Watford FC 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion - 11/08/2018

Success has been effective so far. Couple of nice touches to bring the ball under control, and showed some good pace/strength to win a couple free kicks. Fair play to him.

 

Success looks sharp

 

We have the technology.

I thought hooked good at the gt friendly but knew better than to read anything I to that meaningless performance

 

Me too

 

Heehee.

 

I've run Pereyra thought the Richarlison valuation algorithm and it's coming out as a valuation of 212 million.

 

Good to have Cathcart fit again. Murray not had a sniff.

 

Excellent start

2 great goals
A clean sheet
Holebas was described by the tv pundits as influential !!
Intensity and passion
And 3 key players still to come back

If (big if)we play like this all season we will b fine

Good to see we havnt completely changed though with a holebas pointless yellow and a capoue shot from well outside of the box

 

That was a quality performance, from start to finish. Bobby P looking like the star we thought we had before the injury, Capoue imperious in the middle, Hughes neat and tidy and even a decent cameo from Success. Lots to be positive after that. Dominating opening day win at home.

Crikey, even a clean sheet with Kabasele and Cathcart comfortably dealing with the little that came their way.

 

I don’t want to come across as one of those people who only pops up here when there’s something to moan about. So I want to be one of the first people posting post-match tonight to say a huge well done to the team and to Gracia.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer and I’m sure there will be tougher matches and times ahead, but that was very impressive today.

Gracia got the line-up spot on, a formation that seemed to get the best out of the players he had at his disposal, and you could see the results of the training ground work, especially with the corner routine for our stunning opening goal.

Well done.

Now onto Burnley and let’s see if we can crack that away goal hoodoo.

 

Holebas proving them stupid doubters wrong

 

One swallow doesn't make a summer but hopefully that will shut a few people running their mouths off for a week at least. Better in every department, even Holebas.

The Family Stand is a disgrace. Sooner it's made available to people that actually want to attend the better.

 

Spot on. Every ball, every Brighton player chased down.

You couldn't ask for much more work rate & topped off with our first opening day win.

 

I think the 2 up front need some time to build an understanding. It was only 1 up front nearly all last season.

 

3rd in the table.

Now let's aim onwards and upwards.

 

It's first game and a lot of us are still on holiday.

I wanted to be there instead of a rainswept field in Cornwall

 

Maggie Thatcher, Moogy, Burnsy, Nath, can you hear me? Your negativity took a hell of a beating today.

 

A few stats for you all to hopefully enjoy tonight.


Pereyra has now been involved in our last 6 goals. He’s scored 5, assisted the other.

Pereyra now has 5 goals in our last 5 matches at the Vic.

He becomes our first player to net twice on the opening day since Danny Graham in 2010.

By playing today, Ben Foster holds the record for the 2nd longest gap between appearances for the same PL club. There have been 4,108 days in between his last appearance for us and today. Only Wayne Rooney can better that.

Gracia becomes our first Head Coach to win the opening match of the season since Beppe. He actually only lasted another four matches after that, so many of you will be hoping that’s not an omen.

Today was only our 2nd league win in 10 matches.

Brighton actually have a longer winless record on the road than we do. They’ve now gone 14 matches since victory.

 

Honestly think this takes away from what the team did today.

Brighton were poor because we made them poor. The tactical approach neutered them, the players were excellent to a man and the pressing started and finished at high intensity.

That was a great performance by us, not a crap one by them.

 

I'm rooting for Wolves for the first time ever and I hate Everton for doing that to me.

 

Thank you......

 

Corrected for you, Malts.

 

Not really good enough though is it.

 

Woot. Great attitude from the team today, they all looked really up for it and worked their socks off.

