I doubt after two months at Watford his reputation will be good enough for some one to come looking for him. It’s more likely he’ll be looking around for a job back in Div 2 than being approached by anyone.
If he can't see how awful we currently are and change it up then shift him on man. This is so frustrating how poor we are and getting overrun in midfield. And they score as I type. Ridiculous.
It's like an ineffective form of Ivic-ball. Swallow your pride and play formation that fits the personnel.
of course it is but every Watford fan could see that a change in formation was needed tonight. If it wasn’t for luck, woeful finishing and a few wonder saves then we would have been battered he needs to learn his options for a plan b very very quickly
He needs to buck up his ideas and those idiots in the boardroom need to actually help him out because so far their amazing transfer policy has done anything but.
Pretty well everyone is out of position. The wing backs need to be the creators and the CMs need to be the best players on the pitch. Needless to say that is miles away from what we have. A good manager cannot be rigid to one formation and I'm a little bit worried that Edwards is from the Gareth Southgate School of Inflexibility.
Said he tried to change the tactics/formation twice.. Maybe none of the players were listening or couldn't hear him... Or we would have been rubbish whatever the set up was.
RE honeymoon is over. His game management was horrendous tonight. But to be fair, he’s not being backed by the board. His midfield options would be good if he was the manager of Rotherham.
The game settled down once Gaspar came on and JP dropped deeper, although of course questions still remain, and hopefully going forward we will look much more dangerous going forward
Seems like Ivic all over again really. I want the guy to succeed but I’ve not seen one hint of a playing style or personality to this team yet.
I refuse to believe anyone genuinely thinks Edwards should go. We all talk the talk in the summer about wanting to give a manager a couple of years to rebuild in his image, but then get itchy feet after one admittedly terrible performance. He has said and done all the right things since he joined. I find him a breath of fresh air off the pitch and am happy to give him time to develop on the pitch. Criticism of the Pozzos and Duxbury however is completely justified and isn't based solely on two games. Most of the selection issues Edwards is facing are solely due to appalling recruitment and squad management. Our midfield is honestly an embarrassment and is stopping Edwards playing the way he wants. If it is true that Laird is not coming, and if at least one CM and a LCB are not forthcoming, then they are not giving him the tools to succeed.
I can't understand why Giaretta gets a free pass, unless you just forgot about him. For me, the squad build is down to Giaretta and the fees are signed off by Gino. SD has little input with transfers. Giaretta is the problem, as he's not identifying the best players for the club. Even though RE says he's collaborating in the decision making, we've seen with the signings we've made, he'd have had very little input. No way does he think selling Cucho and spending £5m on Bayo was a good thing to do. If he did, he is guilty of being easily led and naive. But not for one minute do I think Edwards would be saying he wants Bayo and Manaj. They are not players who would have been on his radar. That's all down to Giaretta, Gino and this bizarre dealings with Bayat. I can see things going badly very quickly. Even though there has been a love-in with RE, I think the good feelings will disappear very quickly. Had last night's performance been at home, the fans would have turned. It's so clear where our failings are, but the refusal to do anything about it from the top, is taking it too far. I don't think the supporters will accept it.
Agreed - yep I just forgot about him. I just see him as being part of the same Pozzo, Duxbury, Bayat swamp.
Giraldi was the problem before to the point he was basically hounded out, now it’s Giaretta. The one common denominator is Gino. It’s naive to think Gino doesn’t have a lot more say and input in all our signings. Our relationship with Bayat predates Giaretta, yet here we are still buying up more and more of his crap. Open your eyes.
I've seen enough. This whopper will be sacked before the world cup starts. - Stubbornly sticks to the only formation he knows. - No plan b. - Lacks the motivational ability to turn a performance at half time - Already has undroppable favourites. - Unable to inspire talented players such as Dennis. - Tactically outwitted utterly by Steve testicle face Bruce. - Gormless expression on the sidelines. - Chav. Have I missed anything?
