Silva’s Playbook

[Ross]

I do wonder how much sway Brands will have over Silvas long term future. He’s clearly been Moshiris “big bet” but Brands has gained a lot of influence since the summer it seems and he’s got previous for getting shut quickly of managers who aren’t meeting the standards he requires.

Normally you’d expect at least 18 months for this sort of thing but Brands not being onboard when we were pursuing Silva originally kind of clouds the issue I think.

[Ross]

Think people are getting bogged down with this zonal marking obsession. As it is we’d likely concede as many goals from set plays if we went straight up to a man for man system.

The problems more deep rooted than a simple change of tactics, we lack real leaders/organisers in defensive  situations. A couple of strong willed smart thinking players from midfield or the forward line would organise the defence better and add some aggression into our set up. The players we’ve got have the capabilities of defending set plays well individually but they’ve not got the collective intelligence regardless of the set up.

More worrying is the lack of cohesion in midfield and getting that fixed I think.

[Ross]

Defending set pieces doesn’t seem to be in his playbook

https://twitter.com/Matt_Cheetham/status/1091834300868296706?

[Ross]

Good to draw a line under this.

https://twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/1099002127362314240?

[Ross]

Less than half what was offered when we originally wanted him.

[Ross]

Yeah it’s a not been great but it’s certainly been progress considering the mess Silva walked into.

What I liked the most was he managed to turn what looked like a head long nosedive around, albeit after a long time, and the fact he’s always had the players giving there all for him.

Overall it’s been a solid enough season all things considered. Next season he’s got very little wriggle-room for any prolonged dips. 

[Ross]

I expect he’ll just limp to another top 8 finish and we’ll be looking for another manager come May.

[Ross]

Can’t even sack a manager properly now.