Been wanting to say something on this as I believe this is where the problem started. We didn’t have a proper pre-season. What I mean by that is that the attitude of the players was wrong then. It then carried in to the Brighton where our players admitted that they thought they could just turn up. If we get relegated it’s because of our pre-season. Fitness levels aren’t where they need to be, the mentality of it’s just pre-season, carried into the season. The set up of pre-season was all wrong. We didn’t try anything new during pre-season. So not only are we behind points wise, but mentally we are behind and physically we are behind. This international break needs to be used as a pre-season. Fecking RUN! And RUN! Get fitness levels up. Play against other teams and whoever takes it as joke is dropped. We are starting again. We can catch other teams, we just need a run of 3/4 wins which is possible but it has to start against a falling Spurs. Don’t respect them, don’t fear them. Kick the crap out them, be all over them like a rash and freakin’ hustle!!
I agree, pre-season was appalling. We had these flash pre-season games against, but only had 4 games in total. It was very strange that was our pre-season. Just 4 games. I just don't understand where this complacency came from. From top to bottom Watford's attitude towards this season has been all wrong. There's no hiding place from it...…...we can see what an epic fail it's been just from looking at the league table. The club can throw as many excuses for it as they want, but there are no excuses. We're not a newly promoted side. We not in our second season......we are an established Premier League club now. We retained our players. We do not have a major injury crisis. There is no reason for it, apart from arrogance and complacency.
This thought came to me today. In this first two years we had really bad injuries. It is a real testament to the team that we survived. Now with supposedly better players and no injuries??? [crying emoji]
I agree with this-having sacked the manager/Head Coach and with the owner quite normally and properly delegating responsibility to the Chairman/CEO will this mean Scott Duxbury is on thin ice-in business that level of executive ultimately carries the can for failure-he was lauded last year for our cup final place/top half (almost) finish and they both made a statement promising to improve on 2018/9 season. Whilst it is still only 8 games in, if we not only fail to improve upon last season but actually go down whilst the owner will see the value of his investment decline, he will have to face up to the disappointment of the fans in the face of that statement and may need another sacrificial lamb alongside QSF
Well you say run and run but a lot of new breed managers say that isn't really the idea of Pre-season now - more working with the ball shape with/without it. Not that the latter has worked very well either! We played a lot of sides who had more of the ball than us - even QPR did so there was hardly any chance for our attackers to build up confidence/momentum and of course Welbeck and Sarr weren't around for the Pre-season anyway. Basically it was the same squad plus Dawson. No fresh faces to liven things up and maybe the players were as "bored" as Andre Gray said he was in Austria?
Agree it was weird and in hindsight felt off, particularly amongst the forwards. Sarr and Welbeck had no pre-season, nor did Pereyra. Deulofeu was injured for most of it, and we now know Deeney was carrying the injury that needed surgery. We gave quite a lot of time to Ken Sema, only to get rid of him at the last knockings. Success has fallen off the radar and Okaka got sentenced to another year's hard graft at Udinese. We've now got a coach who doesn't play with wingers and a record signing who's a winger. To get round this, he's going to insist he can play upfront, just like he did with Amrabat...
If we are going to stick with the 3 5 2 formation then Sarr, Hughes and Delafoo must be played in their natural positions. Welbeck should be good enough to partner Gray/Deeney. I would say Welbz and Deeney might work well with Gray being utilised as a super sub role. Drop Doucoure' for Quina and get Capoue back fit. I can't believe this, but Prodl looked pretty decent Saturday, shame that injury sprung up.
Deulofeu had the best season of his career last season in terms of goals and assists playing as a striker (second if we include a ridiculous season he had for the Barca B team as a teenager!). He also said he prefers playing up front and closer to the goal. It's not ideal to play Sarr through the middle but he's played there before for Rennes and it might suit him when he gets used to it. That's if we do keep the 532!
How unusual was it that we attended the exact same training facility in pre-season for the second season in a row? Could it be taken as another example of the club's apparent complacent approach to the pre-season?
I swear to god we need to wrap Prodl up in cotton wool and put his legs in alloy. He is a good defender, but his injury flare up's again and again. I know he is getting on a bit (as most of our side are), but when he's on form and his head is in the game he can play really well. He almost certainly won't feature at Spurs - which is a shame as if we want to get anything out of that we need to be tight defensive. Who will QSF bring in? Masina? Kiko? Out of position won't really matter, well not to our defence anyway.
Many members on this site stated the warning of complacency before this season even begun. You have to be fit in any sport, we are just fit enough. The club just thought it could sail through another season with the same old players. Now, we need to defend in numbers and hope for the best.
Prodl is a good player, but his injury record was very poor before he joined Watford. He was a risk, but the price was ok.