I don’t want Gino to be like one of those gamblers that when they loose they keep doubling up until they win, although eventually they can’t get the stake together and completely crash! I think he should stay until the end of the year at least, he isn’t stupid, expecting managers to pick up someone’s else’s pieces and make them into promotional material just isn’t easy. Give him Pre-season and if we are outside the top six come Xmas then maybe a change.
There's nothing more gutting than a last minute goal in football but a lot of positives to take from that and the Blackburn game. There seems to be a plan helped by having players back that are good enough to execute it. With better finishing and a bit of luck we could easily have had 6 points from the last two games which I guess is why some are frustrated Bachmann - Not sure I attach the blame to him for the goal. He couldn't come for the corner as there are about 10 players in front of him. His kicking though was absolutely atrocious. We have two defenders who are decent on the ball. I would much rather risk playing it from the back by giving it to them than aimlessly lumping it down the pitch especially when Davis had gone off Gaspar and Kamara - They have both quite rightly got pelters this season but Burnley's wide players have apparently been key to their success this season and I thought both did very well in keeping them relatively quiet, Certainly Gaspar's best game at full back Hoedt and Porteous - Got caught out in the first minute but it's so nice to have centre backs who are confident on the ball and give 100%. I know Hoedt would have been sent off but I would love it if had floored Barnes who was an absolute **** all night. How he wasn't booked in the first half for the amount of fouls he committed was criminal. Midfield - The hair was exactly the kind of player you need in a game like this and was superb. MOM. Sema gave exactly what you expect. Plenty of energy and fight and despite the crticism he gets, he has certainly been missed. Kone looks as though he could be a very good player and like Sema put in an excellent shift last night. Attack - Davis held the ball up quite well and actually passed the ball to Sema for our goal when I expected him to try and shoot. Lost a little bit upfront when he went off. Pedro is Pedro and is so far and away are best player in the final third which is why I was glad to see him further forward over the last couple of games. So important to us now. Sarr was dreadful. I'm not sure if he doesn't care but the work rate in a game like that was simply not good enough. Should have been subbed Disappointing end but a point most of us would have bitten your arm of for before the game and there are green shoots of improvements
All fair points. Although I’d disagree that taking Joao Pedro off for Kabasele was a reasonable move. Absolutely woeful choice.
Is it taking Pedro off or bringing Kabasele on you don't like or both? I would have taken Sarr off as he was adding nothing
Edwards last five games - LWDLD = 5 points Bilic’s last five games - DDDLD = 4 points Good to see that we’re making progress, especially now the injuries excuse is out of the way, and we’ve gotten rid of some of the awful summer signings too.
I think Pedro was getting very wound up, I would think the thinking was if he isn't subbed there was a chance he would be coming of anyway by the ref's instruction. I don't think anyone would take off such a powerhouse otherwise. Whether Kabs was the right choice is of course another matter
I'd echo pretty much everything you've said, especially the finishing. I was watching the shooting practice before the match (player runs in, trainer sets up the ball for a shot 18 yards out). I thought "this is rubbish" so I started counting - 16 shots, 4 on target. Four! No pressure, no defenders, just shoot from 18 yards. ******* dreadful (insert expletive of your choice). Oh, and Bachmann. WHAT is the point of booting it straight to the opposition goalkeeper? (Add more expletives.)
On a less annoyed note... With my ex-counselling hat on, I'd love to sit down with Sarr to talk non-judgementally and confidentially. I'd show him two videos: his brace against Liverpool and last night and just ask him "What's changed?" I think any professional team with serious ambitions needs the input of a psychologist, but it's especially important when individuals are not living up to the potential they have previously displayed.
Been done before so why not-Pink shirt man https://www.watfordfc.com/magazine/back-in-the-day/twenty-years-ago-ciaran-cosgrave
Great article. It's a pity it's hidden away where the current club leadership can't find and learn from it. This also reminds me of what my historian father used to say: "History teaches us that history teaches us nothing."
Agreed, but as I said earlier he was just as inconsistent back then. It’s not as though that Liverpool game was one of a string of 10 or 12 games where he was brilliant.
Okay four draws is not good but niether is it bad, as we were unlucky not win most of those games. It would be crazy to change manager now, and injuries permitting I now think we are going to at least reach the playoffs. Whether we will win them is another thing, but we will be in with a good shout IMO.
