Looking at the league table is extremely depressing, however, two wins and it all changes, but the games are disappearing now. 23 matches to go and we've got to win at least 9 of them in all probability. It does look hopeless, and this is why I was so annoyed with Flores' approach at home. We need to take chances, be brave and at least have a bit of a go, especially at home. We have the players to do it. We need to reset completely but that's difficult at this stage of the season. We've not taken the lead at home since April 4th, which in itself is just insane. Are we going to get out of this? well I had given up a long time ago because I just could not see this side turning things around, but those clubs in safety are still on around 15 points. There is an opportunity to pick up points, but we have to be brave, confident and avoid silly mistakes. The next few home games we need to take advantage of, starting with Palace. Then it's United, Villa, Wolves and Everton. Apart from Liverpool, the away games don't look quite so formidable either. Sheff Utd, Bournemouth, Villa & Brighton. We need to get this new coach in as soon as possible (tomorrow??), take the squad away on a mini break, and reconnect. Set out a plan of how we are going to approach games. At home really go for it, away from home, sure be more compact and try to chip out a result. Any result away from home is fine, as long as it is not a defeat of course. Home is where we have to be strong. Looking at the next 6 games, we have to consider we have a chance in 5 of them to actually win. We have to believe we can win these and play without fear. If you fail you fail, but at least you've gone down with guns blazing, rather than in this timid whimper of recent games.
Worryingly Palace have picked up form as of late. They will almost certainly look at us as winnable. They also know if they get the first goal on current form it's done. We took the lead at Southampton and should of won that game. Their equalising goal was pathetic defensivly from us. We score so few goals due to a hapless attack and blunt midfield, that keeping a lead is just as hard as taking it. With our defence we need at least two a game. We can barely score one. We cannot even score at home when on top. Chelsea was a penalty. I know we need home wins, but teams will just sit back and wait to almost be given a chance to score, and they will. Our home form is what will relegate us, and that is the saddest thing. Unless that changes very quickly.
OK. Did Vardy get a yellow for the first penalty appeal? If so being the pedantic p r I c k i am. He should of seen red for not only fouling Quina, but by also grabbing his ankle stopping Dom getting to his feet. Sorry but if the Evans tickle is a penalty then there should be five every game. Its getting more embarrassing by the week. Drawing on that I watched the Sakho ball winning challenge yesterday where he got a straight red. I'm still scratching my head how it's even classed as a free kick. Give it another 15 years and it will be non contact effin pussies
Wind it in. Filbert is a decent and respectful opposition contributor who gets involved well with this forum, with all its quirks and humour. Completely unnecessary comment coming from someone who has complained they’ve been unfairly attacked in the past.
Quite. Have a squad dismantled and be expected to get automatic promotion with whatever random players Giraldi has decided to add to the Gomes/Cathcart/Marriapa/Deeney spine? No thanks.
Agree completely. As we said at the time Flores not setting the team out to attack against Sheff Utd, Bournemouth and Burnley at home was unforgivable. And likely terminal as those games have been wasted without scoring a single goal. The appointment of Flores was a disgraceful lazy decision and has cost us so much.
Its easy to blame Flores, but the reality is we had numerous chances in all those matches. If all your attackers are hopeless, then there's little point in setting up to attack
If your conversion rate is hopeless you need to create more chances. And the reality is that Flores played 5 at the back with a defensive midfield and we scored zero at home against Sheff Utd, Bournemouth and Burnley. Those are the facts.
A 100 chances or 1 chance, all the same if your players don't shoot. I thought Mullins had us setup in a more positive fashion than Flores last night, and yet I at no point felt like we were going to score. We could appoint Guardiola today, and I'd still put money on us not scoring against Palace
Are you suggesting because Gray and Deeney are pony and Doucoure can’t hit a barn door the limitation of our ambition should be 0-0? As in not even bother to attack? I don’t understand your logic. We may as well at least try and score a goal. Draws are no good to us.
You could say the same for a few. Still plenty of fan boys for Deulofeu who is a complete waste of a shirt, shorts, socks, tights, gloves and a snood. But I'm sure he'll have his team post something snazzy on Instagram about Saturday being a final and needing to 'fight'. Pussies, the lot of them. I'm looking forward to the Championship, looking forward to playing the filth again, and looking forward to 85% of our squad moving on.
You’ll be fine in that regard. You can still get something out of this season, I reckon Sarr will make a big difference in the second half of the season. You just need some goals.
We weren't clinical, and in this league you get punished for that. Flores wasn't ambitious with his football, but we still had chances to score in nearly the games he was in charge Facts are that Shef Utd are 11 points ahead of us despite having 48 shots on target this season to our 50.
