The Rémi Garde thread

[mwj]

30 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Shockingly its looked better since Hutton has been out the starting 11. Every attack came with a Hutton cross into oblivion. Now, at least it looks like we are attacking with a little more intent,

Not to mention his personal contribution to a lot of our goals conceded... Walcott pen, Creswell goal etc

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, mykeyb said:

I think its fair to say he has had a pretty good week but I am still not seeing as big an improvement in our organisation on the pitch, pretty much zero improvement in movement of players for throw-ins or off the ball.

Why does he persist in playing our 2-1 up top when it leaves us light in midfield and not enough of a threat in front of goal.

for me we are still way too slow on the ball and with our movement. We dont play at a good tempo for me

[BOF]

Next up, he needs to find the knack of getting us playing straight from the first whistle.  We're slow starters (in the games where we actually start at all).  Keep doing that and you will find yourself chasing the game more than you'd like.  But we're getting there.  At least we start to fire at some point in most games now, which is better than the inexorable trudge towards an insipid defeat that we were witnessing up to very recently.

[markavfc40]

50 minutes ago, Zatman said:

for me we are still way too slow on the ball and with our movement. We dont play at a good tempo for me

That has been an issue for a number of years now apart from a spell under Sherwood last season where we got the ball forward way quicker and played off Benteke.

You hit the nail on the head though the reason we play at such a slow tempo is a lack of movement up front. We can't move the ball quickly though midfield and into the forwards as they are rarely in space or making runs in behind so we go sideways and backwards often making 20 odd passes but ending up back in our own half where we started. It is frustrating to watch.

Technically the likes of Veretout, Westwood, Gil, Grealish are all pretty accomplished passers and capable of picking out runs but all our forwards, aside from maybe Ayew who is not for me a central striker, are way too static especially Gestede. We've all known since the summer that we desperately need a striker. You put a decent forward in our team and I would go as far to say we would not be in the relegation zone. It was a balls up of monumental proportions not spending  big money on a striker and one that is almost certainly going to make a huge contribution to us going down.

Edited January 20, 2016 by markavfc40

[VillaCas]

23 hours ago, TRO said:

Some think that last line (desire and effort) is a given.

Who thinks that then TRO?

[Zatman]

5 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

That has been an issue for a number of years now apart from a spell under Sherwood last season where we got the ball forward way quicker and played off Benteke.

You hit the nail on the head though the reason we play at such a slow tempo is a lack of movement up front. We can't move the ball quickly though midfield and into the forwards as they are rarely in space or making runs in behind so we go sideways and backwards often making 20 odd passes but ending up back in our own half where we started. It is frustrating to watch.

Technically the likes of Veretout, Westwood, Gil, Grealish are all pretty accomplished passers and capable of picking out runs but all our forwards, aside from maybe Ayew who is not for me a central striker, are way too static especially Gestede. We've all known since the summer that we desperately need a striker. You put a decent forward in our team and I would go as far to say we would not be in the relegation zone. It was a balls up of monumental proportions not spending  big money on a striker and one that is almost certainly going to make a huge contribution to us going down.

its the most frustrating thing in the world though, its a minor point but we actually take the worst throw ins in football history. nobody actually does a thing

[sheepyvillian]

 

Everytime we get a throw - in I literally cringe .

[Grasshopper]

18 hours ago, Zatman said:

its the most frustrating thing in the world though, its a minor point but we actually take the worst throw ins in football history. nobody actually does a thing

Its not a minor thing because every other team knows they can conceed a throw in against us because it effectively means they are "maintaining posession"  when they "regain posession" within 30secs no damage done.

[Jareth]

Nice interview by him today on Sky - no bull ever from remi, just answers the question honestly and he does really seem to care. The board did say their number one aim was to keep the manager in place for stabilitys sake, so I hope they do just that.

[PussEKatt]

I am starting to wonder how long Remi will stay in the job ? I mean, put yourself in his place.There is absoutely nothing happening in front of him and there is absoutely nothing happening behind him,FFS how long is he going to put up with that ?

Try playing Football Manager like that, with a team that can only buy cheap players and can only sell their best players, meanwhile we have players like Nzog earning over 60k a week. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

37 minutes ago, PussEKatt said:

I am starting to wonder how long Remi will stay in the job ? I mean, put yourself in his place.There is absoutely nothing happening in front of him and there is absoutely nothing happening behind him,FFS how long is he going to put up with that ?

Try playing Football Manager like that, with a team that can only buy cheap players and can only sell their best players, meanwhile we have players like Nzog earning over 60k a week. 

We signed N'Zogbia 4 years ago.