I see your point. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I was citing the Liverpool game as perhaps the prime example of what he is capable of (and which is now a very old example), not as a sample from a string of great performances. As you say, he has never performed consistently to his potential. That is what I was trying to get at.
Do we have a sports psychologist? I don't believe so but I would have thought it essential and I would expect most clubs do. Would have been pointless with buffoons like Foster but most would benefit from their input.
My Bachmann hate train continues, rancid goalie. Amount of times he kicks it over everyone and the whole team just looks at him like "???" is evidence that even they don't seem to know what on earth he is doing. Joao Pedro brilliant again, quietly becoming one of the best players in the league. Not getting promoted won't be that painful but will be amplified x100 knowing we won't get to see him in a Watford shirt again, another season of Joao is the main reason I want to go up! Awful from Sarr IMO, plain rubbish last night. No ability to check his shoulder time and time again he gets mugged from behind whilst waiting for the ball to come to him. So weak as well, he needs dropping. Wrong subs as everyone has said, if JP has done 87, all fitness management is gone by that point, let him see out the last 6-7 minutes, there's no sports science argument for that I'm sorry. Louza showed class with his composure and body feints and weight of pass etc. All those small classy things, the first touch that opens his body up in the right position etc etc. Will make a big difference. Hoedt & Porteous not faultless and an element of shiny new toy bias but RP especially leaves everything out there and dare I say it's rubbing off a bit. Disappointed with Araujo, stuck up for him after Saturday but a very arrogant cameo added **** all. Question marks over the subs, defensively it was good tactically but still question marks remain over our attacking build-up. Benefit from six days rest and training ground time now with a near full set of players, West Brom has to be a top, top performance because Billic is out of excuses, if it's not, I fear he's gone.
Vincent Kompani was at Anderlecht with Hoedt last year. He must have thought he knew something about him that could be exploited: Perhaps he thought he could be wound up. So he put that thug/jerk Barnes on him (and, I believe, others) and directed him to do just that. So it turns out Burnley are not the all-dancing all-singing football angels of the Championship, but are (still) a side prepared to stretch the rules as much as possible. Kompani was a great footballer and is personable and articulate off the pitch. But his halo had just slipped a bit for me.
There's a good video of Kompany laying into Hoedt for trying to overrule the manager and change the formation mid-game. Oh he loves Wes...
To be fair, he could have put a three year old carrying a balloon on Hoedt and Hoedt would have fallen over in (pretend) pain. It's ironic that when there were incidents that Barnes could have been booked for, the ref chose to book him for something that never happened and he couldn't have seen if it did happen. Barnes has always been overly put out when he gets unfairly booked. I remember seeing him carrying on no end, when he was cleaned out by the keeper when through on goal and the ref booked him for diving. The ref that day must surely have known he'd got it wrong or he would have been sent off for prolonged, excessive, and (almost certainly) foul mouthed dissent. Yesterday's ref made a complete idiot of himself with the Barnes booking. Having established the principle that bookings are to be dished out based on the quality of the dive, it's hardly any wonder that players will dive to even it out. I'm not justifying the practice, but when you get refs like yesterday's who appear to have no idea that players will exaggerate contact, and who assume that every player who falls over must have been fouled unless they have positive proof that he wasn't; then little wonder players (on both sides) cheat. The powers that be, FIFA, UEFA, the FA, the Leagues, all support the giving of free kicks for diving; if they didn't, they would do something to stop it.
I think even some of your own fans weren’t too surprised he did get booked tbh . Barnes and Hoedt had a running battle all game .
Mostly agree. I thought Barnes pinching Hoedts nipples was pretty low though, then trying to fling himself about whilst Hoedt stood his was typical of the C**t. It pretty much got to the point where if the refs not going to give a card and is also going to give fouls for dives, then the players will unanimously decide just to kick each other. Because when it's a foul for a dive, you may have well booted the opponent anyway.
Most annoying thing for me was that even though we now have a decent CB pairing, we still get 6 players in our own 6 yard box chucking themselves about frantically trying to defend a corner.! We've been doing this for years and it drives me mad. Maybe it's normal when the oppo flood our box at a corner, but it looked like we had several players all thinking they had to challenge for the same ball.
To be honest some better game management and we would have won that. Putting someone on the back post, not punting the ball down the meddle of the field to their keeper, not diving when the ref had ignored this all game, The keeper coming out to claim the ball and making sure he was fouled, slowing the pace of the game, the good old Gomes head injury etc. We defended well but simply weren't smart enough.
