Valerien Ismael - Manager

What is the point anymore? There's no point recruiting to fit his style or let him have any jurastiction over anything because the players won't listen to what he has to say, the ***** on here will want him out when we don't have a 100% record after 10 games and Gino will throw his toys out the pram again by the first international break.

 

No, Ismael was for most of the 20-21 season, Quina was there from January to May 2022

 

We’re just thrashing around in the dark now.

 

A route back for Bayo? He played a few games for us early on as a 'winger', although he's not as good in the air as you'd hope for a man of his stature

 

You can't convince me Bayo would have been less effective than Araujo was for us. Bayo is a decent squash option when chasing. He's very good at getting into positions to shoot, even if he misses more than he should which is more than could be said for every other striker we've used this season.

 

Let's at least give the bloke a chance before we write him off and see who Manga manages to get.

 

I like your theory but I think most are just worn down by our illustrious owners introducing, by my calculations, the 20th manager in their tenure. Most of whom have failed

 

whereas the truth is that they were the wrong appointment or right appointment but were given the wrong tools to do the job. Either way I feel that our new appointment will not buck the trend

 

New manager already?!

I thought this was a joke.

Having seen the appointment I'm still not sure it isn't. Gino is having a laugh if this is the brave new world of Watford FC.

 

He plays route one long-ball. It’s the cheapest squad to assemble for this type of system, so makes sense.

We just need a few lumps up front and CB’s who can kick a ball a long way, and we’ve already got Hoet.

It’ll be attritional but if done correctly, effective.

 

Gone by December after he’s forced to play Walcott (finally got our man) as a lone striker, despite us reportedly being on the verge of signing a proper target man for months, who subsequently ends up smashing 25 goals before Christmas as the Scum become darlings of the Premier League.

 

Depending on who you count, he’ll be the 19th Pozzo manager.

I wonder what number we’ll get to before we appoint a manager who does well and moves on to another bigger club, as per our model according to Duxbury:

 

We’ve finally achieved Duxbury’s ultimate aim this season. Each and every managerial change managed to avoid disrupting our terrible form, poor effort, and lack of concentration. Proper consistency across the entire year! Hurrah! Get that man a bonus!

 

I hear he won’t have VI on his tracksuit. He’ll have XIX.

 

According to Transfermarkt, his time coaching in Germany, he used a back 4 majority of the time.

Barnsley, WBA and Besiktas was a back 3.

I do wonder if Manga is looking at our squad, which is far more suited to a back 4 than a back 3, and he’s hired Ismael off his time in Germany rather than in England and Turkey.

Everyone expecting us to go to a back three, but don’t be surprised if he plays a 4231 which he did a lot in Germany.

 

Think everybody is vastly over estimating Manga’s role, not sure why this just doesn’t feel like him. This feels like we need Championship experience, who last done a good job on a low budget? Who’s available and free? We had fitness issues so they go who’s known for being a disciplinarian. Next will be the Xisco friendly type!

I get believing this is Manga’s appointment makes it more comfortable to digest but I just don’t see it.

 

Again nothing wrong with going a little more direct. Middlesbrough away showed that it works if you hit the channels and have willing runners. Tbh I'm quite looking forward to seeing a more aggressive front footed team who press the opposition.

 

I gave my explanation for being not particularly enthused by the prospect of this in the thread yesterday, but now it's confirmed I will just add that when we spoke about it, my bro's response was that it's hard to care whoever it is at this point. I agreed, but at the same time and to my mind, there were profiles of coaches out there we could have gone after that would have given us some possible signifier that we are actually pursuing a new, intelligently and methodically led recruitment process under Manga (tee hee, I know).

I can't really see what we have done suggests that at all, personally. It just seems like another 'knows the league' lurch desperately hoping to strike it lucky like they did that one time a while back when they achieved something. Ismael; Wilder; Bilic; etc, etc.

 

It is interesting that they haven’t said how long his contract is. Again, this doesn’t really speak we’re backing the manager. Maybe he is on a 2/3 year deal, but you would have thought they would say that. So I’m going to guess that it’s a one year rolling contract.

 

One month rolling contract , weve finally learnt our lesson !!

 

Hey, Wilders contract was fulfilled, we've turned a corner, clearly.

 

Or earlier if he is even more lucky

 

I’m going to buck the forum trend in my insanity to say I’m excited by this appointment.

There are going to be a lot of ticks to him coming.

We will have a defined style, which is something we’ve lacked for years.

We will have to recruit for his style. High energy, hard working and youthful players will be required for it to work. It’s going to mean a total restock of players, which is something that just has to happen.

