Martins was crap. Wasteful in position, slow to react at times and picked up a totally avoidable booking. It would be nice if we picked up some bookings for robust tackles or such like, whereas we have planks like Martins who refused to move ten yards away from a nothing free kick.
Hopefully we can make Araujo look so poor over the remainder of the season that we can pick him up for c£500k over the summer.
How many times has Sarr dived for a penalty? 3 penalty area tumbles v Rotherham, 3 v Blackpool and countless others this season. His instinct is to flop on the floor and that goes against him - it is his fault. It is peculiar that he continually tries to win penalties when he isn’t very good at it and he’s also not very good at taking them. This victim complex we have is tiresome. Refs are **** in this country but no more **** for us than anyone else. The lino is getting pelters for his decision yesterday - a correct decision that may have instead gone our way if Assombalonga hadn’t been so thick. His fault, not the linos. There is a lack of maturity and accountability in our squad.
Ttue, but under GT our players NEVER put pressure on the ref. Under Bassett they always did, and we hated it.
He’s not entirely convincing, got ability but seems to delay the pass and wants to take the world on rather than intelligent play. Hope he’s more intelligent footballer than athlete footballer, we really don’t need more low IQ footballers.
Not only is it not a penalty, it should actually have been a free kick to Watford. Long does not just try to get between Cathcart and the ball, he actually goes into his legs and brings him down. Very poor refereeing. Cathcart is helpless in this situation - he has to be where he is, quite legitimately, and can do nothing about what Long is about to do.
Martins looks like a poor man's Cucho to me. I suppose he has youth on his side and can improve. He needs individual advice and coaching, which unfortunately Watford do not seem to do.
See 0:55sec above. He did the same for us against France in Euro 2016 so I've been on both sides of it. Clever play really. Defo calling for it if its your player, but equally very frustrated and hard done by if it goes against you. One of those.
Probably won more penalties than scored goals. For a striker who doesn't get many (except against us it seems) Long has had a er long (sorry!) at the top level.
Man. I've rarely felt so flat after a game. (Barring last season. That was practically every game after November) All that needs to be said has been said by others. But yeah. That sucked. At least the 3rd goal I can understand being ruled out but at the ground, it made no sense as at no point was there an offside gesture made when chalking it off. We need to sort our mentality out. Going nowhere if we lose our heads over bad decisions as that's standard Championship practise.
Not sure what you mean by this. After the linesman had agreed with the ref that Assombolonga had touched the ball in an offside position, he put his flag up, the goal was disallowed and the free kick given.
There is something in this. If it was a soft penalty then where was the outrage ? The dark arts or having a black belt in *********ry doesn't make you a great player but it can influence an official to think " I've got that one wrong". Similarly if Britt A-L had not gone off celebrating then the lino may have thought "no he hasn't touched it or distracted the GK". By running to our fans and ending up on his knees he made the decision for the lino easier. . Game management. We were piss poor yesterday.
From where we were and at the time we couldn't understand it either however watching it later it did seem that Brit may have been in the GK eyeline. His celebration confirmed it for the lino as I have already stated .
What if you think that Bilic is an overhyped coach who’s relief on individual talent at his last two jobs and here - AND want Pozzo out?
Just got round to watching the game. Choudhury was often Kamara's only pass inside in the first half especially, the trouble is neither look like they're ever in full control of the football. It was a good laugh watching it cannon off their legs as they tried to control it a few times.
There was a 10 minute period where it was Sunday League level from us. Several players charging after the ball, backwards and forwards. Horrifying.
Tbh I'd join in something, but I'm not gonna start something, especially given the liklihood that nobody would follow me and I'd end up on my own like a knobber, with the occasional insult from clappers who 'support the team no matter what.' I am not one to make waves generally, but to have Dux give that interview to AF in the summer, to see the fan committee and then ten games into the season Then you haven't learned anything from the last 12 coaches. Exactly the same problems under Rob, Xisco, Woy, Ranieri, Ivic, Pearson etc. Etc. Etc. None of our coaches have looked like they are building something, because that's not their job. Their job is to sit in the seat until they don't.
