Watford FC 0-3 Brighton & Hove Albion - 10/08/2019

Agree not panicking yet but if we play like that against Everton we will be 0 for 2 games

The only ray of light I can see in that game is that it just wasn’t working today , all the little back heels and twist and turns were not coming off, if we can just click then we will be fine

 

Deeney was so poor today, about 90% of his touches and passes went straight to the opposition.

 

That's an improvement on his cup final performance.

 

That's still 10 percentage points better than Hughes.

 

An absolutely dreadful performance. No movement. No urgency to get back in the game when being embarrassed at home. Hughes and Doucoure the only ones who seemed bothered.

Deeney was atrocious. We can’t move forward as a club when we have to build the team around him. How on earth did he not get substituted?

 

Can Deeney please just **** off now? I am honestly so, so sick of the bloke. What is he good at? What exactly does he do?

Arrogant, stroppy *** who is about 3 years past his prime and offers absolutely nothing in 90% of games.

Sure he'll smash in another penalty soon and beat his chest like he's something special and our dribbling fans will lap it up, but the bloke is 100% turd.

 

Just don’t understand how we played wonderful football for majority of last season. Pinging the ball around on the deck, out playing most of our opponents and very pleasing on the eye. Then with about 6 weeks left, nerves set in, we started hoofing it a lot more, silly mistakes were made and we blew it. Seems like we have carried on our 6 weeks into the start of this season.

Javi has done great, but if he is this stubborn over 4-4-2 then we will be fighting a relegation battle. He must change tactics. 4-4-2 has been found out. Now it’s up to him to adapt. Go 4-3-3 with Capoue, Doucoure and Quina in the middle. Front 3 of Sarr, Welbeck and Deulofeu when all fit. Deeney and Gray as impact subs.

 

That went well then.

Only bonus is I'm away so missed all the fun.

 

You what? The only thing Hughes is bothered about is throwing himself to the ground to try and buy a free-kick, in order to try and mask him having just given the ball away again.

 

Deeney was absolute dogsh*t, but he doesn't ******* pick himself. He doesn't say the tactics have to be long ball.

That's the coach. Stop giving him a pass.

 

But Deeney is a beast and "bullies" defenders and gives everyone a "tough time".

Or is the reality that he does absolutely **** all and gets dominated by anyone over 6'1?

 

He's great at inspiring the opposing teams and giving refs an incentive to send him off to be fair.

 

I said 3-0 to Brighton. €270 richer tonight. Merci Watford

 

Hughes our best player for me. Won the ball back numerous times and showed urgency. Had a pass completion rate of about 40% which was better than the rest!

 

Nah mate, Hughes is quality. Doesn't matter that he spends every single game doing absolutely nothing.

 

Whoops!

That really a bad day at the office.

But, despite what some have said on here, we had a load of chances. I can think of about 5 blocked shots near the goal line. They scored most of theirs, and not a lot of luck went our way, whilst their first needed a huge scoop of luck.

Not that impressed with Dawson's debut though, maybe at fault for the 2nd and 3rd?

...and Deeney?

 

This is a Stoke City season waiting to happen. You start taking your Premier League status for granted and you will lose it.

 

Don't even know where to start.

Seriously worrying. I think that display, especially defensively just goes to show how easy we will be to score against this season, placing huge emphasis on our forwards to get us out of trouble. We didn't fire in either box today, we've started this season just how we ended last season, easy to play against, easy to score against and predictable in possession.

I think it's fair to say Javi's honeymoon period is well and truly over! Everton will destroy us next week if we play like that and we can easily find ourselves in the bottom 3 come September!

I hate knee jerk reactions, especially after one frigging game, but that was extremely concerning to watch how EASILY Brighton ripped us apart and kept us at bay.

Can't afford a sh*t start this season as the quality has improved drastically all over the League.

Not good enough!

 

Hughes is never a left midfielder, like playing with 10.

 

I doubt the players are complacent. Some fans are though.

 

When do next season's championship fixtures come out? Just asking.

 

Doesn't he line up on the right?

 

Who even knows to be honest? He was the invisible man, as per usual. Absolute waste of space.

 

First match Luton away.

 

Beat Everton next week and this will be forgotten.

Unfortunately we'll probably lose by more.

 

Been saying it for 3 seasons now, Deeney holds the evolution of the team back.

He's not a complete forward and only works in a 2 which dictates a 442. One day we will have another coach (like Silva) with the cahones to recognise that and drop him.

 

Make an L shape with your thumb and index finger with your palms facing away. The one that is an actual L is your left.

 

Was never a penalty! Pereyra should've also been booked for crying like a little bitch and getting in the ref's face.

 

Exactly right. If you're wedded to a back four and start Deeney every game, you have to play 4-4-2. The rest of the squad lends itself to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 but shoehorning him in screws us.

 

Random irrelevant fact of the day- The last time Wfc lost an opening day fixture Ismaila Sarr was 8 years old!

 

The last 7 or 8 games we have played have really shown that this formation is past its sell-by-date. I think Javi is a good enough coach to realise that - but if not, and he continues playing this formation and performances don't pick up...the outcome won't be good for him.

The sooner Sarr is up to speed the better - and Welbeck.

I've never been a Deeney-basher - but he was absolutely dreadful today. I maintain the captaincy should have been taken from him in the summer. There was ZERO leadership today from the first minute.

 

I've said it earlier in the week, with the signings of Welbeck & Sarr it HAS to be 4-3-3 with Sarr & Deulofeu flanking Welbeck. Middle three has to be Capoue, Doucoure & Quina.

 

Never nice losing, let alone on the opening day. What's there to say?

First off, Brighton deserved their goals. They were looking sharp after a good opening spell from us, and exploited our weakness out wide in the full back positions to get behind us.

I don't think they were a better quality team, but they did what we couldn't which is punish mistakes by our defence. Femenia was the worst culprit on the pitch and made a number of mistakes which lead to dangerous counters in our half when we looked to press. Dawson wasn't great but he already looks like a player who will get goals from corners and set pieces. Had a shot cleared off the line too.

Midfield was poor. Doucoure tried but it wasn't enough when Capoue has a rare poor game after his excellent previous season. Hughes was mixed; he won a number of fouls and he works hard, but it's been well established he's not a winger and today is just another confirmation of this. His decision making was general poor at the critical moment.

Deeney was bullied out the game. Won very few headers against a strong and organised defence which in turn affected Gray's game. Gray did press well at times, with that pull back being the highlight of his work after punishing a Brighton error which wasn't finished off. Sums up our day. Deulofeu was crap. He was stationed out wide and stayed there which suited Brighton just fine. Had a few poor long range efforts and then hid from the game. Either play him on the right, centrally or not at all as he is useless on that left wing.

We'll play better than that this season. We've shown that already last season and we still are yet to introduce Sarr to the equation. It is however a stark warning. Brighton were sharp and ready to fight whilst we treated it as another pre season game and were dule rolled over as a result.

Gracia needs to take some responsibility for this. I don't think he set us up right which isn't a common problem from him but today his HT sub cost us for a change. Pereyra looked a lot more menacing at the left wing that Deulofeu was, and Success had a decent substitute cameo and made more of a nuisance of himself than Deeney did all game.

We'll do better but we have to up our intensity on the ball to help cover a weak defence.

 

The problem is that even once we finally f**k the absolute dross like Deeney, Gray, Hughes and Femenia out of it, we're still going to be absolutely shocking at the back, even if Janmaat is an improvement on Femenia.

We are going to be relying on scoring an absolute boat load because we are going to continue conceding god knows how many with the utter clowns we have at the back.