Another defeat on the road in a tight game where we've had chances by all accounts but just not getting the results we are at home.
Not going to be boring and blame the entire defeat on Beppe like some will, but Belkalem and Faraoni on one side is asking for trouble, neither of them are very good at defending. I'd much rather Hoban plays then Belkalem. Seemed to just be a game where we lacked any quality. We couldn't change the game when we went 2-1 because we had no options on the bench. Disappointing, but ultimately doesn't really matter.
Lost to the better side no doubt but the most frustrating thing is bringing on diakite & starting Belkalem. I'd much rather use this last period of the season to give the youth a chance and better prepare them for next season. Give Bond a decent run in goal with the pressure off, give Hoban a chance and so on.
Unfortunately the majority of our chances fell to Anya, who's finishing most of the time leaves a lot to be desired as was the case today. Not a lot to say really, thought the better team won but when you're losing you really need to throw on another forward but we're not in a position to do that due to injuries and Ranegie being daft. Im not sure why we haven't recalled Ikpeazu or Jukabiak or dipped into the loan market ourselves which would have surely helped our slim chance of reaching play offs. Oh well lets hope we can rectify this miserable away form and finish the season off well.
Don't think we really learnt anything today that we didn't know beforehand. We know we've become very strong at home, but can't win away. We know we've become very good generally at dispatching the weaker teams in the league (at home) but we can't usually beat anybody above us. We know Sannino will typically err on the side of caution. Hence today 4 defenders on the bench (I appreciate this was mostly because of injuries) and Diakite coming on instead of Merkel. We know the aforementioned Diakite is a liability. We still don't really know what to make of the current regime, because we're all usually on a high after a home result, then brought crashing back down to earth when our next game is away. I know I still have big doubts that Sannino can really take us to the promised land of the Top 2 (despite the good things he's achieved with us so far) but I accept I remain in a small minority on here. So it's plus ca change tonight really! Although we do know McGugan can at least score away now..that was his first goal for us on the road. And sadly we still know we can't win at Wigan..we never have.
I've seen duxbury say we will not overhaul the squad this summer, but I wouldn't blame him if we did. Our league position does indeed match our squad quality. I think we have too many average players as it stands. A couple of stars, toszer for example, but even some of our 'better' players, e.g angella , he is not that good a defender in my opinion. Feel quite frustrated.
No shame in losing away to the best side in the league. We all know our problems... we've dissected them until we are blue in the face (Abdi, Irinney, Fab, Vydra, Mcboo etc etc etc....) and I'm sure so does Sannino, Nani and the rest of the management. Did we really believe we were going to get to and win the play offs without first fixing the problems? Patience, the new season is only 5 months away...
I think that starting Belkalem and bringing on Diakite is to try and gauge a little better whether they are players that will be back next season. The latter was only intended to be short term and his wages are reportedly extortionate, but Belkalem hasn't started a game since Middlesbrough in November due to injury. Doyley already has his contract, while Belkalem had a chance to prove his is worth signing permanently. I would argue that we don't need him. Doyley's back, Hoban will be back to fitness for next season, but Nos and Hall will be off too. As for today. I agree, its nothing new. Disappointing to not break our away hoodoo but Wigan are the form side in the league. Nice to see McGugan on the score sheet, but as long as we keep winning at home this should hide our deficiencies away from the Vic at least for this season. I am glad to some extent about Duxbury's comments but I don't fully believe this. There will be comings and goings (Nos, Hall, Neil, Park, Diakite, Jenkins etc) and even Cassetti and Almunia might not be here next season and we have yet to hear about Tozser and Merkel. I hope we've learnt the lessons from this year. Its been up and down, but it'll all be worth it if we learn the lessons. We can enjoy the end of the season safe in the knowledge that we won't go down and we won't make the play-offs. Use this as an evaluator for next season. I'd argue we need 2/3/4 players with proper Championship experience and maybe another goalkeeper for next season. We almost have a new stand, and hopefully next season - with another year of experience for this lot (its good to have adversity as you learn quicker) then that SHOULD stand us in good stead. Sannino deserves to start next season as manager. If Duxbury's comments about overhaul are anything to go by, he may have just bought himself more time with our resurgence (at home at least)!!
So we have learnt Anya isn't a striker and Diakete is just an expensive liability, booked again. If he'd come on earlier he would probably have been booked again. Anya is just plugging a gap while we are short on strikers but surely Diakete can be sent back can't he??
As much as people are prepared to praise Beppe for wonderful home form, he should be pilloried for his pathetic away record. It's truly shameful. What's going to give? Are we going to start being beatable at home or are we going to win away? With the number of points we're gaining on the road, we NEED to win all our home games to just be treading water. Sannino is still not winning me over. He's just a hack, doing a short term fix at present. If he can take us forward then he's going to have to show a lot more.
We know Anya isn't a striker and is filling in while we have nobody else but surely we could have recalled one of our 2 fit strikers out on loan or even brought in somebody for a month while were struggling!!
We had four defenders on the bench last week at home. If you think that Sannino is not good enough to manager us who would you suggest? your previous favorite was leading us to the verge of a relegation battle. We were lucky last year to get where we did, mostly because we had an a clinical finisher and someone to put it on a plate for him, We have nobody at the club that could score more 3 out of 10 in a one on one situation, whereas last year in a three month period I cant remember Vydra missing one, Zola is the most over rated manager he has had two managerial posts and has failed in exactly the same way at both.
