Got to be ED's song, and if you dangle that young version of Debbie Harry in front of him I'm sure he will run even faster
For once, I was with you with every word, D1ckensian stuff. “That’ll show them. We can all live side by side with our opinions. Negative. Positive. We are all fans regardless!” But then…..your last two sentences.
Other special mentions: Bachmann for improving his penalty-area domination. Masina, except for that naive penalty-conceding back-flick. Cathcart and Kabasele and Sema and WTE, who so many don't rate. Sema is not really slow, but appears so because he's a winger. But he is skilful and a big, strong unit - once a defender lets Sema get his shoulder goal-side of the defender's body, the defender will have a devil of a job stopping him. Cucho's goal was an absolute beauty and it's clear defenders will not be able to ignore him. But I've yet to be convinced about his defending; today it was poor. Gosling, I thought, struggled to get into the game. Deeney was only on for a few minutes. In that time he showed he can no longer jump effectively nor run fast. So no surprises there. He does know about the game, though, and he was helpful in those keep-it-in-the -corner-to-run-the-clock-down routines.
It seems we may have misjudged Gino's recruitment efforts this summer. Everyone we saw today was a success.
Dennis surprised me the most. He was just brilliant. Didn't give their centre backs a moments peace and his interplay with Sarr was top drawer. Also, if I haven't already mentioned it, I love Etebo.
Too many acronyms for me there. If we lose I'll simply be quiet for a bit. Due to being sad. None of the recent little tiff is about being right or wrong. Or scoring points. It's simply about it being a whole lot more fun being positive. What is the point to life otherwise? Today was an entirely joyous and positive day for me especially what with us all finally being back at the Vic. and all to enjoy a great victory. Only marginally tarnished by a bit of 'early afternoon nonsense'.
A great start to the season Very funny looking back at the vitriol pre match about the team selection Sarr fabulous in the first half All the new debutants performed. Great to have a pacy/tricky striker in Dennis and great strike from Cucho. Chuckled when he came on in front of Deeney. Kucka a great buy A win at the start of the season sets the season up Encouraging start
Have another three or four, give me a bell and I'll make sure you get home safely. Ain't coming in for a coffee though in case Moog's there with some weird ideas of his own.
Thought Masina was really good today. Key outlet for Bachman and very good on ball and good in the challenge.
Good point. Bachman claimed to calm a situation about 5 or 6 times. Felt that was a weakness last season but very strong today.
It can often be hard to know just how much to read into the opening match of a new season, and I think this year it’s probably even harder because of the extra adrenalin rush of crowds meaning home advantage is restored (6 out of 8 matches have been home wins this weekend). I suspect the likes of Dennis and Cucho will prove to be inconsistent, as is quite natural considering their experience. Kucka will probably get five yellows and a suspension by October, we will suffer from frustrating niggles and injuries and probably at times still be too reliant on the solid but limited older players who are much discussed and argued over on here. In other words, our season will most likely ebb and flow, and nobody should expect the opening 70 minutes today to be an every week occurrence. However.. What today has showed is that we have the capability and potential to play very decent football this season, and nobody should expect us to be the whipping boys. We have already had a demonstration of the high standards that several of this squad are capable of producing, we just have to hope circumstances and situations prevail enough times for that to happen on a regular basis. I hope too that today’s excellent showing doesn’t affect any plans to continue recruiting this month. Word was the powers that be were going to make a final decision on any last minute additions once they’d seen us start the campaign. I’m sure all of us here feel we could do with extra reinforcements, especially if Will and Nate both leave. I heard today we are trying to get Joe Rodon in on loan. Hopefully an extra midfielder comes too. In the same way that the 0-3 to Brighton really set the tone for that season (up to Parson’s arrival), let’s hope today’s win sets the tone for this campaign. Now we shall see how we set up and perform on the road, our Achilles heel in our last season in the PL and for half of last year too. A point at Brighton would be solid. But how nice to be able to look forward to that match from a position of some strength today, with 3 points already banked.
Where did you hear that Malts? You had better bloody well be a secret ITK, I would love that. I will hold you personally responsible if he's not an 'Orn within the next two weeks.
Getting those matches for Austria in the Euros probably did more for his development than playing in the championship
Kucka was on fire. He was electric. Grilled their midfield and roasted their players on more than one occasion. Probably one of our best players today.
Agreed and on my part atleast it wasnt just the the recruitment either I had concerns with. Would the squad have gelled properly, fitness, depth, 4-3-3, how light weight we looked in midfield and how we just didnt look prepared for the season against in the last pre season friendly. Seeing the starting 11 today didnt do anything to allay those concerns. Which just goes to show what I know as I thought that was a decent team performance. We looked sharper and fitter than Villa. We looked organised, we battled well, we worked hard, we played with energy. The midfield werent just competitive, for 70 minutes they where hands down better than their opposite numbers on the day. Kucka played more like he was 24 than 34. He put in a shift, had some nice touches and the Villa players struggled with his physicality. Likewise I thought Eterbo did a tidy job of protecting the back 4. Dennis and Sarr have the makings of a good partnership and what a goal by Cucho. I thought Deeney did ok when he came on. He was brought on to hold up the ball and he did that well enough in the corner. Having said all that I'm not going to get carried away just yet, one game doesnt make a season - especially when its the first game of the season. The last 15/20 mintues highlighted the lack of depth in the squad and possibly the need for a plan B to compensate for that. It was when Cleverly and Kucka went off for Gosling and Deeney (with Sema dropping back into the midfield 3) that we conceded the two goals and couldnt impose ourselves on the game as we were doing before. Still plenty of positives to take from today and if thats the blue print for how we are going to play these system then theres alot of reasons to be optimistic.
The management of Troy required is truly breathtaking - here Etebo is even forced to drop a line about Troy and how much everyone respects him into his post-match interview, for some (unexplained to me at this exact time) reason: https://twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/1426642281726046208
How on EARTH does this site not support Twitter embedding, of all things?!?! Truly further beyond the pale than a bright red-haired Celt from County Sligo.
Firstly what a great feeling to be back and to see so many fans many of whom you know only by sight/nod and occasionally first name only. It had the feel of Everton away 6 years ago in not sure we have what it takes to compete. Like many who saw the line up at 2 we felt sense of dread but that all changed from the get go. We should have been 3 or 4 up at the break. Yes we tired and Villa changed their left back and we didn't give it to Sarr as much in the second but we were worthy winners-they had two shots on target all game-the goals-i dont recall Bachmann having much to do at all plus he looked good with the crossing. We had 7 shots on target and if Sarr/Dennis had got their act together in the first half at least another two times we would have been that deserved 4 up. Unnecessarily wilted near the end but hopefully they can learn from that as the pace/strength/skill in the PL is nothing like what most of them experienced last season whereas now one mistake/misplaced pass and you concede For me the PL is about pace and goal scoring-yes we need to defend and will not stay up by trying to outscore teams but with the pace we have that will make our games more competitive than many thought would be possible. Glad I got my Brighton and Spurs tickets. Only about 350 left for next Saturday so i guess that over 2,500 going and 800 left for Spurs (and thats before Group C can buy on Monday) Maybe we do have something that is greater as a whole than the sum of its parts-a better quote is on the GT mural-which was so moving to see as we arrived today.