Looking back at the match and what struck me was the lack of energy, from both teams. It was like Leicester knew they would win and a goal would present itself as long as they didn't do anything silly, and that's exactly how it panned out. Leicester did create chances though, and very good ones. They had two glorious chances to score in the first 3 minutes and another 20 seconds into the second half. They had another when the lino flagged, but play carried on and it would have stood had it gone in. Then there was the clumsy challenge by Mapps on Vardy. Sure, Vardy does dive, but Mapps caught him and that was clear. I was surprised VAR did not overturn that so I'd say that's the second VAR break we've had this season....so 2-6 down now. However, that injustice was counter-balanced in the same game as Pawson awarded the most pathetic penalty imaginable later on, which totally changed the game and took it away from us. So, once again, interference from an official has cost us. Pawson usually gives soft penalties against us. Real Sociedad (gave them a soft penalty), Brighton (no award for a clear handball by Murray) and yesterday (another soft penalty). He also sent off Deeney last season against Arsenal. So he really doesn't like us much. I thought the second Leicester goal showed our problems conclusively. Mapps gets nutmegged and Maddison advances. But we did have a covering defender, but inexplicably Cathcart decides to run away from Maddison instead of towards him. This opens the path so Maddison has a clear run 1 v 1 against Foster. This is not the first time Cathcart has defended like this. Not sure why he does it, as a defender's instinct is surely to run to the ball/man when the situation is desperate. I remember the goal against Brighton or maybe West Ham this season, where he and Dawson both run away from the forward giving him an easy task to score. Why do they do this? It's bizarre and one of the reasons why we concede so many goals. Going forward we were clumsy at best. We had good opportunities but hesitation and bad touches robbed us from getting shots off every single time. Doucoure was great at breaking up play, but when it came to his first touch or passing ability he was just dreadful. He wasn't alone though. What did hero Deeney do? Totally anonymous, although he was our best defender. Sarr was our only bright light up front. Deulofeu does try, but he's trying to do it all himself and ends up losing the ball too cheaply. The wing backs/full backs are so easy to play against. Constantly teams play the ball in behind and they are totally unaware. It catches them out all the time. We don't have a full back who can defend correctly. Kiko was dreadful last night, but Janmaat, Masina, Holebas are all vulnerable to the ball being played in behind them. You can blame a lack of confidence, but last night was a defeat waiting to happen and I don't think Leicester played all that well. They were lethargic themselves, but maybe we brought them down to our level. Massive improvements are required, but I think it's beyond this team to be able to reach the levels they used to be able to get to. We desperately need that new coach and he has to provide the fabled new bounce syndrome to somehow kickstart these players into playing. Hopefully there will be an announcement today on the new appointment. If not, then I fear things have not gone well in our search which will only add to our problems.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Doucouré . I’ve no doubt he’s a great player and unlike some I think me was decent last season overall ( ok, not hitting the heights of the previous season ) , but he has been consistently underperforming this season and didn’t stop giving the ball away last night . I don’t think there’s any lack of effort but something is not right with him . This must be a major reason, as well as confidence as to why we are struggling . It’s a shame Chalobah no longer appears to be an option to replace him .
I can't comment on the match as it was the Hoddesdon LTC agm. Here are the highlights: The bar sec and team captain,OGF,did not attend as she was stuck in traffic in Enfield. The outgoing membership secretary,a witless overbearing mother of a hypochondriac child was given a bunch of flowers. No one applauded. The incoming membership secretary,Dozy Darren,a man who can talk the hind legs of all donkeys,commented on every possible topic,apart from my coaching report. Thank heavens for small mercies. Three words into my report my colleague's text alert sounded. It is apparently 'Yoda' from 'Star Wars' saying ''message from the dark side there is". My colleague is in his 60th year and his professionalism is... The squiffy old dame of a president,repeated every comment that was made at every stage and hi jacked a conversation I was having with a parent about our respective football clubs. Odd. Meeting closed at 9.20pm. Everyone had a hot drink apart from Dozy Darren who had a beer and stroked his chin sagely.
I didn't watch the game as I was meeting with my creative writing group, but I had my fingers crossed that Watford were playing some creative football. Apparently not, sadly. I just wish we were closer to the end of the season, it all looks so hopeless.
How can we expect to win games when we barely shoot let alone score? We get into such promising positions but don't get our shot off.
We were utter trash as usual, toothless up front and useless at the back - same old really. If Liverpool weren't so far ahead Leicester could challenge for the title again - must be pretty damn good being a Leicester fan over the last few years. Time for us to start clearing out the players on massive wages and start investing in a squad that will get us out the championship. Wholesale changes are needed, too many losers and journeymen in this squad, needs to be completely gutted from top to bottom. Hopefully we look towards a progressive head coach and give them guarantees that they'll have a couple of seasons to rebuild and get us out of the Championship. At least I know now not to waste anymore money of this spineless bunch of turd burglars.
