If Fessi finishes his chance instead of missing it, does that make Zola a good manager again? I'm not sure what people want from the manager? He changed the formation and he changed the personnel, yet again today a generic northern anti-football side stole he points from a freekick. We really didn't do a lot wrong today I look forward to the people who listened on the radio now tell me how wrong I am
I'm usually one of the most positive posters here but even I'm deflated tonight. Losing 3-4 at home to Charlton was frustrating last season..but at least the match entertained. That was the Zola way. You kind of accepted it. Often we'd score more goals than our opponents, and even when we didn't, it was often a hummdinger of a match with lots of good attacking play to admire. Losing today to a side WITHOUT a clean sheet all season, and without really threatening them very much either, is probably the low point of this wretched run. Zola's been found wanting recently but has not been helped either by the players or the summer transfer strategy. A tough job awaits whoever leads us into the Christmas period.
Just out of interest...and merely offering you some stats, not calling for anybody's head! Boothroyd was sacked after losing 3 matches in a row, a run of 4 matches without a win. He'd won the 2 matches before that. Lewington was sacked after a run of 6 matches without a win. Vialli was sacked after winning just 1 of his last 6 games in charge. GT quit in his second spell after a run of 3 wins in his last 16 matches.
I was one of the 'keep Zola' brigade but after today's dross he simply has to go. His substitutions were dreadful, why he's kept faith with Cassetti is beyond me, he's been woeful all season. Battocchio was one of our better players today and he takes him off. Fabbrini is a complete waste of time and a wage. Deeney is not a captain, every time he doesn't get the ball he shrugs his shoulders whining at his team mates or the ref, not very helpful to the side. Oh and the 1881 may as well knock it on the head now!!
1. No. 2. If Sheffield Wednesday are a "generic, northern, anti-football side" then what in the world are we, and what does it say about us who has, once again, lost at home to such a team?
There is one big question that everyone should be asking after today's match. What the **** are they doing in training?
We have international players at various levels and at various stages of their careers and it's time some of these players showed some bottle and stepped up to the plate to earn their money. If they are not prepared to then Zola should look to our young players and give them their chance. I still think Zola is the right manager but is being badly let down by some players
I dont really see why the players are being blamed. Its Zola who picks the team and the tactics. Zola knows Wednesday will sit back so he plays with only 1 forward that makes no sence. Also why on earth was are 2 smallest players in the wall for the freekick.
Seems to me to be a combination of second season syndrome, play-off defeat hangover, Zola not learning or developing as a manager as much as we'd have liked, Abdi's injury, Vydra departing, too much rotation, some (so far) indifferent summer signings, maybe signing players just because we COULD rather than we SHOULD (Fabbrini springs to mind here).. If the Pozzos panic and get rid of Zola, then yes they've changed one of the factors, possibly you may argue the most important factor, in that list. But let's not kid ourselves a replacement would just come in and wave a magic wand and everything would be rosey once again? Lots of people will say they saw all this coming, and fair play to them if they really had doubts about Zola or the new signings we made during this summer. But I'll be totally truthful..I didn't..not when I watched us put 5 past Bournemouth in one half alone, or come back from 1-3 down to so thrillingly get a draw at Reading. And when I drove happily back down the M5 after beating Wigan 1-0, to record our 18th point in our first 9 matches of the season, I'd have thought you mad if you'd have told me what was about to go wrong.. I really just don't understand how we've become so bad.
Jon Marks @jonmarks72 2m #watfordfc boss Gianfranco Zola says he has "some considerations to make overnight" following defeat to Sheff Weds. Roughly translated. I am going to walk before I get the sack.
We lost one of the leagues best defensive midfielders We lost one of the leagues paciest and deadly finishers We are currently without one of the leagues most creative midfielders We bought in players who have been average at best Can't say I want Zola to go until I know who Pozzos would plan on replacing him with. What I can say is that we need better quality coming in during Jan if we are to have a remote chance for the play offs
I think this thread only having five pages by this time says a lot. What more can be said, that hasn't be said over the past few weeks? I've been blaming mostly Nani for the squad we've put together not being good enough - in my opinion Vydra, Abdi, Chalobah and Hogg haven't been properly replaced - but I don't think there are many managers around who would lose 4-0 over two home games against the two bottom teams in the league. Put simply, Yeovil and Sheffield Wednesday should not be teams we lose to like this. I don't just mean in a season aiming for promotion - even if we were trying to stay in the league, I'd expect more than this from those two games. I've only been supporting Watford for about 8 years but I think this is the first time I've ever wanted a manager to leave the club. I want Zola to do well in the future because he's provided some of the best moments of supporting this team, but if he left now it would not only be good for the club, it would be good for Zola's long-term career too.
