Great win and enjoyable match. If we can keep that side we will win the league handsomely. If we lose Dennis and/or Sarr, we're fucced. These players are just too good for this league. The defence is perfectly good enough for this level and that's without this new chap coming in. I thought even calamity ken sema looked tolerable. Make no mistake about it, everything hinges on Dennis and to a lesser extent Sarr staying. The problem being they are both almost certain to leave.
Difficult to understand the thought processes that make someone think the best way of getting help for someone in the crowd who isn't feeling very well is to sprint along the touchline hysterically waving your arms about and getting yourself beaten up by a steward
Yes, if starting from a position of no debt, the reality is most of the top half clubs especially ones the have been in the Prem in recent years can manage that debt for a short period in the Championship and then belt tightening starts. Stoke and QPR spring to mind. I know for a fact Qpr have offered contracts of £5k a week to players in the last few seasons. One was a player with 150 Prem and Championship appearances who was outta contract, big difference from the Tony Fernandes days and they arent willing to take on more debt now till the current one has reduced significantly.
QPR's debt is less than a third of ours. Suggesting our debt is ok cos some other clubs have been mismanaged is like saying its ok to die from Ebola cos some other people have died from Ebola. I doubt there's a single club our size or smaller in world sport with a bigger debt than us!! Our debt is off the scale especially in relation to our future income. People who defend our debt are in cahoots with the snake oil salesmen who are 'running' our club
That was by no means a 10/10 performance but it was enjoyable to watch a Watford team giving it their all to secure three points. Thought Sierralta was a rock at the back, absolutely criminal how little he played last season. That front three would win us the league, unfortunately not all three will stay with us but whilst they're here then they have to play. Only criticism would be that Kayemebe & Clevs can't play in a midfield two, Cleverley looked knackered & I was surprised he wasn't subbed off. I'm sure with Louza coming back & a possible addition to the midfield then we'll be a lot stronger in that department. The atmosphere sounded great on the tele, especially when we scored. The celebrations when that went in & also at the end of the game was great to see. Overall three points & a clean sheet at home against one of the promotion favs is pretty much a perfect start, well done to Rob & the team.
First game out of the way, and we can judge the team and results do now matter. Where are we good, what needs improving, and how effective are we likely to be this season? Well, Sheff Utd were a good benchmark to pitch ourselves against. They were not firing on all cylinders, and had some injuries, but the still looked solid and created one or two very good chances. I believe Sheff Utd will be top 6 at least, so it was a good workout and a good indicator as to where we are as a team. Going through the sections of the team. In goal I don't have as many issues as some over Bachmann. He's a fine shot stopper and rarely does the ball bounce away from him. Where he is weak is taking crosses and distribution with his feet. He was comfortable in doing that last night, although one erratic pass straight out of play, whilst under no pressure, tells you it's still an accident waiting to happen if we continue to spray the ball around the back. Central defence was solid. I thought Cathcart looks a lot better in a three, and at Championship level. He has more time on the ball, and looks a lot more assured because of it. Sierralta carried on where he left off in the Championship, and will be a big player for us this season. He did get beaten once though, which led to Sheffield's best chance right on half time. Kabs on the other hand was poor. Made many mistakes, and I can't see him retaining his place for long. We need better from him, and I suspect once a new LCB is signed, he'll lose his place to either Cathcart or Gaspar. Midfield for me is our biggest problem currently. Apparently, even though I've not seen too many links to midfielders in this window, we are looking to strengthen (according to AL). For me, this is a must do. We won't score the first goal in every match and we need to be able to create chances and progress the ball via midfield during games. We can't just rely on fast breakaways. The wingbacks did ok, but that will improve I'm sure of it. Bringing Kamara back to the left and introducing Laird (or maybe Gaspar) will improve the balance and effectiveness of that vital RE strategy. I've left the best to last. Sarr, Pedro, Dennis. It's just wonderful. I love the threat they possess. Even if they were fairly quiet for large parts yesterday, give them a sniff and it's game over for the opposition. The winning goal was a case in point. So overall, it's a mixed bag. A very good win, obvious improvements (in house) can be made at wingback, Louza to come back eventually, new LCB likely, possible new midfielder and Laird at RWB. So, if we keep all three forwards (big IF), that may be the weakest squad we play all season. What a thought that is!!
Mr. Doom, that's some leap there. No one has suggested our debt is Ok. You are the only one who has mentioned our debt. If you to wanna have an argument with yourself, don't let me stop you, I'll stop posting to make it easier for you.
You’re falling into the trap of basing your whole opinion of a player just on stats alone, Dennis was significantly better for the entire game, would Sarr have got an assist without Dennis on the pitch? It’s great he got an assist, but we’ve also got to consider the other 80 odd minutes he was on the pitch and what he did Vs Dennis in that time, Dennis performed better overall, was more of a threat, held the ball up really well and overall worked a lot harder.
