Yeah he was absolute toilet. Not just that no-look pass instead of taking it to the corner but he didn't work back to support Mariappa at all, just leaving him one on one. Complete waste of a squad place - surely any one of us would think that if we came on with ten minutes to go and were bottom of the league, you'd run yourself into the ground and give everything to help your teammates across the line. Not Isaac, just sauntered around. Contrast that with Sarr, he's a bit naive defensively but busts his gut to get back.
I'll go on record. I said Pearson was a **** appointment when he came in. A respectable performance vs Liverpool, and a win against Manure. I'll keep saying it - He's a **** appointment.... (Sorry Nige)
https://www.nbcsports.com/video/extended-highlights-watford-2-manchester-united-0 If you've got a vpn you can set to USA his is v.good.
not wanting to diminish the stoic defending or incredible team performance, but aside from Sarr's shot (which he miss-hit) did we have any other attempts on goal?
Isaac Success contribution in three steps Assignment: Hold up ball Must time waste A. Run into corner and use strength B. Hold up ball and try and draw a foul C. Kick ball straight to opposition player
That has to happen I exchanged words with a fan at Woking 12 months ago after he accused me of not supporting the team because I said success was rubbish and should leave. A year on I’d say success has actually got worse. From his appearances, I’d say he has no interest in this football club so should do himself and us a favour and move on. Honestly think okaka or sema would have tried harder
With Pedro, Cucho, Suarez, Daley and Cassidy on the conveyor belt I could imagine a clear out of strikers in the summer.
He’s definitely worth more than £5 million. He’s a “premium” Championship striker. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For fans who get off on skill, flicks & tricks and think hard graft is an 'old man' thing of the past, yesterday was proof that hard work should be a minimum expectation. They worked their nuts off and got a win...but I will admit there is a part of me slightly aggrieved that they've been lacking effort and work rate up until now.
If it’s going to cost us £5m for Swansea to take Success off our hands I think we should just go ahead and pay it and be done with it
We have Norwich Villa and Southampton at home plus Villa away. 7 wins is not unrealistic but we would have to be really on our game in the 2nd half of the season. Only losing 6 is a tall order. Maybe more likely to lose 8 and need to win 8. Yesterday we played Success Delboy and Deeney who rarely score from open play. We need Sarr to keep scoring and other players who have scored in batches in the past to step up (2 out of Pereyra Doucs and Caps would b handy). It came out after Joao Pedro left Fluminense that he was playing with an ankle injury and getting injections. If the injury heals then maybe.......just maybe......But someone's gotta score the goals to keep us up.
Absolutely agree. Unfortunately there are a number of people that will grumble about Deeney whatever he does. The fact we haven't upgraded on him is the clubs fault, not his. He was superb yesterday and defended from the front. His defensive work was great and the fact United's backline were all over the shop is down to him.
Should be used to it by now. Whenever one of the 14 peasants gets a result against one of the Sky labelled 'big 6' it will always still be about the big boy.
Agree. Can’t believe that Nigel “leave everything out there on the pitch” Pearson will have appreciated his jogging to close down the defender at the end of the game, when he’d only been on the pitch a few minutes.
That was a fantastic match yesterday and the shot in the arm I was expecting. United have a lot of quality. I think we rode our luck and good fortune was smiling on us for once, as United spurned a lot of good chances. Lingard was especially arrogant with his attempted chip. I think maybe United's swagger went to our advantage as it was clear in the way they approached the game they thought we'd just wanted to swap shirts and ask for autographs. They didn't give us the necessary respect and paid the price. It was only when Pogba came on they looked any threat at all. By that time, it was always likely our two goal advantage would see us through, and so it was. It was a perfect match in many ways. Almost everything went for us, although I thought the foul on De Gea for our disallowed goal was soft, considering Maguire's pinning down of Cathcart when he used him as a pole to gain height only to head straight at Foster, would have stood. It's a ridiculous interpretation of the rules that opponents can manhandle defenders without punishment, but the merest hint of a touch on a keeper and it's a foul. Personally I thought we played a lot better at Anfield, but we were professional, worked hard and no one made that characteristic "silly mistake". No controversial decisions went against us either. No handball goals conceded or obvious penalties denied. It makes such a difference. We're much better than 9 points from 17 games, but it is what it is. We have to prove we're better than that, and do the talking on the pitch. I don't think we're as bad as the league table suggests. We've had some stinkers for sure, but in the main, we've been on the wrong side of fine margins. Yesterday that changed. Staying up is still a tall order. Things have to go our way from now until the end of the season. But the harder you work, the luckier you get. They have to have this desire and application in every match now. It's easy to be up from United at home, but Sheff Utd away and Villa at home are just as crucial. We need 4 points from those two at least. We certainly cannot afford to lose to Villa. Some fans will still need convincing, and of course, if we get poor results over Christmas, then yesterday will count for very little. But this is a huge step in the right direction. Defence, which was always believed to be our achilles, seems vastly improved and dependable. This is purely down to attitude. Getting a strong dependable base, is the easy part if you have a true team ethic. Massive credit to Pearson for creating that. This desire on it's own will earn us points. Finishing and taking chances is still a problem though. We didn't create too much yesterday, but you have to take the opposition into account. They have strong players all over the park, so creating good opportunities is going to be at a premium. Let's be honest, our goal was a gift from the keeper. The shot was yet another mishit, but this time goes in. When it's your day, that happens. But to get out of the mess we're in you are going to need some luck. My god, we certainly deserve it. It was a great game to be at. Fans we're really up for it in the end, and didn't want to leave after the final whistle. It's been a long time since we won, or even had taken the lead at home. Hopefully this is how it's going to be for the remainder of the season.
