So nothing to do with our defenders then? They are relieved of all responsibility for their own failings, the same ones that they showed last week, or the week before that, or on many other occasions this season. To try and pin it all on one player is so much easier but doesn't really address our defensive problems. I'm not convinced that changing the keeper would make our defenders suddenly good.
no one is saying our defence is poor, but both goals could have been stopped by some league 1 level goalkeeping
Well, here are my thoughts: - How often have we seen games like this one this season? We have players who can create and finish chances, but we simply don't defend well enough to deserve a win at the moment. It's always the same story, and I'm sick of it. - Decent attacking movement. Pereyra on a good run of form at the moment, and is starting to justify his price tag. - Deeney is not good enough to play upfront by himself. He has strength, but lacks pace and intelligence off the ball.. two key traits you need in a lone striker. - Love Will Hughes. Our team should be built around him next season. - Pathetic timewasting from Burnley. They're a well-drilled side there's no doubt, but they must be one of most dislikeable sides I've seen in recent times. Very poor that Dyche allowed all that timewasting and playacting. I look frward to seeing the Burnley 18 in the West End in the coming months. - Who wants to live in Burnley? Anyone?
Sorry I’m late in replying today but I am just so fed up with it. Everytime we play some half decent football and score we ***** the bed and can’t hold on. Pathetic defending for both goals, Holebas was awful again and Britos was poor. Deeney did nothing all game but ponder when to order his next burger and apart from Peyera who had a good game and Hughes who worked hard as always nobody else was in the game. Burnley did not deserve to win that, even a draw would of been a half decent result but no this is Watford. Thus squad especially the defence needs a total over haul in the Summer but will it? Holebas and and Capoooo are going nowhere as they resigned. Okaka is offering nothing but fouls and wining and Gray and Deeney are both at best Championship players. If it wasn’t for some equally bad teams below us we would be relegated this season. To be fair, or midfield play is very good, but as people have said what else do we have? Beating Everton and WBA gave us hope but since them what have we done? Scored nothing away since Gracia took over, played sone mid table championship football and just threw five points away against teams we should be beating. We would be safe now had we held on but yet AGAIN our crap defence can’t hold out. Newcastle above us, Palarse got a point and yes Stoke lost but it’s still very hard to see why we are not where Stoke are. Our football since Gracia has been better I cannot say it’s not, but pretty passing with no end product leads to defeats. We are not safe, and our football since beating WBA overall has been almost Silva levels of CBA. We’re going to get battered at Spurs next week, no doubt about that. If Southampton beat Arsenal tomorrow which is possible due to their Jeckel and Hyde form, we could be looking over our shoulders again. We need to play much much better defensively and Gracia needs to STOP playing Deeney up front on his own. What about starting Gray and Okaka against Spurs? Three at the back suits us but not with our leauge one back line. If sonething is not done in the summer and we do still survive this season we WILL go down next year. So pee’d off.
That’s two posters now who claim we are playing Spurs next week. We might stand a chance then, since they are also playing Citeh later that same day. Though I still wouldn’t guarantee it.
I think you might mean good, I think everyone here thinks our defence is poor. Unfortunately that sadly that includes the opposition who know that a simple hoof into the box reduces our defenders to jelly.
Sorry it’s Huddersfield next isn’t it? Yeah doesn’t really matter. They will do the double over us and win when we were 2-0 up in injury time. God part of me wishes I was joking.
Not back long, thought we played well for large parts of the game and didnt deserve to loose that. We were certainly the only team trying to win it but our 'soft centre' let us down again. Their first goal looked a carbon copy of the second equaliser last week. The midfield played some great football at times, even Capoue seems to have upped his game. Janmaat and Ferminia have a good partnership down the right. Defence needs rebuilding in the summer and the strikeforce also needs looking at. Nothing new there. Two criticisms for me - the subs were again poor that seemed to hinder us more than help. This is starting to a worrying trend with Grarcia. Secondly, how bad is our crossing? Not just set pieces but our crosses in general we waste so many good opportunites. Thats 21 points now we've dropped from winning positions, most of which were lost in the last 10 minutes or so. It was my s5 year olds first game and he seemed to have enjoyed it so it wasnt all bad at least. No, he really hasnt. The only ambition that Dyche and that team he built has is not to loose games - which isnt the same thing. They average less than a goal a game this season. Even at home they have only managed 12 goals in 15 games or something. Its horrible negative turgid football and I do wonder if this season is their high water mark. The result today was more to do with us throwing it away then any attempt by themselves to do anything more than grab a draw. Couldnt agree more strongly with this.
Sorry didn’t mean him, I was meant to type Our bullish goal keeper but auto corrected to Britos as the squad names are in my dictionary memory.
