What happened with Capoue and Richarlison in the second half? Capoue slid in and dispossessed Richarlison who looked like he kicked out at Capoue leaving Capoue stricken on the floor.
Probert and the linesman were totally clueless when it came to the number of foul throws Digne was allowed to get away with.
What a depressing way to sum up a wonderful day. Is that seriously what you took home with you yesterday? A great battling performance. It was never going to be pretty and Everton aren’t as full of **** players as their form would suggest. You’re almost suggesting another manager could get more of a tune out of these players than Javi. I don’t think there is another manager alive who could squeeze more out.
I’d say my time spent on football forums correlates with how much I’m enjoying Leicester and therefore football in general. Pretty sparse at the minute then.
Best man dressed as a giant furry insect in a football strip ever. We really are so lucky to have such a fantastic mascot man. Blurring the lines between mascot, comedian and performance artist.
Good job we won and kept a clean sheet eh!? Wasn't a great performance (bit like last year) but we defended well (remember against Cardiff we almost threw away a 3 goal lead...) and Gray is coming back from fitness and Gracia did acknowledge we looked better with 2 up front.
There were at least three occasions when he simply wasn't watching the game,missing Digby kicking the ball away,handball and another incident that my pea sized brain can't recall.That's before you consider the foul throws. I agree about The Mad Greek,I thought he was superb and Chas was kept very quiet.
If you are satisfied with that level of performance given the players we have then so be it. We have been playing poorly recently in comparison to the earlier part of the season and the teams we have played recently are hardly in great form. It's not difficult to see what needs to be done. We are playing far too long which does not suit the players we have. We don't have control in midfield as we were doing and Gracia admits we look better with two upfront. I posted such a line up in the opening post of this thread. Football despite what some people think is a simple game. I'm not suggesting we get a replacement for Gracia. After all we were playing neat controlled dynamic football earlier in the season under him. You have to continually try and improve as a team and we are not doing that in recent matches.
Unbelievable how Holebas gave Richie a yard start in a breakaway, caught him.up, overhauled him and cleared the ball. My favourite Holebas moment up to now. Looking forward to seeing it in a replay which the Beeb didn't give us
If English teams were to use the accents on players' names, we'd know how to pronounce them. A rare exception is Groß, though I see that yesterday his shirt claimed him to be Gross.
When the Pozzo's gave him a 3 year extension in his 30s they obviously knew how his body works. Looks like one of those Giggs type players who can play at an elite level in their mid 30s. Fit and lean.
It looked to me like Capone thought Richy had dived (again) and was taking the piss out of him by diving over him
One day Richarlison will actually be hurt and everyone will just ignore him because they will think he is faking it. He seems suffer a lot of head injuries easily - maybe ought to go and see a neurologist about the problem?
Do you genuinely believe that referees are biased against us? If so, you really need to take a step back and get a bit of perspective. I understand that, during the match, of course one sees everything from a Watford perspective and moans about a lot of the decisions that go against us. I am as guilty as the next person, which is one of the reasons I found it so hard sitting in with the "wrong" fans at Brighton. But I really don't get this insistence from some on here, in the cold light of day, that referees are "biased" against us. They really aren't; they're human and make mistakes. We are the biased ones so notice everything that goes against us and not so many of those decisions that may have been 50/50 that went in our favour. Our goal came from a corner that arguably wasn't. Interestingly, reading the Everton forum, they feel the ref "favoured" us. 'Twas ever thus in football. But please let's not go down the road of claiming refs are systematically against us, as it makes us look a touch pathetic. Sorry - rant over - as you were.
Looking at their forum, it seems the Everton fans are getting as fed up with Richarlison's inability to stay on his feet as opposition fans are.
I do get Smudger's point. Obviously, watching on the intraweb, I didn't feel or hear one single jot of the atmosphere, not Emma and her snake record collection, not a single hiss. Not experiencing any of the supporting show, and having Arabic commentary to boot, I felt pretty meh at the final whistle, even though I knew what the result meant it was just the performance I got. If BFS was still their manager I think most would feel as deflated (as is possible after a win).
Spot on. I said to my friend next to me the minute he brought Walcott on “that should free up some space in midfield”. That coupled with the fact both Holebas and Janmaat seem to be on top of their games made it even more baffling, not that I care obviously. Maybe he felt it may knock these two out of their stride. In respect of Gray, he may not often have the best of first touches and is not always the most composed on the ball, but the one thing he does very well is get himself into good goal scoring positions. Within a minute of coming on he had peeled away at the far post and if Deulofeu had just put a first time cross in there was a potential tap in similar to the goal he eventually scored. Of course it was on Deulofeu’s left foot so no chance (still think we should put players on their “correct” wing more often for this exact reason). As for the game itself, well it was awful wasn’t it? Totally admired the fighting spirit shown but, with the exception of the goal, it was a tough 90 mins to get through. There does appear to be a slight confidence issue with our passing. Where it has been sharp and precise it is now full of misplaced efforts. So many dinked passes as well which lead to that extra touch which often allow players to be dispossessed. It’s not easy to control a game in a packed midfield but I’d like to think the team could get a handle on how the opposition have set up and move the ball wide, quickly if they are flooding midfield to stretch the game. Where earlier in the season we were pressing successfully and picking our moments well to up the tempo when in possession, it looks a lot more disjointed now. It could genuinely be down to fatigue in some quarters. I suspect Capoue, who has been instrumental to our way of playing, is knackered with the high fitness level this requires. It’s a shame Chalobah is not fit to give the guy a break. Anyway, let’s hope we get the performances back on track but for one weekend it really was all about the result. The fact it came from a corner that wasn’t makes it even sweeter. Man of the match: Holebas and it’ll be a shame when he gets pipped for player of the season by Foster (not that Ben wouldn’t deserve it as of this moment).
Great result, achieved by the players, club and fans all pulling together. Also, how amazing was that flag, the Watford stag / hart, strong and proud, well done the 1881!
Good observations. But I suppose another reason Watford aren't playing in their earlier style is that other teams' coaches are setting up to stop them.
The incorrect corner award was a mistake. Officials can miss things. But inconsistent decisions re verbal dissent or kicking the ball away are a matter of choice, and there I think Probert was soft on Everton but not on Watford
I think at one point they actually had the ball read to attack us in space but he was on the floor so the ref stopped play meaning they lost the chance to do so.
Has Gracia been taking elocution lessons from Troy? I believe he was in the Capouay camp originally. Stay tuned for a JG cojones rant.
