We need to get Success back to partner Okaka or even Rich as a double. Can we just hang a bottle of Baileys under the opposition goal and tell him that’s his reward each time he scores? We’d be top 4 come May. Sorry needed to cheer myself up.
Not really sure where to start after that. We’ve had 6 very winnable games recently and we’ve got 3/18 points to show for it. We dominated the 1st half in terms of overall play. 2nd half was significantly worse, we rushed ourselves, never got any rhythm to our play and we allowed Swansea back in. I don’t know if it’s a case of arrogance or incompetence, but Silva seems to have no interest/knowledge in how to close a game out. Gomes has a decent game until their second goal. Janmaat was poor. Kabasele and Wague looked like a good partnership before the injury He’s a top pro, but Watson is past it and should not be a starter imo. When out of possession he’s very good at shielding the play and organising the players around him, but he’s often late to the tackle and caught out for pace. Okaka played well today and was a big problem for their defenders. It’s just a shame he only has the stamina to play 1 half. January signings are vital. We need chalobah and femenia back as well as a CM, W, ST, CB
How many players have had a consistent positive impact on the side? IMO here’s my list. Richarlison, Chalobah, Doucoure, Gomes, Cleverley, Hughes, Femenia and maybe Carrillo. That’s it. Quite a few of these players are new additions. As for the rest they have been middling to poor for most of the season. The way I see it we need a big clear out and very few are safe. There are too many players at the club who are picking up a decent salary but are not justifying it. Too many are in the comfort zone and need a big kick up the backside. One final thought. We can sign new players tomorrow. Happy new year.
It was exactly the worst thing he could've done other than miss the ball completely. A striker on top of their game would've lifted the ball over the keeper or passed it to the side. The worst thing you could do would be smash it against the prostrate body of the keeper. Do anything other than hit it blindly as hard as you can. Completely braindead, the sign of someone bereft of confidence. So frustrating, just put the ball anywhere else and you can score. I hate comparisons with previous players but ******* hell, Vydra would've finished that without a second thought.
I’ve waited all season for Gray to have a chance like that: a clear one on one with the keeper with a second to think what to do. In that situation the great strikers are calm because they know they have the upper hand and are going to score. It was the ultimate test of whether Gray can ever make it. Now we know the answer.
I hate to be right but what a shocking capitulation. There seemed to be an assumption that there was no point in scoring again as it wasn't possible for Swansea to score. With our defensive record that was a crazy assumption to come to. Difficult to see 3 worse teams than us having lost to CP, H, Brighton Burnley and now Swansea in the last 6 weeks or so.
We are so mentally weak is frightening, it’s also coupled with a stupid smattering of pride and arrogance. It was criminal to concede an equaliser, but at that point you still have something to play for, even if it’s not the three points we should’ve had. Once we let the equaliser in its almost like we are resigned to the fact we will lose all three points, we too weak and arrogant to consolidate for a point. If we’d even held out for draws in all these miserable matches then wouldn’t have been half as mentally damaging, not to mention the fact that all these terrible teams below us wouldn’t have been gifted vital points in a relegation battle that we'll inevitably be in sooner or later, we’d at least be keeping teams like this at arms length, instead we’re gifting them 3 points towards the 40 they all need.
I'm starting to believe this so called renouned Pozzo scouting network is a load of ********. You can't tell me that the players we've signed are any better than the players playing for other middle and lower Premiership sides. In fact they're a whole lot worse judging by recent performances and results.
We really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, what the Pozzos have done for us is amazing and the players they have enabled us to sign since taking over have been beyond most of our wildest dreams compared to our history before that. Their model does also categorically unearth some diamonds, like Richi and Doucoure, players we’d never have a hope of signing otherwise... but the Zeelegar type signings that the squad is peppered with are certainly no betteer than any other team and in many cases worse. We’ve been here umpteen times with players like that, they’ve been around a bit, nobody has ever heard of them, they’ve never pulled any trees up and suddenly they appear at our club for £4-£6m on deadline day. They look brilliant to start with, we’re all fooled into thinking they’re a bargain, then a few weeks later we all realise they’re actually crap and it’s back to the drawing board. We all thought Nyom was amazing for a month or two! It’s these sort of players we actually need to get away from and hopefully if we can stay up for a few more seasons to enable us to. I know he’s obviously a money grabbing ****, but by all accounts Kieran Gibbs is apparntley WBA’s standout player this season, in the long run was it really worth not paying his wage demands?
