressure trying to play risky passes will result in bad stats. Also GPS can be fooled. Last season or the season before I witnessed Ozil at the Vic doing little sprints between our right sided CB and our RB. And have you ever noticed particularly in Spain or Italy players making 2-3 passes between themselves for no apparent reason ? Well each one is a completed pass.
I thought sports psychologist's were the norm at Premier League football clubs. Have never understood why this wasn't tried this season
I thought we could have had something special with Javi. His football clearly relied on having quick ball playing CB's though and he was never going to use a winger like Sarr - baffling transfer approach from everyone involved this summer. Either get rid of Javi and change how you want to play by signing Sarr, or build a squad that Javi's style would have got the best from.
Sarr was so much better yesterday as a proper winger and not this weird striker-light role we've been desperate to play him in. Still can't cross for **** but you can clearly see he wants to help dictate the forward play. He'll be an asset for whoever he signs for.
Can i check. Is it a fact that the squad was unfit (In comparison to previous years and other teams), at the start of this season. If so is that the Head coaches fault, or all the fitness and medical diagnostics that occur during pre season. If so why did that happen last summer. there must be a reason?
I'm not sure it's completely down to Gracia. Don't they have a team of analysts back in Italy that monitors their fitness 24/7? The food they eat, the route they take for a jog etc. That's why they wear those fitness tracker band things.
Just blame Arsenal. Zero shots on target against Villa, then have the cheek to score three times against us. Saves all the tedious soul searching.
I think you can trace the cracks that led to our relegation back to Javi but the club hierarchy had every opportunity to stop the fissure and the blame has to lie with them. They're the ones who recruit the players. They're the ones who allowed Flores another go at making us the most unambitious side in the world. They're the ones who sack every head coach who inevitably fails to make an embroidered silk handbag with the cheap and rotten pigs ears they provide.
Abso bloody lootly! They are a stain on all of our lives . My little brother was crying box eyes out yesterday he couldn’t take the pain . That’s down to those 3 evil charlotteins
They need to recruit a specialist set piece coach as well. Get rid of Rob Roy and actually use what money they have for a useful purpose instead of appointing friendly lackeys who really have no place being at London Colney.