Watford Fc 1-2 Qpr - 01/02/2021

Absolutely it is. But it's the auto response mechanism of so many to kick the can down the road and expect the issues to be resolved at the next window - even when it's just closed.

I do wonder why those random last minute rumours about a striker and midfielder came out at the last minute though. Very odd.

 

I think I feel worse today than last night.
The predicament we find ourselves in is akin to a knot in your hair that,try as you might you can't untangle.
You maybe able to free some of the hair but ultimately you end up chopping it off.
That was a ridiculous formation last night and we were punished for it.
Poor Xisco is now floundering and I doubter he'll last until March.
I had odd dreams last night,one where I fell off a flyover and another that I'd forgotten to arrange a match.
Not too difficult to see where my mind was!
Lord help us all.

 

Here are some clues. Wilmot is comfortable at left back, Ngakia isn't. Ngakia is comfortable at right back, Nabarro isn't comfortable anywhere near a football pitch. A midfield of Sarr, Chalo, Clevs and Hughes didn't work in previous games and was even worse last night as QPR had a right back able to exploit the vacant spaces on our left. Sema, Zinc or even JP could play on the left. If Xisco wanted a good start he should have begun with Sema there and taken him off later if he ran out of steam. Why take JP off when there was 5 days before the next match? Gray wad an embarrassment. Why take Chalo off when he was doing a reasonable job protecting the back four, and replace him with Zinc who didn't seem to know what he was supposed to do.

Apart from that, I'm as much in the dark as Xisco about what went wrong.

 

We invariably take the lead in the games we win or draw but even then, we're defending deeper and deeper holding on for dear life at the end. What's happened to taking the game to the opposition and not resting on what we have. It's been the same under both Ivic and Munoz.

And when was the last time that we came from a deficit to win the game? I can't remember a single game this season but can name at least two teams who have done it to us, Swansea and QPR not to mention the teams who either drew or lost against us who should have deservedly won, Wycombe away, QPR away, Brentford at home, Middlesbrough at home, Stoke home and away for example.

The way I'm feeling today I'd have Gracia back in a heart beat.

 

Er, Stoke and Coventry at home right out of the top of my head? And how on earth did Middlesbrough and Stoke deserve to win all three games against us (I take your point about the other games)?

I know you’re feeling more down about the current situation than most (which is saying something) but don’t let that get in the way of facts or judgement.

 

Ivic got the job based on him being good defensively and a disciplinarian. Like Mazzarri he took on Troy and lost. It appears the main criteria for appointing Xisco was that he will submit to Deeney and do what he's told. WTF is this?? a football club or a BDSM dating app??

 

Even the window closing doesn't stop them. Every February/September without fail the last 3 years I think we've seen threads popping up about potential free agents, even though the club have never signed or shown a public interest in any of them.

 

Utterly dismal set up.
If a L1 participant on a tennis coaching course made such basic errors I would fail them and the L1 is virtually impossible to fail.
What possessed him?
What is this malaise that afflicts our players and team to the extent we always look considerably less than the sum of our parts?
It is so woven into the DNA of the club it appears that it is impossible to start afresh.
Utterly unfathomable from a coaching perspective.

 

Sorry I'd forgotten about Stoke and Coventry.

 