Maybe they just don't like the players/manager - most of our own fans don't! I don't think anyone saw the stamp in real time... We learnt against Huddersfield that assistants quite often fail to see offside (and this one wasn't as clear cut..)
Well I've been in that position before and scored by hoofing it with all my might. It looked ace too as it nearly burst the net.
Looking at the MOTD highlights, they chose to show how Swansea got players into the box - four or five at a time. They didn't point it out, but it was absolutely true, that it was a huge contrast with us. We were lucky with Carrillo's goal that the parry from the keeper came straight to him. He was the only yellow shirt in the box against five defenders. It could easily have gone to one of those defenders or looped over Carrillo's head and been cleared. Nobody makes any effort to get in the box apart from Carrillo. Okaka, who's supposed to be the centre forward, is standing watching and admiring his (admittedly fine) ball through to Richie. Doucoure is stopped on the halfway line. The ref runs past the easy jogging Cleverley at some speed. Similarly with Gray's miss. Notice again how the ref is much, much faster running than any of our lackadaisical supporting players. When Gomes parried their shot at the end, there were five of theirs waiting for it. Admittedly we're 1-0 up and it's towards the end of the game, but where the feckety feck were our supporting players to pick up the second ball and have another pop after Fabianski saves Gray's shot? Why is nobody following up? With Cleverley's turn and shot in the first half, which went just wide of post and bar, there's another thing that we do all the time and which really frustrates me. Cleverley wins the ball and (mostly) shakes off the defenders challenge. We have two other players in the box: Okaka and Richarlison. As Cleverley's winning the ball, what do both of them do? As though they're joined together by elastic at the waist, they both run together with about 6 inches between them to a position just behind Cleverley, so by the time Cleverley takes his shot you could throw a flippin' hanky over the three Watford players in the box. What possible sequence of play could render that a useful position? As we say to the under sevens:- SPREAD OUT! Give Cleverley some options, increase the chances of a keeper parry coming back to us. The equaliser was almost entirely the fault of Janmaat and highlights his very poor defending and positional play. He's got a cannonball shot, he's an above average crosser of the ball and he overlaps well but all of that doesn't make up for his complete lack of defensive nous. I think someone earlier in the thread blamed Pererya for young Rabbie McBurnsnight being granted the freedom of our area - but in fact it's Janmaat. Just before the cross comes over (and a pretty weak effort at blocking the cross from Zeegalaar incidentally) Janmaat is stood in front of Hamish McPorridge presumably with the intention of marking him. Then for some reason known only to himself, he decides the best thing to do would be to leave him all alone and go wandering off five yards towards our goal - thereby playing everyone onside. Just brilliant. What does he think he's going to contribute by adopting that position? What was he thinking? Pererya is marking their wide man and is behind McHaggis and about a foot shorter than the hunk from the highlands. He never had any chance of challenging for the header. I think he only jumped out of instinct and astonished horror at Janmaat's wandering off. Their forward kept his cool and buried it. If the situation were reversed, it's not hard to picture Gray or Richie muffing it horribly. Their keeper in a similar situation made a good save. Was Gomes just a little slow to react and close down the shot? Perhaps that's the difference between a 36 year old keeper and a 26 year old - that microsecond of fast reactions that makes the difference. Finally, with their second goal, I think someone mentioned Prodl as 'reacting last'. In fact he was one of only two Watford outfield players who reacted at all (along with Kabasele) and at least tried to make an effort to get back. Meanwhile, messers Zeegalaar, Doucoure and Richarlison all chose to stand static on the edge of our box with their hands in the air appealing for offside. Again as we say to the under sevens: PLAY TO THE WHISTLE! What happens if Gomes saves again into the area? They have five closing in. We're playing fackin' statues.
