Beating Man City - How’s it done?

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by Moose, May 6, 2019.

  1. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Armchair tacticians over to you. Change our formation? If so what to? 4-2-3-1? 4-3-3? 3-4-3? 5-2-3? 3-6-1 or even 8-1-1?

    Could it make a difference or will we just get a battering whatever we do?
     
  2. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    I have no idea but perhaps Gravy should ask The Owl or The Wine Waiter.
    They have managed it.
     
  3. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    The equivalent I can think of is when Wimbledon beat Liverpool. That Liverpool team battered everyone that season.

    If I remember rightly they put some outrageous reducers on the Liverpool midfield early doors and ref didn’t want to dish out cards early. Not sure that strategy will work with the current laws and VAR so I’m out of ideas!

    I guess backs to wall and sneak a goal only option so reckon 1 up front. What is crucial is that if we do go behind we don’t do our usual lack of mental strength and go 2-0 down instantly.

    Hope Stones plays as he is a show pony and might drop an arrogant clanger.

    Pretty sure our standard 4-2-2-2 is not the way to go.
     
  4. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    Didn't Vinnie Jones obliterate McMahon or Houghton within the first five seconds?
    I'm not sure that would be allowed in today's namby pamby world.
     
  5. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Yes it was McMahon I think. Almost cut him in half!

    Edit: not sure how to embed but googling “Jones on McMahon” brings it up. Ref awards a free kick and the two sets of players walk off. Imagine the histrionics if it happened these days!
     
  6. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    If we played this final 100 times I reckon we’d come out winners maybe 3 or 4 times. It needs us to be on top of our game and City below par. Plus we need to take every half chance and they’ve got to miss the inevitable couple of gilt edged chances we’ll gift them. Our tactics will have little effect. Conclusion - the football match is likely to be worst bit of the day.
     
  7. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Extreme violence is worth a shout, which is exactly what Captain Cojones will be suggesting in week running up to it.

    Any football based methods?

    Watching Chalobah yesterday I’m reminded how good he was early last year and how difficult a midfield three of Capoue, Doucoure and Chalobah would be to get through.
     
  8. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I agree that it is a bleak situation. However, surely tactics can change 4 times out of 100 to 8 times out of 100. Going 2 up top against City seems to me to be asking for trouble.
     
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  9. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Once you work out the link, Jumbo, please forward to Bobby P.
     
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  10. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Yes and we have to make the absolute best of any set piece. No chatting for five minutes to then decide that Capoue dollying it up into the box was the best we could do.
     
  11. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Ultraviolence?

    Team bonding week in Thamesmead?

    Teamtalk in Nadsat?

    Droog suits for the Final?
     
  12. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I think if we played City 100 times, we'd win zero. I'd be hard pressed to say we could draw, however we've been close to that a couple of times in the past, so maybe we'd hold them on a couple of occasions.

    Since City have been good, we've played them 10 times. Our record is W 0 D 0 L 10 F 6 A 32.

    The best we can hope for in this match is a respectable defeat. Play like we did at Chelsea and it probably would be a thrashing.

    There is a little thing called luck, which can influence a match. Of course this would have to be of biblical proportions, but if that did happen on the day, then that could provide the platform for a sneaky victory.

    Our best bet is to frustrate them, hope we get all the luck in the world, good refereeing decisions, take whatever chances we create, then maybe just maybe it could happen. But we're talking about a fantasy game here. These don't happen when you want them to.
     
  13. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Yeah - that's a big negative for us. At least in the Wimbledon final you could see the Liverpool players tense up when the Dons had a corner or free kick. Our set piece maestros will smash it into the wall, or hit the first man.
     
  14. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    It is. I expect the way we lined up at their place is going to be the guide, as it was actually pretty effective in stopping them. We also created a couple of half chances without really getting close to threatening their goal. That said, I suppose Pep’s analysts have picked that first half to bits by now, spotted some gaps to exploit and come up with ideas how to counter it if Javi chooses that approach again.

    To win I’d say we’re going to have to score 3+, which means making the most of every counter attack. Something I’d say has been a bit of a weakness this season. We’ve scored some fantastic individual goals and converted more training ground routine set pieces than I can ever remember. But our best chances will come catching City in transition I expect. Even if a break for us doesn’t result in a goal, we’ve got to be winning corners and free kicks around the box to give us a chance. Too often this season - even it seems in the first half yesterday - we’ve not be able to make those situations stick. Probably a worldie needed too, a la Townsend at the Etihad for Palace, as they’re not going to give up too many easy chances inside the box. And Gomes can only be beaten by unstoppable shots. Anything that’s remotely possible to save must stay out.

    Most frustrating thing is Pep is also a sickening pragmatist. Certainly not adverse to finishing a tight match against lowly opposition with 6 defenders on the park.
     
