After a lot of soul searching I found a replay of our first half showing last night. It's pretty short and sweet but it gets to the point.
Even if Kabs goal would of stood - we deserved nothing from that game. It was by far our worst performance under Edwards. Players' didn't care or want to try. Worrying, as there are still plenty of games left to turn this around but I do not think our squad is good enough for anything higher than midtable right now. Clowns at the back like Kabasele and Cathcart who are STILL starting for us (ideally not their fault), and no RWB is why we will continue to struggle.
I might be imagining this but Edwards seemed noticeably less animated last night than in earlier games. Have we managed to suck the life out of him already? Perhaps he realises that the chances of him surviving beyond the international break are pretty much nil if there isn't a noticeable improvement in performance and results
I'd have more respect for Edwards if he had the balls to say he's been let down in the transfer market. As it stands, by him implying he was happy with our business, he is either actually happy (and therefore clueless), or just another 'yes man'.
We do seem to have a knack of doing this. Remember when Holebas offered a fan over the barrier for a scrap after we lost 1-0 to Southampton in the Cup? Part of me thinks players' do it to sort of obsolve themselves from the performance or result (to show they care) - and it might be that some really are genuine in being sorry for how the game went, but I think when Chelsea did it at Bournemouth (they lost 4-0), half of them were smiling afterwards.
Except if you just look at the likes of Scott Parker, managers saying in public that they've been let down in the transfer market usually just leads to a sacking anyway. You've therefore missed out the possibility that he's said he was happy in public, but has been outspoken with his annoyance to the board in private. As I've said in the 'Edwards out' thread - only those behind the scenes will really know what actually happened, and therefore how much blame he needs to take for the squad. We can only really judge from the point of view of how he's actually been doing with the players he does have at his disposal now. From that perspective at least I think he's under-performing, though it can be debated.
There are numerous deluded sports people. The coach's fault. Their physio's fault. Parents ' fault. Team mates' fault. You never really learn unless you understand your errors. Too much money,too many egos,too little accountability from top to bottom.
I honestly feel that our whole player assessment policy is rubbish.! Our squad is stuffed with players that are: - young and unproven, - bought cheap as prone to injury, - brought in on loan recovering from injury, - joined us only as a chance to get on the ladder to play in England, - trying for new start having failed elsewhere, - flashy but think they're a bit too good for us. We have no real grit and that's the starting point in this division. There's no way RE can get this shambles promoted this season.!
You're right we can only speculate. And there's obvious peril in publicly throwing your employer and/or team under the bus. But there are I think ways in which he could convey a message about needing more time and tempering expectations, without relying on relentless optimism which overrides what we can all see is happening in reality.
You know you are in the **** when you are bringing on Dan Gosling at half time to try and change the game.
Edwards has still been doing a bit of that though - for instance he's spoken in his interviews about not being happy with the performances after our last few games, and there being a few things we need to "tweak" and improve upon, but there haven't been any signs of those tweaks and improvements on the pitch. But ultimately unless he does throw a Parker, it won't be what he says to the press which keeps him in a job or not - it's what he's doing behind the scenes and what the team does on the pitch, and as I've pointed out and you've recognised, we can only speculate on what's gone on behind the scenes.
We did improve in the second half though, albeit that would have also been from the formation change, and Gosling seemed a tad livelier than in his previous cameos.
I think it's too late now because he's already gone on record. He should have said something like "we did want a couple more players in the window, but for various reasons we weren't able to get them, but I'm confident of the group I've got to work with." or something.
Whatever you think of the transfer window, there was enough quality in that side last night to have put up a far better showing than they did
Christ alive, even now Leventhal has been cut adrift and become a maverick vigilante patrolling the Occupation Highway, he still comes out with this Pravda-lite horseshit: Tom Cleverley is not, in any way, shape, or form, at this point in human history, one of the 'key vertebrae' of this team, and pretending that he is is just another small contributor to Gino feeling empowered to paper over, or indeed even just smugly wave away, the ever growing cracks in the wall. (Not to mention of course that, as per the injury despatches from the past couple of days, Louza is effectively nowhere bloody near returning, and dangling the idea that 'oooh perhaps he might not be too far away in a month's time ' is equally unhelpful)
Where was the quality in that side? JP and Davis from what I could see. In the entire squad I'd only class Louza, JP, Asprilla, Sarr and Davis as having good technical ability with a ball at their feet. 6 years of PL football and we've ended up with this squad, it's an absolute disgrace. Just look at the midfield last night, we brought f*cking Dan Gosling on to get us back in the game. He should be in League One!
Last night was the first time I'd seen Bayo and I was struck but how utterly hopeless he was. Did someone at the club really think he'd be an adequate replacement for Cucho and/or Dennis?
Speaking of Bayo - people say he did a funny leap or something just after Blackburn scored their first? I never saw that, anyone know what happened?
That’d be suicide! 3/4 months into a new much bigger job nobody in their right minds are going to start calling out their new boss regardless of what they think. I doubt the respect of a few Watford fans will help him sleep at night when he’s applying for league two jobs again.
Doubt it. More a case of the stars alligned and it was an opportunity for Pozzo to benefit both Bayat brothers simultaneously?
Agree that the Blackburn defender had dropped back to play Davis on. I think the ball was headed by Kabasele onto the defender at point blank range which caused it to spoon up - had Davis been in an offside position am I right in thinking that a point blank deflection like that means the correct call would still have been offside?
