You were also at pains to point out that none of the top teams in the Premier League or Championship play it and it wasn't a good idea. You were incredibly dismissive of a suggestion to try something different. Yesterday we did try it against one of the best teams in the division and got a well earned point. It's ok to admit you were wrong occasionally!
Formation worked well last night - will be interesting to see if he sticks with 3 at the back at WBA. As I recall most of the discussion about 3-5-2 before was when Raj was deemed a starter, and therefore one of the 2, despite the fact that he seemed to have no ability to hold the ball up and play a team mate in, and relied on crosses to attack as a sole striker. Bayo & Dennis had enough energy and movement to work well together.
It's true though; in general it's a tactic best deployed by underdogs. Tbh if we played 532 every game from now until the end of the season and somehow won them all I'd still be annoyed as it's just not a setup I like. If we keep it in reserve for special needs then fine, but I don't think it's something that a squad should be built to focus on long term and it requires more specialisation.
Excellent game and great entertainment. Summerville vs Andrews felt like a big mismatch - Andrews has been poor since his return and he got absolutely run ragged last night. Lewis was excellent. Genuinely the first game this season he has looked good. Kayembe kept us moving, he was really good last night and pivotal to how we played. I like Hoedt but he isn't nailed on to walk straight back in, the 3 at the back last night were solid. Bachmann was faultless and kept us in it at the end. Shame Dennis went off as he was excellent. Kone sprinted on the pitch and that was about the peak of his performance, he just seemed to stroll through the motions after that. Fun performance and a good result. Valuable point towards our relegation battle.
That would probably depend on three things... 1. If we did well enough in the remaining games for the position to be a viable option. 2. A replacement is found for the U18's (ideally not difficult) 3. Next season's head coach is already in the works as we speak and Gino has no interest in keeping TC on and we get some non-English speaking random in June. All that nonsense aside, I do not see how TC can do any worse than any one else at this present time. He's got good connections with the club and fanbase like him. I would be very happy for him to have a full term*. *see article 101 in how to run a successful football club
Summerville and Ampadu aside, I thought Leeds looked very ordinary. How much of that is down to Cleverley’s setup and organisation I don’t know but Leeds looked like they didn’t know what to do. The two up top worked very well- Bayo’s best game for a while. He worked very hard, pressured their back 4 relentlessly and fully deserved his goal. Andrews had a poor game, Summerville was skinning him time and time again. It was clear he needed some help but for whatever reason, wasn’t given it. Conversely, I thought that was Lewis’ best game in a Watford shirt. Always looked to go forward and only went back when the forward option wasn’t there. We all know he won’t be here next season but credit where it’s due. That second half was always going to happen, we tired and looked very leggy. Genuinely forgot Kone was on, bless him he didn’t do anything. A very credible 4 points from two games for Cleverley. Avoid defeat on Monday and I think that’s probably enough to get him the job. Special mention to Troy on Sky who implied Dennis got his goal and thought that was job done so made out his injury was worse than it was. I’d still take him next season though- levels above what we have otherwise.
IMV the team looked energised and everyone appeared to know what their role was etc as well as no players needlessly playing out of position. The 3cbs allowed our FBs to join the press especially during the 1st half whilst it was very clear that the Leeds defenders were petrified of Dennis and were happy just to hack the ball clear when he was around . His mere presence causes defences problems at Championship level . Bayo played well as did most of the team . Bachman seems happier. And it is good to see that we don't play out from the back every single time under TC who seems to keep everything simple. Early days for sure but a good start for Tom !
We are in an era of football where everything is over analysed and over complicated. Natural born winners like Warnock are now labelled dinosaurs by the football hipsters sat in their basements getting off over charts rather than being out in the fresh air watching football. There will be a breed of manager soon, and it could include TC, who will do very well by going back to keeping it simple and aiming to being effective above anything else.
The greatest trick the basement football hipsters ever pulled was convincing the football-watching world that natural-born winner Neil Warnock's stacks of trophies didn't exist.
The woke left want you to believe that Colin resigned from Aberdeen before they go on to gloriously win the Scottish Cup
Yes, I saw. Very well too, and didn't rise to the obvious baiting either . Seriously though I thought most of the discussion at the time revolved around how ineffective Raj was as a lone striker and how he might be better in a 2 upfront, which I and others doubted. Bayo & Dennis looked good.
