He always seems to take the worst possible circumstances in which we have still been able to achieve our goals at some point, and then set them as the new maximum benchmark. Even last promotion season, we were missing a real midfield for most of the first half of the season, before Hughes came back and it all clicked - but not only was that not immediate, up to the Coventry debacle/miracle and all that, but it required an insane run of perfect injury luck and form for the entirety of the rest of the season to correct for it. Any right-thinking person would watch that unfold and think 'well, Christ, that was hairy - let's make sure we never find ourselves in that situation again', and plan and act accordingly in future. Instead, Gino seems to watch it unfold, embark on a solo performance of Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen, and demand that if anyone requires any more than those circumstances to succeed then they are profligate and bourgeois and not to be trusted. It's incredibly annoying and misguided/arrogant/stupid, in my own personal opinion.
I always like to look at goal celebrations and when Sarr scored it was pretty limp from the players around him. If you compare that with 12/13 and 14/15 where there was huge group celebrations almost every goal.
Just watched the highlights and I liked the look of Porteous, Martin's and the guy on loan from Benvica whose name I haven't mastered yet, they all looked promising. What I did not like was the appalling ref!!! In what planet was that a penalty and how did the Reading player not get a 2nd yellow from that melee when we got two bookings, I could go on but let's just say the ref was ****, and we seem to be getting a lot of bad refs lately too. On a separate note, just how many HG players have to be in the match day squad? As judging from yesterday that seems to be adding to Bilic's selection problems along with our appalling injury list. Hopefully our team selection problems will be easing soon then we should be back on track for the playoffs. That is providing Gino does not get trigger happy and fire Bilic, because IMO he would be crazy if he does. Finally is Porteous HG or not, as there seems to be different opinions on here about that.
Harsh penalty ? https://mobile.twitter.com/david_wfc/status/1621983449602035718 Classic case of a forward getting in front of the defender and looking for contact then going down maybe .
looking further into it, it's a player of any nationality that has spent at least three seasons training at a professional English or Welsh club before the age of 21!
Not sure if it's been mentioned here yet - but one very minor silver-lining is that for what seems like the first game in months it appeared we got through a match without picking up any new injuries! So at least some of our lack has maybe turned.
It's def not a penalty. Almost on the level of Knockart vs Cassetti in the P/O Semi final, Long the lurker went to ground looking for it and Cathcart was the fall guy. Referee had a seriously poor game and may as well of played in the Reading team second half. No complaints about their second goal, that was dreadful defending with everyone stood off the bloke to curl in what was admittedly a good goal, but could of been prevented. Was a draw fair? Up until an hour in, no. Problem is, we went from looking very comfortable to hanging on for a draw that was almost a defeat. Shameful referee aside, we emploded and that has happened too many times this season.
Until the midfield is sorted out we are going to struggle. What we have in there at the moment lacks creativity, ability to win the ball regularly and is either too inexperienced or too one dimensional. The other issue is in the full back areas. We're not getting anything in terms of threat, accurate crosses and defensive solidity. This will have to be addressed over the summer. Because at the moment we'll be looking at the playoffs. With Pedro and Louza back I'm sure we will look far better but the injuries to experienced players and failing to get anyone decent in midfield as replacements has been a real failure this January. Midfields decide games. I'll say this having watched Alfio Basile coaching Argentina. Messi and Aguero not your Sunday League players were left isolated and hardly had any service during his tenure due to a old very limited midfield picked by Basile. So even the best players can be hampered. It's no wonder Davis despite his fitness issues and those upfront have been affected whereas at Forest he was a success. A team always looking to play on the front foot. Our midfield's first inclination if they can even win the second balls is to play sideways or backwards and that goes a lot of the time to the fullbacks as well. Ubenga will need to recruit in midfield and at fullback this summer not to mention replacing those destined to leave. Credit to Porteous. Hope he carries on in the same vein. Pity our idiot owner did not sanction Doig or Ramsay. We've been saddled with dross at fullback for several seasons. Still not sorted out.
