I don’t think it really matters at this point. Three games to go. He won’t be at the club after the week of warm down after 4th May. Personally I am a bit more interested in how we augment the Bayo and Rajovic options. Bayo looks a far better footballer but is consistently a one goal every six games player and Rajovic looks a very poor option for a top 30 team, (with a goal every four games).
Are you thinking of Clive Thomas who blew for full time at the World Cup just as a last minute Brazil corner was in the air?
I think the problem to be addressed is before then. Our striker options aren't great but not awful, the bigger issue is that we don't create anything. Bayo and Rajovic get a lot of flak and they certainly have limitations, but they don't miss chance after chance because we don't create them. The players who should be creating chances - Kone, Asprilla, Martins, Lewis, Andrews - create very little.
I agree. Yet weirdly the one seems to get more flak than most in a midfield position is Ince, who has spent 95% of the season scratching his ass on the Dame Judy.
Is this not all related to the limitations of Bayovic ? It must be very difficult as an attacking midfielder or wide player to "play off" our target men as they cannot gain decent possession and bring others into play in the attacking third . Also our opponents know that they are not very good and can leave them 1 on 1 which allows them to double up on others.
Whatever control we have on the game when Bayo and/or Dennis are on the pitch we generally give up when Rajovic comes on, though occasionally he does make up for it by doing the one thing he's good at. As for Bayo, he's changed since last season when he was a poacher who always got into the right areas (only to muck up the finish 90% of the time), but with limited ability elsewhere to a striker who helps us to press and keep hold of the ball but isn't often to be seen in the box. I suppose that isn't strictly necessary if you have two strikers, and Dennis at times been the most complete striker we have, giving defences hell and actually put the ball in the onion bag, but only in patches, yet in those patches he's still linked up far better with our midfield than the others
I agree with all this. But Selles isn’t the best example to use if you’re using the ‘experienced head coach’ argument - he’s been a head coach for only marginally longer than Cleverley.
If we are going to keep playing a 3-5-2, I wouldn't be too upset with keeping Bayo (not that anyone will want him), but I don't think Rajovic, in the likely event of us keeping him, should be anything more than an emergency Hail Mary option. We'll need another striker anyway assuming Dennis doesn't stay, since Forde doesn't quite look ready for Champo football, I'd hope we'll be in the market for another starting striker
There have been countless times this season the ball has been wide and the box has been loaded, but the ball has been slowly worked backwards rather than putting a cross in. It is as infuriating as it is baffling. Huddersfield at home was the weirdest of the lot. Asprilla was on the ball in exactly the same position as he was 2 minutes prior and created a chance, but instead of a rinse and repeat he played it back to TDB at right back and then pointed to the keeper, and TDB duly obliged.
That game was going OK between the 26th minute when we hooked off Kone and Kayembe and the 60th minute when Dennis was forced off, we scored (some really good play from Asprilla and a chance that Rajovic definitely would have fumbled), and they didn't look like doing anything, yet when Rajovic came on, they came back into it and he missed 3 really good opportunities
Bit late to this as I try and stay off the forum at the weekends for my own sanity For some unknown reason I decided to go this and up and till 715pm when they score their winner I was quite glad I did. Awful start obviously and god knows who should have been marking him but I see Bachmann being blamed again! Definitely not his fault. TDB had a nightmare for the second and it seemed to affect him which is a shame as I though he's been better since Clevs took charge. Had some really good chances through Asprilla and Chak and Porteous (off the line in the second half) and a really lovely finish by Kone to equalise. And then the ref takes charge. 7 mins added on which seemed a lot to start with. Free kick taken after the 97th minute. Winner scored in the 99th minute and it's handball. Absolutely nothing happened in the 7 mins for him to add on 2 more minutes. It then kicked off outside which was mildly amusing Not listing all the players but a couple to call out. Dennis - Did absolutely nothing apart from not pass when he should or lose the ball at every opportunity Andrews - Because he's homegrown gets a bit of a free pass but he was atrocious when he came on I know it didn't matter because we are mid table but not sure I've been more annoyed at the end of a game for a while. Thankfully not long left now
No matter the criticism or topic, it seems that whatever happens in the world of Watford the blame will always find it's way back to Rajovic and Bachmann at some stage. Rajovic had a couple of chances in that game. Good chances? Debatable. 11 goals in his first season in the Champ is a good return. Look at AF's heatmap in the Wobby a few weeks ago, all 6 yard tap ins. If I was a wide player and Rajovic was on the pitch, guess where I would be looking to get the ball to. Despite football hipsters trying to proclaim otherwise, football really is a simple game. Quality balls in the box will create chances.
