Southampton 1-0 Watford FC- 27/01/2018 - FA Cup 4th Round

Not that long really. Just since they threw the Championship title to get a selfie on the pitch.

 

I agree that fans turning on the players isn’t helpful. I don’t like to see it. And any behaviour that crossed the line is just madness and inexcusable. But people need to realise fans anger is justified at times, but they way they display it perhaps crosses a line. But fans will say things believing that players shouldn’t get away with a lack of effort or fight. And that’s where I disagree with you. There was everything wrong with the effort today. There simply wasn’t anywhere near enough of it to be deemed acceptable. The players have to accept that. They will take the praise when it’s deserved, they have to accept the flak that comes at times too. See above for my thoughts on when that crosses the line though....

But they can have no excuses. A weak footballer hides behind ‘low confidence’. Every player went through the motions today and lacked desire to change their own and the team’s fortunes. We all saw it so I won’t defend them when fans point it out to them...within the confines of acceptable behaviour. Ben Watson has said the same post game.

And I agree. I don’t like abuse Watson is taking. And he is in the team by default. I’m sure he knows this. He’s been a great servant but sadly the current situation means people will judge him on current output, not the past.

 

I'm not concerned about the result today, although you have to question the logic of not resting Doucoure and Richarlison. Would be amazed if we don't at least see a left back and (if Deeney goes) a forward come in next week. This will prove to be the most important few days of the Pozzo's stewardship so far, get it wrong and we are going down imo.

 

It's a shame that after some of the more 'enlightened' articles this last week about our model that we are instead endorsing the views of those who say we're a basket case club. Half the team injured and our last successful fitness coach claiming racial discrimination. Players and fans fighting in the stands. No transfers whatsoever despite the blatently obvious need for reinforcements. A manager nobody has ever heard of and almost certainly won't be here in 6 months time. Constant rumours of unrest behind the scenes. Isn't this exactly what the so-called 'uninformed' media are talking about? Aren't we just a parody of ourselves with fans in perpetual denial?

 

Club shop already announced that they will be releasing special, commemorative "I was there when Holebas told a fan to jump over the fence" t-shirts

 

I'd ignore offers for: Gomes, Cleverley, Deeney, Richarlison, Doucoure, Chalobah, Hughes, Femenia.

If the price was right, I'd listen to offers for any of the rests long as they can be replaced.

 

I don't see how we can sell. Anyone fit, we need. Anyone good, is injured,

 

Another day closer to death .

At least you ve all got that to be cheerful about .

 

Kabasele on Twitter;

 

Great away day! Managed to get a selfie with Holebas as he was laying into a fan!

 

At least its never dull being a Watford fan...

 

Best selfie I ever got, got 16 likes on Facebook!

 

Well dealt with - credit to Kabs who was far from being out worst player today

 

Not sure if it's already been said but what's the difference between regularly calling Holebas a canut on here and in person?

 

But we have to. There is no room for the required new players otherwise.

 

That's not a badge of honour.

 

Back.

First of all, the good points. Hurst Castle was excellent and although they weren't going to open because of the weather (it was blowing so hard on the shingle beach, you couldn't hear yourself shouting) the fella opened up specially for us. Inside was pretty good - a mish-mash of different ages. 4cyclones loved it. The guide fella gave him an empty bullet case, which he was delighted with. Fortunately they didn't swipe him with their metal detector on the way into the ground.

Lunch was OK and the New Forest Ice Cream was quite nice.

Now the bad points. Southampton seems to have the slowest changing traffic lights anywhere and the local drivers appear to have the same sort of speed of reaction when the lights turn green as Darryl Janmaat. Took forever to get from Milford to Southampton and had to trot over that big bridge to get to the ground on time. Only just made it in time for KO.

Southampton's stadium appeared to leak and every so often a great big drip would splash down on you without warning.

Someone else mentioned the language. Well you can't avoid that I suppose at football, but considering my lad was wearing an '8 Today' birthday badge, the men in front of us might have eased up a bit on 90 mins more or less of "We're Feckin' Ship" and "So and So is a Cant" at top volume. A bit embarrassing and difficult to explain to him when he asked about it on the walk back to the car after the game.

I thought Southampton were pretty good I have to say. They knocked the ball about nicely, but to be fair we did very little to try to stop them for the most part. Of course they were a bit blunt up front, but their build up play was very sweet at times.

