The Championship 2020-21

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by Markoa$, Jul 26, 2020.

  1. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    They’re nearly gone. Obviously they hired the right Serbian.
     
  2. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    With that famous tactic of 'actually having a balanced squad that doesn't look like it was cobbled together at the last minute'
     
    wimbornet likes this.
  3. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    Swansea completely bossed Stoke tonight. Those are the sort of stats you need to be promoted and we're really far from that.

    Bringing on Chalobah at CB really sucked the optimism out of me. A big red flag moment.
     
    Jumbolina likes this.
  4. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    I'd presumed we were going to take someone else off then they realised Kabs couldn't continue but still stuck with Chalobah.

    Goodness me though - hardly a strong tough physical type who might be suited in that position!
     
  5. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Meanwhile Señor High Mountains stayed on the bench and cried.
     
    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin and wfc4ever like this.
  6. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I presumed Ivic was going to try Changing formation. But no, same old same old despite the appalling performance. Meanwhile commentators banged on about how he loved 4-3-3 which the team is crying out for!
     
  7. Malteser2

    Malteser2 Reservist

    I don’t wish to ever be negative. It’s not a healthy trait, especially at this very difficult time for us all during covid. Football is our escape from all that’s happening around us.

    And yes, it’s true we’ve lost only one in eight, and have only conceded in half our games, and each time we did it was never more than one goal.

    So quite clearly we’ve not made a disastrous start to the season.

    But when I look around the league, I just see many other teams who I think we are below at the moment. Below in terms of being overall as good as, at having more balanced squads, at being as creative as, as likely to put bad teams out of sight in a match rather than trying to cling on to a narrow lead etc.

    I hope to be wrong but I think that injury time setback on Saturday will be the moment we look back on when things started to turn in a wrong direction for us after a decent start to the season.

    My theory grew last night, because a team hellbent on promotion would have recovered immediately from throwing away two points in stoppage time, and gone to (effectively) the bottom side and put in a big performance.

    Something wasn’t right last night.
     
  8. Its not anywhere near time for doom and gloom yet, but this was our Yeovil moment and the lesson these players need to learn from last night is hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. WW out worked us, they pressed constantly, they competed for every ball, and although limited they focussed on their strengths. We turned up and thought we could pop it around and cruise to a 1-0. We need to become a nasty side.
     
    The Voice of Reason likes this.
  9. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    The 'Yeovil moment' caused a coach sacking and languishing midtable for the rest of the season. Pretty doom and gloomy at that time.

    Let's hope this wasn't that eh?
     
    wfc4ever and simpleMASH like this.
  10. simpleMASH

    simpleMASH Reservist

    I feel stupid saying it after 8 games while we’re sat 3rd in the league but I’m losing patience with Ivic. I don’t say it to be hyperbolic and I’m certainly not saying at this point that I want him sacked, I just want to see progress soon.

    The results have been better than the performances (and a couple of the results have been poor!) and that’s worrying to me as it probably won’t be sustainable. We have no creativity, no attacking threat and it’s so boring to watch. If we don’t keep a clean sheet we’re in real trouble and even though as a unit we look fairly well drilled, there are too many individual errors to ever expect us to keep clean sheets on a consistent basis.
    Gray, Deeney and Perica out is undeniably hampering us and is the saving grace for Ivic right now. If we can’t increase our goalscoring output between now and Christmas we’re going to slide down the table.
     
  11. ForzaWatford

    ForzaWatford Squad Player

    Some Tweets about Reading:

    Reading have had 54 shots this season now. They have had 28 on target. They have scored 14 goals. That's 51.9% of their shots on target That's 26% conversion rate.

    Another way to look at Reading's early season xG is that they were running at about 5.7 total xG prior to this game. Right now that's 6.29 xG with 14 goals scored.

    They can't sustain that...
     
    PowerJugs and lutonh8a like this.
  12. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I thought Reading's start to this season was a bit of an anomaly, until last night. To go to Blackburn and win 4-2, on the back of their amazing start, is very impressive. They now have the confidence of a side who have won 7 from 8 and look the part. When we lost to them, I wasn't very unimpressed, but now they're growing in belief. They maybe this season's surprise package. Can they maintain it.....probably not, however, they are showing no signs of faltering as yet.