  15. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

     
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  16. Cassetti's Beard

    Cassetti's Beard First Team

    It's easy - GD and RP need to score a worldy each, early red card to City and a Watford penalty and another 4 or 5 injuries on top of KDB and Fernandinho - if all that goes in our favour we can pull off a huge upset by only losing 3 or 4 -2
     
  17. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    I reckon we have a 5 % chance of a win. The bookmakers agree.

    Deeney and some others need to intimidate even before the game starts. Especially in the lead up and early in the game. Make them, especially the more precious players have it in their mind that they might get hurt. They don’t have to actually do anything stupid or harmful. Just let them know it’s a contact sport for grown men. Let them have that on their minds throughout.

    In my view we need to pack the middle and transition back quickly. Only allow them shots at distance as we did early this season.

    Mix up the tactics between the clever triangles on the wings, some decent skill around their box and some fast counter play.

    We need not to concede early, preferably the first half so the pressure is on them, force them to change tactics then quickly change ours.

    I’d like to see a return to the tactic of several changes in formation and pace that have caught other teams out

    There needs to be guile in getting decisions. And we need to make sure we have no one sent off. Nothing wrong in a dodgy penalty going our way, they have had more than their fair share.

    I hope we have bribed more than the sheikhs and Italy looks a good holiday destination this year for the ref.

    We need our defence to not make their once a game complete clanger, our flair players to turn up, and for us to fight when we inevitably go a goal or two down.
    We need the fans to sing even when 2-0, to be loud.

    Finally put the trebuchets behind the fighting men ( what were you thinking Jon Snow, dont put your artillery at the front), use the Dothraki cavalry in an established large kill zone behind a temporary outer fortification to enable you to pick off those who get through in circular raids. Set up another temporary defensive line in range of your archers on the wall and funnel attackers through a final chevronned defensive line to meet small but tight areas of resistance


    Then and only then we might see a fight back. And might see the miracle at Wembley
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2019
  18. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

    Come on:- don't you think but by the time we had played them 99 times we would have sussed out what doesn't work!
     
  19. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    The best way to do this is the way I do it in Football Manager.

    Add a new manager, become City boss, play all the kids and with no goalkeeper.
     
  20. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Like against Wolves when it was utter silence between the first goal and Deulofeu's goal?

    You don't know our fans very well.
     
  21. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I doubt it. If I played Roger Federer at tennis 100 times. He'd beat me 100 times. It's the same thing, as the gap in class is roughly the same between me and Roger and City and Watford.
     
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  22. Stevohorn

    Stevohorn Watching Grass Grow

    A few minutes in actually..



    No red card.. or yellow.. and Mcmahon just gets to his feet without a word spoken.
    Different times.. different world!
     
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  23. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    Win the lottery. Put it all on red hundreds of times. Win that. Buy city. Sell all their players to us.
     
  24. Hornet4ever

    Hornet4ever WFC Forums Last Man Standing Winner 2018/2019

    All meeting at the milk bar first.
     
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  25. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member



    Watford fans be like C3P0
     
  26. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Or the equivalent is when Wigan beat Man City, not once, but twice, esp last year’s effort when, bar Sterling, they pretty much beat the team we would face.

    A sending off helped and would help us immensely.
     
  27. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    I don't believe that any of our usual back four combinations can keep City out. We've done well this season with our formation, but that's mostly been through outplaying inferior or similar sides and riding our luck. We've been poor against the best sides, much worse than Wolves, who conversely have failed to do as well against less able opponents.

    I would therefore opt for a change to 3 at the back. Not sure who I prefer at right back, may be Janmaat better suited to wingbackery.

    .........................Gomes
    ..........Mariappa Kabasele Cathcart
    Femenia........................................Choleyboo
    ......Doucoure Capoue Hughes/Chalobah
    ..........................Deulofeu
    ....................Captain Cojones
     
  28. We don't.

    If City are on it they muller us.

    We win if they have an off day / Delia or Pereyra does something outrageous / the ref takes pity on us.

    I would go 532 defensive and see if we can get an occasional counter attack.
     
  29. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    The ref takes pity on us lol
     
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  30. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Can't happen now with VAR. Killing the game.
     
  31. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    We have absolutely no chance. None at all.

    Zero, zip, nada. Not a snowball's chance in hell.

    Don't know why we're even bothering turning up. It's going to be a walkover. City will breeze to victory.












    It's the wild impossibility of overturning these certainties, of the shock win, that's commented on by football fans all around the world, that upsets all the odds, that's going to make our win oh so, so sweet....
     
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  32. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Utter piffle.
     
  33. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    You've not seen me play tennis. The gap between me and RF is vast. I've never beaten him and never will.
     
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  34. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

    Unless you are a very good tennis player, I would say the gap between us and Man City is a lot narrower than between you and any tennis player on the ATP Tennis Circuit!
     
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  35. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    We can't beat them so my advice is get lashed and enjoy the occasion.
     
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