Karnezis - Did reasonably OK, but actually didn't have that much to do. Never got anywhere near their shot that hit the angle of post and bar. Failed to cut out a couple of very dangerous crosses. I haven't seen the TV pictures yet, but I wondered whether he might have pushed the initial save for the goal out wide rather than straight out to the edge of the six yard box where it got fired straight back in again. But no great surprise there as I don't think we won a second ball all game. Southampton were much sharper in that department. Still not entirely confident in this keeper. 5/10.

Janmaat - I really don't think there's a less able player calling himself a full back in the Premier League. Absolutely dire. A liability. Presents absolutely no obstacle or obstruction to players running at him. Might as well not be there. 2/10

Holebas - Marginally better defensively than desperate Darryl, but that's not saying much. Awful, awful Sunday league style crosses floated out harmlessly behind the goal and sucked the spirit and momentum out of the side. My take on the confrontation at the end was that Holebas saw Kabasele taking some stick (which quickly fizzled out and Kabs was shaking hands with the fans) and thought he'd come stomping over and have some of that for himself. When Kabs got abused he looked surprised and offended and momentarily a bit angry too. Holebas just looked aggressive and furious. I really hope that's his last game in a Watford shirt. 3/10

Mapps - Thought he did reasonably well, or not as poorly as many of the rest of them. Fairly solid defensively. He's not the tallest, but won his share of headers. 6.5/10

Kabasele - Not great. Got passed around with ease. Didn't contribute very much really. 4/10

Doucoure - Reasonable distribution, but constantly gave the ball away. We didn't really sing his song, I suppose because it would have seemed ironic. 4/10

Watson - Looks lost. Although he's fairly tigerish in the tackle, he's easily flummoxed by a trick or quick turn and when he has the ball and time to play it, you can see the cogs whirring, but just doesn't seem to have the ability to hit a precision pass forward into dangerous areas and bottles out by passing it 2 yards to Doucoure (usually). So, so slow in his play too. Takes an absolute age and allows the opposition to comfortably get themselves into their positions. 3/10

Carrillo - Fed up with seeing him. I wondered whether he'd show any desire after his mate Marco got the heave-ho. The answer to that question was 'no'. Obviously has the skill, but doesn't want to be here. Need to cancel the loan, send him back to Portugal and replace him with anybody with a little bit of desire. Don't care if that means Sinclair or someone from Port Vale or Scunthorpe. Dire. 3/10

Capoue - No worse really than a lot of those above, but no better either really. You'd understand if he was ring rusty with having been out for a long period. I didn't notice the 'lazy' stuff that others say. I think he has a reputation for that somewhat and it's going to be hard to lose it. 4/10

Richarlison - Contributed very, very little. One mazy run in the first half where the sixth or seventh defender he tried to beat took the ball off him. Needs to get his head up and see passing options and also needs to stay on his feet a little more. 4/10

Gray - The man has a touch like a bumper on a pinball machine. Ball is rolled forward to him at 5mph and PING! off it bounces in any direction at 25mph. We chose to not play the little dinked balls over the top or slid down the sides for him that he likes, so that strong aspect of his game (running on to those sort of balls) wasn't seen. Faded into complete anonymity in the second half.

Okaka - Our best player this afternoon. At least put himself around and offered some threat. Constantly on the move and worried their defence. 7/10

Sinclair - Had desire and tried hard. You could see that. Much better than Carrillo in that position, just because of that. Unlucky really with his comical shot. Tried to absolutely blast it and he traded off power for accuracy (was it a toe poke?). If he'd fired it about 60 degrees further to the right he probably would have scored. Good effort from the lad though in general. 6/10

Pererya - Not the best, not the worst. Still chickening out of challenges, but I don't suppose anyone expected him to be another Roger Joslyn. Appears to sometimes tackle for appearance's sake rather than as a genuine challenge for the ball, unless he's hoping the waft of air as he drifts past the opposition player will be sufficient for him to lose concentration or something. 5/10.

 

To be honest I said to my travelling companions,"none of them will come over" I think the manager encouraged them to go. In the end probably it would have been best if they had done a Dyche and just run down the tunnel at the end. On the match a few things learnt (1) Soton so poor means at least one other team must be worrying about relegation (2) cup runs are a curse for teams fighting relegation (3) Capoue showed no desire to be put of the solution for this season (4) there was spirit in the last 15 minutes to get back n the game (5) Doucoure is a better player when Cleverley is in the team (6) Richarlison passed the body language test posed by Silvas sacking -Carillo failed as did Gray.

