Watford FC 0-0 AFC Bournemouth - 26/10/2019

I genuinely believe that this is the best option with these players at this time. Committing more bodies forward will make us more open at the back without necessarily making us capable of finishing our chances.

 

I said that to my mate at the time. Masina was blowing like Moby **** after half-time, and I don't think he actually had an injury as he was stretching his calves and thighs, more like a general lack of fitness.

I can't see how that is right. The fitness staff must be experienced and well qualified and with the best equipment. That isn't just lack of match fitness, it's lack of any fitness. What's the bloke been doing for 5 months?

Shame, as I thought he was doing pretty well until he went off.

 

Possibly. But we will limp to relegation, every week getting another point or two attached. I’d rather we have it a go and risk losing comprehensively. QSF is 4 from 6 and a couple of winnable home game in that run. It’s not going to save us.

Of course the real problem is Giraldi/Pozzo disgraceful performance over 18 months with defensive recruitment.

 

Definitely. If Delbert hadn't played like Wooter, if Doucoure hadn't misplaced so many passes, if Cleverly hadn't gone off and been replaced by an off the pace Hughes, if Gray wasn't total cack by his own low standards then we might have won quite comfortably. The back 5 were solid and the way we played early in the season shows we can't pour forward. The forwards and midfield were poor, but the defence were decent.

 

Yep if there is a positive it was Masina. Hope Holebas doesn’t automatically get recalled next week as usual.

 

I think he's being asked to do the job with a **** squad. I don't blame him at all right now. Drawing games is a start. It's not enough, I agree, but there isn't a manager in history who'd convert this squad into winners right now. They're riddled with failure, weakness and shitness.

 

....yes but a squad that finished 11th last season and a cup final.....

 

Oh, and now we're seeing issues with fitness come to the fore as well. It's genuinely like our club is run by ******* clowns.

Come on 1881, get your sycophantic banner out for the man who's running this flipping sideshow.

 

If you'd noticed there's been a significant change in this squad since April.

 

Just their ability to play football ?

 

We were woeful up going forward again today, and I think it is true that you tend to make your own luck. But I also think that we've not had any luck in the box.

Just an observation.

 

Yup. Every ball that pin balls around the box seems to fall nicely to an unmarked opponent to clear.

 

In itself not a bad result. In the overall situation we are in not good at all.

Never looked like scoring unfortunately and although I know we didn't it felt like we lined up 5-5-0.

Got absolutely soaked but at least England won in the rugby

 

Doyley randomly catching the ball on the halfway line was one of those surreal moments that must surely equal the effort by Folquier, although I think laughter was mainly stifled by confusion in that instance.

 

It's a bit surreal at times. You'd think something would have fallen for us by now.

 

So basically we're stuffed.

Might as well play Quina and Sarr and see how it goes.

 

Damning stats here showing how negative Quique is:

Quique Sanchez Flores' teams drawing blanks in league games:

This season: 66% (4/6)

At Espanyol:
2017/18: 45% (15/33)
2016/17: 32% (12/38)

At #watfordfc:
2015/16: 37% (14/38)

Makes it very hard to see where those 9 or 10 wins to stay up come from.

https://twitter.com/BaitVic/status/1188194563288190978?s=19

 

Bournemouth are not a bad side; they are not great, but they have a lot of pace in the team and they have worked for years on maximising their use of it - playing on the break and so on.
They looked like more of a settled team than Watford did. Any coach would be quite right to play cautiously against them because you can end up getting mugged. QSF, in addition, had inherited a defence that was in dismal disarray and disharmony. He is in the process of trying to sort that out. The results of this effort are outstanding, in my opinion, as evinced by the recent score-lines. I doubt there were many supporters who thought he would be so successful in so short a time in stemming the flow of goals conceded; certainly I was less than enthusiastic about his return because I remember his first stint here and the resulting turgid play.
But, although the emphasis has been on strength in defence it is simply not true to say we have not tried to attack and not true to claim we have not created chances. However, the second great problem has been the impotence of our attack: We create chances but fail to take them. This is going to take a lot of turning round, I suspect. There is certainly an element of poor confidence here and we have not had luck with the bounce of the ball and with ref decisions. Maybe a lucky break or two might start us on a roll. Otherwise, it will be down to a lot of coaching, including emphasis on the psychology of play. With the possible exception of the fragile Wellbeck and the unready Sarr, our strikers aren't good enough.
Every match now is being labelled as 'must win'. But this is hysteria. We are showing improvement and there are still three quarters of the season to go. The teams at the bottom of the table are the ones which are not winning games. So you only have to have a handful of wins and you will move into the broad sunlit uplands of safety.
But I think it's going to be close and, if QSF keeps us up this season, he will have earned his money.

 

You know it’s not going well when you’re starting to think if Big Sam till the end of the season is such a bad idea..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Genuinely, I’d rather go down.

 

"Must win" aren't of course truly must win games at this stage of the season. But if you accept that we will probably need to get to something like 36 points to have a decent chance of staying up, we will need about 9 wins. We have zero wins after a quarter of the season and would need 9 wins in 28 games. The most likely games for victories are home games against the likes of muff, SU, Norwich, NUFC, Soton, and Brighton which is why they are described as "must win". We have played 3 of those teams already and not even scored. Every time we fail to beat one of those teams means we will need to win what is on paper, a more difficult game to be in with a chance of staying up.

 

All that matters now is our relative performance against Newcastle, Norwich and Southampton.

Over the last 5 games:
Norwich, Newcastle 4 points
Watford 3 points
Southampton 1 point

It's far from being over

 

Agreed. It's all subjective guesses of course but looking at the cold hard facts, I'd say it's more likely that we will go down than stay up.

 

I'd say all the bottom 4 are rubbish and couldn't choose a winner from amongst them

With Deeney and Capoue to come back it will improve our chances

 

I agree with every word you say except stylishly, no need to use that sort of praise on him!

 

Ok so 25% chance of staying up ?

 

True. But we’ve not had any quality either.

 

Tossing a coin is equal chance of heads and tails. Football isn't like that. Calculating a %age would be very complex.

 

No, I'm not trying to defend our standard of play. But sometimes a bit of luck can help a team out of a slump and I just think we havn't had a fair share.

 

We basically need to hope one of our strikers goes on a fluke run and becomes the most clinical striker in the Premiership for a while.

As I said when we brought Quique back, that’s the only reason we stayed up last time and the only reason we’re staying up this year.

 

No-one mentioned tossing a coin ?
You reckon we need to finish above those other 3 and "the bottom 4 are rubbish and couldn't choose a winner from amongst them", so roughly a one in 4 chance of staying up. That sounds about right to me.