People on here like to destroy Deeney, but you see what happens when he goes off. He's not a great goal scorer anymore, but when we attack, the ball stays forward. Without him the ball comes back far too quickly. This is what happened today. I think Gracia made the change at the right time, but he took off the wrong player. Deulofeu for Pereyra was fair enough, but Mapps for Deeney was the wrong call (IMO). Mapps for Janmaat would have been a better switch.
I think his subs were odd because his central midfield options are nil. I reckon had we had a centre mid on the bench it would have been a switch to 4-5-1, the logical move in that situation.
As an aside is NDong that garbage that he can’t be considered for bench when we have no other options? What an awful winter window we had. NDong and Lukebakio completely unusable.
Or you are. We won, largely because of Gracia's first half tactics and the fact that his second-half changes restricted Newcastle to one or maybe two on-target attempts.
To think we faffed about all January trying to get the Ndong deal done. What I can't understand is that surely Javi would have given them the heads up that he wasn't his sort of player
The pygmies of the PL beat the giants again But their local rag revel in their "status" and stand behind that view. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...leashed-hornets-nest-calling-watford-14616193
None of his changes 'restricted' Newcastle in any way. Shelvey was running things in the second half, and they put plenty of balls into the box that a club with a better set of attackers would have punished. We won today in spite of Gracia's second half tactics, not because of them. Everyone knows my feelings about him staying on so I will restrict those feelings to other threads specifically about the situation. But in relation to todays game, he had us set up brilliantly in the first half and inexplicably changed tactics after 10 minutes of Newcastle pressure. And got it wrong.
But it wasn't 'inexplicable'. Benitez changed their system at half time and reinforced it when he brought on Ritchie. And it was successful pressure because they'd already halved the deficit and showed no sign of slowing up. No reaction would have been worse.
We were being overrun though. Neither Deeney or Gray were dropping deep and pressuring Shelvey, so some sort of change was needed. Really what would you have done? Let them throw more men forward and hoped we eventually killed them off with a counter attack? If he'd have kept the shape and we conceded an equaliser, then he'd have been criticised for being inflexible.
I didn’t even think the 1st half was that impressive, lots of going backwards and missed opportunities, yes we dominated but far to wasteful. We should have capitalised and reduced our goal difference, good chance of 3 or 4 places being seperated by a few goals. In terms of whole match Hughes although good gave the ball away quite a few times (but did also steal it back a lot) and for my money probably our best player , GD was dissapointing ,Rich offside was sloppy and should have been another goal. Manager almost cost us three points with his tactical change Can’t really see any big bids for Rich over the summer , but wouldn’t surprise me if somebody came in for Hughes
In reality after we went to three at the back Newcastle got it wide and slung a few crosses in which didn't cause too many problems. I think the amount of possession they were having got people jittery. If we'd made the most of 2 or 3 good counter attacks we had then we'd be lauding the tactical prowess of Gracia. Instead Gray was put through by Deulofeu and his touch took him wide and Richarlison found the Newcastle keeper instead of Deulofeu in an even better situation. Same old story of players not being clinical enough or having enough quality at crucial moments which isn't Gracia's fault.
Either Hughes or Pereyra are able to play more centrally, push capoue and Dockoreey back in front of defence (what's happened to doquorai, incidentally? He was shocking today.) The subs made us worse and the failure to adapt when Newcastle sussed us was standard Grazia.
It was very touching to see the last 72nd minute GT tribute of the season marked by the stewards deciding to have a bundle with some angry bloke at the front of the Rookery. That's the family club ethos right there. What was it about?
Capoue looks like our crown jewels at the moment And Pereyra. Both players I'd have not been upset to see gone in January
Was he guesturing to Deeney he had eaten his ice cream he had reserved so Deeney set the stewards on him?
No one has mentioned our first double of the season! Also only the second time this season we have gone 2 or more goals ahead at home Only other time we have accomplished this was home to Chelsea
It looked like someone had to be lead away rather than the stewards having a bundle. 2 people get getting in the stewards faces afterwards gesticulating being throttled. Looked like either someone tried to strangle another supporter or they were saying what they thought about Gracia's 2nd half subs.
Sounds like the Anti-Deeney brigade are taking their anger to the next level. Ha, who am I kidding? They're so old.
I've just seen their goal again on MotD and it is worse than I remember. Yes, Holebas was nowhere near his man, did nothing to try and close the space down and even ducked as the ball was crossed in.It's really pitiful watching him play every week. What does this guy actually bring to the side? He cannot defend, yet he's not scored 1 goal this season, and has very few assists, even though he takes a lot of free kicks and corners. It's because he shouts a bit and shows some attitude in moments that doesn't matter, tends to fool quite a few into thinking he's passionate. I'd rather he be quiet and throw his body at the ball, just like Mapps did when he came on, and saved a certain equaliser because of it.
No one wants to Troy bash as it clearly was his last home game with us. However after 20 minutes he couldn't run. Couldn't get in the box for chances. Wasn't winning headers. Everything was passing him by. I thought he was injured. First run in the second half he pulled up and was holding his calf. Then he was taken off. Not the goodbye anyone hoped for.
Bright start followed by frustration as we lost confidence allowing the opposition to attack us far too easily. Just about scraped over the finishing line. The whole season in one match! btw. Despite not being totally convinced by Gracia overall, yesterday his subbing of Deeney for Mariappa was the right call. Shocked at the booing of this by the same clueless 'fans' who were screaming at Deeney all match for being useless.
When playing our high tempo passing game and are in the rhythm, he’ll take two minutes shoving a ball up his shirt at a throw in only to throw the ball to the opposition every bleeding time. Fingers crossed that was his last appearance at the Vic
I’m glad I’m not a Didier Ndong’s PR agent. That’s two relegations in successive seasons. Escapes the madness of the Stadium of Light to come to us with the promise of a possible permanent move. Can’t play at first due to suspension. Then can’t play for personal reasons. Then can’t play coz he’s simply not picked. Epic fail.
