Tom Cleverley - Head Coach

For whatever reason central midfielders seem a bit more likely to make good managers. Who knows, maybe with his pedigree as a midfielder for Man Utd and England he could replicate a Michael Carrick? Albeit he is currently younger and less experienced than Carrick was when he first took on a managerial role, and I also doubt he'll be given enough time for us to find out.

 

We will find out when he names his starting 11 next Saturday

 

Tell the players to attack a bit?

 

We've not been ultra defensive all season, we have thrown caution to the wind at times, but it hasn't made a difference as we've not looked like breaking down doors other than from set pieces or individual moments of brilliance, can Clev coach that into us?

 

A good start would be to play some variation of 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 with a no. 10 or second striker that can support the striker. The thing that VI never seemed to understand is that none of our strikers are suited to play up front alone in a 4-3-3 with a big vacuum between them and the midfield.

We have several good candidates for that supporting role - Asprilla, obviously, but also Ince, Martins, Chakvetadze, even Bayo could probably be used as a deep lying forward with Dennis spear-heading the attack.

VI was dreaming of some kind of world class complete forward up front and ended up with Rajovic, which sums up his total inability to understand reality.

 

Again, we've played with a #10 at times this season, but we've never been very effective with it, Val just wasn't very good at coaching attacking patterns, relying on moments of magic, and when they dried up, we've struggled badly. It remains to be seen whether Clev will get any more out of the squad in an attacking sense, though I don't think it's too much to ask that we stop the silly goals at the other end

 

Could we not get Hodgson til the end of the season ?

 

We tried for Patricia Hodge but she declined.

 

Is she Steve Hodges Mother, he played for us once!

 

I have a good feeling about Clevs, he might just have what it takes to be a good manager!!! I believe he has been doing well with the u18's.

 

Twice in fact .

 

Rishi Sunak should be available soon!

 

Clevz will draw on the experience of Sir Alex and David Unsworth

 

Did he?
When?

 

1995/96 season made 2 appearances

 

Strange appointments to assist Cleverley.

An U18 coach who was with Watford Girls and Watford Women previously and the current Watford Women Head-coach as Cleverley's assistants.

And Jimmy Gilligan as 'Technical Consultant'.

 

Not that strange if they're people Cleverley feels comfortable with and will help him out.

 

Good Luck.

That's all we can offer now.

 

I'd say they are strange given the situation. This set-up is passable for one game but we need far better if, as I am led to believe, Cleverley is here until the end of the season.

I suspect Cleverley's future in the role will hinge on one game now....I was sure he'd be here until the summer but not so convinced after these appointments.

He may feel comfortable with them - but the lack of knowledge of mens senior football coaching (at a high level) is pretty alarming.

 

Not getting an experienced head in seems a mistake for me.

 

Unless it's only for one game in which case it makes sense.

I heavily believed Gino would want to wait until the summer to give himself the biggest chance of getting better quality. But if we lose against Birmingham, I can see him panicking and getting someone like Rowett in. I didn't have that belief before these appointments.

 

I don't think he will panic even if we lose against Birmingham, because I don't think he'll understand that relegation is a real possibility. I honestly believe that he sacked VI now only because we mathematically can't reach 75 points - and therefor the playoffs - so the season is now "over" in Gino's head. That's a recipe for disaster, and one can only hope that Clevs sees things differently and starts drilling the team for a relegation battle now.

 

Entirely fair.

I think it would've helped if the club had made clear this was a one game deal or until the end of the season, but I suppose even they don't know at this point.

 

I saw Mike Phelan mentioned online which makes sense due to the Utd connection, and the fact that I think(?) he's out of work currently. Could've been a short term contract until the end of the season.

Maybe Robbo or Kenny Jackett for a Watford connection.

 

Have a plan that can be changed

 

Intellectual close friends get to call him TC.
The indisputable leader of the gang.
He's the boss, he's a pip, in the championship.

 

I don't think changing plans was his problem, he changed systems, personnel and attacking intent quite regularly, the problem was whatever plan he showed, we've looked out of ideas too often and have been relying on worldies from range. I'd rather Clev worked on perfecting the plan A so we don't need to rely on plan B so often

 

I don't think Val ever changed systems did he? It was always 4 at the back, 3 in midfield and 3 across the top. Big man in the middle and winger types out wide on the forward line. They only wild card he'd play was whether to have the wide players inverted or not. It was always so predictable... and teams did indeed predict it and snuff out a lot of our threat.