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2 months after the last poll, how confident are you in Woodgate now?


Two months later - how confident are you in Woodgate now?  

108 members have voted

  1. 1. Are you....

    • Fully confident - needs more time
      4
    • So-So - early days yet
      9
    • Bit worried - not the best start
      26
    • Extremely worried - can't see scope for improvement
      69
  2. 2. And... In your opinion - do the problems at MFC Stem from....

    • Gibson
      50
    • Woody
      2
    • Whoever is in charge of recruitment
      6
    • All of the above
      50


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I thought Red Bull were already involved with us as Red Bull gives you Wing 😏

But Woody is a rookie manager. He's not got 30 odd years of experience in the game. And guess why we had to hire a rookie manager? Gibson. People point the finger at Woodgate saying he's getting

Ever since Kenyon found Karnaka / Orta and then disappeared any direction we had was scrapped. Under that regime we had an identity weather or not you were a fan of how we played or not. We were signi

I think it's been well established on other threads that Woodgate is a fall guy here, and the problems at MFC predate his appointment by years. However, his managerial style could best be described as confused, and at worst as downright incompetent. Rebuilding the club after the Pulis years needed (a) an experienced manager who (b) knows his way around the Championship and (c) has a track record of teaching more positive tactics and strategies to players who've been brainwashed into hoofing and crabbing. Woody is none of those things.

 

It's not Woody's fault he isn't up to the job - if you offered me the Boro job, I'd bite your arm off as well, and my only experience comes from Football Manager. However, his managerial inexperience is being brutally exposed every match day. The players are much better than their current league position - Pulis had a broadly similar squad finish seventh, despite his phobia of the opposition half - and the utter lack of confidence among whichever XI starts each match must be attributed in large measure to whatever has happened in training during the week. Either he's not explaining things, or the players aren't getting things, but we look pretty clueless in every aspect of our performance.

 

Despite being extremely worried about the situation, though, I don't think sacking Woody is the answer. He needs a Venables-type figure, the club needs a DoF and Gibson needs to give his head a shake. Then, and only then, are we likely to see green shoots of improvement throughout the club - the root-and-branch reform we've needed since Karanka and his dossiers departed.

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Woodgate is what he is, whoever we hired this season would be doing what they did under poor stewardship from the top and would do well to be performing well, so as a whole I ain't pinning any of this on him.

Speaking about him and his team in relative terms, I'm not worried yet. It is still early days, for me. We've under-performed but I expected we would so I'm not overly disappointed with what he's managed to do.

For what it's worth, looking at this time last season, 2 of the bottom 4 (Preston and Hull, both had less points than we do now) finished comfortably mid-table, it's not beyond us to do that. The flip side of that is that 3 of the bottom 7 were the teams who got relegated, Bolton and Rotherham had actually started better than we have this season in terms of points.

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Extremely worried that we cant beat people around us and we have so few points after a relatively easy start. 

With who's fault it is, I think you can make a case for all of them but for different reasons. 

Gibson has orchestrated it all. Since Karanka and that January in the prem we waved the white flag in signing Gestede, Bamford and Guideora. That showed the trust and faith he had. A strong window could have yielded better results so who knows. We sold our players after that so what exactly would have been lost?

Next is recruitment, as mentioned above our recruitment hasnt been great when we *needed* it to be. I'm talking of that season. We've been backed well by Gibson, just the recruitment team have let him down with some players. 

We've had in my opinion good quality players, the problem has been whether they fit a specific team formation or system we play. We've then tried to adapt different squads with different systems and its created a mish mash and not really worked. 

Monk was the last manager that had "free reign" and things got ugly behind the scenes before we had a chance to see what would have been. 

We then had Pulis who ripped up that, sold Bamford because he didnt suit his style and then had a team of plodders. The plodders have been inherited by Woodgate who is trying to make them play un plodder like football. It doesn't work, we brings me on to Woodgate. 

