Big win and a great atmosphere from the very start. There are obvious weaknesses that need to be addressed but getting the win was always the important thing tonight and it was brilliant to see all the players giving their all for each other and the supporters. Time for the hierarchy to give Edwards what he needs now.
A little bird tells me he needs a mural of Luther and a life presidency of the club. Funny how things work out.
Seems it was an allergic reaction- hope they are ok. Presume stewards thought it was a fight ? Police turned up quicker than the medical team ..
Think I was watching a different game to some of you. I thought that was a pretty impressive performance against a side who will almost definitely be in the top 6 and I thought it was a decent game Var the odd stodgy 5 mins here and there!
Considering we were playing a different formation with a new manager for the first time, after an awful run of not winning at home, against a team that were beaten in the play off final I thought we did well, all that was missing was more goals to settle the nerves of the players and fans. Pretty sure we are in for many more wins with or without Sarr/Dennis
Tbf I thought this was a better performance than any of Ivic's competitive games for us, let's see if we can keep it up or improve come the end of the window!
Not a bad start, though I think we do still need a player or two to be competitive and if we lose Sarr, Dennis and or Pedro we will need even more players. Bachmann - Did his job and even came off his line a fair bit tonight, an OK performance. Kabaselle - Had a decent game and providing he stays fit I think he will be OK as our RCB. Sierralta - Looked much more like his old self and should be just fine as our MCB as long as tonight was not just a flash in the pan. Cathcart - I am normally a fan, and he did OK'ish, but I think we need someone else at LCB, though he should be fine as a squad player. Kamara - Had a decent game, but I would prefer he played on the left where he is usually outstanding. Sema - Good going forward, but went missing a fair bit defensively. Maybe should be played in another position or just used as a backup. Cleverly - I'm normally a fan, but sadly I think his best days are now behind him and we need someone new to replace him. Kayembe - Had a solid game, but the jury is out for me as to whether he be a regular starter or a backup squad player Pedro - At last he is playing in his best position just behind a front two and hopefully he will stay with us and not be sold. Sarr - Had a reasonable game and hopefully he will stay with us, as I am sure he will tear up this league. Dennis - Had a good game, but sadly I think he will not be with us much longer, but we should not let him go cheaply. Manaj - A decent cameo, and he might just be able to do a job for us, but the jury is still out as we need to see more of him. Gosling - Did he touch the ball??? Would like to have seen Asprilla given a cameo appearance from the bench.
Sarr has proved himself to be pretty much a cheat code in the champo. He has the ability to completely carve open champo defences. Id rather have Dennis in the prem but Sarr in the champo. Losing him would clearly make a huge difference to our promotion chances, injuries permitting.
Eh? Dennis was much as better than Sarr yesterday. Ok, he got an assist, but he wouldn’t have without Dennis.
Started to really impose himself at the end. Definitely needs to improve his range of passing, though did play one great ball early in the 2nd half
Thought it was decent, though our performance nose dived after the goal. Can't really complain about anyone's performance. Cleverley bless him does try, but he isn't to be trusted in a two man midfield. Sema finds it a lot easier to just bulldoze past players in this league, and actually set up some decent chances. Though he shouldn't be starting as left wing back. Sarr's lack of technical quality massively exposed when he's up front. Doesn't help that he does a Pereyra whenever he's asked to go up for a header. Referee was god awful. Though he basically won the game for us by winding up Joao, who in turn decided to turn the quality on
Linesman/assistant Referee was also rubbish couldn’t be bothered putting his flag up for a couple of fouls which happened right under his nose, also not sure he understood the offside law!
Warm up looked organised and the players looked interested. Pre match buzz generally good. Crowd really up for it from kick off. Great Luther mural in the Rookery. Attacking football at times on a stodgy pitch. Real post match joy from the entire squad. This feels nice.
Our season really does hinge on who of Sarr and Dennis are still with us in september. Both = Top 2. 1 or the other = Top 6. Neither = Who knows.