 

See you on the dark side of the moon.

 

When I played it 40 years ago, it was table tennis.

I scorn this feeble, end of pier ‘ping pong’ thing.

Pretentious Hoxton hokum.

Having watched it tonight, I can assure you standards were way higher back then.

If required, I shall provide evidence.

This has spoiled an otherwise perfect day.

 

Deeney’s trench foot or whatever it is will recover by then?

 

Makes me break into a cold sweat just thinking about the end of that game. W**kers!

 

Actually one of tonight’s table tennis players was called Goldfinger.

At least, it was that was his sub darts player nickname.

An insult to the sport of Stellan Bengtsson.

IBB, I’m sure you know it but Bengtsson, the 17 yo world champ in 1971, inspired a fellow Swede to adapt his style of play & start using topspin.

Bjorn Borg.

 

Have the whole team come towards the supporters before this season?

Can’t recall a time.

 

If it's any consolation, it sounds like West Ham are even worse than we are right now.

 

I went today, I saw two poor teams being very poor.

 

And maybe had caught his old chap in the unexpected lateral zip.

Bound to animate one.

 

Short and simple , what ever happens the crowed always made a difference when we become the 12th man .
I don’t here the crown much thease days , not like the good old days.

 

Agree totally about having a bully in the team.

To keep everyone honest on the pitch.

 

Thankfully the Beeb didn't see fit to show the idiot crowd activity so it will escape the wider armchair supporters attention.

 

Doucoure' s song was replaced with "Doucoure scores with his hands", nothing to do with irony.
Agree with many of your scores but how can you give Carillo and Watson the same score of 3?
Carrillo was anonymous and should have been replaced far earlier. Watson tried hard and linked play and pinged some decent balls to Richarlison. He didn't just play 2 yard balls sideways. There was just no movement for him to play a quick killer pass, we were static, including Gray. I would give Watson a 5, and maybe an extra half for calming the stupidity at the end with our bell end drunk fans.

 

For Ducks sake it's only a game.

Drink and be merry

We're Watford we've always been sh1te.

 

Yes, the Doucoure scores with his hand song was good and funny. Top marks to the fella who brought the giant inflatable hand along too. Very good.

Take the point about Watson and there's some merit in what you say about lack of movement for him to pass to up front. However you must have seen him several times in the centre circle with the ball at his feet and no opposition player near him, looking this way, looking that way, looking back the first way again and the seconds ticking past. You just know that by the time he does eventually play the ball it's going to be cut out by their defenders - with the exception of the times he shirked the responsibility altogether and made the two yard pass to Doucoure I mentioned before.

Had a chance to see the short TV highlights now on MOTD. Their free kick was played in very dangerously and well, but Capoue's slow reactions allowed the Southampton player to get in front of him and have a free shot. Fortunately it was a scuffed daisy cutter and Karnezis was able to save. It backed up what I thought initially though:- that perhaps a better keeper might have held on to it or pushed it out wide.

 

Can't agree with that, it was deflected at him from someone on the edge of the six yard box and he saved it with his feet. Not sure he could've done much else.

Also noticed that as the free kick was lined up, we had six defenders lined up in a perfect straight line across the edge of the penalty area, against four attackers. They do the oldest trick in the book of having a player run over the ball, but that's too much for our lot, it causes mayhem. The two front players hold the line, the other four drop deeper (including two of them running into each other) meaning that a ball on a flat trajectory makes it all the way to the centre of the six yard box.

If the front two of the six had dropped back, they'd have cut that cross out. If the back four had held the line, Karnezis could've come out to claim it. Typical of our play at the moment.

Edit: it's Mariappa's fault. He was the third in the line of six and he completely fell for the running-over-the-ball trick and ran back towards goal, playing them all onside. This caused our players behind him, who could see what was happening to run back too but the ones in front had no idea. To make matters worse, he then stops to try to play them offside, unaware that his team mates have now followed his move, allowing the guy that he was holding just two seconds before a free shot on goal.

 

I didn't see the match, so thankfully I don't feel the need to comment, but I noted Clive's observation about the traffic lights in Southampton, and having spent some time there suffering in December I totally agree with him. Back then I found myself googling to see if there was an explanation, such as a council policy. I found this mildly amusing article that has come up with a different explanation - at least on a match day. Fraser Forster is apparently to blame.

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footb...ster-blamed-for-traffic-jam-on-millbrook-road