First match I've managed to watch in a while. I don't think we were particularly bad but just never looked like we would score. I think relegation is inevitable. The positives: Sarr was fantastic I thought, man of the match for me. Work rate, technical ability, movement, speed, etc. all on show. The only issue is a brilliant winger is made redundant when the rest of the attackers are so poor. I thought defensively we weren't too bad. Foster made some good saves and Masina was good except the (soft) penalty and Mariappa was decent except the penalty that should have been given (more uselessness by VAR...). Cathcart was untroubled all night and looked decent. Femenia however, is absolutely shocking. Would gladly never see him play for us again. We struggled in midfield I thought. Hughes was anonymous but didn't lack effort. Doucoure was shockingly bad, based on last night's performance he needs dropped although with Cleverley out I'm not sure who replaces him. Capoue struggled too. He kept trying extravagant long balls but they were poorly executed and usually resulted in the target having to stand still waiting or even back track to receive the ball, as opposed to running on to it. Deulofeu was dreadful and a waste of a shirt and Deeney didn't do much either. We don't have the goals in this side to score enough to stay up it would seem. It speaks volumes that our first two subs are two completely ineffectual players in Success and Gray - both who offer close to nothing. The first thing I'd do in January is try and offload Doucoure.
The players have clearly come back unfit and ill disciplined following the summer break. Irrespective of quality, that's on Gracia. This is the first season we've been markedly less fit than our opposition. However, there is no question that he's a better manager than Quique, who is absolutely atrocious. Quique makes Tony Pullis look like Guardiola. I took some stick for saying how terrible he was after we brought him back, as I did when I was one of the first to mention how useless he was and how much we relied on luck the first time round. Interestingly, if I remember correctly, @wfcmoog was the other, which is why I was quite surprised for the lack of blame towards him this time round - perhaps confusing his accounts again. If there's one silver lining, it's that we literally could not possibly manage to have a manger worse than him for the rest of my lifetime. We could be languishing in the Conference South, and still likely wont have to deal with a team sitting back and defending a 1-0 loss. For me, that would be progress.
I will hold my hands up. I let optimism get the better of me for once and thought that Quique would tighten up our leaky defence and then, through ugly football, give us a chance at survival. I was wrong. We had a couple of false dawns - the fightback vs Arsenal, 3 draws in a row (Sheff Utd, Muff and Spurs, the win against Norwich and yet each time, instead of building on it or even maintaining, we collapsed soon after, back into our losing ways. I still maintain that the squad and club culture is rotten to the core, but I also concede that Quique did not improve our situation and the decision to hire him looks like a panicked, flailing move by a management team which has lost the plot. I never liked Quique the first time, so can't really explain why I thought he would work this time around. I was wrong.
If you’re talking about their potential ability/ the max level we’ve seen from them then it would be. Based on form this season it’s not overstated at all. As Jordi said on FTRE (I think it was Jordi): it is hard to get relegated. You have to be very consistently very bad to lose enough games to manage it. Look at Southampton the last few years. They’ve been awful but just 2/3 wins in the space of 6 weeks is the little boost they need to climb out of it. To be incapable of winning more than 1 game in 15 is an impressive feat of ineptitude.
It will be easier to stay up this year than get out of the Championship next season. All January transfer activity must be geared towards sorting this mess out now. It may be too late but there is always hope. Liked for 'turd burglars'!
What we need are what GT would describe as 'muck and nettle' players ….. we have too few currently who are prepared to roll up sleeves and do the dirty stuff. Deeney return has had no impact whatsoever, missing Cleverley more in my view.
Yeah because being racially attacked in the politics session is the same isn’t it.. If you actually look back I made a comment in jest about him criticising Watford players, Filbert got arsey so I bit back. Nice noble thing for you to do though Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just watched Ref Watch and Dermott Gallagher said the penalty should not have been given. It was just two players jostling in the box. They were both at it. So, well done Pawson, screwed us over yet again. To add balance they did say the first one should have been given and there was a strong suspicion he gave the second penalty because of the first one he didn't give. It's just so infuriating that when we get a bad call, there is absolutely no rebalance, but when we get one that goes for us, it's balanced out immediately during the match. We get shafted every which way. Probably why Mia Khalifa likes us.
Deeney is all fur coat and no knickers. Will get into a few roughhouse challenges with a centre back and do one random full spring charge back per game to try and win the ball (often sliding in and getting a red too) but actually offers nothing else. He has been a terrible player for a couple of years now. Only people outside of Watford, pundits and delusional idiots think he is the answer to any of our problems now. He is one who should have gone in the summer - maybe a big money move to the States or something where his reputation and love of cheeseburgers would have made him an attractive proposition for some such stupid club. As a Premier League footballer, he's laughably out of his depth.
Unfortunately this is completely accurate. However a large percentage of fans still believe him to be a hybrid of Pele and Jesus Christ.
I can’t believe Deeney is getting pelters by some people. I thought he was one of the few who put a shift in. One particular moment in the match, Deeney busted a gut running back into midfield, trying to regain possession, Doucoure standing motionless just watched on.
