FA Cup Final - Manchester City 6-0 Watford FC - 18/05/2019 Match Thread

Maybe not top 6 , but I said a similar thing to my son about the top 2. But that is not Watford. That is everyone. I do worry that the gulf will get so big I will start to lose the interest ... I’m hanging on for us to win something!

 

Well he's happy at least...

 

What exactly about Fosters last six games suggests that he should have started? He's looked dodgy.

 

Foster has made mistakes, but he's fitter than Gomes and fills the goal more because he's broader

 

One of the worst football experiences of my life. A hideous 90 mins.

Edit: THE worst. Everything can **** off.

 

At least Emma presented 606 and they didn't find some Manc to do the job better

 

The fans were good today. It made a change.
Ok, what were Javi's tactics? After 5 mins, Man City had all 10 outfield players just 30 yards from our goal. Utter madness to play against City in this fashion.
Watford played as if the game didn't matter to them. They gave up - period. Complete dross from them and they should be embarrassed.
It was such an easy game for City, who did not play that well, that you can only laugh about it.

Gomes, A nice guy. Sentimental selection. Can't kick it. How many keepers do you know who can barely reach the half way line with a goal kick? At fault for the 2nd goal along with Kiko. Going to be a Pastor soon. Jesus can save, unlike Gomes. 4

Kiko, l like him, but can't head a ball or defend well. Good going forward. 5

Cathcart, Taxi please. Your time is up. Looked **** scared today as he was at Bournemouth this season when he was banging his hand against his head. 5

Mariappa, He is truely out of his depth. Time to go. Too short for a centre half. What is he 5' 9, 5' 10? Weak header out for the 1st goal. 3

Holebas, Gave them so much room. Hopeless. He hates to defend. 34 yrs old. Goodbye. 3

Hughes, l never noticed him. More chance of seeing Howard Hughes today. 3

Doucoure, Very poor today. Looked tired from calling his agent so many times. Jogging around the pitch. Awful. 3

Pereyra, Golden chance missed. Head dropped and went missing. Is he on his way out? 4

Capoue, Strolled around. Looked lost and knackered. Hard work to be in our midfield today. 5

Deulofeu, Our best player early on. Lost heart and was thinking of the restaurants in Milano as the game wore on. 7

Deeney, Looked unfit and ready for the bars of Birmingham. Argued with Javi on the sideline after 5 mins . No Captain Marvel today, just the Invisible Man. 4

JG, no idea of his tactics. Will we ever know?

This a great chance to shine. A one off game and we collapsed like a deck of cards. Sò City are a good side, but we didn't look as if we were even trying to make a game of it.
The fans were good today. If the players had shown the belief and desire that most of the fans kept showing, then it may have made a difference.

It is only a game and no one died. It was always a long shot, but their attitude and performance was awful and that will be hard to forget.

Oh well........

 

I agree. And the odd thing is, I seemed to be alone in really enjoying City's 6-0 win at the Vic last season. A different experience because we gave them the goals this time, or because we were humiliated before an enormous worldwide audience? I'm not sure

 

I haven't seen the 5th or 6th goals but I'd hazard a guess that they were like the first 4 and weren't the work of a brilliant side cutting their way through but from the same stupid defensive mistakes that we've made all season and most notably in the last 6 weeks.

I recall being blown away by their class when they won 6-0 at Vicarage Road.

That period where they knocked it around like a warm up for 10 minutes whilst we stood and watched summed it up. They didn't even have to really try.

 

The worst thing? City wanted it. We were massive underdogs, but we had no fight. We were like Audley Harrison when he used to chicken out when the bell sounded.
They bullied us physically on and off the ball.

 

Okay.... so I’ll use your basis that the form of no other team can be used to judge Watford.

I’m not sure this is scientifically secure. Especially as the whole point of a league is that it does matter who other teams are and their form. That is kind of the whole point. I don’t get why this is difficult to grasp. But as you profess to not know the facts of other teams I agree that is only fair to exclude them. I wouldn’t want to use the stats of another team such as Man Utd that have survived on a shoe string budget against you (despite them having a terrible end to the season).

On that basis Graham Taylor should have been sacked:
- 00/01 = 8 league games no win.
- 99/00 = 8 league games no win (we did then win the last game of the season, but that would still be worse than Javi)
- 99/00 = 20 games 1 win
- 95/96 = 7 games no wins
-85/86 = 6 games no wins
-85/85 = 7 games no wins
-84/85 = 6 games no wins
-84/85 = 8 games no wins
- 83/84 = 6 games no wins
- 82/83 = 9 games no wins
- 80/81 = 6 games no wins
- 79/80 = 9 games no wins

Wow how many bullets did he miss! Based on your criteria Graham Taylor should have been sacked 12 times.

I’m sure you will come back at me, but my point is you are looking at such a small number of games that it is not at all statistically relevant. This is why I mentioned the other teams.

PS don’t bring excel into this or I’ll start to get upset. Excel is my one true friend.

 

Somewhat hypothetical.

 

Manchester City vs Watford Highlights
https://soccerhighlightshd.com/video/manchester-city-vs-watford-highlights/

 

Our only hope is the McDonald’s guy!

Get a grip.

Pozzo is fine. In fact, he’s perfect for us.

 

We fans controlled the controllables.

 

Excellent.

Facts are a good way to put impulsive opinions in context.

 

Character building.

