That's because it's woeful. My main observation of the team under Sannino so far is that we have only one gear. If we take the lead we attempt to preserve it which in itself can only sometimes be a valid tactic, mainly when massively out classed by the opposition. If we don’t take the lead we struggle to kick up a gear and seize a game. And if we go behind it’s goodnight Vienna. Only once (Ipswich) have we come back from behind to get something from a match and that was only a point and Beppe's first match. It’s totally uninspiring. There’s an air of inevitability about us at the moment which makes watching matches the polar opposite of recent years – where you genuinely went to games believing anything could happen. Reports of Almunia time-wasting from the 55[SUP]th[/SUP] minute yesterday are proof of this and a damning indictment if true.
Think Reading at home is the only other game that the opposition have scored first. And we've only been losing in 2 other games since Beppe came in (M.City (A) and Forest (A)). So in 14 games that Sannino has been in charge, the opposition have scored first twice, and we've been in a losing position just 4 times. One of which against the best team in the country.
To be fair we've only conceded the first goal against Ipswich and Reading under Sannino. The Forest match was a complete disaster for 30 minutes and we could not change the momentum swing, but has not been seen since, so I would say that's a bit of a one off. The only other side to go in front against us was Man City, so we can forget that really.
Honestly, sometimes here it's like opening your front door to the Jehovahs Witnesses Wake up and smell the coffee!!
I think the point is that those that didn't go seem satisfied with last night but those that did definitely are not!
After a night/morning thinking about the match I haven't changed my mind. It was beyond doubt a farking awful performance. Thank **** it was against an equally crap team. It may come good eventually, or just as likely this is the future of WFC.
I wouldn't say I'm satisfied, but there is nothing that can be done about that now. If I had gone, then maybe it would have been different, you're right, but I didn't and my opinion is based on what I heard. The game is now over and I'll do what I do most of the time and that is add it to the last 4 games we have played and take a look at our form. That is just the way I deal with things. It probably was a missed chance to gain more ground on the still mathematically acheivable playoffs seeing as it was our game in hand but if that is the case, we would need need to look at another game to pick the points up.
I don't think that Malteser has anywhere stated that. He (like many others) simply expected us to be a bit more ballsy and ambitious against a side who are bottom of the league for a bleeding reason. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Really? Short-term future maybe till May if you're referring to the performances. If you're referring to the Pozzo's 'way' then I have no doubt it'll get us promoted sooner rather than later.
I'm referring to performances under Sannino. Why would it change in the summer? Unless he leaves of course...
Because he has more time to implement his ideas. Next season is a new starting block, currently he has come into the club and cleared up the mess we were in. He was handed a team that leaked goals and had zero confidence. That has started to change but it isn't the final product yet. What is to say that we get someone new in and that works out? What if they come in and we start leaking goals again? The more solid we are the better it is for us. We aren't having to score 2-3 goals a game just to win, so what if it makes us look boring, we're winning a few games again and at the end of the day, the wins are more important. Consistency is the key in all of this. Too much change and you upset the balance.
These are his ideas! He plays a relatively defensive, disciplined style of football. I find his football style dull but that's my opinion. Anyway I'm not advocating he leaves. He done a good job of turning us round from a team that was broken and going the wrong way to one that's generally hard to beat.
The Cardiff/Hull comparisons have never made any sense to me. They might have been a bit boring to watch, but they were both very organised, and played as a unit. We are neither of those things. I've said this over and over, but playing style is irrelevant to us at the moment because the fundamentals aren't there. This season we've had a host of different players, formations, tactics, coaching staff - none of which have changed our fortunes because they aren't addressing the actual problems. Those being that we play like complete strangers and look completely devoid of confidence. I think Battocchio is the poster boy for how far we've strayed from what made last season a success. He's making lots of incredibly basic errors and is looking like a shadow of the player that he was last campaign. There is no "flip the switch" at this level. Providing we can avoid going through another mass overhaul again this summer, we should be able to start forming something resembling an actual team. It may take a while though.
Convenient The point being that this was one of the games in our promotion season, under Taylor (who you presumably believe should be knighted), against a team who would be relegated that season, coming as it did a week after another 0-0 draw at Oxford, who would also be relegated and a couple of weeks after a home defeat by Swindon, who were 17th and had only won 3 away games. A week later we had that Tranmere game and onwards to 7 wins out of 8 - same players, same manager, same tactics Sometimes, good teams play ****e - there's nothing more to say than that I wonder what this forum would have been like after that Bury game
You're right, they are his ideas but the fact he hasn't had a a clean slate to start with constricts the ideas that are at his full disposal, he isn't likely to come out all guns blazing leaving us open to take a step back. Our issue was with the defence and conceding goals. He has put ideas in place to address this. It is still early stages and you have to let it bed in.