Foster - 6 - Didn't really have anything to do. Some decent passing, though almost spilled a couple of crosses.
Janmaat - 7 - Venturous going forwards, as usual, but unusually comfortable and untroubled defensively.
Cathcart - 7.5 - No fuss, very good.
Kabasele - 8 - Excellent. Won some great tackles, and made some great passes.
Holebas - 8 - One of his best performances in a Watford shirt. Did well defensively against Knockaert and some remarkable set-piece delivery. Great work in winning the ball back for the second goal as well. Only let down by getting a stupid yellow for kicking the ball away.
Hughes - 6 - Worked hard, won some tackles. Could have maybe offered a bit more going forwards though. In fairness he just isn't a winger.
Doucoure - 7 - His typical impressive running and tackling. Only let down by his passing, which was horrendously sloppy at times even by his standards (and what stops him from being a top 4-6 club player). He can be let off today a bit though given his lack of pre-season.
Capoue - 7 -Worked incredibly hard, composed on the ball and still had some in the tank in the 90th minute. Appears to have continued his good form from the end of last season.
Pereyra - 8.5 - Showing what he can do in his clearly most effective left-wing position. Keep him.
Deeney - 6 - I want to be a bit more patient and less harsh on Deeney this season, as he does definitely look a bit sharper than in the last and he seems to have shed some of his irritating pompousness, as well as weight. However, he was still our least effective attacking player, had a very poor effort from a glorious chance in the first half, and was still dead on his feet from the 65th minute.
Gray - 7 - Looked lively, and was involved in some very slick interchange with Pereyra in the first half.

Success actually looked suprisingly promising when he came on. He held the ball up very well, looked sharp and had some nice touches.
Sema also showed a few decent touches in the limited time he had.

It'll be interesting to see how we do against a team with good levels of fitness and desire, as Brighton were tame. However, reassuring signs. Now, let's just pray for few injuries.

 

Very pleasantly surprised with that!

Foster - didn’t have to make a save but looked very confident in coming off his line To collect and had some good distribution. 7

Janmaat - thought he was a bit dodgy at times positionally but proves useful going forward 6 each

Cathcart and kabasele - both looked very calm and collected and if we can keep this centre back partnership fit then we should be fine at the back but that’s a big if. 7 each

Holebas - very worried when I saw his name on the team but I thought he did well both defensively and offensively with some very good set pieces and got a classic holebas esq yellow card. 7.5

Capoue - thought at Times the game passed him by but when he got on the ball he did some good stuff. 6.5

Doucoure - missed all of preseason so looked a bit rusty but showed the energy we know him to posses

Hughes - lovely player to watch. Never hides from the ball and always seems to have the right idea when he gets it. 6.5

Pereyra - two lovely goals and looked our most dangerous player throughout the game. Really hope the pozzos aren’t tempted to let him go to Torino because if he can keep up his end of season form he’ll be a hugely influential player for us. 8.5

Gray - thought he looked pretty lively. Looks better alongside another striker. Thought his first touch looked better but his second touch seemed to have lost him today. 6

Deeney - like gray looks better alongside another striker and was involved in some nice build up play. His saved shot in the first half was pretty poor though and for a ‘big man’ he’s still not really winning enough headers. 6

Success: looked pretty sharp when coming on, with a good injection of pace and movement. Will probably be played as a ‘super sub’ but under mazzarri that’s when he looked best for us. 6

Kiko and Sema didn’t have enough time to make a big impact.

Thought we also managed the game very well and although Brighton seemed poor last season we had lost games like this with poor game management and complacency. If we can get 3/4 points from the next couple of games we’ll build a nice gap between us and the bottom 3 to start

 

Like me, Brighton didn't turn up at the Vic today. Hands up though, the team looked fit and totally up for it. I'm probably going to Burnley next Sunday so don't bother even watching it.

 

RelegationCerts will just be putting Roberto's pistol in his mouth.

 

Take that all you negative nancies!!

I had full belief in the team. My posts were just like Lawro’s, reverse psychology.

All joking aside. I will eat some humble pie and enjoy it. I hold my hands up, I was wrong. Can’t believe I’m about to say this but even Holebas (my nemesis) had a great game.

On a side note, can’t believe I’m saying this but, come on Wolves.

 

Don't think we're not grateful. What its costing you in fresh panties must be a fortune.

 

Very good performance all round. Can’t think of a player who performed poorly. Very comfortable win and the closing down was fantastic. Really hope we can keep most of the team fit this year.

 

Just the two assists for Jose today, dry those tears

 

I'm just staying outside and going panty free.