Roy Hodgson - Manager

I'm wondering how significant Hodgson's title of "manager" is. Is it cosmetic, because Hodgson prefers to be called that, or is there something more behind it.

The fact he's only signed a 6 month deal, doesn't suggest to me that it really makes too much difference. A manager is involved in staff appointments and has a direct input in transfers. With only 5 days left in this window, I doubt he'd have any influence on that and apart from Lewington, it seems the rest of the coaching staff remains in place after Ranieri's departure.

A lot of a manager's duties would be in direct conflict with Cristiano Giaretta's role. But it does seem to be a pointed distinction in the club's announcement. The word "manager" is used throughout and "head coach" is not used once.

 

Is misleading as it counts Ivic and Mullins. Technically it’s true, but obviously you can’t keep a clean sheet in the PL when you’re in another league.

You could run the stat for a club like Blackburn and it would obviously be significantly worse.

 

Hodgson demands we sign Kalu.

'The final piece of my jigsaw.'

Lessons being learned.

 

I guess Pearson still "managed us" after the clean sheet so he still counts as a manager since our last clean sheet. As you say Ivic is a red herring and not sure it's fair to include a caretaker manager either...

 

No manager tells our board who to sign. Not sure he will last until his first match.

 

Always baffles me how we seem to have fans who get more angry at a Gary Lineker tweet than how Gino runs the club.

 

Unsurprisingly Ranieri's backroom staff Paolo Benetti, Carlo Cornacchia and Carlo Spignoli have all left the club.

Training Ground Guru | Trio of staff exit Watford with Ranieri

 

They had that comedian Kevin something on Talk Sport yesterday afternoon describing what we can expect from Hodgson.

Two concerning things which we probably knew already, but anyway:

1: He said expect to have about 25% possession. He’s going to have to do some serious coaching on our defenders because we all know up until now, whenever we’ve tried to sit back and sustain pressure it’s been a disaster.

2: He said if you’re losing 1-0 don’t expect him to go for it, he’s in fact more likely to bring a defender on and protect the goal difference.

Now that second point might change given our circumstances and need for wins, but for him to succeed it seems everything is going to hinge around suddenly being able to keep the odd clean sheet here and there.

 

Not in the least bit surprising as they were his team.

That said, for the next 6 months, this reduction in numbers is no bad thing. Have often been told there’s a lot of coaches milling around the pitches at LC - too many cooks maybe?

We now don’t even have a First-Team
coach. And most Head Coaches/Managers tend to have a few assistants these days too.

Given how much of a mess we are in, the players need clear, direct messaging from as few different sources as possible. I don’t think it’s a bad thing we are just going with a Manager, his assistant and a GK coach. Gives the players a clear voice to hear from and take instruction from.

I still reserve the right to criticise the owner, the transfer window dealings and the general way the club is being run. But I have come round a bit to the idea of Hodgson and Lewington and will give them my support. I just hope beyond hope that they are here to lay a solid foundation for a younger, progressive Martinez-type in the summer.

 

Honestly if Roy and Ray can turn our defence and midfield into a machine that works for each other I will be amazed. But I'm forever hopeful. It's not going to be pretty but I will take this for some committed performances and points.

 

That's fine, we're absolute sh!t with the ball anyway.

 

This looks spot on. It won't be pretty, that's for sure.

 

If Roy can coach these bunch of idiots to defend then for me he is the best coach in the World.

 

I don’t think it will be. I still expect Sarr and Dennis to feature. But Hodgson will certainly be asking them to defend far more and he won’t be shy from dropping them if they don’t.

But Hodgson often got the best out of Zaha so I doubt he’s afraid of maverick attackers either.

 

I doubt Sema will be here at the end of the window, I shouldn’t worry.

 

Oh no! Not carlito cornucopia! He was a club legend!

 

I've been told they are planning to paint him on the subway mural.

 

Heard this mentioned a couple of times? Where is this ****** thing?

 

I see the club have put up the sign for Hodgson's car park space

 

Only an idiot would drop Dennis we are **** but he is the 4th top goal scorer in the league and is within the top 10 in the league for assists as well.

 

The club painted the image of the shop front of a Subway branch on a wall opposite the training ground entrance in an effort to lure Danny Rose out.

 

Well I agree - if he's performing. But if he is going out and performing for himself and not the team, as has been loudly suggested by fans and some seemingly within the club, then he won't last long under Hodgson. What he's done before will be irrelevant pretty quickly.

 

Give me strength.

 

You're my Jane Plough. When am I gonna get on Sky News to spout my bile?

 

He was rubbish in the last Euros he played in 1992; not sure he was fully fit as he only managed 18 games over 2 seasons for his final club in Japan.

 

This was purely a prediction for the Burnley game by the way.

 

There is serious under representation for us BWs in the media.

 

Christ alive, this is all we need. He probably won't be able to help himself into breaking out into a full rendition of 'That would be enough' from Hamilton whilst he's got the platform, to boot.

(That is a joke for people with extremely specific knowledge of the lyrics of songs from 'Hamilton' and Sam Ucko's Twitter feed/my postings of it here)

 

There's absolutely no way Dennis and Sarr aren't in our first XI unless they're injured or sold. Hodgson isn't so defensive that he's going to remove basically our only goal threats and our two best players from the team in favour of the likes of Sema, who has clearly proven that he's nowhere near good enough for this division.

Think people are going overboard in their assumptions about Hodgson's style.