74-year-old Hodgson out of the mountains, can he clean up the mess of 70-year-old Ranieri?

Source: Sports Weekly

With Biden at 78 replacing Trump at 74, it's not surprising that 74-year-old Hodgson replaced 70-year-old Ranieri. Watford's official announcement of the new manager on Tuesday night, in addition to continuing to break the Age Record for a Premier League manager held by TaiGong himself, should be regarded as an option that adds a little hope to relegation.

When Hodgson ended his four-year term at Crystal Palace last summer, he denied retirement. In his spare time for half a year, he spent time with his family in Mallorca, occasionally went to sky terrace or Byin Sports to judge the ball, and received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Taigong was once interested in finding a club as a consultant, but Ranieri's dismissal gave him the opportunity to do his 22nd job in his 45-year coaching career.

Both sides signed until the end of the season, each with priority for renewal this summer. Taigong got the title of Manager, higher than Ranieri's Head Coach, but the meaning is still difficult to interpret, after all, it is said that Watford may not continue to recruit reinforcements after signing four people in the winter window. The Times revealed that Hodgson accepted a contract with a lower base salary, but if he leads the team to relegation, he will receive a million-dollar bonus. His assistants were also senior, with the 65-year-old Levington assisting Hodgson several times, and the last time he served as a top man in his career happened to be at the helm of Watford from 2002 to 2005.

Hodgson knows many foreign languages, coaching in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Finland, Norway and other countries, although in Liverpool and England team defeats, but often with small and medium-sized teams to gain. This is his second time working with the Pozzo family, having briefly coached Udinese in 2001. At that time, he had just won the Danish League championship in Copenhagen and accepted an invitation from the Pozzo family six years ago. Unfortunately, that tie-up lasted only 17 games.

More than twenty years later, will Hodgson be too old and outdated? His old subordinate commented: "Is he a dinosaur? Sling the bull. He places great emphasis on exercise science, nutrition and video analytics. He always speaks to people. Even if he doesn't let you play, he will be open to you and the players respect that. ”

Hodgson is not the kind of co-ordinator who gives the training to his assistants, he personally directs the training every day, teaching is not interesting, only hard work: for the key links to repeatedly practice until the players form a muscle memory. Watford have not kept a clean sheet so far this season, averaging exactly two goals conceded per game. On the positive side, the defensive-minded Hodgson may be the one to solve the problem.

The old subordinate looked forward: "He will pay close attention to the position of the 4 people in the defensive line and strengthen cooperation." You'll repeatedly practice how you move, forming an instinct on the field. Will it be boring? Sometimes you may want to change your ways, but when you see that this practice really works, you won't say anything. Of course, this set of things may take a while to practice. ”

Time? Ranieri led the team to 13 Premier League games only won 2 wins and 1 draw, and at present Watford are 2 points behind the safe zone, and the relegation situation is not desperate, but it is grim enough. In 2017, Hodgson succeeded Frank DeBoll, who lost four consecutive games in the opening season and scored 0 goals, to take charge of Crystal Palace, finishing 11th in the season. Now that the season is more than halfway through, as the third manager of the Hornets this season, Taigong is more difficult to fight the fire this time. At Crystal Palace, Taigong won only 1 of his first 8 games, and in Fulham, he won only 1 of his first 10 games. Hodgson, Allardyce, Benitez and other defensive coaches all have the problem of slow heating up to varying degrees, but this time, Taigong may not be able to withstand too long a run-in period.

Whether Taigong can succeed depends largely on the player's acceptance of him. At that time, Crystal Palace winger Townsend had a problem with him, "At the beginning of the training session, he asked me to be a defender, I was not very happy, I felt that he was targeting me. He said, 'If I only have 1 thing left in my life to do, I'm going to train your defense.' ’”

At the end of the day, Townsend is an honest man. What about the Watford players? In recent years, the team's coaching black hole style of excessive frequency of coaching, so that the players treat each coach as a temporary coach, the manager's authority is difficult to establish, Ranieri's failure is directly related to the subordinates do not buy him. Now, Hodgson's contract period shows that he is indeed a short-term candidate, and the ability to gather the dressing room will test his wrists.

The Watford dressing room is really difficult, and some of the core players are estranged from most ordinary players. As the team's top scorer, 24-year-old Nigerian striker Emanuel Dennis was spat upon by his teammates: too lazy, not fighting for the team, just want to look good. So what happens when Hodgson gets Dennis fully involved in defense?

Next, Taigong will have 10 days of training, the first game is On February 5, he will be a guest relegation opponent Burnley, and the opposing Team's Deich is the boss of the Pozzo family who was fired immediately after buying Watford 10 years ago. The 15th manager of the Pozzo era came in 0th place, and Watford's luck in rolling the dice this time will give the initial answer.