    Before the season started, this is how I expected us to be. The dominant side in this division, picking up 22 points from a possible 24......and it should still be us, but we cannot allow them to pull this far away. We are in the mix with everyone else, but after tonight we'll drop at least one place. Top 6 is about right for where we are right now. This clearly has to improve.

    Is Ivic under pressure? Not right now, but a couple more poor performances like last night and he could well be.
     
  13. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    Yes but we started the season with loads of players out and we still have some key players out and others that are not match fit yet. We have played without a centre forward so far, it is no coincidence that we have not looked brilliant going forward, I wouldn't describe this as a saving grace for VI he has had to do what he has had to do to get us results. Capoue has just come back but is not fully up to speed yet and Hughes will be massive for us once he is back to full fitness. I always thought we would start slowly because of the problems we had off the pitch and wouldn't kick on until November/December onwards so to be in this position after the summer we have had is credit to Vlad in my personal opinion.
     
  14. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    Yes I get what you are saying and I agree to an extent but we are still right up there and we have had 5/6 key players out inured for most of the season. Some had no pre-season and were not fit. How would the other teams in our division cope if so many key players were out?
     
  15. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    A Bristol vs Bournemouth draw would be very useful
     
  16. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    Surely we're not worried about Bristol City?
     
  17. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    So if that was a red card in the Scum v Forest game, then the Kelly one was worth 10 red cards.
     
  18. ForzaWatford

    ForzaWatford Squad Player

    Forest get a man sent off against Luton, for a tackle that was half as bad as Bournemouth's on Sarr. The Ref's in this league...
     
  19. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    And even Mick Macarthy, of all people thinks that was a red, so how could an actual referee, not an old school manager, not think the one(s) in our game were?
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2020
  20. Dreadnought

    Dreadnought MMC 2010/11 Prediction league 3rd 2011/12

    And to make it worse it is the same ref as we had on Saturday as well o_O
     
    Jumbolina and Supertommymooney like this.
  21. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Didn’t even realise that, good god.

    Probably had a word in his ear about his performance against us and subsequently couldn’t wait to get a red out, great stuff.
     
    Jumbolina likes this.
  22. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Yup. He’s basically refereeing the last game and our rivals benefit. Lovely.
     
  23. easthertshornet

    easthertshornet Reservist

    My God, it makes a complete mockery of consistency and fairness. Do some refs have a bias against us?
     
  24. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    So, Bournemouth win and are back above us. 94 minutes on the clock on Saturday and we were 4pts clear of them...ffs
     
  25. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Muff won't be unbeaten all season. They have a good squad, but the dirty cheating divers will get a thumping eventually.
     
  26. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    Well obviously, I don't think it's physically possible to go unbeaten in the Championship. That said, they're clearly going to be up there this season, and the likes of them, Swansea, Brentford and Norwich will win more often than not, so we can't afford to just chuck points away
     
  27. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Fortunately they didn't win which is something I guess.
     
  28. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    Yes, when we smash them for 6 at their place. Sarr will score five before getting sent off for scything down their goalie while celebrating the fifth.

    Deeney pen 90+5 for the clincher.
     
  29. HELGO

    HELGO Reservist

    Sarr will be gone by then.
     
  30. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    Playing for Bournemouth against us?
     
  31. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    Just watched the mid week highlights on Tribe Called Quest.

    My word , the refereeing in this division is truly awful .

    It’s the extreme inconsistency that riles me .
     
    I Blame Pozzo and Jumbolina like this.
  32. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    They also lost to Huddersfield last week.
     
  33. ForzaWatford

    ForzaWatford Squad Player

    Derby are being taken over by a Sheikh, I think the one who was trying to buy Newcastle....
     
  34. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Shame, as in time that will be another premier league place shorn up for all eternity by oil money. On the other hand it will be hilarious to hear the Newcastle fans whinge when they inevitably surpass them.
     
    BigRossLittleRoss likes this.
  35. ForzaWatford

    ForzaWatford Squad Player

    It does make you think that clubs like ours will never be able to compete in the PL in the near future if every club is run by a multi-billionaire.
     
    Since63 likes this.

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