Chris Wilder - Watford Head Coach #18

Whilst Wilder is only being honest it does come across that he is passing all the responsibility onto the players, and trying to exonerate himself completely. The problem is we have been worse under him, which didn’t seem possible. We spent large parts of the game kicking the ball long, and looked all over the place at times

 

I think beyond doubt, the players are the problem. No coach is getting a tune out of this bunch. Only the odd good performance.

I’ve seen the interview and although AF has quoted Wilder correctly, he has put a sensational spin on it. The interviewer asked him if we need a cultural reset and he quickly said yes before going on to other points he wanted to make. He didn’t actually say directly we needed a cultural reset in the interview I saw. He wasn’t even that harsh on the team. When it’s written it looks more like a rant at them, but when he was talking it didn’t sound like that.

 

I hope the Watford admin posts some more clips of our 7-0 win over Peterborough U12’s. I need cheering up.

 

Who is to blame for players not putting effort in?

 

Fair enough and agree it’s pretty obvious it’s not the manager. We have swapped and changed the manager too many times to be anything else. That said I do think we have looked even worse under Wilder, but that we’ll be more a reflection of the fact that we keep changing the manager, and we look incoherent as a result

 

The players, but presumably the manger should be able to get the players doing something other than lumping the ball everywhere

 

The people that assembled the players. A hodge podge mess of untalented, past-its and checked outs. With the odd player with potential thrown in. Who then get annoyed that the others aren’t good enough or don’t care and then stop caring themselves.

 

Yep. But given countless managers now have not got these players to play cohesively or with a modicum of effort I’m going to say the players are 100% to blame.

 

Yes the people who put the squad together deserve to be shot. But the lack of effort? That’s all on the cowards on the pitch.

 

Twenty years or so ago there were two players at a second tier level tennis tournament.

Rankings of about 250-300 in the world so a very good standard.

One player,everything paid for by LTA lost first round and had dialled it in. Packed her bags and went off to the next event.

The other,funding herself, battled to a three set win and said " Great,I can now pay for the next two weeks on this circuit. "

Desire,hunger,love of the game need to be preeminent.

Too much comfort and too little pride of performance it appears.

Shame on them but more shame on the fool who has made this common practice over the last five years.

 

I thought it seemed pretty clear that he was only considered a stop-gap anyway unless he managed to produce a miraculous turnaround which made the club reconsider.

Otherwise the club and Manga will surely already have another manager in line for next season.

 

This is wrong:

Silva we wanted to keep, but he ditched us for Everton.
Rodgers also ditched us (for Reading, lol) - and that was before the Pozzos anyway.

I also don't think any of the Watford fans would disagree with us ditching Hodgson. Him rejoining Palace at this point seems like a mix of desperation and charity.
And I think most considered Gracia was good enough initially, but he faded, which can happen. I also don't think many fans thought the sacking was harsh or surprising, if anything it could have been before pre-season.

Dyche wasn't even a Pozzo hire and likely wouldn't have gelled with the owners' way of working anyway. It's understandable they wanted to make their own appointment. It's not as if that decision really backfired either considering the success the club did eventually have.

 

For what it’s worth, I think sacking Gracia was ridiculous and triggered the tailspin that we're still in

 

I always thought we should have stuck with Walter Mazzari.

 

He didn't wave to the fans. He had to go

 

Get Potter in

 

No one could withstand that banner.

 

Players. Simple as that. I can honestly say I put more effort in, with a hangover than those today.
No excuse for not putting effort in.
The scum are not even very good but it shows what playing as a team can do in this league.

 

Yes. He would almost certainly come.

 

The players realise that the managers at Watford have no real authority and this makes those that are not naturally hard working or passionate, just ring it in. Wilder, Bilic, Edwards etc. may be giving direction, tactics and advice, which carries no weight, particularly if they are getting other orders from Giaralta, Manga and others. Something has broken down within the club and we have players who look confused, unhappy, disinterested, lacking passion, short of confidence. This has been a constant over the last number of seasons (excluding the promotion year). Fundamental change is imperative, but that means the current owners passing the baton on to others. The problem is that we are possibly not considered attractive enough for investors. The likes of Brighton, Brentford and Burnley are pulling away from us. It is not looking positive for the upcoming years.

 

I dunno, I think we looked disinterested even during the promotion season until spring. One excellent run of form coincided with a collapse from Brentford and Swansea.

 

Pozzo Snr at Udinese did exactly I think a year or two ago. It's no coincidence that they're now having their best Season in a long time and their recruitment has improved following that change. It's a long shot, but Ben Manga could be taking that same role where Gino Pozzo is taking that step back for him to shape the squad and behind the scenese more now?

 

The division was utter crap then, as it is now, but the difference is we had a team of very good Championship players (granted, some of them were half-arsing their way through the season), it just took players to get/come back from injuries for us to kick-start our season. By last season, we had arguably downgraded our team from the promotion season, let alone the relegation season, so it's really no surprise that our team is utter garbage now compared to just 2 seasons ago

 

We can but hope.

 

I'm not completely without hope, but even though that parallel does exist, how much debt are Udinese in? With us being over a hundred mil in the red, it really does limit what Manga can do, and that's if Gino, who has always been a pale shadow of his father, gives him room to do his stuff

 

Could be something to this, we've already hired his buses

 

This is me grasping at straws than it actually being realistic.

 

Well then he’s an idiot because it should have been a rant.

 

His contract at Chelsea is only worth £50m, we could easily match that.

 

But is it also wrong to say any other club in the English football pyramid have 25% of their ex managers managing in the PL?

 

Sorry, what?

The players have been dreadful but ‘100% to blame’?! No chance. They are a fly in the ointment when it comes to zoning in on our problems. And I say that from a position of hating our current squad by and large.

But they are a ‘product of their upbringing’ - young, talented - but mentally weak as a result and we don’t have characters to deal with that. So these guys don’t toughen up. So they just go through motions instead.

Look at the youth pedigree of Kone, Martins and Araujo and then see what we have got from them. Pathetic club with a pathetic structure. The word ‘improvement’ should be banned. Just focus on being average first - we are a distance from that right now.

 

Good players can play in any league. They are young and we have to understand that. But they have come from a pedigree where two of them should not be in the wilderness. The fact Bacuna and Assombalonga are named over them is damning.

And we will have 1 or 2 who will say these young players are crap etc etc - but they clearly aren’t. I have no doubt at all had Martins walked into Burnley, he’d be flying. Or Araujo gone to Boro, he’d have got a few goals.

We are just a mess from top to bottom. Time Gino sells up.