Wolves 0 Spurs 1 - Verdict Thread

[Alan]

We could be stuck in the lower mid table Championship doldrums scraping about after free transfers and loans in 4/5 years and people will still be saying 'what do you expect, Pep Guardiola', 'who could do any better', 'you've got to be realistic'.

With how hated the squad is, those don’t seem wholly unreasonable points. If the squad is so bad then what is a reasonable impact?

 

[Alan]

Under O'Neil and Pereira it was just "give it to the good players". Now we don't have any good players.

Lage's attacking play was a disgrace.

We spent 80% of training under Bruno working on it, I hear

IMO “give it to Cunha” ain’t a tactic. More like a managerial Uno Reverse Card

 

[jd1981]

I know I'll get pelters but what the hell!. I think you guys are so unfair on RE. Who else do you think we could've got in the position we were in when VP got the sack? We were heading for the worst points total ever, we all agree we have a crap squad with very few exceptions. who else would've come in the winter window apart from AG who I thought at the time was a worthwhile punt.. it might have worked to some extent but failed miserably. Yesterday we were up against a team fighting for their survival with a new coach, all we have to fight for is a little pride, which hasn't been present all season. Blame FOSUN.. no-one else! I'm not a happy clapper and as distraught as all of you for the position that we're in, especially as I live surrounded by Villa fans. I just don't see that RE has had the tools to work with, inherited a downbeat, unfit and unmotivated squad. He can only do so much with that situation

Instilling some professional pride yes it’s on the players but it’s also something the manager needs to get through to the players. If he can’t then that’s a red flag.
What’s our style of play? He doesn’t have one other than hold onto dear life in games and try and nick something. Another red flag.
Whilst we had the break he had close to 4 weeks with the players to get his ideas across and we’ve come back looking like we did before xmas. Red flag
Players fighting each other in the dressing screams ill discipline. Red flag
Yes he’s had some dreadful players to work with but he absolutely could’ve got more out the squad, playing 3 sides from the bottom 6 and the best he can return is a 0-8.

 

[prawnking]

Surely anyone who's watched football for a while doesn't need someone to explain the difference a manager can make to any group of players, individually and collectively (for good or ill)?

Edwards, like all mediocre managers, is fine and dandy when he's in a favourable situation, and demonstrably useless when it's not. The club needs a fairweather manager about as much as we need fairweather players.

It also gets overlooked that Edwards had a transfer window to shake things up too. How's that panned out?

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Hard to disagree with the criticism of RE. We all know he was given a poor hand but he’s played it apallingly. It’s also worth remembering he brought in Angel Gomes in January - he could have used the money spent to bring in another forward as our options there are embarrassing, even with the addition of Armstrong who is totally unsuited to playing up front on his own.

Much as I enjoyed the results against Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa I think it will be a case of repent at leisure as without them he’d be on ice thinner than graphene. Take those three results away, not the performances which were like a League One team in the FA Cup, and there’s next to nothing positive to say about his time here. I guess we have been a little more organised but offensively we’ve been beyond woeful.

A quick word on yesterday’s match, I thought Lima showed some promise. A couple of decent crosses and defensively ok. Hopefully starts every one of our last games as he could be one of very few worth keeping.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

In fairness no-one any good was going to sign for us in January. We were already down, why would you.

 

[Tredman]

We were partly down because Rob lost his first 7(?) games?

 

[Wilf Wolf]

In fairness no-one any good was going to sign for us in January. We were already down, why would you.

Same was said of Angel. I guess the two reasons he came - shop window and money - would apply to anyone. I wasn’t too bothered about the January window at the time for pretty much the reason you state, but it grates that Edwards is getting an easy ride despite dreadful performances and his few defenders are still saying he’s been dealt a bad hand. It was bad but not so bad we have to play like plucky lower league underdogs all the time.