A sad day. I've been watching this club for over 40 years and apart from losing play off finals last night was one of the lowest points I can remember for some time. I'm sure there have been worse times but there just seem to be a number of things that are adding up now. Plus I'm self-isolating with my kids at home which makes me grumpy anyway
Xisco - I don't dislike the bloke and so wanted it to work but after his comments last night and the way we have been set up in every game points to somebody that needs help. He never changes the system, he makes the same subs, he plays Gray, he plays players in the the wrong position, he plays Navarro. We have wingers yet we play a defensive central midfielder out wide, then brings the winger on to play defensive central midfield. Don't sack him. Get him on the coaching staff, doing his badges, so when the time comes we have a progression plan. In the mean time, get somebody in with some experience of this league or at least country and give them control.
Pozzo - I'm not one who wants to see the back of Gino but for christ sake come out and say something. Tell us the plan, tell us why we are doing things, tell us what the future might hold, just speak to us ffs
Duxberry - I think it was Burnsy who mentioned yesterday that the rumours are that Scott is the problem. That seems about right when you saw his reaction to fans questioning him to suggest he thought all was golden in the garden of WFC and the supporters would lap it up. Something is not quite right. We've had different players, different coaches but the same issues keep cropping up which means there is a fault somewhere else in the system.
The players - Navarro and Gray should be nowhere near the first team ever again, I don't care how much they get paid, they are both absolutely bobbins. Deeney has improved but if he is going to play as a number 10 then he still needs to move and make himself available. Too many times last night he was stock still. A lot of the players certainly put in the effort last night but we are a rudderless ship. We don't seem to have any kind of plan. 20 mins last night it was clear were being over run in midfield and Ngakia was struggling but nothing changed
WFC forum - I've been on here since The Pozzos were in discussion to takeover and most of the time it's been a lot of fun. A few people annoy me but I'm sure that's their goal in life. What really p1sses me off now is the bed wetter, clapper bullsh1t. I thought name calling stopped when I was 9 years old. It's generally followed up with, oh look at me, I said we were sh1t, I told you all this would happen and now I'm so chuffed to be right.
I've had enough to be honest. I don't enjoy football and if football stopped for good tomorrow I'm not sure I would be that bothered. I've quite enjoyed not going and my golf handicap has improved but suspect I'll be back when fans are allowed in again as I've missed the social side.
Apologies for the long rant

 

It is strange that for four years our bad times and multiple failures feel very similar every time, regardless of who the manager is.?
My theory is that speed of transition could be huge... Get promotion, few additions - finish 16th, few additions - finish 15th, few additions - finish 12th and so on, maintaining squad integrity and growing.
GP's quest for top 6 meant too many big gambles. (Deeney/Gray/Sarr) instead of steady upgrades and retain a soul..and it would REALLY help if now and then we went out and shopped for a specific player for a specific need/role.!!!! (BTW Deeney included due to wage and length of contract)
... What do i know...?

 

We have some experienced players that should have said something about the set up. Hughes himself should have been saying that I am not a left sided player and you have better options.

why not? If I am asked to do something at work I will regularly put my hand up and say you have better placed/skilled individuals that will do that task

Where were Deeney, Hughes, Chalobah telling Xisco the set up is wrong? If Hughes did that and was overridden then fine but he is experienced and senior enough to have questioned his position he was given

 

Yes agree with all of this.
It's almost as though the Board have pressed the self-destruct button 2 years ago. Baffling decision after baffling decision. Ironically they had built up such a bank of goodwill and over achievement that despite the spectacular fall from grace, we are still in the playoff places, higher than when they bought us, though probably not for long.
The key to football is to enjoy the high points and let them raise your spirits but switch off for the bad times and let them pass you by without bringing you down. It's just a pointless game afterall. That's where I am right now.
I agree, the COG/bedwetter stuff is really embarrassingly peurile. I'm sure it started out out as a bit of a joke by some of the smarter anti-Gino brigade but some, shall we say, intellectually challenged, seem to have taken it a serious categorisation. The facts are the facts. 7 largely great years followed by 2 **** years. Surely everyone sees that and the rest is just detail.

 

You believe too much twitter nonsense.

 

As a pure judgement at face value, it's hard to express how damning starting that game with that lineup was: the insanity of starting the game with our best central midfielder out on the wing had been attempted in each of the previous two games, and in each of them it had failed, producing a performance so weak it had to be corrected in-game. The fact that he then did it for a third time, after observing those two cause and effect scenarios, is enough to indict him.

He is literally not a coach - he's not genuinely qualified, and let's not forget that coaching badges/licences aren't just something you apply for - they are something you study, learn and produce work to earn over a period of time. It's very clear that Munoz is not responsible for the state of the club, but it's equally clear that he is relatively clueless when it comes to the requirements of the job he is employed to do.

Last night was nothing more than the first time that was truly embodied on-pitch, and the first time we didn't in some way manage to get individual moments of skill or luck to hold out enough to avoid a punishing result. It certainly won't be the last. And in the meantime, there's basically nothing to recommend watching us; no sustained attacking periods, control of the ball or game, or enjoyable football. Whatever the situation with the squad, and it's fairly dire in several ways, it's capable of better than this. We are fielding the most expensive player in the history of the division for a start, for god's sake.

