The Guardian on Troy: Certainly he looks more of a threat at present than the leaden Troy Deeney: Watford’s main point of attack here who seemed simply to hover without doing very much, like a silent consonant, the “g” in “phlegm”.
Let’s be honest it was a much needed win, against the poorest side in the division, who quite honestly created more than we did and were unlucky not to loose. we have some major deficiencies in my opinion. One being fitness, we were and are totally undercooked for this period and this season in general compared to other teams .... we had 4 friendlies at the start of the season and 1 after the covid break .... it’s simply not enough we should have 6 or 7 friendlies and maybe 3 after the break ... like Arsenal did, like other sides did - wherever we end up that needs to be seriously addressed Tactically we are set up not to loose, we defend deep so as not to get caught with runners in behind. But that creates big spaces in midfield and allows teams to run at us - capoue and hughes are chasing shadows due to the amount of space and time opposition midfielders have. To me they look ineffective as a result. We don’t press teams anymore in their own half we just retreat back to our own last 3rd .... and to be fair to Deeney he is dropping back into the last 3rd to help the midfield half the time, despite Norwich keeping 3 defenders on the half way line, why can’t we cope without him doing that ? When we have the ball there is no movement at all hence we go side to side or hoof and hope. When we break it was by and large Sarr, Welbeck and Doucoure. Watch everyone else just walking to the half way line with us keeping 7 back all the time. It doesn’t work and we end up slowing everything down again, going side to side and backwards letting teams get back and re-organise. We have to have the courage to commit to our attacks. Its no different to Quiques dull tactics. We have to impose our game and ourselves onto teams. We have to have some intensity and greater urgency .... watch the slow casual walk into the pitch yesterday at the start ... it tells you all you need to know about the attitude and intent. It doesn’t matter what players are picked if we keep employing fearful tactics as this is what breeds a fearful mentality and leads to crap performances and results. We need a win and a draw from our next matches and we need to throw the kitchen sink at these teams. rant over
If, as is entirely possible, Villa and Bournemouth pick up fewer than 4 points, then this was a great win. If they do muster a fight back, and win a game or two, then it was just a flash in the pan. There was nothing on show last night which suggested we would get anything from our 4 remaining games. I would say, at best, a draw against a disinterested Newcastle would be our best hope. Anyone hoping for another win or 4 or 5 more points - I simply cannot see it with these players and the performance levels from the past 6 games (and indeed the last 14 months). I think we've given ourselves a puncher's chance of staying up, albeit with a pathetic total, but we are reliant on two other teams remaining pathetically poor.
I only saw the first hour yesterday, but we were hardly convincing in that time. Norwich are awful, and I don’t say that out of cruelty. They aren’t a nasty side, or a boring side, they just lacked PL quality. They’ve scored the fewest goals this season and conceded the most - that’s never going to end well. But last night we didn’t look another level to them by any means. There was a shortage of quality on both sides for the most part, with just the one brilliant finish separating us. The job isn’t done yet, I expect we’ll need 2 more points as an absolute minimum, possibly 3 or 4. If the players can take confidence from the win and play with a bit less pressure then there’s a chance we’ll see an improvement and we do need a big improvement. That performance wouldn’t beat any other team in the league. Definitely more optimistic now but not getting carried away.
This is why I think this team will get 1 point or no points for the remaining games. It still may be enough though due to the poor form of the teams below us. Scraping 1 point somewhere means Villa and Bournemouth need 2 wins and I don't see that myself. So lads, go and grab that 1 point!!
Mariappa is Championship standard. Can no longer rely on pace to win situations. Reads the defensive side of things poorly but then again he is played out of position at right back but still makes the same failings of allowing strikers to turn him with ease. He is neither not fast or strong enough. Dawson. Solid enough still for a lower PL team. Lacks pace forces us to play deeper but still reads the game for the most part reasonably. Solid aerially but still rash at time precludes him from being a better defender. Cathcart. He appears to have fallen off a cliff. Femenia not physically strong enough and unable to read the game well enough either. Gets out of position too many times and does not pose enough a threat as an attacking full back to compensate. Also his tendency to cut in when it is not needed or hold up the ball instead of slinging a first time cross in is irritating compared to Holebas who releases the ball more readily. Holebas solid enough in his time especially as an attacking if wayward threat but age has got hold of him. So keep Masina and Dawson and the rest need replacement. Estupinan covers the LB role with the 2 players you need for every position to make a decent squad. So ideally we need to find 3 new CBs and 2 RBs. It's a consequence of failing to upgrade the defence in the last few seasons while focusing on other areas.
Looking at the table we have the 6th worst defence in the league and the 3rd worse attack. We just have to hope either Newcastle or Wham have an off day and we can get another win. Every point we gain is a point earned as all 4 teams we have to pley are better than us. Given the inevitable hammering we get from City; Muff or Villa just need 4 points to go above us on goal difference. Its totally doable. We need more points. 31 points is only 3 more than we got under Aidy in 2006/7 having had King out for most of the season and selling Young half way through. It's a diabolically low tally. We have to do better.
We need to match Villas results between now and the final game of the season, that’s assuming Bournemouth remain as poor as they have been. With Villa playing WH and us playing city, if the gap is anything less than the four points it is now, then we could see a significant swing in our goal difference that could send us down.
I thought Sarr and Masina were both poor. I like Masina and he clearly gives a to$s which is more than most of his teammates, but he's not good enough and is a regression from Holebas. Neither is Femenia. Sarr is without doubt our most talented player but he's been poor since the restart.
