The first half was poor imho. Pedro looked like he was playing the Bayo role. Why was he captain? The new centre halves looked ok. The second half was far better. Glad Udinese loaners are not going to be here next year. Both useless. It’s a sad day when you release neither are an upgrade on Sema and Massina. Othe points - why aren’t Blackburn sponsored by RedBull, it’s the perfect sponsor for their kit? When do you think it will actually be fun to watch Watford?
IMO it was a decent performance however it is the same problem as always and that we cannot score and yet again we were chasing the game after falling behind . A team can win ugly 1-0 every week and people will gloss over the performance as the team is winning yet fail to win and the knives will be out although I'm not sure what any manager can do if the team is missing good chances each week !.
Sounds like we played okay & created some good chances which is a positive but at the end of the day it's more dropped points from winnable games. I'd be willing to put a line through this season as it's been pretty poor (I can't believe we're still in the play-offs) & build for next season. I just don't trust the owners to get it right, which could leave us in a right mess. I get why people would want a change in head coach but at this moment in time I don't really see the point. 3 Wins in 12 but we've been hounded by injuries & he's basically inheriting a brand new team. Let's just see how we do if we get our key players back up to full fitness & get the team to gel. Burnley are a much better side than us but it wouldn't surprise me if we were to go there & get something on Tuesday night, surely things will drop our way at some point, right?
For the majority of the game we are too slow on the ball, too many touches and too many sideways passes and it allows teams to get back into their defensive shape too easily - opposition teams don’t fear us breaking on them so they can commit more men forward and pose a greater attacking threat. When we play at pace with quick, progressive passes we look good - but we only do it 2-3 times a half and it’s nowhere near good enough. We have to play to our strengths and that should be high energy, quick football … if we can arsed !!
To be fair there wasn't much opportunity to break yesterday as Blackburn didn't push many men forward and for large parts of the game had every player in their final third.
Shocking isn't it? No wonder the home atmosphere is flat as a pancake. It doesn't help the 1881 singing cringe songs such as Small Town in Burnley or Hoist Up The Watford Flag when we are 1-0 down.
Honestly couldn't hear a peep from them all game yesterday except for a small murmur when BR fans sang 'Watford's a ********, I wanna go home.' Perhaps the 1881 were worried about what such a slander could do to house prices.
Unlucky not to win I thought, created plenty of chances which is a good thing. Hoedt and Porteous sounded very good. Once Louza, JP and Sema are back up to speed I expect us to go on a good run (after the Burnley game). Quite excited for the rest of the season actually provided our key players avoid injuries!
Half of them weren’t even there in the first half. Must have been a long queue for the toilet cubicles again.
The Blackburns dressing rooms view of us was "they was very surprised at how good we were, thought we were big and physical". Make of that what you want, prob because we were so S-hit up there earlier on in the season. Their plan at halftime was " stay tight, keep shape and to not concede", apparently it's what they do well. Maybe but not yesterday.
We've been dross for 2 years, there's no way on earth Bilic can magically transfer us into another burnley over night. We do look better, we will improve gradually, and I think we could be flying by April. Roll on the playoffs.
While it's true Blackburn did sit back for large parts of the match, I still remember there being a number of occasions where we could have got at their back line had we been a bit quicker and braver with our passing, but instead we dallied and took the easy backwards/sideways passing option, letting them get all their remaining players back.
If I wanted to put his name up I would of, didnt for obv reasons. That was from one of their players, who graced the hallowed turf yesterday.
Yes, not exactly rich pickings. But two thirds of that was in the Prem, where we were getting hammered.
There were definitely some positives yesterday . Porteous and Hoedt were both very good and give our defence a very different feel. Both very comfortable on the ball . They still need to be judged over a number of performances though. I thought generally we got into some good position s and had a bit lite control over the match , but our final ball was on the whole poor. Despite that we had enough chances to win the game and we’re unlucky not to . I think we’ve got a similar issue with Arouj has with Bayo . He s not suited to the lone striker role . Davis was more effective when he came on . It’s a problem though as we don’t look like we’ve got much in The way of goal threat currently . Good to see Louza back and once he’s back in the side I would like to see Pedro playing higher up the pitch where he can cause more issues in and around the box . Still That’s another 2 pints gone and at some point we have to start putting some results together . Don t think it’s gonna start on Tuesday but feel that West Brom game is crucial.
What are the obvious reasons? Do you know this Blackburn player personally? Or are you worried he reads this forum and will hunt you down?
Definitely, but it does help explain why our atmosphere is dreadful and some of the enjoyment has gone from football.
I know some support Bachman but once again parrying ball back out when should be out for corner. That's twice in a few weeks. Until we sort the keeper position out we will struggle. Too many points are being dropped by basic mistakes. P
It’d be even worse I reckon if we wound it back further to the start of the previous relegation season and included only games fans could attend.
The one area we had sorted under Gino was goalkeeper, just go for a mid-thirties keeper who has played at the top level, it was fool proof and without that strategy we wouldn’t have had the Deeney moment. It really wasn’t broke as a strategy so didn’t need fixing. Instead we’re now about as good at trying to pick up younger up and coming keepers as we are at buying strikers.
I did say to my old man after the match that despite our inability to string together many clear cut chances, Blackburn will have known they were in a game. Thought we bossed them in a lot of areas on the pitch.
I think it’s 13wins out of 48 league games for matches all fans could attend so exclude 20/21season. So around 75% of the time we have left the ground over those 2 relegation seasons and this, we haven’t won.
Not really the norm to disclose who told you what in a dressing room or an inner circle in football. I knew their team yesterday morning, as I asked who was upfront for them and was told, I didn't put it on here or ring Watford. Even if he doesn't read this forum, I would never put his name up, I suppose some Blackburn supporters will and if it goes around that one of their players disclosed anything and its on a forum, he'd be fooked in the dressing room, if you are told, you are expected to say no details. If you think that's odd and he might hunt me down, says more about you and what you know about football than me. Yes I do know him personally, another reason why he's not going to hunt me down but why he would be disappointed if details of the conversation came out and I also know several other players, managers and coaches personally. I'm not to well covered in the Prem, just one coach at a London club. But all other Leagues from Champ down to National League I have quite a few numbers still in my phone. Not as many as of old as you make the group and once you aren't involved anymore, that's it, no one new to add. Some are fairly close, some are acquaintances. Anyone who has been in the pro game or around it will tell you the same. It's a small circle but a tight, close one, anyone can get anyones number by asking someone else. If I find anything out, thats not personal and wouldnt effect someones career or their dressing room, or give a clue to my name, then I'll happy to pass it on Just thought some on here might be interested to hear what another player thought or what the consensus in the dressing room was, as normally all you ever get is the scripted media stuff.
You weren’t disclosing any information, just apparently a Blackburn players opinion of how we played which wasn’t exactly an earth shattering one either. It’s just a bit odd to put quotes around something to make it a fact without citing the source. It’s a bit like the Sun Newspaper saying “a source said…”. I think saying you know someone in the Blackburn camp and they said X about us wouldn’t exactly get you in hot water and would make more sense to anybody reading it.
