They were very gracious but being 22 points clear helps - if they were neck and neck with City, they may have been different. But i do like them - I think Klopp has more integrity than most and this is reflected in his teams
A few overexcited gents in the SEJ were calling him a w@nker at half-time and he just looked up and raised a quizzical eyebrow about 3mm. Priceless. Great ref.
I don’t know what the coverage in the UK was like prior to the game, but I do know that any TV adverts for this game over here didn’t mention us once, rather focusing on the fact Liverpool were about to claim a historic victory and continue the relentless, inevitable march onwards. Ha. Haha. Hahaha. From back to front, that was the complete performance. IF, and it’s a big if, we approach the remaining games with that intensity and energy, we will be comfortable in avoiding relegation. I think we’ve seen many instances this season where we’ve looked good, and then failed to capitalize, before falling apart when we get punched in the mouth. I hope this serves as motivation going forward, when the chips are down, or the crowd aren’t fired up, for the players to show some courage and take the game on. We will see next week just what it’s done for our confidence. Sarr is supreme. What a threat.
Not sure if serious. He had a sarcastic mocking smile on his face throughout the second half, as if getting beaten by Watford is such an anomaly that he has to laugh. Arrogant ****. He also conceded the match and shook hands with Pearson before the match had ended. A sure sign of a narcissistic bulb.
Pearson will be livid with both Hughes and Deeney. Twice they tried to win a throw-in by kicking the ball against a Liverpool player after 60mins. Both failed miserably and it ended up with Sarr scoring his second. It's getting the small things right which will save us from the drop, not scoring fancy-dan little chips over the keeper goals. Both should be dropped against Palace.
Good write up Skyla. Especially liked for your comment that ‘Sarr had one final chance to score his first ever Watford hatrick’ - written as if the other players have been waiting for it cos they’ve all got at least two hatricks each — lol. I think we get one hatrick per decade or something. If Sarr had tucked that final chance away yesterday it would have immortalised him!
When he's good, he's very very good. Kiko must be one of the quickest full backs in the league and his touch is superb. No idea what Javi and Quique did to him to ruin him for six months but since he pocketed Zaha he's been on it every game he's played.
Well least he won't pick all the Man City team ... or Liverpool. Or Arsenal. So probably won't bother this week!
Latest fact from yesterday: that was the third time Watford have beaten the reigning European champions, following Nottingham Forest (4-1 in 1981) and Aston Villa (2-1 in 1983).
My favourite pic from yesterday. (Just as well it wasn’t Andre - imagine the backlash on this forum)..
I think most things have been said but another couple of things of note. I thought the ref had an excellent game and how nice was it to have a game with no VAR.
One of the most impressive things about Sarr yesterday was his assist. In Liverpool's penalty area with a chance of a hat trick, he didn't panic and try to get off a shot, he calmly weighed up his options and chose the right one. All this from someone so young. He looked so shy and nervous in the interview after the game with Capoue but he's a different person on the pitch. What a player he is going to be, I hope to GT we stay up and convince him to stay a bit longer.
No. And I think Atkinson got the sack a few months later. Iwan was a delighted with his goal, and it was revealed afterwards that he had turned down United for Watford as a youth player. What they didn't say was that he had been a Liverpool fan as a kid, and, in his own words, ****ing hated United.
That was before my time as a Watford fan, and I was amazed to confirm that was the same Iwan Roberts who spent all that time at Norwich before getting promoted back to the Premiership after a long absence - those eras seem worlds apart.
Not memory - I was on the other side of the world back then - more a case of knowing where to look. And, yes, they won 2-0 the previous day - against fourth placed Luton...
Man Utd were 19th at the time. It was the year before that they won the first 10 games or so but still finished 4th.
Kiko's an excellent player, but prone to well-documented serious confidence issues and anxiety. Seems likely Gracia and QSF failed to manage that (no surprise whatsoever in QSF's case), and Pearson has nailed it. I doubt there is anyone who would disagree that Pearson is a good man manager, regardless of what else they think about him. Kiko was rather magnificent in his early career with us, and not in an Ighalo-purplepatch way. He's had an undeniably long slump, but he's always had it in him. Huge credit goes to Pearson for getting him on-song again; he's been like a new signing. Something else I'm really impressed with is how fit the team looks versus a month ago. It wasn't too far back that they were all blowing and visibly exhausted on 70 minutes. Yesterday, everyone was still pinging about with vigor in the 90th. Sarr was on two goals and an assist and still chasing everything. That's another big feather in the new management team's cap, and will likely prove the differentiator that helps to keep us in the division. Pearson said a few weeks ago that fitness was a critical problem that was contributing to our poor results, and it looks like he was bang on. Gracia can be blamed for a lot of that, but undoubtedly QSF shares that blame; the team's fitness was shocking in the latter part of our first season and I'm sure he made the existing problems worse with his compete lack of attention to conditioning, a well-documented problem from his first spell in charge. Quite why anyone thought QSF was the answer is beyond me, but at least the board took swift action to fix that.
That whole goal is brilliant from start to finish. Hughes does very well to keep the ball in and then executes a perfect backheel to Deeney when he had no real right to do anything from that position. The curving through ball from Deeney is perfectly weighted and angled so that it removes any chance the defenders have of stopping Sarr while also giving Sarr all the distance and time he needs. And Sarr's control was perfect, with a delightful finish where he waited for the keeper to commit before lifting it over him with ice-cold composure. Simply excellent all round.
They called "long ball" on the ball through to Sarr that lead to the third, too. Ridiculous stuff really.
Sarr's first touch (his only touch apart from the shot) was great and made sure neither defender could get a run at the ball (not that they could have kept up with him anyway!).
We were sublime from back to front. Sarr is probably the best I’ve seen in a Watford shirt in my 26 years watching the club. GD injury unfortunate but let’s not forget he’s been wasteful and powderpuff this season. I’d be far more concerned losing Sarr, Deeney, Capoue or Hughes. Capoue is a monster, and Hughes is really beginning to come into his own now. Deeney was absolutely sublime which I know upsets a few people who love to continually have a pop at him. I saw one comment yesterday from a Watford fan that he is the “worst striker in the league”. This is the striker that provided a decoy for Doucoure to set up the first, played a sublime ball to Sarr to assist the second and buried the third himself. Given the last few results I thought we had no chance of staying up. Absolutely nothing stopping us going on another mini run now and getting away from the pack at the bottom. Huge game at Palace next week.
Agreed. I’ve read a few relegation rival match threads from yesterday and lots comment around the time of the Deulofeu injury that that completely knackers our chances of staying up, he’s our best player etc. Shows how people misjudge based on the highlights reel.
I noticed the fitness as well, I started off thinking no way are we going to keep this up for 90 mins but we didnt slump just kept pushing , we often looked good but were not able to keep it up so a massive improvement
Honestly, I think it’s belief as much as anything physical. We got stronger and stronger as the game went on. Our pressing early set the tone, but our energy levels got better the more we were able to upset them and throw them off of their usual rhythm. It was amazing to see.
yeah there was one bit towards the end when he ran up from midfield up to the goal keeper got in his face, then ran at a defender back to the goal keeper and then another defender. No real reason for any of it , I sort of assumed the manager had given him a big dose of speed at half time.