Totally agree, our lack of movement is one of the biggest faults we have. A lack of options up front for anybody with the ball facing forward, and a lack of discipline and movement at the back. But the particular situations you point out are pretty well spread throughout the team - no player is really performing as they should be. It cannot be that our entire squad have all simultaneously decided to ignore the basics and forget what they are good at. The common factor has to be Silva. We hear from the players how friendly Silva is on the training pitch, always having a chat, always open to talk about things, an apparent big improvement on Walter, but it seems to me that there is too much chatting and not enough coaching. What does he actually do for his money? When we seemed to be content to try and keep hold of our one goal lead yesterday, I was looking for a bit of animation from Silva, encouraging some enterprise, showing everyone that we needed to get that 2nd and 3rd goal, but he seems to be a less severe version of Walter, seemingly only getting animated at the officials. I honestly think I was showing far more animation/frustration/encouragement in my living room shouting at a TV screen than Silva shows on the touchline - my little 8 month old grand-daughter was actually starting to get frightened. I said it earlier in the season, and I believe it more now. Silva thinks he is the second coming of Mourinho, and it is not a pretty sight.
I think there are some who need to stay off this forum straight after a game as there are some astonishing reactions. My take on those getting the most stick Gray. It’s a bad miss and one he should score from but to his credit, he doesn’t hide and quite often gets in the right position just lacks confidence or ability. Sadly I feel it’s the second of those but he is not the reason we lost Gomes. Love this bloke but more errors creeping in to his game. Do not push the ball straight back when making a save. Not blaming him for the loss but his time is nearly up. Zeegeler. Cheap option and we were warned about his defending. Don’t know what he’s like in defence as he’s never there. Not his fault for the loss Prodl. What do our medical team do to players that make them come back half the player they were. Amrabat Pererya and now Prodl. The only exception to this is Deeney comes back twice the player! Not his fault we lost. Doucoure. Never gives the ball away says the song. He’s been brilliant this year but does give the ball away a lot. Not his fault we lost Silva. The Everton saga has clearly made him think he’s too big for us but on current form I would suggest it’s the other way round. I thought the subs were correct and two of them nearly created a second goal. Not at fault for the loss. Officials. We are not getting the rub of the green this season. Perfectly good goal ruled out, a red card that should have been given when you look at the soft ones given against us and an offside equaliser. Time for the video ref. Not their fault we lost. 1881. Not mentioned before in this thread and will probably ruffle a few feathers but it seems quieter than ever and it’s all about making big flags. I sit in the Lower GT and can barely hear you. Not your fault we lost You may see a common denominator in the above and that’s because this is a team game. Individuals may make mistakes but nobody was good enough yesterday and that’s what desperately needs to change. Need to play two up front Need to get behind the team Need to forget about other teams wanting you as the manager Need to do your job no matter if your a defender, midfielder, attacker, fan, keeper or a manager Need to have a look at the medical team Need to recruit well in January but if the right player isn’t available don’t panic.
For the first time I can remember I didn't want to watch MOTD last night. I'm sick and tired of seeing Watford throwing away games in the last ten minutes or so. Remember Chelsea, Everton and Crystal Palace? We obviously need a reliable striker (that is, one who will usually score when confronted by an open goal with only the keeper to beat). Instead we have Gray, who must have come from Burnley with instructions to sabotage us as much as possible. Sean Dyche obviously sees revenge as a dish best eaten cold.
It 100% wasn't my ******* fault we lost. I'll tell you that much. Think you need to audit your summary because according to you the people who physically surrendered last night and who engineered that surrender are blameless.
Did you sing or shout encouragement or did you sit there hoping we would muck up so you could come on here for a moan. We can all do more and I don’t think you will find I said anybody was blameless but the fact that everybody should shoulder the blame
In slight defence of Gomes pushing the ball back out from the save, the shot from Dyer really swerved a lot. The ball really moved.
There's a definite correlation between us losing and comments like this as well as a Roy Moore Facebook rant. Truth is, we will never ever have a loud home support. No matter how many flags we wave, foil displays we do or 'calls to the bunker' that the 1881 make. We have a **** home support. Will never change.