Woodgate is at fault for playing in a style of football which I dont think his team can do. High press with Britt? Okay. But the recruitment team, did they give him the players he wanted or needed? It's hard to say its Woodgates fault for where we are with the players.

But youd expect a coach to be working better with the current crop of players. Hes got the ingredients of a good squad but isn't making a meal from it, we're getting served a dogs dinner each week. So that's why it's his fault. 

So in summary, we've got a collection of lots of problems but they run deeper than just isolated reasons for happening. Together, they all are problems but at different stages in my opinion, since that January window. 

We now find ourselves in 5 years worth of lurching from one mistake to the next and fan morale at an all time low. 

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Never understood the fuss about Venables.....he managed for 25 years and won 1 FA Cup...had a good year at Barcelona, where it was hard not to win the league......but he was a lovable Cockney, just like Arry....and left his clubs in the same financial position ...broke....very good with the media, but when he was here, that was his main job, Robbo did the hard stuff behind the scenes, while Venables said look at the difference I've made.....maybe it's just me, but he comes across as another Big Ron....although Ron won both cups twice.......so arguably, he was better   

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7 hours ago, Old Codger said:

Never understood the fuss about Venables.....he managed for 25 years and won 1 FA Cup...had a good year at Barcelona, where it was hard not to win the league......but he was a lovable Cockney, just like Arry....and left his clubs in the same financial position ...broke....very good with the media, but when he was here, that was his main job, Robbo did the hard stuff behind the scenes, while Venables said look at the difference I've made.....maybe it's just me, but he comes across as another Big Ron....although Ron won both cups twice.......so arguably, he was better   

He changed us from being absolutely useless to a team which was hard to beat team within weeks. 

I remember being on a coaching course and being told that Venables and Bobby Robson were absolutely brilliant coaches and light years ahead of everyone else in this country. This was when they were still involved in the game. 

I don't think its right to say that Robson did all the hard work behind the scenes, Venables was out on the training field coaching players and managing  players like Boksic who wasn't turning up for training. 

I'm sure he's been involved in a few dodgy deals off the pitch like Harry Redknapp but he was a really good coach. 

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Cant lay the blame at woodys door me... been hung out to dry just like the last local lad. Squad is so thin and full of utter dross it's all points to one outcome.. even with Jack Ross supposedly coming on board this has been a downhill slope for 4yrs.. hard to stop the slide when the club is investing 0 in playing staff. Until we get a football brain in charge of transfers etc it wont change and likely get worse. 

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What's this about Jack Ross?

Even with a football brain in charge of transfers, if the one at the top ain't stumping up the cash for them then it would be pointless. 

Something needs to change either Gibson backs Woodgate and we scrap to stay in the league or we go down. 

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I disagree with those saying that JW cannot be blamed at all for this. Gibson rightly needs to take some of the blame but JW practically has same squad that finished 5th and 7th in last 2 seasons and is now 3rd bottom. That is only one persons fault and that is man in charge of the first team.

Even for all of Gibsons faults (and there are plenty) a more competent manager in the exact same environment would not have this squad sat 22nd in the league.

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1 hour ago, TLF10 said:

I disagree with those saying that JW cannot be blamed at all for this. Gibson rightly needs to take some of the blame but JW practically has same squad that finished 5th and 7th in last 2 seasons and is now 3rd bottom. That is only one persons fault and that is man in charge of the first team.

Even for all of Gibsons faults (and there are plenty) a more competent manager in the exact same environment would not have this squad sat 22nd in the league.

But Woody is a rookie manager. He's not got 30 odd years of experience in the game. And guess why we had to hire a rookie manager? Gibson.

People point the finger at Woodgate saying he's getting things wrong or that the team isn't getting the same kind of points as previously, well yeah, that's what happens when you hire a rookie manager. He's going to get things wrong, he's learning on the job. That's not his fault, that's the fault of the people who put him in charge.

The reason he's in charge comes down to how much money this club has wasted. And pointing the finger at Woodgate right now is doing nothing more than what the club has designed. He's the fall guy, the scapegoat. And everyone is falling for it.

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