What Is Our Style Of Play?

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by NathWFC, Jun 25, 2020.

  1. NathWFC

    NathWFC First Team

    Does anyone have a serious answer for this? As far as I can see we have absolutely no identity as a team and no clear or obvious game plan.

    I don't even think the hideous long ball crap to Deeney is a clear plan. Often our long balls come after we play a few sideways and backwards passes, come under pressure, don't have the ability or craft to play our way out of it, panic and blast it forward aimlessly.

    The fact we continue this even when we replace Deeney with the likes of Gray says it's more about panicking on the ball and actually a complete lack of ideas and a plan than it is a deliberate tactic.
     
  2. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    We have no game plan Nath. That is the problem. Doesn't matter who is in charge of tactics or formation.The players give up, as soon as we concede a goal. Been the same all season, bar Leicester last week. Hoof ball doesn't work, and football doesn't either half the time.
     
  3. Steve Leo Beleck

    Steve Leo Beleck Squad Player

    Sadly, it's mainly down to Deeney. Watch other similar players like Glenn Murray and Ashley Barnes - not fast, but quite physical strikers. They are constantly on the move along the back line and a real pain in the backside to play against. They also gamble on attacking the near post.

    Deeney is the most static forward in the Premier League. He doesn't even run down the channel, he just occupies the central space between the penalty box and the halfway line trying to grapple with defenders. He doesn't pull anyone out of position through his movement, he never gets himself up against a full back to attack a cross, he never goes across the near post like Rodriguez did today.

    You can get away with it if you play with someone very close to him in a two, like Ighalo and, at times, Gray. It will also work if you can get runners off him like Doucouré, Sarr or Deulofeu. But if they're not close enough, there's nothing.

    He offers no movement at all. The only players he's effective against anymore are weak centre backs who get sucked into a physical battle. It's no coincidence that the best period of football we've played in the Premier League was the start under Silva, when Deeney was out of the team.

    The annoying thing is he used to do this, look at the Championship goals and see how many times he went through on goal and finished with aplomb. But he doesn't even try to anymore.
     
  4. CaveManHornet

    CaveManHornet Reservist

    that’s the problem... it does matter who’s in charge... We’re unfortunate to be in the position where we’ve had three people in charge in 1 season who aren’t capable enough...:

    1. Javi Gracia - Great last season... Fantastic even.... Couldn’t keep that form going through to the following season and in turn, he was ultimately, and understandably sacked

    2. Quique Sanchez Florez - Cracking first 6 months in charge of Watford in our first season in the Prem. Nothing but free-fall after that and nothing improved in his 2nd stint where his best game was his debut... a 1-1 draw against Arsenal...

    3. Nigel Pearson - I saw it best described on Twitter..“passion merchant”. All talk and no sunstance. Fantastic entrance with his much needed wins and his heroic “Churchill like” words of wisdom, but when it came down to gameplan and actual tactics, the geezer clearly was out of depth.

    We’ve had a dig at three different football philosophies this season alone... What’s next? Do we go for another dig at the Marco Silva-esque style of “sexy” football or do we maintain that style of direct, boring football we’ve experienced with both QSF and Pearson?
     
    Banjo and SkylaRose like this.
  5. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Says something that we are 1-0 down and Gray doesn't come on untll 85th minutes and no other attackers come on.

    We were too slow and didn't tackle in midfield or pressure them.
     
  6. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    We've got shyt players so we play shyt football.

    This is obvious stuff.
     
  7. Until the team stops being built around Deeney it's never going to evolve. We only have to wait 4 years and he should be retired by then.
     
  8. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

  9. onion8837

    onion8837 Reservist

    We play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2

    but they all end up in spineless defeat
     
  10. Crezzy95

    Crezzy95 First Year Pro

    I've wondered this for a few years to be honest. We have pace on the wing this season with Sarr, but when he's not on it we are absolutely poo. The direct style we try to play doesn't work, neither does the cute one two's around the opposition penalty area.
     
  11. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    We should get rid of Deeney as soon as possible. It would allow managers to actually come up with a game plan rather than have to accommodate this larger than life static mouthpiece.
     
    Wexford-yellow, wfcmoog and NathWFC like this.
  12. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Not sure **** is a style?

    Art crapeau maybe?
     
  13. NemoNemo

    NemoNemo Reservist

    I find it hard to believe that Sarr’s main purpose is to attack the byline and cross into the box, yet it always seems like they are caught by surprise and no one is attacking the area. Surely as soon as Sarr gets the ball and sets up to run at the full back either Deeney, Welbeck or Doucoure should make a lung busting run into the box with 1 going near post, 1 far and the other ready for a cut back. How hard can it be.
    Also what is the point of putting the same corner and free kick in every time, there’s no variety at all. At least try a low fizzing corner, or a set piece tactic once in a while, Pope just came out and got most with ease.
    Boring Watford, predictable Watford, pointless Watford
     
  14. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    We've got a shyt team and the entire club got ideas above its station following a flukey run to the cup final. That run papered over cavernous cracks.