 

[basher]

Said it before but giving Edwards better players, a better squad, will not make him a better coach/ manager/ tactician.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Same was said of Angel. I guess the two reasons he came - shop window and money - would apply to anyone. I wasn’t too bothered about the January window at the time for pretty much the reason you state, but it grates that Edwards is getting an easy ride despite dreadful performances and his few defenders are still saying he’s been dealt a bad hand. It was bad but not so bad we have to play like plucky lower league underdogs all the time.

Oh yeah, I'm not defending the "tactics", such as they are.

There is no plan or shape or style.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We were partly down because Rob lost his first 7(?) games?

Not absolving him from anything but no-one was saving this squad from this position

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[basher]

Agreed, we were always likely to be relegated... but given Edwards will have had 3/4 of a season it would have been nice to have seen some signs of building a platform for next season... and not the same utter shitfest.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Nobody was saving us but I’m sure it would have been possible to use the time to embed a pattern of play and God forbid allow a few of the squad to show enough that we wouldn’t care if they all left in the summer.

 

[Kenny]

Rob got an easy time as he came into an utter shambles, then weeded out some of the twats and did at one moment in time appear to be improving things and we hit the heights of that Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa triple header of delight.

Had something to work with then, bit of fight installed. Still going down but a positive can be found in the midst of a shit storm of a season. Threw it all away since the break we had though and has just shown what we all thought of him - not suited to manage a team in the Prem and a huge waste of money we don't really have due to wasting a shit ton already on nothing.

Paul Lambert had a similar impact, meh start then a short spell of "we might be ok here" then it fell apart. Luckily for him he had the likes of Costa to drag his team over the line just as it was looking like a L1 return was on the cards and also luckily for us Jorge was the number 1 go to guy and he has a chap called Nuno ready to save us. We don't have anything to cling on to right now, so just knowing a new man was coming in would be good enough.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Nobody was saving us but I’m sure it would have been possible to use the time to embed a pattern of play and God forbid allow a few of the squad to show enough that we wouldn’t care if they all left in the summer.

Well Part B is on them. If they don't have any pride then fuck off. And to be honest, a load of them are just bad footballers, I don't want them here anyway.

I cannot defend him playing five at the back permanently because it's stupid, or playing long ball to Adam Armstrong while we have a 6'7'' striker on the bench. It's ridiculous and reflects badly on him as a manager.

 

[Kenny]

I cannot defend him playing five at the back permanently because it's stupid, or playing long ball to Adam Armstrong while we have a 6'7'' striker on the bench. It's ridiculous and reflects badly on him as a manager.

If he plays the 6ft 7 striker wide right, then I know he is inspired by Hoddle

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Well Part B is on them. If they don't have any pride then fuck off. And to be honest, a load of them are just bad footballers, I don't want them here anyway.

I cannot defend him playing five at the back permanently because it's stupid, or playing long ball to Adam Armstrong while we have a 6'7'' striker on the bench. It's ridiculous and reflects badly on him as a manager.

The way we’ve set up hasn’t helped any of the squad with the exception of Santi Bueno who looks better than previously as he’s got so many players close to him when defending. Ironically though he has been ok we still have no idea whether he could play well in back four because of our backs-to-the- wall defending.

Anyone in forward positions has been isolated and given no service, that’s on Edwards.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If he plays the 6ft 7 striker wide right, then I know he is inspired by Hoddle

He and others said at the time that Hoddle was an amazing coach in training. So maybe.

If he starts badly next season (and God knows what the squad will be in August) then he won't get any leeway from anyone.

 

[Lycan]

In fairness no-one any good was going to sign for us in January. We were already down, why would you.

We could've got more like Armstrong. Players who would've been interested in being part of a Championship promotion push at a big club and also have half a season to have a go at PL football as well.

Not just 'too good for Champo, not good enough for PL' like Armstrong either, there will be promising young players at big clubs who aren't getting a chance. They would fall into that bracket.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Such as?

Sorry but I don't buy that.