Rob Edwards Sacked

As far as I’m concerned Edwards has a free pass until the club sign a RWB. His formation is so compromised that it’s harsh to judge him just yet.

We’ve been lucky to have got 9 points so far. Yesterday was a truer reflection of where we are as a side. Mid-table-ish.

We should be a lot more effective of course with Pedro and Sarr in the side, but that’s only one element. The rest of the team is not very good in all honesty.

I don’t think we’ll bring too many more players in unless we sell Pedro or Sarr.

I like Davis, Hause and Choudhury as signings, but they are only loans. They are not our players.

If we don’t go up, none of these guys will be with us, nor will Pedro and Sarr. There’s a lot to be concerned about right now, but Rob Edwards is probably well down that list.

 

I'm not saying it is true of him and he'll probably not get long enough to prove his worth.
My fear is there are many coaches who are successful in the short term.
Long term teaching/coaching is an art and he has an extremely difficult set of circumstances to work with,as well we know.
Makes Medea's gift of the poisoned dress look like a Harvey Nic's voucher for 3k!

 

We know all about managers who have worked out OK in the short term only for it all to blow up in their face in the long-term!

 

Trouble is most managers /coaches think they'll be the one to change matters.
Εγώ !

 

I think I speak for most of us on here that I'd rather give the manager more reign to see if they are the one to change matters rather than rely on the owners pulling all the strings as he's done for a decade

 

Agreed.
However I fear it counts for sweet Felicity Arkwright!
Unless Pozzo has a Damascene conversion over the olives.

 

From WO i/v with RE.
The transfer speculation throughout August has meant he has been in dialogue with other senior club officials every day.

“There are conversations daily between myself, Cristiano, Gino and Scott. It makes sense to discuss things daily at the moment because as people have seen, things can move very quickly".

I thought SD was not involved in transfers ?

 

I think it's his hammer they use to smash open the piggy bank.

 

He’s just a puppet for Pozzbury and is scared of losing his job if he speaks his mind .

Anyone who says otherwise is a Pozzo apologist.

 

In your opinion which Teams have a better first XI and bench than Watford assuming Pedro and Sarr stay , and Louza and Davis are fit .

 

AF said Davis and Hause were players RE had personally requested.

 

Didn’t we sign Beppe from Bedlam after taking their inmates XI to the top of the Institution Premier League

 

I'll be honest and say I pay very little attention to other teams other than those were due to play next, so I'd always bow to the greater knowledge of other people on here of the rest of the squads in the championship. But from what I've witnessed this season, in person and from TV we really lack any depth of squad/game changers from the bench and our defense will let us down more often than not due to a lack of quality.
What are your thoughts?

 

Maybe Hungbo could have come on and done something, but that would have been a like for like change, the only player on that bench who you could have any confidence of changing a game is Asprilla (didn't watch, but from comms he seemed alright but not as good as he was against Brum or Preston?). Have to say, we have a few key players out still, but I don't think the actual quality of the bench will improve much as the likes of Davis, Louza and a potential new RCB/RWB will just slot into the first XI, we'll still be stuck with the likes of Bayo/Manaj, Kayembe, Kabasele and Gaspar not really being able to change games (I guess if you were being charitable maybe they'd be decent options to see games out, but we have to score and keep the other team out first!)

 

We'll have a very good first XI when everyone is fit, a brilliant one if we can sign one or two more players, but the bench isn't full of options

 

Every team that comes to our place now will probably set up like qpr one hell of a risky high defensive line so they make the spaces smaller, I think Edwards is right we don't need 4 at the back if that's the case we need width so 3 centre backs 1 dm and wing backs imo are going to be important so that in central areas we have 2 attacking midfield players running from deep breaking the lines to beat the offside trap like we did it for the sema goal but we didn't sustain it and got caught out too many times forcing a pass and commting too many people forward

 

I'm far from a Pozzo apologist and I've hated all the management changes over the last few years so want us to keep Edwards for at least this season to prove himself.

However I think it's pretty fair to say he has yet to show any in game management to make me think he's anything worthwhile yet.