Just repeating what most others have said - our budget defence will constantly let the team down. I've said it before on this forum - it's like going to war with water pistols, no chance. Played all the football, had all of the ball - doesn't mean anything if you can't do the basics. And Burnley do the basics very well. It's horrible to watch, it's very limited, and it'll only take you so far - but when it's getting you wins, it's accepted. Anything said against them sounds like sour grapes, but it really isn't. For me, Dyche is a modern day upgrade on Pulis/Allardyce - defensively sound but with limited creativity. Mapps has been a legend for this club, but he's not a prem defender anymore. For all his good blocks and last gasp tackles, he always has an error or two in him. It keeps getting said on here - we are crying out for heavy investment in the whole defence. I don't think there's a coach in the league that could make our defence any better with the options we have - one or two of them will always make a big mistake. And it doesn't look like Gray is ever going to get on the pitch again. I can only assume he's not training well, hence Gracia's reluctance to bring him on. But why name him as a sub then? Only positives are Pereyra looking the part again, and Hughes really starting to blossom. This very significant stat flagged up on Twitter is proof of where our problems stem from:
While the result today was shall we say "disappointing" it did highlight to those in charge how utterly spineless this team is when something goes against them. As soon as Burnley scored we looked down, two goals in two quick succession broke our spirit. Once again the substitutions added nothing, if anything they made us worse, Carrillo is a dreadful player, why is he still here? Hughes is a god in pale form, no panic, always seams composed and is able to find space in the tightest areas. Deeney still can't play up front on his own, Okaka moans a lot. defensively we are bobbins. Burnley have little quality and offer up even less entertainment but they are organised, work hard and know how to "manage the game", it's like watching a Boothroyd team taken to the max. I hope we get them first game of next season at home, get's it out of the way quickly. I also hope we bring in a new defence by then because the one we have is barely championship standard.
I’d contemplate putting Gomes up front , I have seen him go up for corners before , at least he his fearless and a bit unpredictable , plus would love to see him still have a role at Watford
Considering we played with 10 men I thought it was a good performance. Holding out for 90 mins with Deeney is too much to ask. His worse game by far - so ineffectual. Only positive is that if we are to lose happy to lose to a Dyche who is a fantastic manager
Much has been said of the defence but would Marriapa and Prodl be the first choice pairing if everybody fit. Would suggest would be Kabasele and Kaboul and maybe next Cathcart Injuries going into the season have hindered us from day 1. Summer will give the chance to reassess the options. Deeney was rubbish again today
No, I said we have no creativity as a general statement, not directly in reference to today's match. Of course there are times when we create chances, but generally we lack ideas going forward except the hoof to Deeney, which is effective about 0.2% of the time.
What on earth is wrong with Kaboul? He last played against Saints in early September I think. I would have thought Britos was more suited to today's game than Maps. Wood was about three inches taller and two stone heavier.
Pope was very commanding and really showed up Karnezis' performance. I'm surprised more has not been said of his performance today. He was hesitant, coming and being caught in "no man's land" on more than one occasion. In the first half he came a long way to try and claim a high ball he was never likely to get. He dropped it but managed to block the shot. When you see the equaliser, he did the same thing. He went to come out, then stopped half way. I can see some mistakes creeping into his game now, and I think it's time to recall Gomes. I've always thought Gomes is a much better keeper anyway. Also, we had at least 10 corners today, but not one of them looked dangerous. We do not have anyone that can attack a high ball. Defensively or offensively.
Would you keep Kaboul though? If hes always injured then wouldnt his spot in the squad be better served if its taken by someone who can actually contribute?
What baffles me. We are a club that can sign Deulofeu, Hughes, Cleverly, Chalobah, Doucoure, Richarlison yet we cannot manage to unearth a good defender......not one. (ok Kiko excluded....but you know what I mean)
Yeah it must be a bit worrying, on a couple of occasions I watched Prodl go for a clearance and kick the ball 30ft straight up , couple that with holebas who could litterally do anything,Janmat (who I like )but is **** going back and Mapps who again I like but is variable and you must have a very stressful 90mins
This is why it baffles me. We've got some great players, but are completely blind as to what makes a good defender. Not sure why that is.
We have a couple like kabaselle and Kaboul who are capable its just they have disappeared into our hospital of no return. I blame our medical staff almost as much as I blame Marco Snake
I think this is just down to the owners preference for specific type of players. It’s the midfielders and strikers that go for the big money. Doucoure if sold in the summer will go for upwards of £40m or possibly more. They don’t see significant resale value when it comes to defenders and goalkeepers so don’t spend as much time/money on them. They just spend the bare minimum on them. I’m not saying I agree with this, I think like it or not you’ve just got to bite the bullet and and spend money where it needs spending, but I think they look at spending money where they think they stand to gain the biggest return later on down the line, and they don’t see that being from the back line players. Basically they are the Arsene Wenger of football club owners.
I agree. I believe this has been the case in the past, but it's got to a stage where it's undermining everything we are trying to achieve as a club. I know Stoke have conceded more goals than us, but I think we have the worst defence in this league by a mile. The amount of soft, avoidable goals we concede is ridiculous. Something has to change and we do need to find better players. It concerns me when I see Holebas and Prodl get new contracts. Surely we are not going to keep faith and continue to play these guys next season? I hope we've got something lined up like we did with Kiko, ready for next season. If we do stay up, it will be quite an achievement playing an entire season with this mid-table Championship defence.
Tempted to put money on this backbone-less team getting 0 points for the rest of the reason. Now Newcastle have decided to turn up and we always fail to beat Palace. I seriously can't remember Deeney doing anything for the whole game and he isn't the only anonymous one. Kiko, Pereyra and Hughes are the only 3 to come out with any praise in my book. Over 50% of our defence needs out in the summer. I can only think of Kabasele and Kiko to stay as first team, Mariappa, Janmaat for the bench. Somewhere tonight there is a football agent spamming text messages to Gino with his players names... Gino and Scott have another risky decision to think about in the next month or so. Stick with Gracia and give him the time and see what happens next season and risk it all again with the football we've been seeing in the past few weeks or switch it up with another manager who probably won't be here the season afterwards when we're probably in the Championship. Always fun and games being a Watford supporter...
Dunno, im starting to think its not the network its self but rather the transfer committee at the club thats the issue.
