I do remember that advert Clive- as I recall Nobby 'Steelez' was the other player mentioned. Can't remember what it was advertising though!
We applaud the players off when playing well so why wouldn’t the players applaud the fans when they’ve played their part? I wasn’t there yesterday thankfully but I am getting the feeling that we play the way we did to for 70 mins to make sure we don’t lose and then bring on Kone, Asprilla etc. I think it’s a very negative way of playing but I guess it worked yesterday. I would say I think Louza would be better if he had Asprilla and Kone around him rather than TDB.
Having raised it earlier I should probably be clear I’m not that fussed about whether players clap the fans or not really. I just thought it was interesting so many loped off down the tunnel when Val has done all his spiel about the importance of togetherness and trying to change the mood around the place, having a fresh start etc. Usually one of the low hanging fruit for that kind of symbolism is forcing everyone to stay and do the clappy lap.
I think a case can be made for an upgrade in every position. But as long as the centre mid positions aren’t functioning we’re relying on the defenders and strikers to do too much. And yesterday it was really notable how few second balls we win on the occasions where Bayo or Raj somehow won the battle. Too many times TDB or Livermore or Louza were stood around watching, having not anticipated what would happen next.
So yeah, a very mixed bag of a midfield, you could add Ince and/or Asprilla which makes it look a little better. A proper DM, preferably younger than the age of 33 is still the priority for me
Taking into account we've just signed Raj, I think that's unlikely, but even that aside, I think most of us would like to see Healey get a go
Healey played 4 times last season, all as a sub. He made 3 appearances at the start of the campaign, including a goal. As another poster has already correctly said here, he then came on as a sub for the last ten minutes of the last match of the season, scoring a nice goal from outside the box, and then getting booked for removing his shirt in celebration. He’s not started any match since May 2022.
Reading negative post after negative post, finding as many ways as possible to stick it to the manager and the club after a win. So many of you need a reality check. Here it is. We’re not a great side, but we’re not totally **** either. A quick look at the table tells me we are five points off the relegation zone and six off the play-offs. That is what you call a mid-table side. After 10 years of being higher then this I know it's hard to take, but it's the new reality, adjust your thinking accordingly.
Voted MOTM. I didn't see the game, how was he? He's a nice option to have, you'll always get a 6/7 out of 10 performance from him at this level.
We’re 19th, that isn’t mid-table. The points gap between the playoffs and the relegation zone is irrelevant if 18 other teams have more of them than you do, that’s how league tables work.
Did we look like a team void of confidence? Yes Was it great? No Was it better than last year? yes Did we get 3 points? Yes Ultimately at the end of the season that's all that we will remember
Even though we won, the listless, directionless and overall tedium of this Watford team has made consider if I really want to give up Saturday afternoons and 40 quid a month to watch them. Even when we were bad in the past there were players you liked and supported. And the Pozzo adventure has always been unusual and entertaining. Until now. Never felt so uninterested in this club.
Decided to go through and look at every Championship attacker (by Soccerways definition so there's definitely some wingers in here as well) - filtered by a minimum of 50 aerial duels contested. Can see Rajovic towards the bottom right of the graph (or might be easier to view in table form) - his score of 0.56 actually isn't terrible compared to others in the league - although interesting that he's got the same score as Jamie Vardy, despite Vardy being much smaller (5"10!)
I thought Koné was MoM, but both he and KK had drive to make things happen. As did Chak. And Asprilla. They'd probably been sitting on the bench watching, saying "FFS" like the rest of us.
First sixty minutes was absolute bobbins. So many misplaced passes (many of which were simple balls), and no movement off the ball. No wonder Porteous and Hoedt more often than not have to pass to each other or Bachmann because the midfield in front of them are so static, they have little option but to do so. Ngakia I thought did well. Some of his crosses were rubbish but at least he was trying to get forward and create something. Defensively he’s a bit shaky sometimes but lots of people say they miss Kiko and he was even more lightweight than Ngakia. Sema and Asprilla changed the game. Sema just offers a little more solidity and Asprilla makes things happen. To be honest I thought the chance had gone and then before I knew it the ball was hitting the back of the net. Plenty of work to be done though. We need more depth in January as the usual winter injuries will stack up and we will find ourselves short. Onto Swansea, COYH
Yes let's just accept that Pozzo has dragged us down to a worse position than when he took over. The team is sh1t, we just about beat the worst team in the league at home. In fact they had much better chances than us and against anyone decent that performance would have resulted in a battering. Even if we hadn't been in the PL recently I wouldn't accept a team performance as bad as that one on Saturday.
I think you're a little off the mark, at least from my viewpoint: Negativity regarding the manager is because we're not playing to our strengths, and typically start the game with a lack of creative players on the pitch meaning we have to rely on second half subs to bring some attacking play into the game. That's not a case of expecting TDB and Ince to start playing at an Abdi and Deulofeu standard, it's a case of expecting the manager to give us something to get excited about. 10 years of being higher than this does indeed make it hard to take, however it's the sudden fall and mismanagement that is the issue. You say we need to adjust our thinking, and yes this is obviously the norm now, but you're kind of saying we should forgive and forget the fact that our owners have spaffed £100Ms up the wall. Our income was way, way, way higher than most of the teams in this league. We were richer than we'd ever been. We had a more talented squad than we've had for 30 years. We even had a January transfer window in our first relegation season to invest in the squad, but the arrogance of the leadership decided we had enough to scrape by... Literally one or two decent signings would've earned us the 1 point to stay up. Complacency at its finest. So yes, you're right, this is the new normal, but no we don't need to be happy about it! I'm not about to happy clap this **** show, but feel free to continue if you're satisfied with what we've become.
As I've mentioned on numerous occasions already, yesterday they were not playing in the same fashion which had left them bottom of the table.
They did look more motivated and pressed us well but tbh still pretty poor apart from the odd moment of danger 0-0 would have been a very fitting score line . Fortunately for us it wasn’t.
It's naive to think we were only 1 or 2 signings away from becoming an established fixture in the premier league. The entire operation was built on sand, it was only a matter of time before it went downhill. You only have to look at Leicester in the championship to realise that.
For an hour they were bossing it really, they were well organised and pressed us well, they were on a par at least with basically anyone we've played at home this season, but I think a combination of our subs (which were the obvious choices really, arguably the players he should have picked to start), and them tiring (I don't have the stats, but I'd be surprised if they're not one of the oldest in the Championship) really hindered them. They have a mountain to climb already if they are to stay up, but they look a better outfit than they were under Xisco
I'm not happy about it, but staying angry isn't going to change the reality of the situation. Unless something miraculous happens, only new owners with deep pockets will. What are the chances of that happening? The best we can hope for now is slow and steady improvement to a more comfortable place.
Or Southampton. But, I said survive that season - I don't think it's naive to think signing a defender or striker we'd needed for a while couldn't have kept us up. Paying bonuses and keeping head coaches who get you to the FA Cup final would probably helped too. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Having watched the extended highlights, those missed headers were shockingly poor. Windass and Hendricks I think. Terrible misses but also simply awful defending. Totally unmarked. The defending for Hendricks chance was particularly appalling. Three SW players unmarked and free to attack the ball in the centre, just lucky Hendricks was closest. A very important win but on another day we would have been comfortably beaten by a dreadful winless team.
There are a couple of other people on the Internet who've asked the same question but nobody had been able to share a video of the advert. Come on Hornets. Let's do this. Let's find the 'Bobby Charlton' advert. It's what he wood of wanted.
