Watford FC 3-3 Tranmere Rovers - 04/01/2020 & 1-2 AET 23/01/2020

Have I said it was wrong to pick different players for the game? No, but the team we selected should have beaten this League One bottom dweller comfortably. Whatever side we selected should have beaten a team like this. If not, then why are these guys even at the club, if they cannot perform better than League One opposition. It's a joke.

An £18.5m striker, a Belgian international, a Greek international, a £10m wonderkid, a player who is rated very highly signed from Man City, a young player of the year. The team wasn't that bad.

 

No Gilet... no likey

 

Apparently despite the victory tonight, the FA have decided to award the win to Tranmere. Gutted.

 

I think we did really well to draw in normal time. The best academy prospects we've had in recent years are of the standard of Folivi and Jakubiak, who can't even make it as regular starters for League 1 or 2 clubs. Our academy players are mainly utter tripe, the clue being that they're all released from elsewhere. The best in every year group eke out a living for a couple of years in the lower leagues whilst most bomb straight into non league.

We've managed to draw with a League 1 team of adult footballers over 90 minutes on a rancid pitch with our banter XI of non league standard children, a 36 year old mad Greek left back, a semi decent centre back, an 18 year old shivering Brazilian and the world's worst centre forward. We're the real giant killers tonight.

 

My point is, we shouldn't be losing this type of game. We could have rested some 'key' players but ensured we had enough quality to get the job done. Even had a few first teamers on the bench just in case it went wrong.

These are super fit guys. They can easily play this type of game. Some games are very demanding in the Premier League, but Tranmere are a struggling League One side and are a bit hopeless. Some of our first team could have played at half pace with slippers on and still got the job done.

We were 3-0 up in the first game at half time with a team of kids but one or two first teamers in key positions. This how easy it should have been.

 

Forgot the game was on tonight but had absolutely zero intention of paying attention.

We were always going to lose tonight. The only disappointment is that Pedro isn’t (according to reports) anywhere near the first team.

 

Think you're overstating where some of those guys are at right now. Sure we can agree the £18.5m striker really ain't all that? Kabasele - fair enough, one man doesn't make a team though. Wonderkid has only recently arrived, big transition for him. Dele - not sure why he was off at HT? Holebas is getting on a bit now and hasn't been fully fit.

The rest were mainly kids or freebies rejected from other teams. Good experience for them, but think you overestimate how good they really are. Overall today comes down to experience to - Tonight was an old fashioned cup tie on the ****** pitch. We need more depth in the squad, and if possible actually loan some of those guys out who played tonight.

 

To be fair, you already had us to go down after our last defeat. So would you say tonight makes it even more certain we will go down? Or if we won do you think maybe we would have had a small chance of staying up?

 

But we got to the final last season, and we certainly rotated the squad in the early rounds. We beat some very good sides in that run. QPR and Newcastle away. This season the way we approached Tranmere was a complete nonsense.

 

Neither was Sarr 6 weeks ago.

The kid's clearly talented. He might need some time to find his feet, but I think he'll do quite nicely for us in the near future.

 

It comes down to priorities.

Pearson’s priority is to stay in the premier league, it isn’t worth risking a half decent cup run for that.

keeping injury free, and giving our first players a rest after a hectic winter is the best way to achieve that aim.
Letting a 3-0 lead go is obviously disappointing. But we have several more important games to come this season and I think you know that.

 

I get the point about different priorities but I just think it’s terribly sad that the FA Cup has come to this, especially for quite small clubs like ours. It used to be so special.
That was the weakest match day squad I’ve ever known Watford field in a competitive game. I would really like to know if the club had any say in when the rearranged replay would be. Could they have pushed to hold this game at the weekend and the Man U game at a later date? This has certainly happened to cup ties in recent times. Maybe Tranmere wouldn’t agree because they wanted to protect the possibility of TV money if they got through. Either way we acquiesced because we didn’t care about the FA Cup.

 

LOL

 

So you think Tranmere are better than QPR and Newcastle? hmmm, interesting.