Very naive ref/lino... It was clear that SL deliberately slowed his run just as he got a toe in front of CC and you could see he then dragged his feet behind him so he forced the mi imal contact. There should be a rule saying that where a player is later found to have fooled the Ref they get a red card applied after the fact...
Bit of a claim given that I said I made the assessment wider of his 15 minutes here. But your wider point is correct, funnily enough the twice that it looks like there’s a potential way to play it’s neutered very very quickly - Counter attack under Pearson, High press under Ranieri in particular.
No secret that a certain higher up dictates when players train and when they don’t by the way. Our Head Coaches really just take training and pick the team. For our model to work, the decisions from the top have to have a far greater hit rate than they currently do for stability and success. They once did, not sure many have faith in them to get back there. We are seeing some potential attempts at correction though, we have to wait and see unfortunately.
It's fantastic for your career to come to Watford, do well and that's obviously a launchpad, do badly and nobody holds it against you. Apart from Ivic who I believe hasn't had a job since leaving, Hodgson and Ranieri (who are septuagenarians), nobody has done badly out of getting sacked by us, even Muñoz, who was a glorified cheerleader blessed with an exceptional Championship team has managed to blag a few jobs off the back of his work with us
Ivic was appointed at Maccabi Tel Aviv FC on a two year deal in June 2022, where he had a similar win ratio to his his first stint at the club. They finished in 2nd place in the Israeli Premier league in the Regular season and qualified for the Championship round in the second part of the season. Maccabi Tel Aviv FC also reached the group stages of the Champions League from the qualifying rounds (but finished bottom of their group with the same number of points as Juventus). He left the club in January 2023 to join FC Krasnodar in the Russian Premier League on a two year contract.
What a ***** away day Reading is. There seemed to be more away fans than home fans at the game on Saturday and didn't hear them once. The ground is in the middle of nowhere the nearest pub is a mission to get to and couldn't get an uber or taxi back to the station until well after 6. I usually drive to Reading away but I fancied a few beers Saturday, I think I will just take the car next season.
Bit late to this. Managed to get a ticket in the home end and most around me said we looked a decent side but panicked when they scored the first goal which I think is a fairly accurate reflection on the game. For an hour I thought we looked comfortable. 2-0 up and looked the most likely to get the next goal. Then came the penalty. It is very soft but Long gets the wrong side of Cathcart which allows the event to occur. Poor defending in my view. The equalising shot 9 times out of 10 goes in to the stand. It's a very disappointing result when in such a position of strength but I felt for the first time in a while there was improvements Porteous looked very good and looks like he would make a good captain. Good on the ball, strong in the tackle and and an excellent goal Araujo started quietly and seemed to struggle with the speed of the game but grew in to it and was surprised he went off. The most pleasing part of his game was the runs he made off the ball. We didn't find him enough but he will do well with Pedro and Louza in the side Pedro returning. God we have missed him Sarr was much improved. In the right place to get his goal and looked lively all game. Need to see it consistently now I was the other end of the ground to the away fans and we made a decent amount of noise an certainly were louder than the home fans Not so good Martins. When taking players on he doesn't seem to know what to do and just runs in to the defender. Every time he is tackled he is rolling round on the floor effectively leaving us a player short. Not a great game Midfield. I didn't think either or The Hair were particularly bad but they need the outlet of a ball player which we didn't have. Pedro will help this situation Away tickets. When the ground is half full every week why not give a larger allocation to away fans like they do in the cup games.
They only do it in the cup games because bigger allocations are mandatory in the rules. Otherwise there's little benefit to it for the home side.
It's all about perspective, arguably all have made backwards or sideways steps in their careers or are either out of work or retired.
I already did and it isn't my position to provide the burden of proof. If you are suggesting that most were **** appointments with the benefit of hindsight that its hard to disagree with you.
That isn't the point I'm making at all. The point I am making is that it's clear, to me at least, that the head coach has limited power. And don't use the 'burden of proof' gambit. Firstly you're using it wrong and secondly I simply asked you a straight question. Which of those coaches, some whom have a proven record elsewhere, showed that they could build something here and do more than influence very short term decisions, such as team selection and substitutions? Several of them gave indications, in fact, that they were frustrated with the confines of their position, just as Bilic has done.
