The atmosphere and feelings among supporters at the Vic is what I would describe as poisonous. No one wants to see the team struggle, and it would be a great shame if Zola went because he is one of footballs's nice guys. Tactics are his downfall which is why he needs a strong right hand man. Corradini leaving probably was the worst thing other than losing the PO final and losing Chalobah and Vydra.
Completely agree and going by his post match comments I wouldnt be surprised to see Zola walk before too long.
At the moment the key has and always been scoring the first goal. Even when we were playing well we had a leaky defence so scoring first set the tone and got the crowd into the game. When your confidence is shot and you're struggling for form, get your nose in front and go from there. The last thing you want to do is go behind - particularly against teams like Yeovil, Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday - who will do everything and anything to stop you playing. We might have just earned Stuart Gray the Wednesday job.
Trouble is. How much does Nani or Zola (although I am pretty sure Nani has the most say) know about strikers from Granada or Udinese? They go on recommendations. Sometimes you find a Vydra who clicked in our system and sometimes you find an Acuna who has struggled to adapt. That's the downside to our policy. We need more players who know the Championship hence why losing Hogg and Eustace hurts so much now.
On the plus side, my little lad got a hug from Harry the Hornet and had his photo taken with him. It made his day. It was his first ever Watford game. Sat in the Lower Rous today for the first time for years, as I also took the wife and mother in law along as well for this potentially momentous family occasion. Seats about 3/4 of the way along from the Rookery. Never again. **** view, and nearly everyone around sitting in absolute silence. Makes the Rookery seem like the Kop.
Jon Marks mentioned in his live match commentary . I can only assume you were nt listening because you were at the game .... but I think we both know you were nt .
Today was frustrating, but it wasn't disasterous. Yes, we should theoretically have taken control of the game given the standings of the two clubs and their away record. It didn't work today, but Zola can't be solely to blame. We do need another striker, desperately. One of our main problems is that 80% of the time when a player has the ball there is nobody in front of him making a run or getting into space unless it's Anya running in behind. That then leads to a ball over the top that hardly ever works. If we want to play the style of football that Zola (and we as fans) likes then the midfield need to start waking up a little bit and playing much more fluidly. That will then create space for Deeney and create the gaps that lead to goals. Without any options from midfield we're predictable and teams are able to work us out after 10 minutes. Mark Deeney and beware of balls over the top.. Two strategies that aren't going to win us matches. Two up top with an actual striker partnering Deeney and some fluid midfield movement please.
If that wasnt disastrous then what is? Losing five on the trot at home speaks for itself, don't be deluded people it's black and white Zola and his staff have to go and I'm sure the Pozzos are working tirelessly to resolve this and quickly. Don't keep buttering this up into something you know deep down its not, the form table doesn't lie, leave it and we,ll be in a relegation battle in the new year.
For me the midfield is the main issue - we're too lightweight, lose pretty much every 50/50 and seem to lack bottle! Today was bad, but I really don't see what will be gained by replacing the manager - we played well at Leeds despite conceding three, but today the set up for the defending of the free kick was abysmal, a player on the near post and no danger, yet the ball goes in through the middle of the goal - awful schoolboy defending. I'm strongly in the Zola in camp, I hope he keeps his bottle and sticks with us - and I hope the owners do likewise. It's Ipswich on Saturday, so a guaranteed three points - keep the faith!
Any manager who plays one up top at home against cannon fodder relegation sides with no away wins deserves all he gets. P45
not only is our league position now no better than SD's rag-tag budget team, the quality of play is now just as bad. If not worse. Despite vastly superior players. it makes me bloody angry that we sacked that bloke without giving him a go.
