Jonathan Woodgate

Do you want Woodgate in charge first game of next season?

  • Yes

    Votes: 102 49.5%

  • No

    Votes: 104 50.5%
  • Total voters
    206
  • Poll closed .
Neil Dawson said:
Top Farrier will be along in a minute clutching a picture of Neil Blake pointing out that he has only got three more points than JT and totally ignoring all of the other facts...
Click to expand...
So far, JW is averaging 2.07 points per game, compared with JT's 1.55.

On this basis, over 46 games JW would end up on 95 points (probably champions) and JT would finish with 71 points (probably just outside play-offs).

Seems pretty clear cut to me.
 
DJ said:
[QUOTE="Garbo, post: 496295, member: 60"

It would be some story and would trump our previous promotion IMO...as we would have done it the hard way with all the aftermath of turmoil that has been our season!
Click to expand...

Couldn't disagree more!

The last promotion was a fairytale! Witnessed by thousands, played with style with drama and tension through out.

This isn't.[/QUOTE]
I am not saying that from an emotional standpoint, as obviously Howe delivered a total dream!...however from a practical standpoint of JW picking up a squad that had lost it's way under Tindall and getting them functioning as a unit despite the setbacks of players losing confidence and apparent interest...so in terms of piecing together a broken belief JW should ghe get us promoted would be quite an achievement!
 
SlowDownDerek said:
It could also be that Ben Pearson is an upgrade.
Click to expand...
This true .
You can see with lerma and Pearson we are tougher in the middle , and a few tackles that Pearson won were great last night .
A few months back , having 1 shot on goal seemed to be all we could muster, therefore one mistake at the back and we were in trouble. Now it seems we will create and we will score goals .
 
bpl234 said:
This true .
You can see with lerma and Pearson we are tougher in the middle , and a few tackles that Pearson won were great last night .
A few months back , having 1 shot on goal seemed to be all we could muster, therefore one mistake at the back and we were in trouble. Now it seems we will create and we will score goals .
Click to expand...

I love Pearson, just my type of central midfielder but he's not replaced Lewis and only starts every other game. What about credit to Jack as well?
 
JW's old school old pro approach is the polar opposite of Eddies more cerebral methods, but the players seem to respect him and are responding to it. Keeping a settled team has also been advantageous. Brooks finding his best form for the final push would be a massive bonus.
 
Last edited:
JW seems to be not able to believe his luck in getting to manage a squad with experienced and quality players in it. He seems to keep it simple and let the team deliver the results.

If promotion doesnt happen does he deserve another season in the championship with probably a few or most of the quality moving on.

He certainly has been a safer pair of hands than most of the predictable usual suspects.
 
Garbo said:
Couldn't disagree more!

The last promotion was a fairytale! Witnessed by thousands, played with style with drama and tension through out.

This isn't.
Click to expand...
I am not saying that from an emotional standpoint, as obviously Howe delivered a total dream!...however from a practical standpoint of JW picking up a squad that had lost it's way under Tindall and getting them functioning as a unit despite the setbacks of players losing confidence and apparent interest...so in terms of piecing together a broken belief JW should ghe get us promoted would be quite an achievement![/QUOTE]

Both great achievements in different ways.

This season shouldn't have been as such, but after the disastrous Tindall appointment and how we were flailing after xmas/january, it will be quite an achievement should Woodgate steer us back to the PL.
 
He has done well tbf .......but lets not get carried away....Woody inherited a team in the play off positions and kept them there.....any competent manager would do the same......we will need a better manager if we go up.
 
He has warmed to me over the past few games with the consistency in the team and especially finding a way to make the most of billing. I’m still don’t think I want him as our Manager next season though but if we make playoffs and get promoted I will probably change my mind on that!
 
Topfarrier said:
He has done well tbf .......but lets not get carried away....Woody inherited a team in the play off positions and kept them there.....any competent manager would do the same......we will need a better manager if we go up.
Click to expand...
True .
We were on the slide so now is the other way , and we are building momentum.
We also went from the best player being begovic every week to other players in the team
 
bpl234 said:
True .
We were on the slide so now is the other way , and we are building momentum.
We also went from the best player being begovic every week to other players in the team
Click to expand...
We were certainly on a poor run but most teams go on one in this league ....Swansea have just come out of a similar one.......the problem i have is that JT is only ever judged on that poor run and not all the great results we picked up under him.
Woodgate is a really likable guy and i'll delighted that he's proving all the Boro fans who thought he'd be a disaster wrong .
 