As I said earlier, subs so late it's barely worth it unless to waste time, a lack of formation change mid game when it's clear certain areas are in trouble, and a team who are performing well below the standard they should is setting that needs to be drastically improved by this guy asap.

 

Who is he meant to bring off the bench - Gosling for some legs in midfield? Maybe Bayo to get us a goal? Cathcart to shore up the defence??

 

I like him, I really like him as a man, as a speaker, as a personality, he's really refreshing in contrast to some of the senile fools we've had which is why I don't mind him actually staying for the whole season to see if he can turn things round.

The squad is also horribly imbalanced so I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt right now, it's true he hasn't imposed a clear style or shown much in-game management but it's also true he's a bit short-handed right now with the players he has. Don't think there's much argument to be had here.

 

Vs west Brom he had Gosling, Gaspar, Manaj, Ekong, Quina and Asprilla on the bench. First sub on 77 minutes despite us being battered for virtually the whole game.

Vs Birmingham he had Gosling, Hungbo, Ngakia, Davis, Ekong. Made one sub on 55 minutes. Rest all after 76 minutes.

Vs Preston he had Gosling, Gaspar, Hungbo, Ekong. One sub on 37 minutes. Next on 80 minutes.

Vs QPR he had Cathcart, Bayo, Hungbo, Hause, Gosling and Asprilla. 1 sub on 31 minutes. One on 82 minutes.

I'm sure the couple of early first subs were mainly enforced through injury.

Other than that no subs until after the 75th minute.

So that's the subs. Perhaps those on the bench really aren't good enough to get more than 15 minutes when we're being battered or overrun.

So formation. It was clear vs west Brom we were being battered and overrun in midfield. Burnley were all over us. Birmingham too had far too many chances. As did QPR obviously. And in all those games there was no or barely any formation or style change for the majority of them until it was either forced by injury or very late on in the game.

QPR for example - geez it was so obviously clear they were holding a ridiculously high line against our ridiculously pacey attack. Neither the players nor Edwards did anything to exploit this. Who is responsible for that?

This is only my unprofessional opinion based on the games I've seen so far. But for all it's worth, it feels like in the situations we've been in so far there's been little to no impact of change from the manager.

I'm happy to wait for his supposed style of play to be taken on board by the players, but sometimes when his style of play isn't working he needs to change it up.

 

I watched Sheffield Utd on Friday night, and their starting but back up striker McBurnie had not scored in 43 games . Their back up keeper who came on in first half was on loan to a non league club last season .

My point is that I don’t understand how it can be said that we have a bad squad if you don’t know what the other squads capabilities are .

 

Yes it’s all relative and the gulf between what you can expect as a prem squad and a champ squad is huge.
We are really missing Louza. We pretty much have zero defenders or midfielders who are comfortable on the ball and can bring the ball forward and start an attack. Asprilla and Pedro (if played as an advanced midfielder) are the only exceptions.

 

No that was Mad Jack McMad,who was caretaker for twenty minutes between Billy McKinlay and whoever came next.

 

I set my stall out saying I want Edwards to remain all season at the very least and it’ll take something big for me to move away from that stance.

I don’t like Duxbury. Don’t trust him a jot - but I do genuinely believe he trusts Edwards and wants to support him. But I think we essentially have two camps running things with very different ideas….

Scott Duxbury and Rob Edwards VS Gino, Giaretta and Mogi Bayat.

 

Or, in a 3-4-3, proper interplay between the WB and their wide forward can break & turn a high defensive line....much as Kiko & Sarr did numerous times 2 seasons ago.