Great result to start the season! I think Sheff Utd will be in the promotion mix, so it’s not too shabby at all. We held that at arms length and I can only really remember two chances for them (Ndiaye shot straight at Bachmann, and a free header from a FK floated wide). That’s not bad at all and is a good indication we will be defensively resolute this season. That said, our 2 were often overrun and outnumbered in midfield, so JP may be required to help backwards more. They worked hard and snuffed a lot out, but there are inevitably going to be battles lost when up against an extra man. While I thought we looked pretty good out of possession, we were as hopeless with it as I expected. Cathcart, Kabasele, Cleverley and Kayembe are mainly culpable for this as the wide CBs + CMs; none of them are adept at playing the ball out. A left-footer on the left of the back 3, plus Laird at wing-back (maybe Gaspar RCB?) will make a difference there. Kamara looked a bit lost as a wingback; didn’t know where to go when Kabasele wanted an option. I hope he feels more comfortable on the left, but in theory it would require the same understanding. Sema was passable. He worked hard and has a bit more about him when attacking. Kamara isn’t guaranteed to be first-choice LWB in my opinion. We looked our best when countering; when we didn’t need to play into the midfield and build up with a succession of passes. The front 3 all looked dangerous at times and when one of them was carrying the ball, with the other 2 making runs, it felt like we always had the chance to make an opening. It’s a shame they each took quiet spells. JP took a while to get into it, then Dennis went a few minutes without a touch, then Sarr disappeared for a bit in the second half. I think it just goes to show that even when they don’t quite click, they’re still going to be a real nuisance for opposition at this level. If we keep one of Sarr / Dennis then I think we’ll have enough attacking impetus to bludgeon our way past a few teams without playing well. Looking forward to this team taking shape a bit more in the next few weeks. The early signs give me cautious optimism. Also, just a quick note on the Sheff Utd fans - is a game required to stop if a member of the crowd is taken ill? I understand being desperate to get the attention of medical staff, but once that’s been done, they surely shouldn’t continue to attempt to disrupt play? Maybe that’s cruel of me. Couldn’t see what the issue was, but they were clearly not happy with any of what proceeded.
A very welcome win. That could prove vital come the end of the season, even at this stage. Sheffield will certainly be challenging come May. Thought the atmosphere was very good, especially at the beginning of the game. Were we perfect, far from it, but we looked relatively strong at the back, but the front three are something special. They remind me of when we had Callgahan, Barnes and Blissett. A trio of sheer quality, causing any club we play problems. How long we retain them for is anyone's guess, although I do think Pedro and Sarr will stay. Dennis probably go, so that will have a detrimental impact on us as a team. I don't think we'll get anyone as good if we're looking to replace him and I don't think Bayo or Manaj are the answer, although I thought Manaj did well in his short spell. For me, right now, the biggest area of concern is the midfield. It's just not really good enough. We do have Louza to come back, and it may be a case of muddling through until that happens, but Clevs, even though his commitment cannot be questioned, is just not up to it, based on last night's evidence. Thought Kayembe was ok, but didn't reach the heights of his performance against Southampton. We do need any player to come in, but I think that ship has sailed. It's unlikely we're going to get an upgrade HG CM now, unless it's on loan of course. But it was no surprise to see, our front three elevate us to another level. If we sell a couple of those players we quickly become ordinary, IMO. Bottom line for me is, we go up if we keep the front three, we don't if we sell anymore than one of them.
The bottom line as we all wake up this morning is that we’ve finally won a home match again. Let that sink in! A first 3 points at the Vic since November! And whether it was a brilliant performance or a scrappy one, deserved or lucky, full of more positives or of more negatives etc, I think we’d all have bitten off the hands of anybody offering us that at 7pm last night. And against a top 6 side from last season too. Actually I thought we grew into the match and it was a good performance. In the first half we were outnumbered in the midfield, but we came out full of energy after the break, were helped by an injury to their player and I also felt their triple substitution didn’t help them much. The goal, aided and abetted by some poor positioning by the ref and some bad defending by them, was a thing of beauty. Something we all dreamt of seeing once we knew our big three were starting up top. Fast, thrilling, decisive. Bang! Take that! And so a player who couldn’t find the net all pre-season gets a goal when it actually matters. A keeper who messed up in our first pre-season game keeps his first league clean sheet for two seasons! A defence without a left-footed central defender and with our best left-footer unfortunately playing at right wing-back keeps a clean sheet (as it did in the final warm up match too). After the relentless misery of life under Hodgson, the smiles returned last night. And we took the very first early step to making the Vic our place again. A place where we win matches. Brilliant. Yes sadly the narrative now will be about can we keep Sarr and Dennis. A nervy month lies ahead. My attitude is to enjoy them while we can. As long as we have that front three, let’s capitalise. Bank as many points as we can and see where the transfer window takes us. That’s 3 already. A nice feeling to wake up today.
