Well I guess he did. Madness to keep selecting the same losing team, i'm so cross that he has wasted so many points on that awful football!!! Pathetic again from flores. Lucky for Sunderland that they bothered to turn up coz relying on us would have been a problem! Sorry Dave that such a great win wasn't enough xx
If getting more quality in means replacing 8 or 9 players with other players who also don't know English football and who then have to be moulded into a team by a manager who also doesn't know English football then we are in for the same thing, year in year out. We need a good manager who has time to plan for the future and who knows the English game. Surely players who have proved themselves with championship clubs are more able to make the jump up into the premiership than fringe players from Serie A or La Liga.
In a funny way I'm still looking forward to Sunday. We've stayed up and the players AND Quique need applause for that, then we'll think about who and what we need to push on next season. COYH!
I think we have quality, it just needs bringing out and motivated to play on the edge every game. The reason some people are angry is because we saw how well the team could play so to see them throw in so many under par performances is upsetting. Maybe if we had won 1 or 2 other games against Spurs & Chelsea for instance, the players would have kept their focus. For myself I believe it is because the squad wasn't rotated enough at Christmas or Easter or at international breaks to help the team. Couple that with the lack of tactical change or playing players in the right position has brought the team standard down.
You have to wonder if Flores knew he is going some time ago.. Most managers would want to use the squad a lot more than he has to test players for next season once we were safe if they were around for the long term.. Remember he inserted the break clause...
I think that's it in a nutshell. He'd done the exact opposite to GT who created systems around the strengths of the players rather than squeeze players into a favourite system. What he's done to Abdi is criminal in my view - one of the best players in the Championship last season, made to look like a journeyman this season after being forced to play roles for which he's not suited. And his favourite excuse is 'the players are tired' - well whose f*cking fault is that???
Maybe, I guess I am hoping, with the 2nd season in the Prem we can attract better players...and with more stable $ clout from the owners.
So we were basically a sub short? http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2016/05/nordin-amrabat-left-on-bench-because-of-liverpool-display/
I have to wonder when Quique knew he was going? Did he want to go earlier and was refused permission? He certainly seems to have lost the plot over recent weeks, the manager and the players are all a lot better than these recent performances and the stick wuth losing formula and playing playerss outside key strengths consistently when there are other options scream of an individual throwing the toys out of the pram. Guess we'll find out the weekend....
Has anyone seen the club utube video interview with Flores? Worth a watch for the body language alone. He needs a break. The dressing room....? Deeney appears upset & angry the last couple of matches at the lack of intensity from others. Regardless, he and the team deserve a good farewell on Sunday. A score draw is the best outcome so lets hope Sunderland take it easy on us and read the script.
Well, that was my first game of the season and what a load of rubbish. There was so much long ball that I thought Ady must have been there. I particulary liked the chant " We're sh?t and we're staying up" which was sung with much gusto. If the manager has let the defence get that bad and allows the team to play so much hoofball, there was no other creativity, then the fault must lie with him. I think there must be a rift between him and the owners and that all is not harmonious behind the scenes.
I don't understand the logic in the criticism. If the players 'don't know' English football, and the team has to be moulded by a manager who 'doesn't know' English football, then how come they were so successful IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON ? Whatever the reasons for the 'drop off' since Xmas, the fact remains that WFC will probably finish top of the promoted teams, above Newcastle Sunderland and outside the top half of the division by a couple of last minute goals. I think we would all take that and be mighty pleased we had QSF - even if only for 1 season - same as we were delighted to have Joka when we did. We will be stronger next season and I very much doubt if we will be recruiting players from the Championship, thankfully.
When criticizing the lower levels of english football aren't you forgetting where the likes of Troy Deeney and Danny Graham came from ? Teams are created by giving good managers time to see the fruits of their work develop over a few years - groups of talented individuals may blow hot and cold, often in quick succession. If you have ever lived in another country you will know how difficult it is to really feel at home there - it can take years, and a team full of journeymen drawn from the Serie A or La Liga may dazzle occasionally but may not have the endurance for a full English season, especially if things are not going well. How much we have missed a John Eustace figure this season, or the successor to Lloyd Doyley. Clubs, and the loyalty of their fans, are created by their legends ie. the Blissetts etc. - where is our next legend coming from ?
Unfortunately, quality English footballers playing in the Championship are very rare and very few make the step up into the Prem - so journeymen from abroad are generally of a higher quality than journeymen from England. Troy has done very well this season, but through running himself into the ground - John Eustace would never have made it at this level (this is coming from someone who used to sponsor him!). Our decline is not really about endurance, but rather a coach hell-bent on not playing his strongest team and playing players out of position and this massively impacting team morale - Jurado is a hugely talented footballer, but playing him out wide on the left is plainly ridiculous.
I agree about playing players out of position - I do not like managers who have philosophies about how football should be played and then try to 'fit' the players to that philosophies. I disagree about the standard of Championship football and think that we have developed a kind of inferiority complex about English football - maybe we think that if a player has played for some team in Serie A etc. that it makes them a World class player, it doesn't, when was the last time a Serie A club performed really well in a European competition ? If you take into account that players from those countries are used to a generally slower, more technical, game and then have to move to a new country where they sometimes don't speak the language and have all of the other problems of cultural assimilation then I do think it is better to take a chance with someone from the lower leagues of English football. Great teams are built up through managers having time to plan ahead and see their own youth players coming through into the senior teams - the system we have will see occasional successes (depending on the players there at any one time) but will lack the continuity which creates long term success. For me the only advantage of operating within the existing Pozzo pool of players is that they are relatively cheap compared to home grown talent.
Wow , Watford players must have ate to much turkey at Christmas . I had you guys earmarked for Europa around the time I was opening presents . Norwich looked ok , but....
You seem slightly obsessed with Serie A - why not compare with the Spanish league? Just because we have Italian owners, it does not mean all of our players are taken from Italy, in fact they are not. Fact is that English players just do not seem to develop the higher level of skills required to compete in the Prem, this is clearly demonstrated in the lack of success at international level - how many players likely to make the England squad going to France would you consider as world class? Unfortunately it is a fact that very few youth players make it through the ranks and not just in the Prem, vast majority end up at a lower level or leaving the game altogether - but in reality, it has always been that way.