Decent performance today I felt. If Anya's goal had been allowed, then who knows what might have happened. The terrible misses by Fernando and Deeney pretty much sum everything up at the moment. Sheffield Weds have one shot on target and score it. Football is pretty much against the Watford team at the moment.
I hate periods like this when supporting my club. It's obvious where it will go. I think it's inevitable that Zola will go now, which is a great shame. I loved the way he tried to get Watford playing and for a brilliant 23 match spell last season it worked perfectly. Since then we've been average, and now the recent run of just 4 points from the last 9 matches is clear relegation form. We've picked up just 39 points from our last 33 league and playoff matches, losing 14 of them!!. It's clearly not promotion form, and we've not been on the right tracks for a long time now. It's a shame, but I think Zola will go now and will probably resign. As for the game, another 90 minutes of huff and puff with very little end product. No clean sheet once more and a failure to create anything like a good scoring chance until the 95th minute. We had only 1 shot on target in the entire game. This is our worst run at home for 23 years......and it's clear that unless we now go on Championship winning run of form even the playoffs are out of the question. We are now looking at the relegation spots, which is just crazy when you consider the talent we have in our squad.
I heard today that Wednesday haven't won away since April. It's got to the point where I don't want to go to home games because it's so depressing. I've never felt that supporting Watford before.
I like to think I've been quite patient with the past few weeks but tonight was perhaps the final straw. It was absolutely dire. Plenty of inaccurate passes, some ridiculous hoofballs. Thorne was awful. Nothing going on up front. Zola couldn't sort it today. Their goal came from a free kick, think it went over the wall rather than it being Bond's fault. Sheffield Wednesday defended well at the end of the game when we started having a go but were poor apart from that. No atmosphere for long periods as well (1881 completely silent in the second half), it's like a rot has set in. Someone made a comparison to the last days of Boothroyd and it's fairly accurate to be honest. Went into the Yellow and Red Lion pre match after the all improvement 'hype'. £3.50 for a pint of ice cold watered down nonsense. Think I'll pass on it next time.
Clueless from the midfield upwards today. Absolutely no idea what they were trying to do. And WTF is all this pumping it up to Deeney? Even if he wins the knock on there's no one anywhere near him to lay it off to. Really poor today. Even the usual onslaught from the 85th minute onwards was missing today. Oh well the resigning of Vydra and Chalobah in Jan may save ur season...if only.
Is it really acceptable to just say 'teams know how to play against us' Zola can't find a solution so it his ultimately his fault because these players are good enough to beat Yeovil and Sheff Wed. You can blame Nani for us not having a promotion challenging squad but not for being total rubbish at the moment. Hoof to Deeney, lose it and repeat. Boring. Flashes of counter attacking football evident but still not good enough. Zola is a top guy and should ultimately succeed but someone with a low reputation like Pochettino is bound to be out there. You either give Zola January and this season to try salvage it or let a new manager come in at January and identify targets with Nani. If Zola stays an we don't get top 10 he has to go. Saying that he'll probably leave.
It was the same as against Yeovil. Promising first 10/15 mins, then Sheffield settled, scored a **** goal which should never have gone through Bond or the wall and heads drop. Once the heads drop we stop playing any decent football and look awful.
It's all down to confidence. We started well but the confidence ebbed away after the goal went in. I am in the Zola in corner but it's difficult right now seeing he can lead us out of this slump. Needs a slice of luck to go our way to kick start our season again. Only positive right now is that our slump in form is not at the business end of the season.
I hope the club sticks with Zola and Zola sticks with the team. Today was bad, as it seems have been all the home games since September. However, we weren't outplayed, the opposition had one shot on target, we missed a number of good chances and had a goal ruled out for offside. We were on top before and after they scored and I honestly believe if Cassetti had scored his free header in the first ten minutes we'd have won comfortably. The problem is that confidence is extremely fragile it seems but I firmly believe this team will turn it around. I wonder how many people calling for Zola's head go away from home regularly? If they do then their memory must be poor as today's bad result has been on the back of two very good results (and good performances), a point and clean sheet at the team top or second in the league and then another point at a side who had won their five previous home games. In fact we're unbeaten away since 1st October. I really do think that the issues in the squad are solvable and Zola is capable of solving them. If we'd taken our chances against Bolton, Yeovil or Wednesday, especially at 0-0, or Ekstrand had taken his chance in the last minute last week things would be looking very different. We're very close to turning it around, stick with it and I think we'll be competing for the play-offs come May no matter how ridiculous that seems tonight. Zola In, get behind the boys and get down to Ipswich, I have a feeling we'll get a result.
The idea that the quality of the squad isn't Zola's fault is nonsense. People genuinely believe that Zola has zero input into the players Nani is looking at? Nani would have given Zola 4-5 strikers to pick a couple from - he picked the **** ones. And so on.