Remi knew the score when he came in, nothing has changed. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

37 minutes ago, PussEKatt said:

I am starting to wonder how long Remi will stay in the job ? I mean, put yourself in his place.There is absoutely nothing happening in front of him and there is absoutely nothing happening behind him,FFS how long is he going to put up with that ?

Try playing Football Manager like that, with a team that can only buy cheap players and can only sell their best players, meanwhile we have players like Nzog earning over 60k a week. 

We signed N'Zogbia 4 years ago.

Remi knew the score when he came in, nothing has changed. 

[srsmithusa]

with some here stating that Remi's appointment was a terrible mistake, some saying he is our best long term hope, some expecting him to walk.  It got me thinking.  I'm in the "I really like him and think he may be the key ingredient for long term success."  But I'm really wondering why I think that. 

He certainly produced no new manager bounce.  But I have reasons.

1) Tim was so clearly utterly clueless when it came to putting out an effective side or making intelligent use of the bench, that anything looks better.

2) Remi's demeanor is very calm, professional, appears to be thoughtful and intelligent and straightforward.  i.e. he says what he thinks, clearly and pretty directly.  admittedly, also the "he isn't Sherwood" angle.

3) The line-ups did begin to make more sense immediately.  (One match not so much, but injuries and maybe trying something different, played a role in that)

4) There was an apparent (to me anyway) shift to make the strategy fit the positioning and personnel.

5) Starting this past week (worryingly too long) a step up in quality, endeavor, and alignment became quite apparent.

6) He rightly identified fitness as an issue and has clearly made progress as we show much more energy over 90 minutes (if not always much more effectiveness)

7) this one is, i think in fairness, more rationalization than reason.  But I find myself hoping that the reality it is taking him more time than hoped to get things working better means that he works well on a long-term project.  Gradual improvement over the long haul rather than a brief flash of un-sustained improvement.

when I did this, I realized that I think items 2-5 are the most important in setting my bias in Remi's favor.  I hope I'm right and that he stays long term.  

 

[Daweii]

As much as we likely needed a new manager bounce I think it's good we didn't have one. New manager bounces can often cloud the things a manager needs to inspect first hand, if you come into a failing club and then every player starts playing like Messi for 3-4 games then it's a lot harder to see the weaknesses. In our case Remi came in and could pretty much see who the culprits likely were, he spent a few games trying to weed them out and yes we lost/drew several games while he did that but we're now unbeaten in several games at home and unbeaten in several games in general. We've won 2 of our last 3 and improvement is now starting to be seen. Yes it may be too late as not winning in close to 20 games in a season will do that, but I would rather a slow start and see meaningful improvement made than have a new manager bounce and then having a team floundering when it dies off. 

[srsmithusa]

I knew I was brilliant, but I see God has now tweeted his appreciation for the improvement under Remi.

[blandy]

4 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

Remi's demeanor is very calm, professional, appears to be thoughtful and intelligent and straightforward.  i.e. he says what he thinks, clearly and pretty directly

This many times over. Clearly I'm not a footballer, but there are certain managers where I just think "I'd play for him, I'd want to work for him" Garde is one of those. No fuss, no tantrums, no major ups and downs. What he says is right. His standards are good.

Given the nature of the squad he's done about as well as could be expected IMO. I hope he goes on to do a good job over a long time for us.

[HanoiVillan]

Yes, I agree about Garde. I feel like even when everyone turns against him - as we all inevitably will, sooner or later, this is football - I won't dislike him personally. He seems too calm and professional to actually dislike. 

[briny_ear]

5 hours ago, Jareth said:

Nice interview by him today on Sky - no bull ever from remi, just answers the question honestly and he does really seem to care. The board did say their number one aim was to keep the manager in place for stabilitys sake, so I hope they do just that.

Yes, he speaks well in public.

As I've suggested in the past, maybe he has a great future in public speaking.

[Zatman]

If Garde manages to keep us up it will be as close to a sporting miracle as possible. It would even be renamed the Miracle on Grass. Maybe Kurt Russell could play him in the movie about it

[mwj]

This sounds familiar...

Quote

But Balague feels the young squad is too scared of playing in front of their home fans, saying in his Twitter Q&A: "December 2. That is when he was announced as the new Valencia manager. One-and-a-half months. And Valencia fans and commentators are already wondering if he is the man for the job, as he has not won in the league.

"Interestingly, they don't all blame him. It is an unbalanced squad, too young, too scared of playing in front of their own fans, where, most importantly, everyone is under-performing.

 

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12087/10139598/valencia-problems-run-deeper-than-gary-neville-start-says-guillem-balague