We still have five games to go to the end of a 46 league game season and see what JW’s record is then, including the play-offs if we are in them.

Then the board will decide on who takes us forward.

Depending on the league we are in next season, if they are looking for a new manager, then there could be some strong candidates for the job.

If not JW, who?
 
Topfarrier said:
We were certainly on a poor run but most teams go on one in this league ....Swansea have just come out of a similar one.......the problem i have is that JT is only ever judged on that poor run and not all the great results we picked up under him.
Woodgate is a really likable guy and i'll delighted that he's proving all the Boro fans who thought he'd be a disaster wrong .
Click to expand...

Agreed. We will never know whether JT would have turned it around (I was one of those who wouldn't have sacked him). It is interesting that neither Brentford or Swansea sacked their manager when on similar runs. I think JT was unlucky as well, as in that five game run, we missed Danjuma for 2 games, had a send-off and were still the better team in one, lost to a promotion rival and were undone by an individual error. Sometimes the luck just isn't with you and upsets happen in the Championship anyway.

I'm not saying JT was the right man for the job (he may well not have been), but for me, it was a shame he didn't get to prove it one way or the other, or get to use CCV or Pearson, both of whom have been v good in recent weeks and are associated with the winning run.

This said, it's in past and I'm now fully behind JW, spritzers and all.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
Its not just about the results though. Its also not just a short bad run we went on. We were awful to watch before the bad run and even worse during it. The players didnt look like they cared either.

Now we look like a team with an identity and I am not sure if JT would have managed that no matter how long he stayed.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the biggest change for me. The players now look as though they actually want to be out there and look as though they are bothered about the result. Although I agree with Matt that JT was pretty unlucky with the timing of his sacking, I seriously doubt that had he stayed, he would have been able to achieve this change in mood amongst the players, which arguably has been the most important contributing factor to our recent improvement in results.
For whatever reason the players just couldn't get inspired or particularly motivated under JT and I doubt that any amount of time given would have changed that.
 
The second goal might be a sign of what Woodgate has done well with the side.

At the outset you have us passing back, then a defender just clears our lines rather than passing back to Bego, inviting pressure and losing the ball in a dangerous area. After that Mepham giveaway against QPR I think he really drilled into the players on where it’s appropriate and where it’s not to play the tippy tappy stuff.

Huddersfield then try to play up the field with about 2 players actually seeming to be bothered to make runs or angles, they lose the ball and leave themselves completely open. That was us all over earlier in the year.

It may be a back to basics approach, but it’s been effective, the players can still show their quality at the right times and my heart feels healthier for it :)
 
Topfarrier said:
We were certainly on a poor run but most teams go on one in this league ....Swansea have just come out of a similar one.......the problem i have is that JT is only ever judged on that poor run and not all the great results we picked up under him.
Click to expand...
It wasn't just the poor run though, was it ?

The way he conducted himself in interviews was dreadful, talking in mind-numbing cliches, repeating himself endlessly, long and rambling statements that didn't really mean anything. The final interview he gave after the Wednesday defeat seemed to indicate a man who was struggling to articulate anything remotely sensible. In other words, he'd lost the plot.

It's a harsh thing to say, but I imagine quite a few of our players found it hard to respect him, based on his very poor communication skills.
 
I'm hoping for the best!
As said above, we have 5 more games left, plus (hopefully!) playoffs.
If we demolish Norwich on the weekend and handily win the playoffs, I can't see him not getting at least a 1-year contract.
On the other hand, if we lose a bunch of the remaining 6 and either miss the playoffs or go out in the first round, I'm not sure the Board would want to keep him.
However, given how we've been playing of late, I will be genuinely disappointed if we don't beat Norwich on Saturday. However, given Norwich's now-all-but-clinched promotion, I wonder whether they'll see games against "PL"-level sides like us as valuable preparation for next season and therefore put out their strongest starting XI. Sort of a pre-pre-season friendly? Whereas a game v QPR may be one for their youngsters?
Anyway, Saturday should be interesting!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;