This season will dribble away and we'll finish mid table. We'll then have to watch as Rob Edwards takes the scummers up via the the play offs. What an effing nightmare
And it will be exactly what our owners and their enabling fans deserve. The same fans that were briefly up in arms over Rob's farcical sacking, but easily placated by a couple of wins. The same fans that are largely calling for Bilic Out. The same fans that applauded our summer transfer business and said Gino was backing Edwards. The same fans who excused the shortcomings of January's window because we needed to unpick so much of the mess from the summer. It's the circle of life. Our fans are stuck on a perpetual cycle of enabling our owners to run our club into the ground.
Would Pozzo have rehired Edwards if fans protested? Would Pozzo have signed better players in the summer if fans boycotted matches? Did the non-enablers actually do anything significant to change things? No group of fans are enabling anything. We're just a club that has who owners who are capable of making poor decisions.
Thing is, it's a part of the modern game and isn't going anywhere as the authorities have made it clear that diving/cheating will largely go without punishment. VAR hasn't changed a thing in that regard. I'm not annoyed about Long doing what he did - or that the referee was conned. I'm annoyed that seemingly, our players aren't clever enough to play the officials in a similar way.
VAR wouldn’t have overturned yesterday’s penalty decision either; and I doubt we’d have been given a similar decision yesterday. We used up all our ‘generous’ penalty awards 2 seasons ago.
I'm annoyed with Cathcart and the rest of our players for not surrounding the ref in protest, picking a fight with Long and shouting at the lino. Like the rest of our performances (for way too long) we just shrug and get on with it meekly like we don't even give a ****.
We are, but the officials see through it. How many times has Sarr been ignored for what seems to be a legitimate penalty claim? He doesn’t do it any more than Long, Zaha, Kane, Vardy etc yet they get the decisions, we don’t. That’s all it is.
Saying you ‘doubt’ we’d have been given it yesterday if roles were reversed is close to the conspiracy theory nonsense that some fans believe in! (Not saying you do by the way - I just find it humorous that people believe the footballing authorities have an agenda against us)
He is not good enough at it, that much is clear every time he does it. Long initiated it yesterday - but at no point did he look like he’d dived. Sarr does - and that’s the difference. This idea that authorities don’t give us things because we are Watford is hilarious to me.
I thought it was an obvious dive by Long. He ran into Cathcart. I think everyone could see that, apart from the ref. We are getting the rough end of the stick right now. Not sure you’re implying we’re not. But if that’s your take on it, fair enough.
Yeah, it was by Long, agreed - but once the contact (the he initiated) was made, his fall wasn't an elaborate one. And that's where it differs for Sarr - Sarr looks like he dives, even when he has been fouled. And I'm not implying that we haven't had a rough few calls go against us - we have. But I don't think it's anything more than that. I don't think officials run around thinking 'I'm not giving Watford that' or 'This is against Watford so I'm giving it'. We aren't smart enough all over the pitch. We rarely complain or pester officials. We are very meek and mild. The saying goes 'if you can't beat them, join them'....well cheating isn't going away so we can't beat them. It's time we learn how to join them.
What I would say is it’s important to question key decisions. Reading did, the linesman melted and gave offside for our third goal because their keeper bullied him. Even though the referee made out that didn’t happen, it clearly did. So it’s certainly worth getting in the face of a weak lineman.
No, I was really musing on the concept of luck'evening out' over an undefined timescale. I felt we were very unfortunate regarding decisions in the 2019-20, fortunate in 2020-2021, pretty equal last season, and have been quite unfortunate this season. It's not just been Sarr this season either.
If we'd had mass protests and been ignored, I'd take your point. As it is, as a fanbase, we're either fickle, or, like me, apathetic and lazy so we get what we deserve. It's possible to influence the owners. Pozzo is human. 5000 Uncle Rons outside the ground every game would have some affect on him. As it is, we couldn't even be bothered to follow through with hanky waving. Too radical for us.
I didn't interpret that you were aiming your derision at your own inaction also. In which case fair enough. There's a reason why there's been no mass protests though, and for me it's because the situation simply isn't *that* bad, relatively speaking. Your average Watford fan rightly or wrongly isn't going to get that het up about their club signing some duds, not giving interviews to the local paper, and finishing mid table in the second division. If the worst case scenario were to come to fruition (financial oblivion, relegation to League 1 looming) I can see protests like the ones seen at full on doomsday cases like Sunderland and Derby. I know
Never a pen for me. Long didn't have the ball. Cathcart didn't kick him. Long just tangled his legs with Cathcart and went down.
