Watford Fc 1-3 Southampton - 28/06/2020 - An Effin Disgrace

I can’t personally see him getting sacked but stranger things have happened. I think sacking three managers in a season, especially one loved as much by ex player media pundits would spark some sort of backlash never before seen.

 

I think it’s put up or shut up time for Pozzo. Either give Pearson and Shakespeare a multi-year contract and make it known to the squad they’re in charge for the foreseeable, or bin them and have one last whirl at the new manager bounce saving us. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be enough buy in from Pearson or the squad.

 

Gino wouldn't blink an eye over that. This season has already been an unmitigated disaster on that front. If he thinks it's the only way to stay up, then he'll do it. After the run of 10 games I just can't see the owner keeping faith in the coach. He never does.

 

It is ridiculous to think but his whole demeanor today suggests you could be correct.
What an absolute shambles.

 

I know this is stating the bleeding obvious, but if you have to sack three managers in one season you are clearly doing something catastrophically wrong. You also have to start questioning whether it’s actually the managers fault.

Nothing would surprise me with this club, but I’d we sack the manager now I really think at some point in the future we will have burnt so many bridges we just won’t have the ability to attract anyone to the job.

 

If there was anyone remotely available to sort this rabble out, I'd agree with you. But there's no one I can think is available. Go cap in hand to Joka, Silva or Gracia and beg forgiveness?

 

From Ginos point of view it's the money staying up brings.
But from a fans point it would be better keep the manager and shake the squad I think, even if it means going to the championship because all we get is a bounce and then it's back to the same old heartless football.
I think the big problem here is in the squad. But money may dictate what's best for the club may not be best for the owners

 

I don't think anyone can save us. Pearson tried but he simply hasn't got the tools available. This squad is woeful.

 

Would he ever stop to consider that the problem might not be the manager/coach?

 

We just need a coach to come in and give the team a shot in the arm. Pearson has shown, for whatever reason, he's now unable to do that. Today had to be a reaction, not continuation, from Burnley.

The players are not fighting for the cause. It surprises me a lot, as this is what Pearson is all about, but they are no longer responding to him.

Realistically we only now have 3 games to save our season, and we've pretty much got to win all three, or at the minimum two wins and avoid defeat to West Ham. We need someone who can inspire that type of response.

 

If we’ve contacted Big Sam and offered a fat bonus, I’d sack Pearson in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t be pretty but would be much more effective than what we’re doing currently.

 

Happy to pick up a wage...

It's not even worth watching the Chelsea is it? Maybe our best chance to stay up is to dress in opposition shirts, storm the ground and get it abandoned.

 

£1m, plus another £1m bonus if he keeps us up, should do the trick.

 

Would be worth it.

 

Nope - he'd have to recognise his comprehensive failure if he did that.

 

We have 6 games to play in about 4 weeks. Changing the manager with that schedule would be insane. It would be a bit like sacking the manager 4 games in to a new season and replacing him with a bloke you'd got rid of a few years earlier and nobody would do that

 

I would’ve been happy enough with BFS back when quique was sacked. He said on national radio he’d like the job and wouldn’t necessarily want as much money as we’d perhaps expect. Gino knew best, buy cheap, buy twice.

 

Make it £1m per point payable only if we stay up, real motivation there. But would anyone take it.

 

A week ago, even 4 days ago, the thought of Pearson getting sacked would have been absurd to me. He was still the saviour albeit riding on the Liverpool victory amongst some poor results. It all seems plausible and even likely now that he will be sacked.

Pozzo and Pearson have probably had a falling out over the contract. Pearson without feeling he has a long term future at the club or support has gone into a sulk and doesn’t give a toss. If true I don’t see how the situation can be rectified other than via sacking and playing the youths plus Hughes and Masina and Sarr.

 

That would be amazing. I'd like to see us not only relegated, but being shat on by all and sundry as we go down for the complete farce of a club we have become.

 

I enjoyed the shoutbox a hell of a lot more than I enjoyed the game that's for sure.

 

A highly plausible explanation. Pearson was out of a job when we recruited him and wouldn’t have got a PL opportunity again. He would’ve struggled to get a job at one of the better championship sides. A relegation cant really hurt his credibility that much as there wasn’t much left, plus he can write it off as us being a basket case of a club. He knows we sack managers for fun so probably better all round for him to go through the motions and actually hope he is sacked.

 

Certainly no need to build a new 30k stadium.

 

Exactly. "Pretty" isn't ging to happen. (I'm a Burnley fan, incidentally, in case you don't remember the name. But I want you to stop up. Not out of any especial love for Watford, although my brother (not a football fan) does live in Watford, but because I really really want Villa AND West Ham to go down. Don't take one of the relegation places that I've reserved for them.)

But you can't win by pretty football any more. You've shown that. Your players need an almighty rocket up their collective backsides so that they know they have to run and run and they have to block everything and they have to give the opponents no time on the ball. You're playing other rubbish teams as well, after all. And then assuming Deeney had responded to the rocket and will actually try, and with Gray (if he can be forgiven his moron party) alongside, and Sarr to get up the wing, and try to sneak a goal in a 4-2-4 formation. Can your wingers get back and defend?

First priority is to keep a clean sheet. Everybody is clueless down the bottom at present. These aren't "must win", they're "must draw". Keep two clean sheets out of four and you have got at least two points; score the odd goal and you might get four or six. But if the players don't understand that it's their life's work to stop the goals going in, then you're doomed. Sorry.

