First game against Crystal Palace, we looked drilled in the first half, pressing all over the pitch, playing some direct, positive football. I really thought forward is the only way, and we will only look better when his tactics gel.
Instead, we reverted to our zombie passing shite football with today's horror show, like the icing on the cake.
Can someone explain to me why did we stop pressing teams after that Crystal Palace game? And how we managed to press them so well in his first game, after one training session?
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If you have not had many training sessions, then maybe stick to what works and the players are used to. Playing with no midfield, throwing all players bar the CBs high up when one of them is slow as piss and then lumping the ball up is not quite the coaching that was being hyped up.
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Looking more and more like the type of manager Watford would hire and then sack 2 months later
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Sorry this will end in tears. Playing 4-2-2-2 and players out of postion before you get a TEAM and the basics right is just a no-go. I see a professor playing out theories that only work in a well established team with players that fits the bill.
What I saw today was truly remarkabel bad. We where very lucky to play Newcastle.
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He is interim manager for a reason. He isn't bad but he isn't among the top 10 coaches in Europe I would say.
To be fair to him though, it's hard to implement a pressing style if you have a bunch of whiny prima donnas who sulk, complain and moan to the ref every time they lose the ball. With Gegenpressing taking risks and losing the ball is allowed, what isn't allowed is to not counter press the second you lost the ball and unfortunately very few of our players have the mindset required to play this style of football.
We are still paying the price for at least 8 years of horrendous squad building that brought us to this stage, and I'm afraid Rangnick won't fix that in his 8 months he has at this club.
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I'll just reiterate what I said when he came here: Ralf is *probably* not THE guy that's going to take us to the promised land. His history as a manager is ok by European standard but not top tier like a Klopp. Without that "hypeman" connection, pretty much no Redcafe posters would be the least bit excited about Ralf coming here.
The reason so many are so estatic about a guy they've rarely or never heard about before a Ole replacement was announced is beacuse he's been named as the inspiration of big name managers who have all surpassed their inspiration by a huge margin. Unless you happen to have followed the Bundesliga some 15 years ago, chances are you'd miss Ralf Ragnicks existence entirely before he came her.
Ragnicks primarily role here is still to help us find the new manager, and introduce something new at the second half in the season to a squad who aren't able to mesh like they did the previous season for whatever reason. Of course he's a wealth of knowledge, speaks with authority and commands a lot of respect. I'd love for him to be a success here, but unless the players start playing well on a personal level, nothing he does is going to have any impact.
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I'm not turning on him, I suspected when we got him that he was a knee jerk solution from the board based on what they thought the fans would like more than because this was the plan for the type of football they want us to play or what we're suited for. I've been hoping to see something to prove me wrong and so far it's only got worse really as the games have progressed. These aren't hard games and I expect more from a team that actually played quite well against Arsenal not too long ago.
Do you honestly think the plan all along from the board was to try to go to this style of football if Ole failed? Why did we sign Ronaldo for example if that was the plan? High energy, high press, righto here's a 36 year old striker.
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But at least [Ole's] team could score a goal or two with a moment of magic. Ralf has actually killed all our attacks. We have created virtually nothing in three games v Palace Norwich and Newcastle. Thats two of the worst teams in the league and a midtable Palace side. When we come up against a decent team we are going to lose. Id fancy Burley to get at least a point and Wolves to probably beat us. We don't even have the moments of individual brilliance to bail us out anymore.
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acnumber9 said:
Him not having managed any team to any great standard and being sporadically out of managerial work was probably our best clue. As interims go he may be ok but he’s not the answer long term and that should’ve been obvious when he was hired.
I felt more confident with Carrick at the helm. Honestly.
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That's what makes it worse, we should be in the middle of a new manager bounce right about now, but the effort levels match those earlier this season under Ole.
Our new manager bounce lasted half an hour against Palace.
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The German equivalent of Damien Comolli.