Val Sacked

Oh yeah, where is the give Gino a break guy at the moment?

 

Probably playing the ‘disillusioned with football in general’ card.

 

FFS, give the "FFS Give Gino a break" guy a break.

 

Hopefully having a good look in the mirror.

 

That'll be Wesley Hoet.

 

You can just tell he smells great though.

 

He'll go after we lose to Sheffield Wednesday.

 

I like him, sure he made a mess of the 352 experiment but he had to try something different. He seems to know what the problems are and is happy to call the players out, it's just a shame he's working with a truly shocking squad that is only capable of turning up every few games at best. The culture and mentality of this squad is appalling and it all comes from the top, it's going to take Ismael a lot longer than 10 games to change that. Give him the season, review in the summer and if any players don't like it then get rid in January, it's not like any of them will be missed.

 

I agree with the sentiment.
However I fear we'll be left with Molly Rush,a half eaten toffee apple and a vat of industrial floor cleaner.
Decent midfield though.

 

I believe the floor cleaner will be playing sweeper not midfield.

 

Like the Kaiser?
I like your thinking.

 

Molly Rush also very much prefers the left wing, and is unlikely to be given the chance to be involved.

 

There's a Dutch woman at my work who's first name is "Floor" - Sign her up.

 

I would be very surprised if Ginos ego lets him sack VI before the new year after extending his contact and the club making the statement it did.

 

He will see out the season. No idea why I think this but have a feeling that Gino has simply runout of ideas (and money). I hope he stays to try and build something

 

I think we’ve had better managers more deserving of the backing than VI, but Pozzo has totally lost the plot at this stage so it doesn’t matter what happens, a new manager would just be a random knee jerk reaction to what we they end up thinking the issue with VI was. The Premier League, Championship League One will be more fun anyway.

 

He should be sacked.
He is a one trick pony and cannot change his style of coaching. He will take us into the abyss.
The players are not championship level, the Owner has all but given up and no more than 11,000 - 12,000 fans at the Vic at the moment.
The Pozzo Family will look to sell both Watford and Udinese.
Watford? League One next.

 

But it's the head coach taking us into the abyss, right?

 

Not on the pitch, l accept that. The players are not good enough, they cannot play the Ismael style.
Most sides have worked out how Ismael will set up. We are too easy to play against.
He cannot change how he coaches the side. No plan B and hardly has a plan A.
VI has not gained the name "Ismael ball" and "Vertical football" for nothing during his mostly depressing management career.

 

Below are the other questions I put to Ismael ahead of the game at Cardiff.

People say league tables don’t count until 10 games or more. We’ve played 10 games and we’re one point outside the bottom three. Are we in a relegation battle?

Ismael: “There is no reason to panic, we need to stay calm. We have 36 games to go, which means 108 points are available.

“To reach the play-offs we need 75 points – generally, round about that figure is what you need. We have nine points already, so that means from the 108 points available we need 66 points to reach that goal.

“For this reason there is no need to be panicking.”

 

Haha - what a fool. Why is he even framing the objective the playoffs? Get to 60 with the dross the scum Pozzo/Gairretta/Duxbury have left you and you've done well.

 

That is true. It was desperation tactics.
We don't have the players to play his system at all. They are not good enough and they can't adjust. Most of them are League One standard or lower. We will do well to stay up.

 

That’s the easy bit. Pardew. Or Wilder.

 

No need to panic then, we can lose the next 14 games and still make the playoffs if we win every game after that. We already have 9 points after all.

 

So the goal this season is actually to reach the playoffs? That's quite shocking... and would explain why the players are losing their heads so easily. Picking up two needless yellow cards and a straight red when losing 2-0 at Sunderland makes no sense, unless of course you panic because you think that this is a game we should win to stay in playoff contention.

The sooner the players and coach realise that we're in a relegation fight, the better. Nothing destroys morale more than not reaching (unrealistic) goals.

After the next international break we have a vital block of games: Sheff W, Swansea, Millwall, Huddersfield and Rotherham. We absolutely need to pick up at least 10 points from those games, because after that there's another international break before we play Leicester, Norwich, Hull, Southampton, Ipswich and Preston, which looks almost impossible the way we are playing.

 

Double figures would be an achievement the way we are currently performing!

 

I think those who say that the squad is League One standard are exaggerating. They are indeed performing to League One standard at the moment, but we have ten players who are currently in or around their national teams (Bachmann, Lewis, Porteous, Sierralta, Kayembe, Kone, Louza, Sema, Chakvetadze, Asprilla) and a further few who have been called up for international duty in the past (Hoedt, Livermore, Bayo). You don't see that in League One squads.

I'd say we have some players who are below Championship standard - Morris, Ngakia, Pollock, Rajovic spring to mind - but it's not like there's no quality in this squad. They're just not working as a team.

 

10 players in international squads would probably be unheard of in a League 1 squad, but they are mostly playing for pretty unheralded nations tbf.

I would say most of our first choice XI would be solidly mid-table standard, but considering our backup full-backs have played a lot of football and are lower Champ/League 1 level, plus the absence of any suitable DM, it does give me 2019/20 vibes