Who honestly believes we will stay up this season?

Not really. We pretty much all think you are a ****.

 

Ta. I had you in the for camp

 

Honestly, it looks bleak. However, there's not a lot of difference between the clubs outside the top 6-7. A little success can make a huge difference in confidence and results. We need some way, however, to start imposing our will on some games. We're playing too much "not to lose". A huge part of that it between the players' ears, not in the setup or tactics.

 

With 25 games to play and only 3 points (until tonight anyway) between us and 17th place it's clearly bonkers to write us off as already down. That said, everything about the approach of QSF and our performances since his arrival suggests the gap to safety is only likely to get wider. Maybe the question should be, Who honestly believes we'd be in this mess if we'd shown more faith in Javi (who at least played to our strengths) and not disgracefully sacked him and replaced him with the utterly hopeless Flores?

 

We've still improved under QSF.

Under Javi we lost with fully fit squads 3-0 at home to Brighton and 3-1 at home to West Ham, - both clubs in the bottom half of the table.

 

I honestly think that the advantage we have is that we are woefully under-performing, with the exception of Everton, and I therefore think we can improve more than others above us.

 

Before Burnley I would have said the defence has improved. The defenders QSF has at his disposal are not good enough but the goals conceded had lessened, and we looked a better unit at the back. But to concede three at home to Burnley, who aren't very good but were miles better than us, is ridiculous.

We will not stay up this season, we have to win at least 10 out of our remaining 25, and this is a team that has won once since April. We're down.

 

If you take Javi's tenure as a whole, I think you'd be hard pressed to say that we've improved under Flores. Our results dipped towards the end of last season after we'd reached the cup final. This can reasonably be attributed (in my view) to everyone having one eye on the final. We made a poor start to this season - noone can deny that - but to ditch a coach that had done so well to 'steady the ship' after Silva had buggered off, got us playing the best football since promotion and taken us to a cup final, because we'd made a slow start to this year was beyond belief.

 

Fair point. I don't think sacking him was the problem, it was more the replacement.

 

That's the sort of response I was hoping for!

 

I reckon we will. Until Big lump A and big lump B had battered Dawson off the pitch on Saturday we defended very well, and looked very comfortable. To me there have been definite signs of improvement defensively, and a couple of goals going in off someones arse will se us gain confidence going forwards. We may yet get relegated but bitching and moaning about the situation will get us nowhere so I will clutch at the little positives I can see. Hopefully we will beat Saints on Saturday night.

 

100% agree.

 

To be fair to the defence, before Dawson was taken off they barely had a sniff and we already were missing Prodl and Kabasele. It has improved without question but we ended up with Mariappa and Masina as centre backs

 

Looks like they've decided to keep him. Which means we haven't got a ******* hope in hell.

 

Plus, of course, the 8 - 0, which was a handful of days after he had been sacked.

 

Well, they were better than us in having two strikers who can score and arguably a better organised and more capable defence, both of which are crucial. They are also seventh, level on points with sixth, and ahead of Arsenal, Spurs and Manure, so not too bad. I didn't enjoy watching them, but that's not the point. If only it was points for ball control and attractive skills, strictly come football style, we would have won.

 

Prodl has played about half an hour in the last two years, so I don't think our defensive problems can be said to be down to his absence!

 

The City game was about 3 weeks after Javi had gone. 3 weeks in which QSF managed to suck the life and belief shown in the previous game v Arsenal out of the team completely

 

I like Javi and admired his personal style and I think he did well at first as a coach, as you say. But maybe the big mistake was the assumption that the drop in form was due to the upcoming Cup Final. The Final got the alarm bells really clanging - It was not enough to say City were excellent, we were dreadful: Everything we did was a shambles. The fact that the club waited until into the new season before firing him was, in retrospect, a mistake (of course hindsight is a wonderful thing). Ironic, given their reputation. It makes me sad to say all that.
But he had to go.
I don't have an explanation for why a team's form should disintegrate so badly and an apparently good coach starts to fail, but it seems to happen frequently; just ask Spurs fans.
The club have tried to rectify things and may well do more, but there is the distinct chance that they are actually too late to manage it.
I am not a great fan of QSF, but it has to be asked if he could be successfully replaced at this moment.

 

The Arsenal game was an anomaly: Arsenal demonstrated the worst defending I have seen this season in that second half (yes, even worse than ours' and Southampton's [well, perhaps]). It was just crazy. & Watford, to their credit, responded well to the invitation.

 

Indeed, the Arsenal match against Southampton at the weekend was incredibly similar to our match against them - and Southampton have looked as rancid as us lately, if not even more so. So I wouldn't read too much in to the performance of our players under Javi against Arsenal this season, Arsenal are just prone to being turd.

 

Burnley defence is only “arguably” better than us???!!!

 

This has been being said for months now, and even if it was true, there's absolutely no guarantee that this will actually happen. It certainly bloody well hasn't been happening so far. We're not entitled to goals, whether they go in off someone's arse or any other part of their anatomy, unfortunately. We can't keep just expecting them to happen at some point.

 

In this moment.

 

Step 1: everyone behind the ball. Players should sit deep and soak up pressure for 90 minutes. Tell the players that one player can attack on rare occasions, but only as an opportunity for the defensive players to catch their breath
Step 2: defenders should talk to each other
Step 3: if the ball is in and dangerous position, it should be kicked as far as possible (no practising placing it towards the channels so an attacker can make a run into the channel). Just put a donk on it.
Step 4: attend press conferences and say we were unlucky

The Flores method. I think an ordinary fan could replicate it, with the above instructions.

 

Quote from the Guardian newspaper last month from a fan

"My cousin, Roy Dwight, was a professional footballer. He played for Fulham, so as a kid I used to sit on the touchline at Craven Cottage and watch him. This is how old I am – Jimmy Hill was playing for Fulham at the time. And then my dad took me to see Watford, because they were our local team. I was six or seven. I fell in love with the whole experience. And that was it. You can’t shake your team: it’s in your blood and your bones, even when they’re completely ****. Obviously, when they’re doing well it’s wonderful, but the other week they lost 8-0 to Manchester City and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. But you can’t support anyone else. Watford are my team, and I’m glad. I never thought I’d end up owner of the club, or a director, but Watford saved my life. Working with them kept me grounded when my life was going completely crazy – it reminded me of my roots, of who I really was. I’m forever grateful to them. Except when they lose 8-0. I’m not very grateful then"

 

It’s a sad sad situation. And it’s getting more and more absurd.

 

And nobody told us, cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe

I think we can make it!

 

Exactly this. Arsenal literally gifted us 2 goals in that game. Most sides aren't that generous!

 

Although we did have 31 shots in that game. Where has that attacking intent gone?

 

Remnants of our days under Javi.

Would have annoyed Quique greatly, who will have quickly coached it out of them.