I think you've completely misread my original post. If you scroll back and have another look at it, you will see that I never said Sannino wasn't good enough to manage us. I said that I didn't think he was good enough to take us up. I'm basing that on his record before he came to us, and his record since coming to us, in which we have done terrifically well to beat teams below us in the table at home, but have struggled to beat any of the really top sides home or away. There's no point us having another huge discussion about this topic..most people disagree with me anyway..so I said today's result has taught us nothing new. Goodness knows where the Zola comments have come from. Maybe you wrongly think I'm still harping for his era. I'm not. He got found out. We've had 19 matches since he left, of which we've won 7. I'm commenting on that. Yes I know we had 4 defenders on the bench too last week. You might re-read that I wrote in brackets (mostly because of injuries). That doesn't detract I feel from my point that Sannino will typically err on the side of caution, hence Diakite (a defensive mid) coming on in place of McGugan (an attacking mid) rather than Merkel (a more attacking player) when we were actually CHASING the game.
Surely you are saying he isn't good enough if you are saying you don't think he is good enough to take us up. Shall I tell you why we do not beat teams above us, it's because we are too weak in midfield when McGugan and Battochio play they are both poor defensively and neither can tackle
I can agree on this. I believe Beppe can take us up, but he needs to learn that you have to throw on more strikers when losing, though today he didn't have much in the way of options. Merkel would have been better than Diakite though and I will criticize him for that.
The point of my post was to say nothing about today's result was any different from what we knew at 2.59pm. We've become great at home but we are poor away. We've become much better at beating the weaker sides but we can't (yet) beat the stronger etc. I wasn't looking to get into all the old arguments about things that have been discussed a lot here recently..I was just saying we've learnt nothing new today, so nobody will have changed their opinions or positions much. How do you define good enough? I think so far he's shown himself to be a perfectly competent appointment. There will be some good managers in our division this season that will be among the 21 managers who fail to get their side promoted. Not going up doesn't necessarily make a manager bad.
We need at least one striker of real quality next season as well as a very good winger if we don't want to play three at the back. I thought we were unlucky today but Anya should have scored. The side lacks pace and quality in front of goal. The fans made great noise, the singing was distorting the sound on my laptop.
Hard for me to say for sure unless the game gets uploaded on either club's player (assuming it does), but it sounded to me like this change was part of a tactical switch. Diakite sat deeper while the rest of the team pushed high up looking for a goal. Presumably Sannino thought he was a better option for breaking up a counter due to the team pushing up so high in an attempt to score. There were a number of times I heard Marks state everyone was pushed up except for Diakite. Bringing on a defensive player isn't necessarily a defensive change. On a more general note, I thought today was our last chance saloon in that we needed to win (and have other results go our way) to stand any chance of snatching 6th. While we still have the slimmest of slim chances, it's no longer even remotely realistic to think about the playoffs this year. As a result I'm hoping we'll see the likes of Hoban, Bond and O'Nien get some more game time ready for next season.
I think the main goal now is to finish the season strongly ( hopefully remedying our away form) so that we are in a good position to hold onto players like Deeney and Angella and to try and convince Tozer and Vydra to return. A strong finish will hopefully convince these players that next year will be a promotion year and the year after that they will be playing for Watford in the Prem. Like Duxbury says a major squad overhaul is not required. The main goal will be to keep hold of our existing top players and maybe replace Cassetti and Almunia if they decide to leave.
Thought it was a decent performance today, a bit more cutting edge on the counter and we'd have won it Wigan are a good side and will probably win the playoffs, a point wouldn't have been unfair but you can't begrudge them the win either
Anyone thought that possibly the Diakite instead of Merkel switch could actually be down to a clause in his contract saying he needs to lay ''X'' amount of mins?
If you give Sannino a preseason to work with the players on alternative tactics and raise fitness levels, and allow him to play a game with two fit strikers, I really think we will start turning the away losses into draws, and our draws into wins. You can see that our pressing game isn't too effective away at the moment, and we are then losing goals due to lapses in concentration and a lack of confidence. Losing away to the in-form FA Cup holders, with one striker and a wing back as our only striking options, was predictable. Once we get some forwards back, Beppe needs to break this away run, and give us a bit of form looking towards next year. Silver lining- hopefully this means that our odds drift further for next year; we may be quite good value if we finish a bit further from the playoffs than just miss out.
We can't possibly lose a game though so a massive overreaction is needed. Sannino isn't up to the job, we didn't pay anything for McGugan so just give him back to Forest in the summer, Tozser misplaced a pass or two today - is he really what we want? FINALLY, why the hell have we persevered with Angella (one of the worst centre backs in the league) all season? I'd rather the Pozzos spent the money for the East Stand Meccano set on players like Bobby Zamora ffs. They have no idea about football in this country. At least under Bassini we signed proper Championship players like Iwelumo and ****inson. Meldrew will back me up on this.
Not quite sure there's been a massive overreaction. We lost a game we were expected to lose. We're great at home, not very good away these days. Wigan are top 6 and FA Cup semi finallists..this season we rarely beat teams above us. I've re-read the last 3 pages but I can't see anybody going OTT, or indeed anybody really changing their stance about things. That was the point of my earlier post..it was just one of those unremarkable days in which we learnt very little, and we now move on to Tuesday, which is at home so we should do well! I believe it is humanly possible to have reservations about some things WFC without classifying oneself as a doommonger who must therefore loathe everything about the current set up!!
I feel sorry for Fessi. Every other day I read a post about how we must have Deeney and Vydra next year. What on earth does Fessi have to do to convince Watford supporters he deserves to be first choice...!