    The world record cup final humiliation laid those cracks bare for most sensible fans, but instead of carefully rebuilding the team starting with the defence, our idiotic owners gambled everything on a luxury winger.

    We're going down, and we ******* deserve it.
     
    RMT79, wfcmoog and Jumbolina like this.
  15. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    If Sarr has a blinder then we can win a game. Apart from that there is no winning formula under Pearson.

    That's it in a nutshell.
     
  16. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  17. domthehornet

    domthehornet Moderator Staff Member

    Give it to Sarr and hope for the best or lump it to Deeney.
     
    Hogg-DEENEY!!! and nornironhorn like this.
  18. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    I mean...someone of the calibre of Deeney would be fine at a club like Burnley, but they'd be hopping mad to spend anything significant on a 32 year old, and they already have enough decent strikers



    This post gave me the feels :(
    'Gray is just Vydra, but without the skill of our Czech mate'
     
  19. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    And he's unfortunate to have presided over a squad heavily reliant on two players with no reliable back-ups and missing one or the other of those players in the last 15 games of the season bar Man Utd away and half an hour against Liverpool. It's no coincidence that our poor form has been when one of those has been out, is it?
     
  20. For Deeney? Very
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  21. Carpster

    Carpster Squad Player

    Vydra is far more complete in every department.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  22. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    We normally play 4-2-3-1. I’m not sure why we went 4-4-2 at Burnley
     
  23. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Far from wanting to give Charracher any credit, he said from way back, under Mazzarri, that he could discern no real identity about our team or (non)-style of play & felt that would end up seeing us relegated should we stop producing mini ‘purple patches’ of form. Despite occasional attempts by Silva & Gracia to evolve the style, a couple of injuries highlights the lack of serious squad depth & we revert to amorphous 5h1te again, which even bang average Prem players can overcome....as at Burnley on Thursday.
     
  24. Evasive

    Evasive Requiescat in pace

    I don't get to many games, I don't have Sky so I very rarely get to watch us. I was surprised to see however how hopeless we were against Burnley. We didnt seem to have a plan and we were almost hoping that players like Sarr or Welbeck were going to have some moment of magic (e.g. Dawson against Leicester) to get us something. Seems a bit risky to me especially when the majority of the games since the restart have been pretty turgid affairs.
     
  25. põder

    põder First Year Pro

    Exactly, it's scary to think how often it has been flashes of brilliance from Deulofeu that have saved us. We don't have a system that can compensate for the creatives being absent because we don't have any creativity / mobility / brute force options to swap in or out in front of them.
     
    Chumlax likes this.
  26. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    Who?
     
  27. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Jamie Carragher....
     
  28. Funnily enough that's been Palace's game plan with Zahaha for the past 5 years. Fortunately he's done enough in previous seasons to keep them safe.
     
  29. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    Gray is the only one that keep up, but he doesn't play. So we should all get used to it.
     
  30. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    Its not slow and measured, it's not fast and counter attack.

    I'd say more of a slow counter attack.
     
  31. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    That is a good point. Their plan has indeed for a while been to just be very solid defensively and then hope for a bit of Zaha magic.

    Ayew has done well for them this season though.
     
  32. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    It's a fair point. Gray's movement is superior to our other forwards despite his other limitations. I'd rather he started than Deeney.
     
  33. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    If we have any style at all, it's really basically the classic idea of the Serie A style of play, where the team moves slowly up the pitch when it gets the ball, building an attack rather than pressing or countering quickly.

    Our counters are pathetic; almost non-existent, relatively speaking, and when they do happen either (as many have said) there's no one there to receive the ball, or after breaking out and running half the pitch the player who carried the ball just decides to stop, pull it out a bit and wait for players from both sides to catch up, allowing the opposition the time to reform their defence and find their shape again. It's very sporting of us.

    The problem is that we don't then have a single player with the intelligence or guile to break down that defence or break the lines with a pass, and we don't have a competent striker making the run to receive it anyway, unlike those classic Italians and their trequartistas.
     
  34. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    HEADLESS CHICKEN :rolleyes:
     
  35. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky First Year Pro

    I know one thing, every season we seem to get slower at it. The side that came up was an swashbuckling team that attacked from all directions and carried a threat all over the pitch. While there would obviously need to be some pragmatism introduced for the Premier League we have over time reduced our attacking threat to what it is now.

    One of the things the Premier League is known for is the pace it's played at, we are probably the team that plays at the slowest pace. Some quick players but slow play.

    When we came up we were a passing team that could go long, but didn't do so as a first resort. Now we are a long ball side, and not very good at it.

    We have given up on set plays as a source of goals. Our set plays are dreadful now, if a goal comes from one it's more luck than planned. Is Abdi home to Villa in our first season up the last time we scored from a direct free kick?

    Managers come and go so quickly that none can stamp his style on the squad and say this is how we play.

    Players seem to be bought in with no thought to what the squad needs, how the team will play and how they will fit in to it.

    We don't seem to like clever players, ones who can think their way round the pitch. We go for heart on sleeve or stroppy toys out the pram types, or kids who will never play for us.
     
    RMT79 and We hate 48 like this.
  36. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Clueless and hopeless.
     

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