I am. He's done a good job of turning it round. We were going backwards fast and he's now made us hard to beat. I suppose it's going to depend on what crop of unwanted footballers he's given in the summer
I don't think he'll be a walk over in regards to the players we get in. Zola seemed to just get on with it. Within a short space of time Sannino said he wanted to keep Battocchio here when it looked very likely he was on his way out. I'd say if we can sign Tozser up we've got a very good core squad to build around.
This "team" is nothing like that team. The current crop are more talented all over the pitch, but Taylor's lot during that promotion run had all the characteristics of a proper team. Namely excellent organisation and players who knew each other inside out.
And who, in two consecutive promotion seasons, produced performances far, far worse than last night's. The team that won promotion from whatever Division 3 was called at the time had Ronnie Rosenthal in it and was world's apart talent-wise from their opponents almost every match, but still churned out week after week of dreary, attritional and barely watchable cobblers, grinding out 1-0 and 2-1 wins and 1-1 draws for weeks on end - so that argument holds no water at all
Totally! I waited over an hour for a burger and it was bone dry. That really set the mood for the game after. I don't think I've ever seen such a blatant handball in real life before. That sort of saved the players from getting booed, as the boos were aimed at the ref and the lino. The lino gave our fans a little wave too at the start of the second half.
I suppose its an improvement on last season when we lost away to all 3 relegated sides and infact lost to bottom club peterborough twice. Listening to the game on 3cr it sounded like in the first half we didnt play too badly. When we got the ball down we played some decent stuff, fairly open half and gave me reason to be confidant going into the second half. The second half though was poor, you didnt need to be at the game to know that. Even the co-commentator descrided Watford's 2nd half performance as dire. You would have forgiven a neutral for thinking it was an attack vs defence practice match. A large part of the problem for me is that the midfield sit so so deep especially when we are under pressure. We have been doing it alot recently and its almost like we are playing with a back 8. The result is that theres a massive hole between the back and the two isolated forwards and we never seem to be able to relieve the pressure or clear the ball. As for Beppe I think he has done a decent job in all fairness. He was brought in to steady the ship, cut out the stupid player errors and sort our defensive fraility. 6 clean sheets from 12 league games would suggest he has done that. Now we just need to add some creativity, leadership & firepower going forward.
It was weird. People singing just 10 people to the right of me, I couldn't hear at all. But I moved behind the goal in the second half and it was a bit better, but still you could tell it wasn't travelling at all and just dissipating into the sky. They had a drummer and some campanologists ringing bells every time they got a cross in.
My son had a burger and paid for it from about 3am onwards this morning - he's still clearing up the mess!
There was nothing wrong with our defence, I've said it before that we have the best three central defenders in the league by far, our problem lay in midfield, since Tozser has played we have only conceeded two goals in five matches with four clean sheets. Our manager is a typical Italian manager, Cassetti and Angella have said this in recent interviews, Zola was unique in his outlook as a manager, exciting to watch but always likely to fail, as soon as teams worked out how to stop us scoring we were always vunerable from set pieces. We will have a bigger chance of promotion under Sannino than Zola. Since the end of the transfer window we had 20 games left, if we averaged 2 points per game we would have 71 points which may be enough for the playoffs, we have now played a quarter of those games gaining eleven points if we carry on at this rate we can still make the playoffs. Football is all about results not about entertaining the fans I am sure if we gain promotion this year nobody will care less how we got it
I stand corrected then. I thought we lost to Wolves? Either way we did loose away to bottom club Bristol, so trying to be optermistic then last nights result is an improvement...
I had a mixed grill in there and it was spot on. However we did get in the pub at 5pm, and order up pretty much when we arrived. I think as it got busier, standards started to slip. Regarding the game last night - What has happened to Ekstrand? Seems to give the ball away a hell of a lot. Also what was the big clamour for Battocchio to stay (when it was muted he was going out on loan). I think he offers nothing. Funny how he's so popular. Is it because he went out on the **** that night in Watford last May?
Not the same players we had last season, that's for sure. It's either they've lost their ability, or there are other factors at play - i'm guessing the latter.
Not sure why Sannino likes Battochio so much - he is really unsuited to the prosaic style that Sannino seems to want. He can't even foul players, they just waft him aside. It wouldn't be so bad if he could pick (and deliver) a pass, but that ability seems to have deserted him.
He's got a fantastic engine and is full of running. He just never stops. Very enthusiastic and always plays with a smile on his face. For me, a player like this deserves backing. Clearly there are areas in his game which can improve, and I am sure he will. I've seen enough of him to know he has a lot of qualities but until recently has not been given too much game time. We are probably seeing those little flaws in his game now, but stick with him. You don't play as a regular Italian U21 without having something about you.
