Probably Silva can take some credit for that. Always going to get massive effort from Cleverly, but now less 'headless chicken' stuff and more - I was going to say 'chicken with a head', but that doesn't sound right. But you know what I mean.
Have just returned from our club finals day and had to be updated by a couple of friends at the game. We scored our first during the end of my first final and our second before the mixed and as ever I was far more nervous awaiting updates than playing! I'm trying to keep calm but what a transformation in our team! So many encouraging performances and a clear strategy. Thank the Lord that Doucoure didn't go to Lorient. Happy weekend everyone oh and Loon had a man sent off too I believe!
That's a long time for your wife and children to be in Ikea, hope your cards didn't get to much of a bashing,
Or "I can't be ars,ed to cut my holiday short, Silva can wait for me to top up my tan, I'm a very important man you know." "OK, I'm back now, tell Mr Silva to make an appointment with my sec.... sorry, I didn't catch that, he's done WHAT.....?"
I don't go to that many away games but I went today, I can honestly say I can't remember us playing so well away from home from start to finish for many a long year! At half time I checked my phone and it said we had 59% possession, however at the end of the match for the 90 minutes it was 50% each. Strange as I didn't think Southampton had as much possession the 2nd half as we had the first. The difference between this season and the end of the last, is that whoever is playing in giving 100% whereas we had people like Niang putting effort in when they fancied it, today there was a little last ditch defending when needed, a few guts got busted today hopefully they can be repaired for next Saturday. COYH!
I know what you mean. But that's part of the problem with these stats: Firstly they are paying attention to things that may not matter - nobody ever got points for possession. Secondly they measure things quantitatively, not qualitatively. 82 passes back to your goalkeeper may be a massive amount of possession, but it's still cr*p. Actually that's a bad example for today - Southampton are not a bad team (except they're rather toothless) and they tried to throw the kitchen sink at us second half - that's why it was such an excellent performance and result for us today. Have to say this match was one of the best performances I've seen from WFC for a long while. Some real mid-field quality out there.
This is a bit off topic, but just seen the third Man City goal. How is that not offside, when Aguero plays a forward pass to an unmarked Jesus when they were both ahead of the Liverpool defence. After all that crap spoken about Watford's equaliser against Liverpool being offside, nothing but praise is given to Man City for their goal. Klopp didn't even mention it either.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the first half run by Doucoure after about 20 mins he picked the ball up in defence off someone's toe and marched up field shrugging off tackles as if they weren't there, truly magnificent from him today!
I thought Britos was behind the ball against Liverpool but experts still insisted he was offside. Not sure I understand any more.
Nice to see us shoot from outside the area so much! I see Redmond did his best to score against as usual.
Switched on MoTD expecting us to be good, but what I saw was seriously impressive. Playing with 10 men for an hour against Brighton has probably helped the team. The movement, confidence and collective defending for 90+ mins was outstanding today. Luckily Kabasele has come of age in the nick of time. Cleverley is maturing like a fine wine. Wonderful disciplined performances all over the pitch. Hard pressed to decide on which was the better goal. Silva has got the midfield working beautifully but the whole squad has gelled really well and so quickly. Some concern over the injuries at the back but we seem to have versatility and more talent in reserve than last year. Man City will be a great test and marker. If we can at least be competive and run them close I will be very happy. Overall very excited regarding our ambition and direction of travel.
13 min highlight video is now up on the official site. Great watch. https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/first-team/match-review-southampton-0-2-watford - Should have had a pen - Kabasele with a great block - Being greedy but we probably should have scored 1 or 2 more - Gray is making a massive difference with his pace, pressing and general play. Won't be long before he gets himself on the score sheet. The guy is worth every penny. Defenders know they can't push up too much with his pace and that alone is creating a problem for them. This is also helping Richarlison, Cleverley and co have more time a space in the final third. What Gray is doing off the ball is helping us pick up points and the negativity towards him after four games is ridiculous and pathetic. - Carrillo looks the part. Performing like that for a fall 90 after playing two internationals in South America and not getting back till Thursday is incredible. I can't wait for him to fully match fit and imbedded into the team more. - Mr Glass didn't get injured and scored and great goal. Femenia has been playing really well though and shouldn't be dropped. - Femenia has currently been recorded as the fastest player in the Prem with a sprint of 21.8 mph (Mane recorded at 21.6). - Femenia sits within the top 6 of Prem players with the most interceptions (11). He will only get better. - Richarlison currently ranks in the top 5 most tackles in the Prem (12) - Richarlison and Chalobah rank joint 16th in the Prem for ariel duels won - Watford rank 1st with the most clearances in the Prem (126) - Watford rank 1st in the Prem with goals outside the box (3) - I had other stats but I lost them but they were to do with Doucoure and miles ran and Cleverley making sprints
Chalobah and Doucoure are absolutely immense. Power, speed of thought, control and work-rate. What a midfield we have. Both comfortable on the ball, progressive and capable of dominating the middle. We controlled the game throughout with these two. Richarlison is superb. What a player. Hard to believe he's been here a few weeks. We are good. Properly good. Best I've ever seen us.
Just watched extended highlights That was some block by Kabasele just in front of goal. He looks another bonus this year - very handy player
Ha ha - just in case anyone thinks they know very little and are overpaid https://mobile.twitter.com/FootyHumour/status/850311334323519488/video/1
Early days but of the many managers that we were reported to be interested in, Pellegrino/Slutsky etc, I'm so glad that we got in Silva
Don't want to be too negative after the result but Feminia did look quite vulnerable at times today. Players went past him as if he wasn't there. (And I am not talking about after he was subbed)
What I really love so far this season is the fact that every team we play say, 'it's Watford ffs, we should be stuffing them'. Makes me laugh. I don't pretend to know that I am knowledgeable of every other prem side we play but some fans really don't realise how well we have recruited and still see us as that dross under WM. long may teams underestimate us!!
It's because we are still comparatively new to the P.L. They would say the same about Bournmouth and Burnley, they can't accept that after all of our Manager and player changes that we are entitled to be a settled side to then be good enough to beat them, as teams that change Managers usually do so because of poor results etc.
As good a away performance as you will see. Stopped them playing and they resorted to hoof ball and we completely nullified the likes of Gabbiadini. In midfield we made it look like boys against men. Gray was useful becuase he closed down made sure they had to play deeper. He creates the space for the others to play. Richardlison is class and we need to enjoy him while he is here. The City game is another game we are the underdogs which could suit us. Play like we did today and the top half would well be within reach. for me Kabasele and Cleverly played as well as anyone with catching the media's eye. All this without our best player in Pereya. good times and lets enjoy them..
Bar his injury issues I've always been confident about Kabasele's ability and thought he could force his way into the first 11. If he stays fit it looks like now really could be his opportunity to prove himself A pairing of Prodl/Kabasele could compliment each other very well. Kabasele is fast and good on the ball, whereas Prodl is good positionally, in the air and at organising. Kaboul was also very good yesterday, but looks like he'll spend a lot of time on the sidelines thru injury.
At least Steling and MLT spoke with some balance. Merson and Thompson: SS's answer to Perikles and Socrates! They should be made to watch that before they broadcast and thrashed with a copy of The Beano!