 

I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that, correct me if I’m wrong.

 

To be fair, this season is different, we are fighting for our premiership lives together with managing injuries, meant the 3rd round was played with many youngsters in the team, 2 individual errors meant a replay which was unfortunately postponed due to the weather meaning a weaker experimental team out tonight having played only two days ago.

if this helps us stay up, it will have been the right stance!

 

Adam Leventhal‏Verified account @AdamLeventhal 42m42 minutes ago
Spoke to Pearson after #WatfordFC defeat at Tranmere re Everton game.
Says Hughes & Welbeck should be ok to play part but Sarr unlikely.
Re incomings - nothing definitive, “we may, we may not”

Looks like Sarr will be out for a while then.

 

Any disappointment from this tie all comes from the game at the Vic, that was a decent team we put out, but unfortunately when Chalobah and Quina got injured, we were hanging on. Yeah, we had some players who with the right players and set-up wouldn't look out of place in the Prem, but it's one thing to look good with quality next to you, and another to carry the team on your own with very inexperienced players around you

 

Fingers crossed that the fact that we're even mentioning his name for the Everton game means that he could be back fairly soon, but I'm not putting any money on it...

 

FREAKIN GET IN THERE!!!!!!

Probably the best result we’ve had all season.

Love that our B team got some minutes for the all important run in. Especially those who lasted the whole 120mins. Been a great night of development for the kiddo’s. None of them can be banging on Pearson’s door demanding a spot in the first team. Pearson would have learnt a lot tonight.

Thankfully Gray will be moved on this window or next, and that ladies and gentleman is all that matters.

Great night, players can get some rest before Everton, who we will turn over easily at home.

 

Seriously well done to those that went safe journeys home, did any of our players come out with any credit?

 

I think it was an overexaggerating to play so many young players. We could have fielded a sprinkling of first teamers/squad players and got the job done easily. It was unnecessary to lose this. It's not a blessing. Winning is a good habit, losing is a bad habit. Two defeats and no wins in 3 now. Bad runs soon build.

We won't have Sarr for Everton by the looks of it, so all this resting of players might not pay off after all.

 

This. Obviously I'd rather stay up than put all our eggs in the cup basket, but it's really sad that it's come to this. Had we got our **** together earlier on in the season, we might have had a degree of comfort that would have allowed us to take the Cup seriously like last year (even with fringe players playing, our cup XIs were so much stronger last year than tonight)

 

That’s a blow

 

Typical Watford fan. Loves losing...but surely the defeat at Man City was much better than this one? I mean that was a proper thrashing. This one was only by 1 goal and we did score so there was a short moment of joy......for some.

 

Should have rested him tonight. Silly risk to take.

 

I agree. If we were mid-table Od want to throw everything init the cup. Who cares if we finish 8th or 12th? Of course we’d rather finish higher, but I’d trade that For a cup win.

this season, as you say due to the early season, we didn’t really have the choice.

 

Last season we were in the top half when we played these games, we played a very strong 11 against QPR and we rotated against Newcastle but were still able to put a strong team out, we wasn't able to do that against Tranmere because we have numerous injuries and we also played 48 hours ago in an important league match.

 

No one played 48 hours ago. They should have been totally fresh for this game.

It was a missed opportunity to get a little bit of glory, to put some smiles on the faces of the fans and earn a bit of a glamour tie with United. My god, I think the fans deserve this...don't you? This season has been an utter disaster from start to finish.

19th in the Premier League, owners of virtually every sh1t record going and now "last season's finalists" dumped out in the 3rd round by a team sitting 21st in League One. Pathetic.

 

Every game is a risk, and you try to remove every risk you have to achieve your main goal, especially during a busy period.

Either way, it would appear my mindset of resting key players is more in line with Pearson and most Premier League managers*. So why do you trump that?

other than Everton who played an almost full team and lost to Liverpool’s youth/reserve team.

 

It’s not finished yet by a long shot. Or have I missed something?

 

Probably

 

Can you confirm the results of the 14 games to the end of the season that I have missed please?