It was a good performance and all that (as already stated on here) but a) we didn't win after leading twice & b) the cynic in me says we will go back to type on Monday and lose. I really really hope i'm wrong!
You'd be annoyed if we won every game until the end of the season as it would prove you wrong on a football forum? Ok then! (edit: Before you take it too seriously, it's a joke... Happy Easter!)
I thought we set up well and had a really good shape throughout the game. We didn't allow them to have any time on the ball, and pushing Jamal Lewis and Andrews further up the pitch really helped this. We lost something when Dennis went off both offensively and defensively as he was closing the Leeds defenders down so quickly. Bayo worked his socks off but looked exhausted after 75 minutes. I think every Watford fan in the stadium knew that we wasn't going to hold on for the win. Although, not many would have predicted that we would have got anything from the game before kick off. The last two results should mean that we can enjoy the rest of the season now. I have to say I was getting anxious about relegation when Val went and we appointed such an inexperienced interim manager to try and stop our awful fom.
This game was a catastrophe for me personally. I was just on the sofa around 6pm and watching an interesting. TV documentary, looking forward to the game. And I must have drifted off. When I woke up it was 10:30. (Unhappy smiley). So all I've seen is the extended highlights and read the reports. The thing that stood out for me was how that Jimmy Somerville had Andrews on toast. I appreciate he's one of our own and the historical association with Big Daddy Wayne (who also wasn't very good by the way) - but I really don't think he is good enough. The guardian report on their goal for example says "ghosting past Andrews far too easily". And it wasn't the only time. Even in the highlights you could see everything coming down his side and his lame efforts at defending. I'm afraid he is a major weak point in our team game after game. Maybe you think there is potential and he will improve - he's not bad getting forward and crossing to be fair - but his defending is absolutely woeful and presents only minimal hindrance to the designs of opposition forwards.
To be fair to him, he was up against genuine Premier League quality, without much support, I'm not going to hold that against a kid in his first year of senior football. Might do us a favour in the long run if it makes prospective buyers realise that he's nowhere near ready for the Prem right now
Summerville is probably the best midfielder in the Championship, Andrews won't be the only defender that struggles with him.
If he was any good a prem club would have taken him away for peanuts despite who his father is. He obviously wasn’t deemed worth peanuts. He was up against a fantastic player though.
Whether you say it's a joke or not - the reason I'd be annoyed is because of having to watch us regularly play 532; nothing to do with the forum.
Andrews did get done for Leeds's second goal, although Summerville is likely the best player in the league and won't be playing the championship for much longer. I wonder whether the Guardian pointed out how high our wingbacks played in the first half and the trouble they caused Leeds, maybe that would have been more of a fair analysis. Lewis and Andrews were brilliant during the first half and pressed well. I thought Asprilla was very unfortunate not to be awarded a pen, which came from Andrews bombing down the pitch and crossing. By no means am I saying Andrews was excellent, but remembering the good things he did is only fair as our wing backs were critical to how we set up in the first half. It is a bit unfair to say that Andrew's isn't good enough if you are basing your view on a game you didn't watch. He was coming up against a player who will likely be sold for up to 30 million in the summer. Andrews only turned 19 in the summer and has been playing for England under 20's and evidently had plenty of potential and quality.
It remains to be seen whether that was just the traditional interim head coach bounce, but that was the best I've ever seen TDB play, almost all the others were at the top of their game and it was highly entertaining. And Lewis didn't feel the need to pass back to the halfway line whenever he got behind the defence.
I also noticed how many of our goal kicks saw Porteous tap the ball to Bachmann who then moved it forward a few paces before hitting it longer than had been the case under VI. As the Leeds wide players had pushed onto our WBs to try to stop the ‘play it out from the back’ this decision effectively took them out of the game for a few seconds. I shudder to think what would have happened had Summerville been hunting down Pollock and/or Andrews as they received a mid-hit Bachmann short pass. And I wonder if Lewis’ previous insistence on passing backwards rather than being more progressive was down to Ismael’s demand for ‘risk-free’ football. No risk taking, little chance of scoring.