I don't care whether Andrews is from Watford or Ulaanbaatar, but he is 19 years old and deserves some slack considering it's his first full season as a pro. He's had a rough time of it since coming back into the team, but overall, he's been good this season, and I'm sure he'll be better next season
Bachmann is OK for this level, shaky from crosses but a decent shot-stopper, he'll cost us at times, but he'll also keep us in games, I'd like an upgrade but it's not a pressing priority right now I think I know we've been starved of decent strikers of late, but 10 goals in the Championship is bang average, and it's now two managers this season have decided that he's not good enough to start. You say it's easy to just sling crosses into the box and he'll bang them in, but it's not so easy when you don't have the ball because your big striker is struggling to keep hold of it, and in any case the best player we have at slinging crosses into the box has been injured for much of the season. How many times has Rajovic come on and we immediately look worse?
Sorry Knight GT, I plead guilty to the criticism. Exhibit A below, his position for a cross looped in quite high to the edge of the 6 yard box giving Bachmann a snap choice to get involved or leave it to his defenders. Did he give himself the best chance to retrieve the situation here...? At the very least he should be attempting to move forward at speed to narrow the angle and make Smallbone work to knock it past him. His achilles heel has been much discussed for several years, being glued to his line when he needs to confront a forward. Yes good (sometimes very good) at shot-stopping from distance and in 1 v 1s when he has plenty of time to advance - and I praised some of that since he was re-instated under TC - but retreating like this continues to undermine his performances.
Just seen Ref Watch on Sky TV and they said that the Saints winner would have been disallowed in a PL game by VAR as the scorer clearly controlled the ball with his hand before scoring!!! Therefore we definitely WOZ ROBBED!!!
I think it is correct, there are definitly more correct decisions. There may still be some that are wrong, but more correct decsions than without it.
I'd replace him in a heartbeat, he does stick to his line too much and I agree with your earlier point that his regularly finding himself positioned behind the line as opposition goals go in is plain bizarre. But I really don't see what more he could do in that situation. No goalkeeper's coming for that and getting the ball so if he charges out the header goes into an unguarded net and he looks even more erratic.
I agree, that is a fairly poor position but I don't believe he should come for that. If the cross had come from the byline then yes he should deal with it as it would come across the six yard box. This cross came from much further out so at the point it's headed is the closest it gets to him. I think he's quite with in his rights to expect the defence to deal with this instead of leaving him unmarked. Him coming out is an issue but on this occasion I feel he was justified in not doing so. I would like him not to stand behind the goal line though!
I agree with this. I like TC and he's saying the right things and I hope he makes it as a Manager (for us) but I think the jury is still out. Let's not forget that all those teams we've secured heroic draws against since he came in have had some pretty poor results since then too - Leeds had two home games in the last week against teams no better than us, lost 1 drew 1 and scored 0 goals - Ipswich have lost and drawn either side of their games with us and neither WBA or Preston have done all that well either. I know its all pressure affecting results now etc., but that was just as true when we played those sides. Personally it comes down to the level we are shopping at, and none of us can really know that. If we're in a position to aim for play offs minimum next season, they'd surely want someone with some pedigree to aim to achieve that, and give them some funds from somewhere to go for it or they'd never be able to attract such a person. If staying up with an even more limited squad than we have now is the aim, I think we've seen enough from Tom to suggest he could achieve that (but again it mainly comes down to the squad he has anyway) - assuming he is up for such a job himself of course!
The Pozzos probably aren’t the type of people to worry about what fans think but there is an feeling that they must give Tom the job going around https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...great-watford-need-win-games/#comments-anchor
The jury is still out, we have a different challenge now against 3 teams who on paper are about as strong as us rather than the less pressurised situation of playing teams far above us where anything would be a bonus, but I'm not sure Leeds and Ipswich dropping a few points (mostly to teams higher than us who had a shot at the play-offs) makes a difference. Performances have improved, and I'm not sure we'd get much if anything out of those games if we still had Val
Absolutely disagree that no goalkeeper is coming for that. If you like, that's precisely my point. If he charges out he has a far better chance - if he's too late to punch it away - that he'll deflect the header by narrowing the goal for the forward and intimidating him at the same time into rushing and messing up his finish. Standing on (or even behind!) the line is not guarding the net. A poor header from Smallbone from his position with Dan standing rooted was always likely to score in truth. He had to react and do more than hope the header gently went to him in the middle of the goal. Would you expect top class goalies like Martinez, Allison, Ederson and the like to adopt the passive solution like our Dan. Not in a million years and they seem to 'get lucky' by playing the percentages. Closer to home Ben Foster pulled off plenty of 'lucky' deflections by chasing out and spreading himself last ditch. Yes he'd look daft too occasionally but that's how it goes. I'm genuinely surprised you can't see that doing nothing is the worst answer in the circumstances.