Don’t know why I always thought it was City. That’s actually not so bad then. Our goal difference will be destroyed by the last game but at least it’s not completely unwinnable.
Not fair on Hughes, as I think he always puts in 100%, not always successfully, but you cannot criticise his commitment IMO.
Very overlooked point about only playing 4 pre season games. I thought at the time it was strange and never seen that before but I seem to remember we didn’t play any of the local non league sides like we usually do. I remember thinking how much that smacks of arrogance by the Pozzos/Duxbury thinking we are above that now and it’s merely a waste of time but 3 more games against borehamwood and hemel / St. Albans would have certainly made us sharper for the start of the season.
Why? I agree there's a chance that Villa could go ahead of us on goal difference if we were level on points, but it's by no means a certainty. Although we may get hammered by City, Villa could also ship a few against Utd (fingers crossed).
Welbeck scoring the winner with a spectacular overhead kick is the kind of ironic prediction a cynical fan would make pre kick off as utter piss-take. It will do.
The only hope we have is that Welbeck continues his progress and becomes our saviour, with Sarr continuing to cause havoc.
I was quite pleased that we won and considering the importance of the game and the associated nerves and pressure on the team, thought we did okay. I realise now that this was very wrong of me and I apologise unreservedly to the forum. liz x
Thought we played better than we have done recently and there was a lot more passion and commitment than the last few games. Their goal was more comical defending, and I have to say Kiko had a very poor game overall. Deeney made a sligjtly better effort and actually got into the box a few times with "break neck" speed. What did please me was the rapid response of the equaliser, good header from our almost top scorer Dawson, and a very good FK for once. Norwich's defending was as laughable as ours for much of the game, but they are where they are for a reason. I think 1-1 at the break was about right, and then we actually got to see perhaps one of the goals of the season, even if it did have an element of luck. Deflected cross in, perfect height but holy crap! WHAT A FINISH from Welbeck. What is it with our players scoring amazing goals? Not that I mind, but a simple tap in seems beyond them. It was a brilliant goal, fantastic technique and a glimpse at how good Welbeck really is when fully fit. He said after the game it's one of his best ever, I do not doubt that. After that, Norwich did was I expected them to do, upped their game. We had a few very close and nervy moment, especially at the end with the cross show that just went wide as the forward could not quite make contact. but that would of been so Watford had it gone in. Performance wise, we can play better than that, but we got the job done, and Norwich are by far the weakest side in the league, so beating them was a must. Four points is a nice little buffer from the drop zone, but of course that could be back to a point if other results don't go our way today. We still had a slight chance before the game, we have a slightly bigger one now, but the task is far from over - and Pearson is well aware that no resting on morale's will get us through. Newcastle is winnable as well, but a bit trickier due to their players being a lot better than Norwich's. We won, which after five minutes looked bleak, so credit where it is due. Nice to celebrate a win again, seems a long time since we beat Liverpool. That's because it is.
One RB for me with Femenia or Janmaat as cover. LB is covered as you said. Release Mariappa. I think 3 CB's is probably too much. Two quality ones to start would be great with Kabasele, Dawson and Catchcart as back ups. I've actually been impressed with Dawson since the re start
Makes the assumption that Kabasele and Cathcart will be happy to sit on the bench for a European Championships year (NI still have to win their play-off admittedly).
Yes Kiko is quick and mobile but he struggled against Hernandez physically. Looks more like a winger. Bereft of quality. Surprised Keighly didn't snap this one quick!
Fair point but if they’re not good enough for us should they expect to be picked for their country or any other team in the top 5 leagues in Europe. Cathcart might be ok but doubtful Kabasele would.
NI have no real options at CB beyond Evans and Cathcart so he will probably still start even if he is on the bench all next season.
It's weird waking up the next day and realising we actually won a football match. I had started to forget what that feeling was like.
In my defence I had a streaming cold last night and went to bed at 9pm. I promise to up my game. Keighley.
Funny how differently we all see things. I thought the Norwich goal was superb, and our defence didn't do that much wrong at all. And, whilst Welbeck's overhead was great, the build up was poor only made good by their woeful defending. First their defender should have just booted it out, then Sarr's poor cross was teed up by a defender scuffing his clearance.
I think you can make similar observations about our defence as you do for theirs. First Femenia isn't strong enough, loses a 50/50 with Hernandez and gets knocked over too easily. Then Hernandez makes a good run but no one from our midfield tracks Buendia as he sprints into our box (although Doucoure was vaguely jogging in the same direction, he never got close). Next Masina commits to an unnecessary sliding tackle and sells himself completely, opening things up for the left-footed shot. And then finally, the shot wasn't even in the corner but Foster couldn't keep it out. It was a very typical catalogue of errors of the type we've seen repeated loads this season.
I trust him more in the opponent's box than ours. That's probably why he plays. To try to get on the end of our crosses.
As I say, we can see thing differently. Yes, Femenia isn't strong enough. But when Buendia got the ball he was covered. Masina went to block an initial expected shot, why is that unnecessary? You can't block a shot without some anticipation, but Buendia was too good and checked back. Then the goal was covered by two defenders and the keeper, and it was only a brilliant swerving shot around Dawson and Masina that helped it evade a (probably) un-sighted keeper.
Couldn't you have just disabled the auto-lock on your phone and had the score showing on the screen for you to glance at every now and then? Unless your director hates football or is a scum fan, I'm sure he wouldn't have minded!
