Though this is true, I think you could have probably switched Slater for Longman and left Seri on against Fiorentina and got the same outcome.
Just listened to his interview from after the midweek game and he just reminds me of Shota. Same downbeat tone of voice, and I find him just as difficult to understand
Yeah I've noticed this too. His English is obviously good but he doesn't make his points very clearly. Hope he's better at communicating with the players (and to be fair he definitely seems to have got his principles into them, which I'm not sure could be said for Shota).
I'm sure at one point during a drinks break/injury he grabbed Macca and was shaking him. Not in a horrible way, but in a sort of "do you understand?" way.
I honestly don’t know what people expect. He’s been manager for 7 weeks, we’ve lost a whole load of talent from last season, replacements not yet up to speed, all learning a new style. I think there is a small proportion of the fan base who don’t want Walter to succeed so in a couple of months time they can say ‘I told you so’. It’s not been pretty or fun yet but we’re 3 games in and we haven’t lost. Today was the first clean sheet as well so signs we are progressing. Keep the faith!
From everything that was said i wasn't expecting necessarily any more points just more goals both for and against. What was it Acun said rather lose 4-3 than draw 0-0
I think it is too early and to be fair with current squad, Walter ball myth becoming true is the best hope we have for playoffs. So let's stick to it until everything collapse and we reach point of no return.
There was no Slutskyball, there was no ArveladzeBall. There was RosyBall and there will be Walterball, you'll see.
It's easy to see that there are very deliberate elements to our buildup play which Walter has introduced. He's changed the way we play out from the back, but we still play out from the back. Although it's early on, we seem to get out and up the pitch fairly well, just as we did under Rosenior. Unfortunately, our attacking play when we get near the box isn't very good, just as it often wasn't under Rosenior. We've swapped out the good bit of our game for something else that's pretty good, but not really addressed the bad bit.
I still think it's way to early to judge. I was concerned that we'd have lost all our games by a cricket score watching preseason, but the defensive risks aren't leading to total collapse in the league (so far), which gives me hope (for now). The business done this week in attacking areas is going to be crucial. As will giving him time to make a coherent unit out of what are still essentially raw recruits. Should have an idea by the end of October - but a root and branch rebuild such as the scale of which we've seen isn't going to bring it's best results overnight, and if you look at the ages were investing in, its clearly not being done with just this season in mind. I can't on the one hand say I'd have given Rosey more time and not afford the same courtesy to Walter, so barring a disaster he needs 18 months really. Question for me is, will he get the time ? There's an inherent expectation in following a coach who's just finished 7th and got sacked. Will the fanbase be patient ? And if not, will the owner have the courage of his convictions or resort to a populist knee-jerk if he starts taking flack?
It can take a good long while for a manager to get his team playing his way. Rosey never actually thought we were the finished article in his entire time here. To think Walter is going to get this team playing his style inside 3 games, with all its talent gutted, is insane.
I think this is going to be Walter's biggest problem. The fans at the ground already seem fed up of parts of his style. The short corners particularly (I think he's right with that, but a lot of people in the ground hate it and are very vocal about it), and also the playing out from the back late on when we need a goal. On that one he has the exact same problem Rosenior had - his idea is probably a good one on paper but people demand results, and when we're struggling to score (probably for reasons unrelated to the passing out) they simply can't understand Pandur, Jones and McLoughlin exchanging passes in the closing moments. And as I've mentioned a few times before, at the root of all this is that our home crowd has seen an incredibly small amount of wins in the last few years and they're fed up. So whoever the manager is and whatever the style, they're not going to get much patience.
I had a laugh with a bloke who was kicking off about it today. McLoughlin played 2/3 terrible long balls after we faffed about with it, I went to him after he complained at that “That’s what you wanted though right”. We just overplay it, there’s patience and then there’s overplaying. The one that summed it up for me was we played an effective rotation at the back where Pandur played a line breaker to Jones broke the press but then he immediately passed side ways to Maka and it was back to square one. We’ll get there like we did under Rosie because we have a good core in Jones/Slater/Coyle who all played well today. A lot of the new signings are playing catch up fitness wise; Millar - no pre season due to Copa, Bedia - not played much the last year Zambrano - new environment Drameh - been injured 2 weeks
I noticed a similar thing with the corners. In the second half when we took three or four in a row short and people were going mad, then sarcastically cheering when we set up to cross the fifth one. The ball went in and, as it does the vast majority of the time, it was cleared easily and the attack was over. And of course, there was then absolute silence from the crowd. I think one thing that might help this is some sort of really clear messaging from the manager to the fans that this is the plan, short corners and playing out from the back, this is what we'll be doing because we think it's best, and asking them to support it. Not in a post-match interview after a disappointing result because people aren't open to hearing it then. I remember the then Notts County manager Williams (now at Swansea I think?) giving a really good answer which went viral when he was asked at a fan event about his team's short corners. It was really convincing, charismatic and appealed to the fans to help by going along with it even if they didn't agree.