Watched the highlights on MOTD through gritted teeth Gray's miss was not the worst in the world but he is obviously suffering from a lack of confidence. His oft quoted transfer of 18m seems a lot but probably a few add ons in there and is peanuts in the premier league these days but the numpties in our fan base fail to see this.Would Deeney have got in that position? I doubt it and his finishing is not the best either, Okaka started well but shows he is not the answer either as faded badly and did nothing of note in the second half, Sinclair not ready and may never be. Tempting to get rid of all and start again. Realistically at least one striker in, hopefully two Defence, where to start. Since Mazzarri came in he and Silva have never been able because of injuries and suspensions never been able to play the same combination match to match. Kaboul, Cathcart out long term , longish spells out for Prodl/Britos , Marriappa played who probably 5th or 6rth choice when all fit. Wague/Kabasale looks quite promising to me but a few difficult decisions this January window. Zeegelaar, Janmaat, Holebas decent going forward but suspect defensively, Femenia our only good all round wing back/full back but no news on how long he is out for Midfield our best area but loss of Chalobah a massive blow and his loss coming more ansd more evident as the weeks go on. Doucoure our best player this season but misplacing a few passes and lacks a killer forward pass, Bobby P showing it in patches but not running the show as he did when first came into the team, missing Hughes (when will he be back?) Cleverly ok but notthing special , Watson slow of thought and caught in possesion. Success when is he back? and when will he show his potential, Richarlison needs a break and some bad misses from him. Carillo a goal yesterday but not brilliant end product. Again lots of questions. December was a great chance to cement our position, 28 points would have put us in a comfortable position, 25 points is ok with many teams below us on bad runs too , A few weeks ago we were 45/1 to get relegated and now 16/1. Not a time to panic yet but we are getting worse rather than better as the season goes along Silva says he was unhappy with business in the summer, will the Pozzo's back him with what he thinks he needs, will we make lots of changes because of our injury situation or will the Pozzo's cross their fingers and hope we can go through rest of season with what we've got and will we strike early in the January window Lots of questions and some difficult problems to solve An interesting few weeks ahead
We often see teams with new managers that come in have a “bounce”. A new lease of life that sees them perform well before they get found out. Is that not what we have experienced over the last 3 years? QSF, WM and now MS all started off brilliantly, before inevitably sliding down the table after sitting in a false position for months. Remember last year when we were 7th and all the pundits were saying how much of a good season we were having when we could all see what was about to come.
I’ve just read his rant and pleased he doesn’t think it’s good enough as normally you can’t criticise the group without getting loads of abuse. In fairness, most teams are a lot quieter at home
Our whole model is built on churn - huge numbers of players coming in and out every year, and changing head coaches. We get that little boost when everything is new and exciting at the beginning of the season and then give up at the first sign of adversity. It's little surprise - there is no team ethic or idea of building anything, it's just somewhere players and coaches are just passing through. As long as we have this model, we'll be a bunch of individuals who will sometimes pull out a brilliant performance and will probably stay up (until we get it badly wrong with a coach/recruitment) but will be prone to crumbling under the slightest pressure.
Yep almost all teams have **** home support. But i reckon our away support is as good as anyone's. If alcohol was allowed to be drunk at your seat the atmosphere at home games would be 1000% better. That's an absolute fact.
Like many Watford fans, I am sick of the constant upheaval every summer. Its exciting for about 2 minutes, then when you remember that the same high recruitment poolicy has been in place for the last 5 seasons it quickly wears off. Change is needed, in the way we recruit players, and the way Silva manages the squad. We are mentally weak and he needs to grab the bull by the horns and take charge. I believe these players are capable, and so is Silva, but now is the time for him to step up and prove himself.
We should go for Vydra in this window. He is currently on fire. It would also justify keeping Deeney for longer. Gray is just not good enough. Keep Okaka if we can. Second half yesterday we looked so tired. It's not laziness or complacency, but stamina and focus that is needed. Sanches who has been poo all season started to run riot in the midfield. Jaanmat for example is great going forward but can't defend for toffee. Sick of him playing colleagues into trouble with loose passing. Can't fault guys like Carillo or Richarlison who worked their socks off. Thought Doucoure overelaborated at times and got caught in possession. Cleverley and Watson knackered by 70 minutes. Silva should have bought on subs earlier. Dream pass from Pereyra to Gray but the guy couldn't place his shot - that's not EPL quality. HNY to you all.
