That's very true. Pollock is one. I would hope with his guidance he could help train up another (Abankwe?). Matty looks out of place in a back 5, I think. I talked to an ex-pro I know regarding an 11 a-side thing I was coaching, and I was getting her to look over my formation, which included 5 at the back. She said "Unless you have to contain extraordinary opposition, you are placing half your team in defence - that's a waste and it's difficult for your defence to find an outlet." I know the maths is obvious, but sometimes it's easy to forget that when you are tossing around formation ideas - 5 at the back is fine on paper, and common, but you invite too much pressure. And we did against a mediocre Millwall. And we couldn't find much in the way of outlets when we had possession because we lacked a necessary number of forward players. She's ex-Arsenal and her partner is ex-England. I think this was astute.
Mine would be 3 at the back, 5 in midfield two of which are essentially wingers and two up front who can score goals given the right service Our best formation under Pearson was 4- 2 - 3 -1
If we did that back three, I'd have Matty in the middle. I just want to see the ball in the danger area far more often. If we are going to cut the ball back diagonally, we have to practise shooting too. I like 4-2-3-1, as long as players are mobile and will commit to flooding the area when the ball goes in the box. And to defend!!
Definitely true. But I think we have to be more aggressive. We have very good, if young, forwards, and I’d rather we went back to “Let’s score one more than the opposition” as a mantra rather than “We must maintain higher possession level than our opponents.” Our strength is our attacking players so I’d rather they had the ball than the defence passing backwards and sideways to each other. Get Baah and Irankunda on the ball, Louza thread through to Luca, balls fed in to Luca, cut back crosses going in to Luca, all with supporting midfielders to mop up anything loose/rebounds etc.
Well if Baah and Vata do start they get a chance to get on the ball and have an impact on the game . They seemed to be easily marked out last game .
Hmm don’t think this video has left a particularly positive impact on fans . https://x.com/WatfordFC/status/1972378273977122942 But then he could win 5-0 on Wednesday and don’t think it would matter now . Fans want him out now and no going back .
To be fair that is a message all managers want to give the players, no egos, no favourites, no sulking if you dont start and every player counts in or out of the team If Tom had got that message to the players he had he might still be here
Maybe but think people are just seeing someone they don’t like having a bit of a pop at the team in broken English with the players looking a bit lost . As you say had a more popular manager said that then they would be getting some backing and support .
I don know if Gino will care what fans think but it has got rather toxic already which is sad in a way . When people cannot even seem to enjoy a win it’s telling . Not sure PP ever really had a chance in the first place .
We are almost in a unique position, the previous five seasons we had good to brilliant starts to a season, one eventually won promotion, one ended up in relegation and three started as if we could make playoffs as a minimum and all ended with us looking like relegation candidates This season has been indifferent at best, but if we get 4 points from the next 2 games it will be an ok start, if we get 10 points from the next 5 games we will be close to where we need to be, if we are not where we need to be by Christmas then action is needed I am sick and tired of swapping managers every season and then seeing some of them doing better at another club I am sure Pozzo must be thinking the same in quiet moments
Nikolas Chikovani loaned out until January. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/25503371.watford-loan-chikovani-loan-royal-charleroi-b-team/
