It was wet, there was no way he could stop, the angle from behind the goal shows he retracted his feet away when he knew he wouldn't get there first.
Great to get 3 points. Did none of our defence watch Hoilett's goal the other day though?!? Show him the outside.... We may never score another ordinary goal again. Odd to see them going in from outside the box again. Without needing Johnno in the team. As has been said, our midfield has an amazing spread of talent now. Good times. Will be disappointed if we can't finish top half now. COYH
The team we have now is tantalisingly close to being awesome. The midfield is insanely good. Two missing players. That’s how close we are to being the best side Watford will ever likely be.
I substituted today's game for a Christmas pub crawl in London. Not sure if I got off better or worse! 3 more points anyway! I'm drunk.
I know you mention stats are not everything but the number of attacking passes Quina looked to play makes his 89% success even more impressive.
Whew! I had been thinking I watched a different match to everyone else before I read your comments. As good as Watford were in the second half, the first was deadly dull for the most part. Our 75% possession largely consisted of knocking the ball about along and behind the half way line. There’s no point in that unless they produce a goal attempt at the end of it. Incisive attacks were very few, the goal being one. I like to think Javi said something along those lines at half time. Just a word on Quina, who I thought was terrific. His ball control is excellent. As people have said, he misplaced a few passes but he was the one making the most forward passes with a higher risk and trying to make things happen. I hope he isn’t dropped to make way for Capoue at West Ham - maybe room for them both?
Cos we expect more from Doucoure, and when it goes wrong for him we notice it more if Quina screws up we give him the excuse of he's young and naive
Overall everyone's summed that up pretty well, I will comment on a couple of things, even after going 3-2 they never really troubled us we gave away some daft free kicks which better opposition could of punished us but if anything we should of scored more and looked the more dangerous side. As for the subs I thought Okaka done well he held the ball up and I don't think he gave it away once (and I'm not his biggest fan ) Holebas ( not his biggest fan either) was very good today Sema had a good solid performance too. So on to Wet Spam who've won 4 on the trot I really believe we can cause those lot some problems, going to be an interesting mid table 6 pointer. I hope he plays five across the middle with Pererya Del Boy out wide of Capoue Doucoure and Quina which can quickly change to a 433.
I think Troy raised his feet when he knew he couldn’t connect so as to avoid the keeper. Unfortunately, this made him connect with the keeper.
The mid table league is now clearcut. There may be only a couple of points between 7th & 13th. I just to finish above Muff.
Exactly. Quina & Doucs were looking to make incisive passes during each attack. Our length of pass chains (as I believe passing is called these days) was astounding. Wasn’t there a 3 min spell in the second half when Cardiff touched the ball once? Forget about Quina’s ‘mistakes’. Concentrate on what he makes happen. Given a fair wind, he will be an influential player at top 4 level. Would love it if that was with us.
Sema did fine. In fact, he was very tidy. As the newbie, he should be offloading to Bobby P & Delboy around the box although he did take one cheeky row Z shot in the second half.
Javi really must give this team a crack at the Cup. A couple of wins over Christmas would be great to facilitate this although we are patently safe. The current set up will be dangerous against anyone. Today’s performance with quick, one touch passing would unnerve any defence & cleverly allows Bobby P, Del &, if necessary, Doucs to get into scoring positions. The impotence of our strikers suddenly becomes much less of an issue. The pressing will also be too much for lower league teams. During the first 70 mins, each time a Cardiff player got the ball, there were 3 Hornets on him, like a flash.
Blackpool at home I’m out promotional season. They lead 2-0 at the break. @wfcmoog was reported to be on the SEJ stand screaming at the players for losing to the whipping boys of the season. We eventually won 7-2 but the first half of that game was one to forget.
Who needs Richarlison when you got Quinoa. He was by far the best player on the pitch today, will be another £40 mill player.
Well worth the 4 hour round trip in the dodgy weather for me. Which was a pleasant surprise. Quina looks awesome. Did anyone notice him and Deeney practicing long balls in the warm up? Everytime Quina took the ball down and it never got more than a foot away from him. Brilliant control and first touch.
Really impressed when the banner of Dudley Moore was that rolled up the Rookery before the match. I had no idea he was a fan. Must’ve gone to games with Peter Sellers when he had a house in Chipperfield.
Not that it was Quina's debut of course..... We do need a couple of quality back up midfielders as we've seen what a couple of injuries can do. Would be good to be able to rotate a little without a drop in quality to keep players fresh and on their toes. We need to find a way to give Wilmot a chance too. If he's being developed as a midfielder he is falling down the pack. Maybe a chance at CH instead of mariappa next time Kaba gets himself suspended?
Also first thing he did as he was rolling around away, was to put an arm on the scumbag keeper and check on him. Pretty poor form by Mrs Doubrfire and the scumbag keeper to go after a fellow pro for a 50/50 challenge where nobody was hurt
I think for a club at our level our midfielders are fine, and would be disappointed if Money was spent on more, the way it is at the moment they are the inspiration in our play and create and mostly score the goals, therefore if we only bought one player in Jan a forward that can score would be nice, Cahill if he fits our wage structure for a couple of years could also do a job!
That second half turned things round for Slav & for us. Sombre mood at halftime. Growing elation thereafter.
Hopefully a bit more. Potentially a much better footballer than Richie. Extraordinary how mature he seems.