 

I can't understand people who get upset with this forum. In this moment, it is the best thing about supporting WFC.

100% dead serious.

 

Oh yeah, also, in case anyone hasn't seen this:

 

Has anyone seen Brendan Rodgers comments in his press conference today?

They asked him about the transfer window and he said the squad he has currently are performing well so no need to act. But also that the club are under no illusions to Vardy’s age and that he can’t continue to do it all alone - was open about Ihaneacho’s struggles and said they will spend the next few months preparing to act upon things in the summer on the obvious burdens they will have.

Now liken that to Xisco - who bleats on about our strikers like they are world beaters, how he’s beyond happy with them, that they are perfect and deserve more and more time/chances - and doesn’t mention a word about transfers, or future planning because he’s not allowed to.

Rotten. Shambolic. And entirely avoidable.

 

It's not too difficult to understand. The transfer window finally made the excuses run out. Realism has set in. The hype and the words ended up not being true. Some of us have had 5 years or so of getting used to it. To some, this is some sort of shock and they are lashing out at everything and everyone. The forum is the venue for all this so it's no surprise it's in the crosshairs.

 

Yes...I heard that on a podcast earlier. No surprise the possession stats are lower as Ivic tended to pass the ball to death, but even though the other stats are similar to each other, there clearly is no improvement, and in fact a little backward step.

4 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats....has earned him the game on Saturday, but another defeat and I think he'd be seriously under threat.....especially if he and Watford look as clueless in the next game as they did yesterday.

 

But what's the point of him being under threat? It's not going to result in anything positive. We won't get the right person in - it'll be another competition winner or Quique Flores again.

All the imagination has gone.

 

I still don't know what COG means.

 

Xisco wasn't appointed to be better than Vlad, he was appointed to do what he's told and accept Deeney is above him in the club hierarchy

 

We always get a few cheap wins/points from the 4/5 game new manager bounce. That’s Gino’s philosophy after all.

 

In my humble opinion it’s neither happy-clapping to look back fondly at a lot of what was achieved in the first seven seasons of the Pozzos, and neither is it bedwetting now to have huge concerns over our modus operandi in the last two years. The two aren’t mutually incompatible. We’ve enjoyed success and a lot of fun and games along the way, and now it’s caught up with us and methods that seemed to work now quite clearly don’t.

I will never stop supporting the club or hoping we succeed. It’s been a large part of my life for 5 decades and if ever we needed it to succeed, it’s right now as we all go through these difficult times. Sadly though just when we needed it most, it’s let us down. Poor recruitment. Poor decision managing. Inexplicable appointments. Lack of communication with the supporters. No sense of ‘we are all in this together’ .Be it arrogance or ineptitude, we are quite clearly getting so much wrong. And I feel quite disconnected from it, more apathetic, more like shrugging my shoulders than throwing things against a wall when we lose. And I hate that those who run the club have reduced me to feeling that way, especially now during day after day of isolation in lockdown. From reading the comments here, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Anger seems to have been replaced by indifference, and I find that so very sad.

 

The writing has been on the wall ever since the FA Cup semi final. There is no excuse for their madness.

 

Cult of Gino

 

Ahh that makes sense I have been trying to work it out.

 

Thanks. I automatically assumed the first word was **** for some reason.

 

Yes, and the first real indication was the arrogant not-fit-for-purpose pre-season we were presented with last season. We arranged all those games against sexy continental opposition as that’s who the ‘best of the rest’ should be playing against. Getting ready for this season’s European campaign with that ‘incredibly talented squad’.
Talk about hoist in your own petard.

 

How do points per game and the dreaded 'xG' tally up?

 

Mate, you've been here 5 minutes. Eventually you'll get used to the place

 

I'm afraid I'm a mere pleb with no access to any stats tools so I've no idea about xG, though off the top of my head at present I would imagine the PPG is likely to be in favour of Munoz, and the xG could go either way - we all know we've looked pretty terrible attacking under both, tbf.