Thats right, Left Back if I remember correctly. Whereas last night we had a make shift LWB, a Swedish International. Our 1st choice was filling in at RWB, an Ivory Coast International. Whereas Briggs was working on a building site 5 years after playing at Wembley but signed for Maldon and Tiptree in the 8th Tier of English Pyramid and was player of the season. Our signings levels have gone up a tad. As bad as some people on here would have you believe Sema is, I can't see him working as a dryliner come the season after next.
They need to hold the away fans for 10 mins to get the initial crush out the way. Always hated it as all it takes are a set of ***** pressed into each other and you have a potential very dangerous situation. Had some knobs giving it large to each other near cemetery. Tempted to write to club about it
Yup. I always think in any season we need two games before we can make any early predictions for the season ahead. As we need to see us both home and away, It became clear quite early on under Ivic that we looked a much different side (for the worse) on the road. Last season our pleasure at beating Villa soon came crashing down with a dire performance at Brighton. So I’m keen to see how we set up, how we approach the match, if we do anything differently etc at the Hawthorns next Monday.
Yes in theory, breaking away from home with Sarr, Pedro & Dennis could be fantastic if we can get the ball to them. I expect WBA and Burnley may well sit back with that in mind to deny them space.
There’s some new flats out the back and potential building work at VR over the next few years to consider though.
Last night summed up the Championship, didn't need to play particularly well to win as the majority of the league are complete and utter shyte. They may as well hand us the trophy now if Dennis and Sarr stay, we'll absolutely destroy this league with a record breaking points total. Was nice to be back at the stadium, the murals looked good and it was great to see us win at home!
Yes. I was referring only to our managers in the Championship. McKinlay, Jokanovic, Ivic, Xisco and now Edwards have all started their reigns with wins. Gracia, Pearson and Ranieri started in the PL with losses. Amazingly considering what was to follow, Hodgson started with a draw.
Don't remember our previous owners exclusively dealing with an agent under investigation for money laundering, mysteriously overpaying for his clients for no obvious football reasons whilst simultaneously trying to Shanghai our club's greatest ever player into being a PR puppet for them. I also think that people are deluded if they think Cathcart, Cleverley, Sema and Kayembe are promotion material. If we lose Dennis and Sarr we have a mid table championship squad. Laughable that those players were brought in as Premier league players. If the objective is to survive in the Champ, then we're grand. If it's to go up, then we cannot sell our two only real saleable assets, or we would need to make some serious repairs to the rest of the squad with the proceeds of their sales (repairs that our owner and DoF are drastically unqualified to make).
It would have been hard to tell from the Roy Orbison stand. The Sky commentators clearly didn’t know what was going on and just spoke about a fan being shepherded away after trying to invade the pitch and how sad that was after all the issues with fan behaviour at the end of last season, particularly involving our opponents game at the City Ground. Then when play stopped they just spoke about a disturbance in the crowd.
In the latest 20/21 accounts, Stoke, Bournemouth and Blackburn all had higher debt. Of course we’re still run badly but you did ask! I’m also not convinced that size (as opposed to some composite index of size and interest rate an repayment schedule) of debt is a particularly good metric of financial condition.
I have the perfect solution Sydney, one that I executed last night and it worked a treat. Faced with a daft Committee meeting arranged at 7pm and knowing it would go on and on and on, I recorded the game and instructed Mrs WBH to maintain a complete poker face when I arrived home. TBH that isn't difficult for her as I dragged her along to games in 1983 and 1984 which inevitably ended in wins and of course she was then considered the lucky talis(wo)man by me and my mates. I'm sure you have all anticipated that 1984 culminated in a less successful Wembley game which broke the spell and that has proven to be the last Hornets match she went to. "Didn't you realise I hated football?" Anyway I digress. With my lad - living elsewhere - also instructed to desist with WhatsApp messages just in case, I sat down to watch the game unfold about 60 mins behind real time. I kept calm for a full 56 mins watching carefully and enjoyed the Dennis, Sarr, Pedro combination goal! But like you I immediately had that nagging feeling as I was replayed the 2 Brentford games and the Burnley game in my head. Like the yellow coward I am, I broke straight away, fast forwarded to 97 mins with eyes screwed up in double quick time. Fantastic 1-0 as I hoped! Tell me did anything happen after Pedro's goal...I'm only sort of vaguely interested?!
Sorry mate but that’s just nonsense. Was our best CB last night. Not trying to argue with you, but that’s a throw away statement because you have a biased opinion of him. Outside of that ONE moment where he and Sieraltta had a mix up, he was clearly the best defender on the pitch. The facts back that up. I really don’t know what game you were watching to come to that conclusion.