So many threads on all these related matters. Just got in after a few drinks in town to try and forget the match and remember the hope and expectation we had after overachieving last year and coming so close. I thought today as an offensive force we were not as good as at home to either Yeovil or Bolton. Sure the defence looked better but Sheff W had only two shots on goal-we had 10 but only two on target. We miss Abdi but I am not sure even he could cope with a no Vydra or Chalobah type player in the team. The replacements appear not good enough to propel the team towards the top 6-now that is either binary i.e they are actually not good enough or GFZ cannot get the best out of them/the team. Or could it be that the Pozzos have entered a period where Nani is not recruiting well enough or their model of scouting/"the Pozzo pool" is not enough to get out of the Championship AND survive in the premiership-not be like a firework as in our last two visits. So maybe its not all down to GFZ. As mentioned elsewhere we have not spent either on players or loan costs (Chalobah)-we live within our means-15,000 home fans/match revenue and deals like with the caterers to upgrade the SW corner. So unless we unearth either by loan or Pozzo pool some gems that can outshine the opposition we are only going to achieve selective progress-both off field (East stand/SW corner) or on field-no fight against relegation/better players leaving for a song. It was also mentioned that losing 5 successive home games was last seen in 1990/91-some of us-myself included witnessed that run-it became 6 and then 2 draws-Colin Lee was sacked after that and Perryman came in-our first win at home was December 8th-but it didn't get much better as we had to win at Oxford in May 91 with a Paul Wilkinson goal in the last but one game to stay up Today was the first time I thought that the "model/project" might not work in terms of technically gifted but out battled midfielders/forwards. it could be argued neither Sheff W or Yeovil has players with the technique that some of ours have but they both did a job on us and it counts for nothing if you look good in our third of the pitch but in the other two thirds we either lose out or cannot shoot straight. I along with many others have no answers -we are fans and rely on the owners to put it right. Steve Clarke at West Brom started very well this year but then only a few straight defeats and he is gone. We pay our money or support from a distance-its up to the owners to do the right thing as they have all the facts before them-we trust the Pozzos as experienced football people know what to do next
Football League Show is a shambles it really is. '5 defeats on the spin' missed out the fact we drew the past 2 games and then I thought Manish salvaged something by noticing we had no experienced number 2 for Steve Claridge to then ruin it by stating 'he had no experienced number 2 last season' Sorry forgot Corradini has no experience:dismay:
The Pozzo 'Project' on the actual field of play was always going to be a risky strategy, purely because it had never really been attempted before in the Championship. That fact was evident by the way all the other clubs made such a fuss about what we were doing and eventually brought in new rules to stop it happening again (loan wise, at least). We've had an extraordinary turnover of players since July 2012, both in and out. In that turnover, we've had an extraordinary high number of overseas players coming to us (pooled from just 2 clubs), having to learn a new country,a new style of play plus all the language barriers etc. Personally, I think Zola did a great job last year in blending together such high numbers of foreign overseas recruits into a team playing such attractive football. Putting the actual matches to one side a minute, you never read tales of discontent, even from players we released. We really did seem like the United Nations, everybody mixing together in harmony. And now? The first signs of just what a risky strategy the Pozzos brought with them, trying to win an English league by doing things the Italian way. But their track record of success suggests they are no fools and will learn from this difficult period, and maybe in the future they will compromise and do things in a more 'British' way. After all,you often learn more in defeat than you do in victory.
Be careful what we wish for. Getting rid of Zola might not be the answer. It could make things a heck of a lot worse.
Why do we want a manager who doesn't understand tactics? Are we going to keep him just because he is a nice guy?
Yesterday was like watching a team that has never played together ever and only just met up in the morning and zola told them just before kick off what positions they were playing.
Out of interest I see a few people saying Anya was onside for the goal that was ruled out before halftime. What's the source for this?
Hugely frustrating on Saturday. Five home defeats on the bounce and only Leicester and Derby have been any good – Yeovil, Bolton and especially Sheff Wed have been pretty dire. If anything we actually look a bit better at the back and there was a round of applause for one size on Saturday after he outmuscled one of their players in the Rookery/Rous corner and won a free kick – the applause spoke volumes, I think people have been crying out for a bit of grit. I hope Lloyd comes in at RB when he is fit, and Pudil at left back as Cassetti is woefully short of form. Bellerin may as well fark off back to Arsenal. At the moment we are in a real fight and the last thing we need is players bottling out of headers and tackles like he did on several occasions on Saturday. Thorne…keeps things ticking over, but in my mind that is the position that really needs sorting. He doesn’t make things happen and isn’t going to take the game by the scruff of the neck to influence it. We are missing a bit of creativity and he just isn’t that type of player. That in turn leaves Deeney up top sulking and moaning at the lack of service, which is what you don’t want to see from anyone least of all the captain. Hall and Nos were far more influential and vocal on Saturday and put Deeney to shame. Zola…I don’t want him to go, but I can’t see much other option at the moment and he isn’t helping himself too much with selections, substitutions and resorting to switching dugouts to try and change our luck.
Not sure if it's been said yet but there was another argument at the top of RS4 between the same people from a couple of weeks ago which was pretty funny. Also saw someone being held back in a cringy kind of way as he got called out for having a go at people booing, and then he left early.
Did anyone else think Nos was lucky the ref decided he got the ball when he made that last ditch tackle in front of the Rookery in the first half? For me it was a foul and had it been at the other end in front of their fans I reckon the ref would have given it. I think it was just outside the box but a red card would have been inevitable.
My initial reaction was foul (penalty & red card), however none of the Wednesday players really appealed
I thought he was a bit unlucky for the foul leading to the free kick.. Not sure what was said at half time but it clearly didn't work - it was probably the poorest 45 minutes all season attack wise baring in mind the opposition. Did we even have a shot on target? FF's miss at the end summed it all up.