Same but last night wasn't the right scenario for him imo, he looked good against Southampton but that was a friendly, he might still not be up to a championship standard and is still pretty lightweight - bringing him on when we're trying to protect a 1 goal lead wouldn't have been the smartest decision. There'll be games for him to make an appearance in soon but last night wasn't it!
Personally I thought Rob’s subs were good. Sarr had a knock pre-season so it made sense to protect him. And he replaced him with another attacker. Unlike Hodgson, who’d have probably brought on Ngakia off that bench. Gosling for Pedro made good sense too. An extra midfielder to help defend the lead for the last few minutes. We had 4 players booked, so I did wonder if he might have protected one or two of them as well, but as it turned out they all survived another booking! When I saw the starting line-up at 7pm, my first thought, apart from yay Sarr and Dennis start, was how much experience we had in the eleven. Only Kayembe and Kamara had never played in the Championship before (and Manaj when he came on). That was a very experienced battle-hardened line-up, and I think we needed it against such a strong side as Sheff u.
Due to some bad planning on my part, I was out for dinner during the match so asked Mr HH for his verdict. Find his take interesting because he watches a Watford game without some of the biases and preconceptions that we Watford fans have. Anyway, in a nutshell he thought that we were the better side and deserved the win. He thought Cleverley looked off the pace but highlighted Cathcart as a player who he thought wouldn’t get the headlines but who had had a good game. Had a quick lurk on the Sheffield United forum to see what the opposition view was (only do this when we win so haven’t done it for a while) - made me smile to see they already have a “Bedwetters” thread. Seems we’re all the same..
Not just the Sheff Utd fans. A fan in a Watford shirt jumped over the ad boards from that end of the SEJ stand and appeared to have intent of storming onto the pitch. The Sky mics clearly picked up him demanding the game be stopped before a steward intercepted him. Truly bizarre behaviour.
It’s the consequence of the Elton John concerts. The pitch wasn’t seeded until after they were over. Think the grounds staff have done top work to get from nothing to that in about 4 weeks, especially with a mega heatwave in the middle. It’ll be back to tip top quality by the autumn.
The main relief for me was that we've got that no wins at home since November monkey off our backs. I couldn't enjoy the last 10 minutes because my mind was conditioned by last season to expect us to throw it away. But the players held strong and I suspect that will have done my, and their, confidence an immeasurable amount of good.
Yes, they were all players who let us down last season. Presumably our new signings and returning loanees are worse.
So we’ve now only lost once in 16 years on the opening match of the season. Edwards follows Xisco and Ivic in starting his reign as manager with a 1-0 home win. Our last five head coaches in the Championship have all won their opening match in charge. You have to go back to García to find the last one who didn’t. Last night was the second successive league match at the Vic where Pedro put us 1-0 ahead. Fortunately last night’s outcome was considerably better than the previous time! Last night was the first time under the Pozzos that we kicked off the season without a debutant in the starting eleven.
More than anything it was enjoyable to watch a hard working Watford team, and I haven't experienced that for far too long.
Been a bit of a theme on here, people moaning about players without taking into consideration the level of opposition this year compared to last. We started with a keeper, 3 Centre Backs and 2 Wing Backs, we are in the Championship and every single one of them is an experienced International. Six Internationals with an average of nearly 20 caps each. People have short memories, the days of hoping for mid table obscurity and Carl ****enson, Wayne Brown and Matthew Briggs seem distant. But hey ho they can always reminisce about the good old days of Graham Simpson or The Salad Boys.
Bottleneck getting out of Occupation Road was a pain in the ar5e. With safety barriers by the building work going on in Vicarage Road already restricting the space what bright spark thought it was a good idea to line up the away coach opposite to create even more of a pinch point? On the plus side I think the new Elton and Luther murals are excellent.
The difference now is the level of debt. Every championship club could.put together a decent squad for £150 million!!!!