Allardyce might just do it. And his football isn't as unentertaining as all that - not compared with what you're used to. We've seen it with Dyche - a group of players who will work their socks off for the cause, who know what they are supposed to be doing and do their damndest to do it right, and who know how to get the ball in the net and how to keep it out at the other end - it's a sight more entertaining than what you have had to put up with. The penalty area is where it's at. The pretty midfield passing is not what you go to see.

The bottom end of the division is rubbish. Survival is yours for the asking if only someone can get the players moving.

(Sorry for interfering. I enjoy this board. It's a good place.)

 

I think if we sack Pearson it would confirm our place as most ridiculous club in the league.

I thought his demeanour was one of "I didn't tell the lads to pass it off the pitch/throw it to Ings/cross it out of play, what are they doing" rather than lack of caring.

In fact I thought we put more effort in as a whole aside from at 3-1 where we looked beaten (and possibly unfit).

Problem is with the players, some don't care, some feel they shouldnt be here and some are lumbered with 5 year contracts and are taking the money. Some are crocks and should be seeing out their career in the lower leagues.

 

Don't forget the few weeks where we had a caretaker coach, making it abundantly clear we binned off Gracia without any idea who to replace him with!

 

I’d still like us to fluke staying up undeservedly so we can “go again” next season with a revamped squad.

 

Pretty much as p****d off as the rest of you after watching that.
There's so much going wrong out there that it's difficult to know where to start when criticising it:
First let's give credit to Burnley and Southampton, who are better sides than many people say, especially Burnley. (Yes they are mid-table; but we are well below that).
When The Restart happened we all saw a lot of 'training-ground football' from all teams - all very earnest and uninspired. Watford, far from picking things up, seem to be going backwards.
Poor play begets more poor play as confidence wanes and so it gets poorer still.
Watford's attacking play is woeful - no imagination, no inspiration, low abilities, apparently low effort and no organisation.
Watford's defence is too slow without Kabasele. Ings just pulled away from them to make space for the finish. Yes, Femenia is pretty quick, but he lacks positional awareness going backwards.
Watford's midfield has formerly been our glory. I just don't see that now. Capoue and Doucoure look like shadows of their former selves. Only Hughes snapping away at opponents seems up for it.
So: Defence, mid-field and attack all in full-on relegation mode. Ouch.
To me, one notable thing is how Watford look so disjointed and as if they didn't know what to do next in any situation. They don't really look like a team. They approach the oppo's goal so tentatively and timidly. Both Burnley and Saints did their homework and energetically pressed Watford all over the pitch, giving them no time to build or settle into a rhythm, and exposed this relentlessly.
An unkind person might suggest that the coaches should have been addressing this big-time. - It's alright criticising a player for a poor pass, but you must also look at the (lack of) options his team mates are giving him with their movement off the ball. & vice versa. Go back to basics, well-practised, quick-moving routines, endlessly repeated on the training ground, and have a little confidence in them, chaps.
Sarr: I said right at his arrival that he will frustrate people more often than not and yet still be a game-changer. I think I was right. He is a Scullion for the 2020's. He plays at speed and therefore makes lots of mistakes. This includes his crosses - he seems to me to have been brought up to cross early and rely on forwards getting across defenders in the manner of Jay Rodriguez last week. Only Gray (and maybe some of the youngsters we don't know well??) comes close to doing that.
Peyrera - drop him. He may have shown flashes, largely against the likes of Huddersfield and so on, but I haven't seen anything for an age. And he is a lazy thinker and a lazy runner and a coward. Pussetto will not set the Premiership alight, but he is better than that. Pedro possibly even better.
Deeney - play with a man to play off him (Gray?) and organise it well. Otherwise don't play him (as a lone centre forward) at all.

Relegated or not (and Watford are very very close to going down) a big turn-around of playing staff (and behind-the scenes staff?)needed at the end of this season (yes, I know the all the problems this presents the Club).

I'm done.

 

I am 100% certain that if we stay up, we will see the same pattern of squad management.

A not fit for purpose, cheap defender signed. A long prospect who promises to be a golden egg in 2 or 3 years, linked with a string of players who go somewhere else for 1m more than we would pay, and a free signing from Udinese.

Extended contracts for Deeney, Foster, Mariappa, Dawson and Cathcart etc.

 

I want to see a forward line of Pedro, Welbeck and Sarr for the rest of the season.

 

Oh yes, silly me.

 

Can you get down to our training ground and tell our bunch of overpaid w ankers that?

 

I'm not blaming that performance on Deeney, because everyone was appalling and I can't be bothered to talk about the rest of them!

That said, Deeney is only worth his place when he's fired up, when he's in that mood he lifts the entire team and can flip a result on its head. But, Troy thrives off of the crowd, when he chases somebody down and the fans give that excited roar you can see him spark into life. When everybody is behind him his performance levels skyrocket, but when the crowd are low or silent so is Troy. Playing in an empty stadium just leaves him flat, as does poor form, and as things stand I can't see the point in him being in the team. He's not lifting anybody and there's no crowd lifting him. I'd drop him.

Although after watching that I'd drop 8 of them, at least, so...

 

Only 8?

There was a bit early on when Deeney stood with his hands on his knees as if exhausted, in front of the bench. Irrespective of the situation it’s unforgivable to be exhausted that early on in the game, and very worrying body language to be portraying to your team and the opposition.

 

There's a particularly good point in here, which is: when exactly, this season at least, can we ever claim to have witnessed any kind of playing style, let alone an entertaining one? The closest thing to an identity visible on the pitch was under Quique, when he set us up in a managerial display that made Mourinho look like Marcelo Bielsa. Aside from that, even going back to Javi, there was rarely any kind of specific 'style' being implemented. Snobbery over BFS's entertainment level would be an amusing hypocrisy on our part.