 

Vs West Brom he did change things, he brought Gaspar on when Kamara was struggling on the right, changed to a 3-5-2 and we looked a lot more balanced (the change was late and we were lucky to be in the game by then, although it was Gaspar's first game in England and we have no idea what his preparation was like). Against Burnley we were largely comfortable until the red card, we took off a fantastic but tiring Choudhury for Kabasele and then brought on Bayo and Asprilla who I think did make a positive impact and helped us seal the win. Vs Brum we did have the the much better chances and on another day (ie with our first choice forwards fit and firing) we win that, and ditto for the Preston game. Against QPR, perhaps Edwards did set us up wrong in a back 4 (that formation does at least allow Sarr and JP to play in their best positions mind you), the defense was exposed too much, but then again, the personnel we had blunted us as we didn't have enough creativity from the midfield nor a wing-back on the right, so maybe a back 3 wouldn't have made such a difference after all. I don't want to criticise Edwards too much--managers can improve players, but nobody is going to turn Choudhury and Kayembe into a Louza type or a Gaspar into a Kiko (or Laird!) type who would have really helped us against QPR, and the options we've had on the bench all season have been substandard, aside from Asprilla and possibly Hungbo, the others are old and/or *****

 

Exactly - the first west Brom change was on 77 minutes.

We were struggling I think more than you maybe remember v Burnley as we definitely needed a change much sooner and well before the red card.

Everyone around me was saying it too.

And was it Sheffield United on day one that we had a 2 in midfield of Clevs and Kayembe I think and looked absolutely lost and overrun for most of the first half and well into the second and there were no changes.

I'm happy to give him time, I'd just personally like to see a lot more reaction and changes in at least formation if not substitutions from the guy. The squad may be slightly limited in certain areas but the 11 we're putting out should still be enough for most teams in this division and were simply looking messy, scruffy and chasing around 2nd best in most games.

 

He gets a ‘pass’ from me against WBA because he moved Joao Pedro into midfield as soon as we were getting overrun - but the problem was JP did not drop deep enough…and that was coupled with Dennis being absolutely abysmal in terms of supporting Sema defensively (or doing literally anything else) so the extra body in midfield still wasn’t enough.

But he did change it early - the players just didn’t do what was asked of them.

 

Was Gaspar fit enough for more than 15 mins? It was his first game in England, and we have no idea how much prep he had done, we've seen Choudhury slot straight into the team, but Hause and Davis have taken longer to get started. The squad is indeed limited in certain areas, just like it was under Ivic, and look at how much of a drag that was, the Championship is indeed a big step down from the Prem, but unless you have a balanced side, it's still hard to really stamp your authority on games

Can't remember when exactly it was made an explicit instruction as JP spent most of that game effectively as our most advanced midfielder, but yes, even before Gaspar came on, we did look a lot more solid in the second half, I can't really remember them troubling us THAT much. Dennis put on an absolute stinker (his mind was probably elsewhere!), maybe he was lucky to last as long as he did, but I suppose when you've got the quality he does, it's tempting to keep him out there

 

Exactly this. Same against QPR on Saturday - there were clear instructions to press higher and for Gaspar to overlap and it was completely ignored.

We have had a culture of players doing whatever they like for a long time now - that won't be changed in just one window. This mess will take at least 18 months to sort out.

 

In fairness, I don't know if Gaspar would have picked up any bad habits from the squad at this early stage (does he even speak English?), I think it's more a case that he's simply incapable of pressing high overlapping at this stage in his career

 

To add to this, a COG friend of mine has just said in our WhatsApp group that we’ve had a ‘very good window’.

What is very good about Manaj and Bayo, who look to be two of the worst strikers we’ve signed in the last decade, and Gaspar, who I’d fancy my chances against in a 50 yard dash?

Once again, Gino getting a free pass.

 

Gaspar has pedigree which tells me he deserves more time before a proper judgment should be made.

Manaj I think could be decent enough to come on with 10 mins to go to protect a result.

Bayo is a dud. I’ll die on that hill even if he scores 20 goals. Which he won’t.

 

Difficult to tell with strikers. Both could easily come good if the side starts to click a bit more.

Ighalo was hopeless up to new year when we got promoted in 2015.

Gaspar.....i do agree its hard to write him off considering the career he's had. However he's never going to gain any pace, and it's the total unwillingness to overlap which really concerns me

 

But is Edwards telling him not to overlap?
@Burnsy said he's got pedigree obviously but so far I've personally not witnessed anything from him to give me much hope.
I know Bellerin is off limits probably but if Betis and Barca can't sort a deal and fast I'd love us to go in for him. Give him the armband and enjoy what he brings.