He plays a style most akin to…….wait for it…….but the great GT himself.

If we get it right, we’ll be a major force in the league, as it’s old fashioned but unique in the Championship.

His teams play a high line, with CB’s perched on the half way line. Wingbacks act as wingers and forwards run all day long. His method is to pin sides into their own half and bombard them with crosses and shots.

We’ll have an identity and one which takes us back to those halcyon days of the early to mid eighties, which is my favourite time supporting Watford.

Is there any downside? Sure, plenty, and this is where recruitment is vital. There are very few players currently on the books who could fit into an Ismael team. Our current crop are too lazy/unfit to survive it. He’ll be taking them to boot camps in pre-season. We’ll have to recruit so many players, that I can’t see us getting everything we need in one window. I’d say around 15 players would need to come in.

Once we have the squad and it’s settled, VI’s style is one of risk/reward. We’ll be vulnerable to counter-attacking sides who have pace. We’re bound to have some heavy defeats, and he doesn’t seem to have a plan B. But it’s all about law-of-average football. Have more attacks and shots than the opponent, you should win,

I’m a disciple of this brand of football as I grew up with it under GT.

This is a good thing, but only time will tell if my take is “on point” or whether we only end the season with “one point.”

 

Agree, this has Gino’s finger prints all over it in terms of his completely route one (no pun intended) approach to how he picks the next manager, it first in perfectly to his thought process of every manager we’ve picked for the past few seasons. The flipside is if this is a Manga appointment, then it’s a massive red flag.

In terms of Manga, Gino once seemed to know what he was doing, then it all went wrong and now he seemingly hasn’t got a clue, other than trying to buy random players that don’t fit the team to sell on at a profit. If he’s realised this and appointed Manga, it means Manga needs to be a good pick from him, but he’s demonstrated over the past few seasons with managers and players that he’s not very good at that anymore. And if Manga somehow is a good pick, then it requires Gino to sit on his hands and swallow his pride, something he wasn’t able to do less than a year ago when he couldn’t resist sacking Edwards after 10 games. So yeah, I really don’t get why everyone is pinning so much hope on Manga, all things considered, especially if VI is his man.

 

This is a dreadful appointment for many fans.
Ismael is a one trick pony and his style of vertical football soon gets found out and is from the Ice Age.
This decision shows that Manga has zero influence and Pozzo is still calling all the shots.
We should have taken our time, see who is out and made a decision for the future.
This is yet another decision that reeks of panic.
An awful, awful decision .
RIP season 2023/24 for Watford FC.

 

It is a dreadful appointment of a manager out of touch with football.
Smacks of desperation.
We are going backwards not forwards.
This puts the cherry on the cake to end an awful season.

 

I hope I’m wrong but I suspect most of us know what will happen. Players will be recruited to fit the unusual style of play he prefers. For a while all will go well, but then we hit a bad run. The owner panics again and he’s shown the door. A new coach comes in with a totally different style of play and inherits a pool of players not at ease with adapting to it. And so the endless circle goes on..

GT was the greatest manager we ever had and I’d never ever say a bad word against him BUT his biggest success with us came in the 1980s. Football has moved forward a lot since then. Squads are bigger, the pitches are better and for many lucky supporters the game at their clubs has become more beautiful now. This is the era of Pep and Arteta and Zerbi etc. We had the chance to join that club too as there were candidates for our job that play football the nice way, but instead we’ve chosen one who prefers a style of play we will all have to endure next season. Well, until the endless hire and fire cycle starts up again.

 

I appreciate and understand your, and many others on here, concerns. I want to remain positive though and will remain so unless I see evidence to the contrary. Barnsley fans wax lyrical about him. It's all about getting his players. Ismael over our current squad would be a car crash, I have no doubt about that. I am assuming we'll be signing a volume of players well into double figures to facilitate him. The clues are all there, when you listen to Manga's interview. He wants character over skill (or words to that effect). Players who work hard would be easier to sign than players of a higher technical ability, which is why I think we could bring in a lot of players as they are cheaper to get.

This appointment tells me it's going to be a major reset next season. A clear-out HAS TO occur for it to have any hope of working, which is something I think we would all like. Bringing in players who have attributes of working hard, are physical and never give up is something I think we've all been crying out for.

It's easy to be negative, but I can see a path where it could work, but there needs to be a lot of change for that to happen. At this stage, I'm backing that change will happen.

 

Law of averages surely dictates that it’s only a matter of time before remaining positive about the next manager pays off for someone. A bit like the lottery, my 6 numbers have to come up eventually don’t they?