It was very noticeable against Spurs that we defended very narrow, far more than we have so far this season. Spurs seemed to have plenty of joy getting the ball wide but their hopes that this would stretch the play never really materialised. When Davies or Trippier did get on the ball we challenged them to put the ball on a sixpence as there was little space in the area whilst ensuring they didn't have a clear run at goal. Cathcart and Kabaselle dominated the Spurs attack and we did not allow any obvious avenue to pass their way into the area. Certainly Janmaat and Holebas take a huge amount of credit for this, not forgetting the contributions of Hughes and Pereyra whose defensive work was critical. Normally, and certainly recently, allowing so may crosses would have been a recipe for disaster but it was clear we felt the risk of conceding from this was far less than being pulled out of position and allowing spaces to appear for Spurs to exploit. Against the better teams this may not be the worst approach. It will be interesting to see how we set about Manchester United in a couple of weeks.
We won 63% in the air & blocked 7 crosses. Also, won 87% of our tackles. Definitely a strong physical presence.
The MOTD2 stats on crossing last night were eye-opening. Spurs had 32 crosses of which only 6 were successful, we had 6 crosses of which 5 were successful.
There was something about holebas' chasing back tackle on the halfway line and launch 50 yards into the box that was very reminiscent of a certain Mr Rooney over the pond a week or 2 ago. Ours was about half a foot from being equally as perfect!
In this situation, the canny operator would forswear posting at home but dedicate his working hours to restless toil on the forum. All fine until apprehended, cautioned & ultimately dismissed. Then the charade of leaving the house each day at 7.45am, only to sit on a park bench until 6pm before venturing home. The silver lining, of course, is that this frees up a monster 10 hours per day for forum work.
Pope Adrian IV was from Abbots Langley, so I'm sure there's a good chance he would have been a Hornet...
For every season that Watford have there is a parallel, hypothetical season of 'what if's and 'should have been's. Inevitably in the hypothetical season Watford have a lot more points and we feel cheated to not be living in this parallel universe. - What if Holebas had blocked Hendrick's shot? We may have beaten Burnley. - What if Capoue hadn't been sent off? With eleven men I'd have fancied us against Palace. - What if Kane's late header had gone over? We'd be celebrating a famous win. Well so far this season we're living in this parallel universe. Let's enjoy our stay.
There is a line or two in Frank Defour's excellent biography of Bill Tilden when he writes something akin to "there are some moments in time when all of the desired elements fall into place and everyone present realises they are part of something special". I thought of that yesterday during the closing moments and in the post match celebrations. It reminded me of Wilf's last minute winner v Villa,George Reilly scoring at Villa Park and the Saints 7-1 match. Intoxicating and it will live long in the memory.
For all you culturally illiterate morons (@Hornet4ever I'm looking at YOU) I cannot understand how you could look at GoingDown's avatar and think it's Indiana Jones just because he's wearing a hat. It's clearly not Harrison Ford, and the hat is clearly not Indiana Jones' hat. It's the actor Thomas Jane, probably most known for a crappy 'Punisher' film adaptation, playing the role of detective Thomas Miller in formerly the Syfy Network and now Amazon Prime's 'The Expanse'. The hat is to cover an incredibly dodgy hairstyle: Is it any good? No idea; I've never watched it. Fans of the show seem to like it, though.
Been largely off the forum for a few weeks due to ‘off-field’ matters (wedding/honeymoon/bereavement) but have made sure I haven’t missed a minute of games since the season started, from wherever I’ve been in the world - but yesterday was my first game of the season in person... My climbdown won’t be as wholehearted as Malts purely because we are just 4 games in but ...WOW. Kudos Mr Gracia. And I extend my apologies to you. I had a number of question marks about you and the recruitment team over the summer and believed it was folly for you and Giraldi to be kept on. I always said that if that was proved wrong, I wouldn’t be backwards for coming forwards and saying so. I was wrong. Calmer heads than mine prevailed and whilst I enjoyed our debates over the summer, I also cede ground to those fans on here who took the view that he deserved a chance. You were right, I was wrong....’in this moment’ at least! Long may it continue and long may I eat larger slices of humble pie as the season continues. Proud to be Watford. That’s down to Javi in recent weeks.
He definitely looks better with the hat PS I hope Hornet4ever is never required to identify someone at an identity parade!
Depends on the time of year they started I suppose - you'd have to factor in the change from the Julian to Gregorian calendar, as well as the changeover of New Year's Day from 25th March to 1st January...
Just about works with a west country accent or, I'm practising this, a Brooklyn one. Norn Irish too? Norn, I defer to you on this.
The founding of WFC was closer to the change in calendar than to today. (We adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Happily, online forums didn't exist then otherwise imagine all the brouhaha as all the thick peasant types complain they are losing 11 days of their lives.)
...given United winning yesterday, it’s a nailed-on certainty Merson will have us to lose in a couple of weeks, saying something along the lines that ‘Watford have done well. I’ve been really impressed with Angella at the back. But Lukaku was top dog against Burnley and Watford have looked shaky at the back and Watford gave Spurs chance after chance. I worry for Watford, I really do.’ Prediction. 0-4 The naysayers will remain. Jeez, they remained in Leicester well into April when they won the league. I hope they never change tact. It’s more fun this way.
Completely agree with this and it was exactly what I thought too Push them out wide and pack the middle, they just couldn’t play through us That for me was the defining tactic Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would assume a successful cross results in one of your own players heading/winning/striking the ball. An unsuccessful cross would have been Kabasele or Cathcart heading it away.
Ben Foster on radio 5 live right now. Said the players do tough work in training that has helped them on the pitch.
I never understand comments like this from players. They should always work f**king hard. They're paid well enough, get out there and work as hard as possible to improve yourself and as a team.
True, but the coaches set the tone and pace of training. If the players could get the intensity right themselves, then why would clubs employ coaches in the first place?
Not human nature is it though? I think Holebas hinted at it in the interview at the weekend where he spoke about needing to adjust his expectations/attitude from being at a couple of clubs competing for titles to Watford. I suppose a lot of the players who come in struggle with that when they'll still get paid regardless.
It’s quite easy to understand. I would imagine coaches like Guardiola would spend a lot of time training the players with the ball etc etc. He would never ‘beast’ his players physically because they have an abundance of technical ability and plenty of squad depth to swap players around. Gracia will be setting physically demanding drill’s for the players but with the correct amount of recovery time - that’s what Foster has alluded to. Mazzarri did the same I remember Troy saying at one stage but the players were never given ample time to recover for a match day. Saying they’ve been busting a gut to get to peak fitness isn’t the same as saying they’ve not been trying previously. Just now it’s a primary focus. And it’s working.
At this point in time the only thing I can imagine better than beating spurs is stuffing Man U and Mourinho getting the sack , although knowing our luck they would probably then tapp up Javi