It won’t be nearly enough to hope that what we’ve got will get us the goals we needed, including Jao Pedro. Sarr clearly can’t finish very well either, he scored a great goal at Southampton and has pretty much scuffed every other chance he’s had. I’d be amazed if Deeney scores from open play this year, Docuore can no longer even hit the target let alone score, Bobby rightly wont play enough and Gerry will probably score a couple of worldies over the second half of the season but no more than that. A traffic cone would get more goals than success would. Capoue will only ever score two or three a season. What we already have just won’t be nearly enough. If we get 4 points from Sheffield United and Villa then we’ll have a fighting chance and the Pozzos will then need to back us with a decent loan striker, a 15 goal a season one. They could be from anywhere in Europe, just somebody with the technical ability to finish a chance. The problem with this however is that signing a half decent loan player is likely to be highly contingent on incoming and outgoings at the parent club. This could go right down to the end of the window by which time another 5 or so games would’ve disappeared. It’s a crying shame wellbeck is injured, he is exactly what we needed.
I have discovered the answer and it's lime cordial! I changed ny pre match drink at W Herts from orange juice and hey presto! Kiko had a shot on target.
I certainly agree with this, it feels as though we haven't had any luck at all this season. Yesterday we got it.
What a great early Christmas present that was. It's incredible what a bit of hard work and some luck can do for the team and the crowd. Been a while since I've seen the crowd like that at the end. I actually felt we played better at Liverpool but the fight we showed yesterday was great to see. We have the ability to stay up with the squad we have but as others have mentioned it's going to be the goals that's the hardest part. Norwich and Southampton both have a goalscorer which is a huge plus for them which is why I feel Villa may end up going down especially having lost McGinn as well. For us though I couldn't be critical of anybody including Success. That is not to say I think he should play but he hasn't played for quite a while so don't want to too critical of him for yesterday. Foster was excellent and his form has definitely improved Full backs - I'm very critical of Mariappa and he is definitely not a right back but can't fault him yesterday apart from allowing Pogba to get the wrong side of him near the end but the two or three tackle he made in the first half near the United fans epitomises his game. Femenia was clearly a better player than the form he was showing and he has really upped his game recently considering he's had to defend against Zaha, Salah and Rashford. He read the game well yesterday and made four or five excellent interceptions Cathcart and Kabasele now seem to be defending as a partnership and we look a lot better for it. It just looks a lot more organised Midfield worked incredibly hard which is why we took Doucoure and Capoue off towards the end and Chalobah did well when he came on. Doucoure still looks to be a bit low in confidence but had a better game and never let Fred or Mctommonay or what ever his name is, settle. Hughes was excellent and I like him as a more defensive midfielder as he doesn't panic when he gets the ball in tight spaces. Worked very well with Capoue. Sarr and Delefeou caused no end of problems to United at the back and while both have their faults, the direct running at pace at defenders scared the hell out of them yesterday. Those two are hugely important in our quest to stay up Deeney - Not everybody's cup of tea anymore but defended from the front and was constant pain. He certainly should have had more free kicks given for him and I don't remember being more confident about a penalty taker since Kenny Jackett. He won't score a bundle of goals but he won a lot of headers and got others involved This simply has to be the catalyst of a good run with Sheffield United and Villa to come over the next few days. Both will be difficult but winnable and we need minimum four points but six would be mighty handy Merry Christmas everybody
In a nutshell the Watford mongrel is back! Fight, bite, snap, hunting in packs for the ball, chasing lost causes, call it what you like but it's been missing. Put me in a right good mood for Christmas, "we're Watford and we're staying up", Merry Christmas!