The Darwinian positive is that this result will rid us of the whiney melts who were really @rsenal in the first place.

 

Ultimately, a poor showing.

Let’s come back again & do it better.

 

Mods, can you signal the All Clear once the knicker wetters have concluded their, well, knicker wetting?

 

Lol 6 0 in our biggest game in whatever years. Absolutely tragic

Are the guys who are being paid 60k a week going to refund us?

 

A worse result than against Chelsea our tinpot bankrupt side under Mackay but in a CUP FINAL. Only this squad of cast-offs from vaguely-recognisable European teams would have such little fight in them they would let in SIX goals in the biggest game of their career. I have never been more ashamed of a Watford team in my life - perhaps there are a handful of Watford teams in the last 20 years that could have matched the scoreline through being completely **** and out of their depth but this is the only squad I can think of that would have achieved it through throwing in the towel entirely after 2 goals. There is something completely wrong with the mentally in every player in this squad as no other team in the top two divisions would have left Wembley stadium shaming their whole town to the extent this team did yesterday. All of them have to go.

 

On the bright side my first team won the FA cup and I can look forward to my second team winning the champions league YNWA

 

I think I'd rather forget what happened on the pitch after the 3rd. Complete humiliation caused by our heads dropping, still pushing for a consolation leaving them space and City playing without fear at their ruthless best.

I'd rather focus on how we got there, the pre match and defiantly flag waving/showing support.

I stayed to watch our players get their runners up medals and to see City lift the cup and politely clapped them for it - I was hurting inside but sometimes you have to be gracious in defeat. Obviously the defeat was sickening but the overall occasion just about outweighed that for me.

I think I worked out there have been 25 different teams in the cup final in my lifetime (since 1985). The gap is growing and as man City get better, the chance of a Wigan or a Leicester diminishes. Liverpool lost one game, got 97 points and still didn't win the league.

 

We've suffered from the same weaknesses for 3 years and they still haven't been fixed.

We can put out a half decent midfield.

Our defence is fcuking woeful.

Our attack is toothless.

This won't be a popular opinion but Deeney being treated as untouchable is a big part of the problem. He's reached his ceiling and we need to move past him if the team is to move forward.

 

It is the same as every game against the top 6 goes season.

We looked really good the first half hour, missed our chance and gifted a dumb goal.

We then get a head rush and leave acres of room for the opposition to get another in quick succession and effectively lose the game right there.

We get away with it playing the rest of the league, but you only get a few chances against teams like city and they will be clinical with theirs.

I feel sorry for those who went, but let's not forget city wanted this - this was no quarter final or dead rubber game. And they have collectively played in tens of finals, we have played in none.

We are too open and too optimistic against the top 6 and it means we get smashed every time. There are no points for playing games 'the right way'!

Next season I want to see us park the bus in those 12 matches keep it 0 0 until 60 minutes and then start to open up.

 

We parked the bus first half and were 2-0 down. We had to try something, anything to get back into it, but it only served to open up space for City.

There were moments in the second half where we just couldn't keep pace with them.

The one thing we could have done better was the physical battles, we could have knocked over sterling or silva once or twice but we didnt, in fact sterling outjumped and outmuscled our defence a few times.

 

20th? Where did you get that from, I think about 7 teams let in more than us, making us 13th?

 

Thankfully our midfield shields the defence rather well, and Foster bails them out of trouble a lot, or else they'd concede far more. Put the likes of Mariappa and Kabasele behind the Huddersfield midfield for example and there'd be even more goals against

 

What always puzzles me after games like this is you wonder why we couldn’t have put in a bit of effort like Swansea did against City earlier in the cup. What was the differentiators between the two performances? Did City play a weaker team that game? I can’t remember.

What hurts is we looked like mugs in front of a worldwide audience. Not sure we’re going to gain a wider fan base being turned over like yesterday.

 

So was it blatant or 50/50? It's can't be both.

 

Would definitely have got on board with this opinion last year, but he's had an excellent season and most importantly has made his strike partners look better. With Deeney, Gray can do an impression of a competent footballer, without, he just looks lost. I mean he is limited, but unless we pay mega money or just stumble across a hidden gem, anyone we bring in is gonna be limited. There's that, plus the fact that the squad is lacking in leaders without him

 

For a club with our resources, we are unlikely to win anything, we know that. We are also unlikely to ever finish in the top half. The only real challenge each season will be "can we avoid a relegation battle?" until the season we are relegated.
Would being a mid table championship team be more fun ? It probably would, with the excitement of possible promotion and relation each season. But then we wouldn't have the fun of being murdered by the big teams every season.
Bottom line is footy fans are only happy when their team wins. It would feel much better to be a Salford fan today than a Watford fan.

 

Where?

 

Pointing out the flaws is one thing. It's usually done with no constructive criticism, just slagging players and the manager off. - see below for typical examples. What does he expect from a small mid-table club without the financial clout of the top six? We simply can't throw money around to replace those in our team who can't perform to the highest quality every game. Everton have done that and look where that hasn't got them. We're already punching above our weight with potential to do better. If he wants perfection he can go and support City, although no doubt he'd be calling for Guardiola's head because he didn't get to the Champions League Final. Unfortunately he has become one of those so-called fans who think they're entitled. He says 'come at me all you want' but then tells me he doesn't give a **** what I think when I do. He cares like a two year old throwing tantrums in a supermarket and that's why we could do without fans like him.