Bang on, but he does applaud the fans, which will buy him a bit more time than most. I had him down as gone during the World Cup before the season started. Apart from being a great guy and setting a positive vibe, I've seen nothing so far that makes me think I'm wrong in my prediction.
So many of our problems stem from our rapid hiring and firing of coaches; the lack of a consistent tactical philosophy, the lack of team spirit and cohesion, the downing of tools when we hit a rocky patch as the players know the manager will take the blame, the lack of opportunities for young players, the list goes on. The blame for this obviously sits with the Pozzos et al but I do think we are sometimes complicit. We as fans have become desensitised to the managers being a short term stop gap and immediately look for reasons why they should be fired instead of turning it on its head and look for reasons to be positive. I do think Edwards gets the club, the history, the fans. He's not a dinosaur like our last two managers, he's not a PE teacher like Xisco. I would like us to properly back him and stick it out through the inevitable rough patches. My problem with the club is not particularly linked to results on the pitch - I've seen us in far more dire straights than we are at the moment. I have become disillusioned with the way the club is run, the incomprehensible decision making and disconnection from the fans. I haven't seen much evidence that 'lessons have been learned' this summer, but what improvements I can see are down to Edwards.
I do think we have to give West Brom a lot of credit for how the game went last night. They were right up for it from the start and look to mean business this season - they were way better than Sheff U and should be devastated not to have won by about three goals. As for Watford, it was a real worry that the manager did not, or was not able to, change things at half time or soon after to address the problems. It's clear to me that Kamara now has to play on the left and we need a proper right-sided wing-back. I have no idea if Gaspar is that player. While we have them, our fluid front three are an asset as they are such a handful for defences, but we cannot afford another performance from any of them like Dennis gave last night. He was never in the game and ended up as a luxury player who should have been replaced with another midfielder, particularly in an away game. We were overwhelmed in that area of the pitch and the only prospect of a goal was from a fast break, which were few and far between.
My hope is that he’s picked someone like Cleverley on reputation, he was FGR manager so why would he have been watching him play the past few seasons? The real acid test will be whether he can quickly see that he isn’t up to it and make the necessary changes. We’ve had far too many managers who’ve just gone down the safe route and picked players on reputation (if Pearson played Welbeck more instead instead Deeney after lockdown who knows what would’ve happened) and let’s hope he doesn’t go down the same route
Moan at Pozzo for sacking coaches too frequently, as it doesn't allow for us to build an identity. Pozzo hires a project manager, with a distinctive identity, during a summer of transition. Request the sacking of the manager after *checks notes*, 4 points from 2 games against promotion favourites. Deary me.
What is your point? Both are correct statements. He's a good guy, but I don't think he'll last that long. No one had said a critical word about him on Friday as last night's match hadn't been played by then. But time will reveal the truth of it. He's been dealt a bad hand with squad build. Keeping Sarr and Dennis is papering over the cracks, but last night was his first real test as manager. He had a problem to solve and he failed. The only thing that went for him was the final result. Had we lost 5-1 it wouldn't have been unfair. I'd say that's probably our worst performance in the Championship since that 5-1 defeat at Derby under Zola. We just got away with it, but we won't keep getting away with it. Pozzo won't give him time, we all know that. SD might try and push back a little if we go on a bad run, but unless he's backed in this window, which doesn't look like he will be, then Edwards will be the fall guy and I see that happening during the WC winter break.
It's a baffling appointment. As usual an experienced (but not retired) Italian manager from serie a/b is what we need.
There are two varieties of appointment for us, a legend, whose last remaining vestiges of a reputation will be in tatters by the time he leaves and the unknown, to who the universal reaction is a shrug of the shoulders.
Firing this back up. Goodbye Edwards, nice bloke but tactically crap. Hasn’t got a clue how to set a team up to win a game of football. Poor game management, poor tactical manager and if we don’t sack him, we will finish in the bottom half of the table. All my pre-season and start of season hope is diminished.
