MikeTasmania (Just noticed this thread as accidentally posted on the transfer one)
Why not Eustace? Whilst at Kidderminster they became known as the non-league Barcelona. Isn’t that what we’ve all been clamouring for? A return to the beautiful game, being everyone’s favourite second team. Buck, Roberto relatively unknowns who transformed the way we played and gave us years of joy. Neither spent much either. Think Pratley, Britton, Bodde, Dobbie even Sinclair who cost £800,000 from memory (huge for us then). Everyone else less than £100,000 or even free. I like the look of this if true. You can’t judge him on 7 games at QPR. Roberto didn’t change our whole ethos overnight. It took at least a season and year on year clever recruitment of people to fit the style and system. If he joins give him a chance. I actually think he’s far more interesting and points more to the way we all want us to play than the others on the list.
Well we need to be careful. The question for me is 'Why Eustace?'.
Well he will be cheap, no compensation, first manager role, not a high salary and there is some indication that he is prepared to work with younger players. So he hits all the Club's major interests.
However for me the main criteria is the style of play. The club is very vague on this and frankly it feels to me like its about 42 on their priority order. Who is going to interviewing him with the capability of assessing his true style, never mind if what they want is even close to what the fans actually want. If this forum is at all reflective of the fans, then it clearly isnt just about results except for a minority, perhaps a big minority, but still a minority.
So what can we glean from John Eustace's track record. Well he clearly did very well at Kidderminister Harries:
Played 103
Won 55
Drawn 21
Lost 27
That's pretty good and stands up well. There is also some articles, suggesting the style was 'easy on the eye', and 'open and expansive'. I havent seen the Barcelona comparisons, and at 1.8 points per match it is a bit of a stretch. Perhaps Barcelona style for the leagues they were playing in.
At QPR its harder to assess and some of the information concerns me.
He only had seven matches and had to prevent relegation. He did that so he can cope with pressure and clearly can be pragmatic to get results. ( A good but slightly worrying capability in the current situation.)
However only 7 points from 7 Matches (W2, D1 L4) with 7 goals scored and 7 goals conceded. Not great except it was an environment just to stop relegation and did he have the players at his disposal to play a different way?
In the matches the formations were either 4-4-1-1, 4-4-2, or 4-1-4-1 the possession and pass success rate only got to 50% possession in one match I believe and pass success did hit 70% once. I'm not feeling the possession passing game here.
However some will say well he did beat us 4-0. That is true, but how much should we attribute to that one success just because it was against us. Especially as GP had been found out defensively at that time. Good to Eustace for getting the result but not a decider imo.
So I am certainly not anti- Eustace, he seems to have a good eye for details and we will never really know until he gets the chance to manage somewhere.
My concern and priority is we need the new manager to bring back the passing style if we are even to get promoted (now or in the future) therefore we need to be very certain this time.