Cleverley dont count really at the moment as he has been made Captain by the manager. He will be in the first team for a while yet.
Stoke are horrible to play against so that is a very good win. 10 games in, 4th, 18 points chalked up already and still a lot of improving to do. Decent to have Deeney as another option back on the bench and players like Quina who aren't good enough being moved out of the way.
Harsh on Quina, with the games coming thick and fast, we'll need players to rotate in and out, and even though he had a stinker against Wycombe, he was bright against Bournemouth and Derby. I wonder if he's putting too much pressure on himself, I don't know about him, but I did think this was his season to shine, yet he's only getting short spells in the team, sometimes not even in his preferred position
He's a 6th choice midfielder. Several head coaches haven't deemed him good enough, VI has given him a chance and he has already played himself out of the team. We have plenty of good midfielders ahead of him though so no big deal. Garner, Hughes and Capoue would be my three in the middle. I'm more intrigued what is going to happen up top. I think Pedro is an unbelievable talent but needs a proper striker partner. Sarr isn't a striker so it isn't him, but with the right person alongside him I think Pedro could get 20+.
Looking at the highlights, it is clear the referee helped us big time. But, seeing it was Stoke, twinned with Burnley as the home of anti-football, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh out loud at that.
A bit harsh, he does need a run in the team you feel, but when you don't fully convince when you do get your opportunities, and when you've got a lot of other players to compete with, it's difficult. Pedro is an amazing talent, I think this 3-5-2 is literally the single worst formation for him lol, lone striker in a 3-4-3 works OK for him, but I think his best positions will be on the left wing, or in a front two with a genuine striker. He's not a natural finisher, and he won't always make those typical centre forward runs (the types that Murray has made a career on lol), but he does find space and create chances, give him service and he may well push towards 20 this season...
In fairness RE the defense, Troost-Ekong was not playing, not quite sure why (injured or just rested?), but he's by far and away our best defender, did little wrong up at Barnsley and was one of the few at Wycombe to come back with his reputation at least somewhat intact. The rest? Well, you can drill them all you like, but Cathcart, Kabasele and Wilmot are all Championship quality centre backs, they might come up with a moment of brilliance to save us, but they might also make a blunder to cost us too...
Actually the ref was just checking the time to see how long for his half time cigarette, the buzzer sounded and he gave the goal!
Yes. After 90 mins we had been poor, been gifted 2 goals but still unable to win due to defensive frailty and barely any attempts on target. 3 minutes later we are world beaters and going to be top by Xmas.
Got the job done, but there were some poor performances. Capoue has poor since his return and Chalobah needs replacing. The good news is that we have a good squad so players can be easily replaced.
Great result, even when we aren't playing as well as we can, we got the win and we are near the top of the table. Considering the turmoil of recent months and the injuries, we are well placed to get the promotion we need. Yes, Norwich are up there, and playing a bit better than us, but they largely kept their team intact, and starting off the season as a more cohesive unit should be no surprise. I often keep an eye on the opposition forum during matches to get an alternative view of the games, and when Hive went down, I did so again last night. I saw several comments like "the best team we've played so far", etc. Our Shoutbox was awful again though. Total negativity from the usual suspects throughout. Disappointment expressed when we scored, but laughing when we conceded. Horrible atmosphere and one I won't be joining in with for a while. Moog even said at one time that even though they were being negative all the time no-one was even arguing with them as we might have to admit we were wrong to be positive. Manatleisure did stick his head above the parapet trying to add a bit of positivity by pointing out how we are still in a play-off spot after 10 games, and how we could still go on to win this game but he was being called names and I think"moronic" was mentioned at one time. Burnsy even asked him to justify his positive attitude as if Manatleisure had no right to be positive on the Shoutbox. Live debate on what is happening is just about impossible as it has to fit in around post after post of purely negative posts about, for example, the Pozzos, that don't refer to any particular incident on the pitch but is just part of the general rant that should best be heard in the main forum. Now, they would just get a constant stream of anti Watford bollix. I often had to take a double check on which forum I was looking at, the oppositions, or the Shoutbox, because theirs was far less negative about our team, than ours. I think it is a real shame, the Shoutbox is a privilege for us on this forum we rely on a mod to open it up and we don't pay anything for it. I said last week that maybe it is called the Shoutbox as it is somewhere to just "shout", but I think that is a waste of a valuable resource. It used to be a place where we could have a largely enjoyable debate on the game as it happens where both positive and negative views on the events on the field were tolerated and argued with a laugh and joke. If someone couldn't see the action on a screen, they would get a very good running commentary on what was happening, just by watching the discussion. Not any more, it is just toxic.
I would certainly have Hughes in midfield for his creativity and I would be sorry to lose Cleverley’s energy, so I think Capoue should play deep and Chalobah should drop to the bench, even though he’s had the odd decent game.
To understand the negativity you have to understand the bedwetter psyche. They still haven’t come to terms with relegation and are extremely bitter towards the owners, they still see us as a PL club and anything that’s isn’t a swashbuckling 5-0 win is seen as abject failure and reason to soil their sheets. What they don’t appreciate as they strip their bed for the umpteenth time this week is that despite not always playing well, we’re up near the top of the table. Joint on points and GD with Norwich, ahead of Bournemouth, ahead of Brentford. They can’t compute the reason behind this, that it’s because we’ve got better players so still have enough to edge plenty of games. Foster makes a few good saves, the bed gets wet, they fail to realise we have the best keeper in the league so it’s a good thing not a bad thing. Pedro puts one in the top corner, we only won because of a wonder goal, no, we won because we’ve got a player better than the opposition.
Good result against a decent side. Enjoyed going through this thread and reading the comments posted an hour before kick-off.
I was going to comment that with the 93rd minute winner you might need dry-cleaning of your 'browned' trousers...
Its a real shame the shoutbox has descended to something of such a toxic and unpleasant nature. Seems that it s very quiet when team are playing well then as soon as we concede the usual suspects appear with relish to bash the team and the pozzo's Sad really and I do wonder if those criticising with real venom actually want the team to do well or if its just an excuse to let off some steam because of frustrations elsewhere in their lives
I don't disagree - I'd go further and say we kinda have to be ready to accept that Wilmot will make mistakes given his age and inexperience. But that's where Ivic should be rotating him out, as we saw last night that if he allows mistakes to accumulate, it could do more damage to his confidence than simply resting him. But whoever draws the short straw and plays on the left of the 3, has more often than not, had a bad game. It's unsustainable in the long-term. Simply don't believe that Ivic hasn't noticed that. He's basically saying that having an awful LCB will do less damage than having Kiko at LB - that's the trade off.
Fluked that one. The first never crossed the line and the third was handled in the build up. Still, I reckon we’re about 15 game changing decisions in credit over the last 2/3 seasons so is what it is.
I suspect Ivic wouldn’t have enjoyed last night much as it went against the grain of his ‘keep it tight and sneak a 1-0’, but I did! A proper football match. Quite open. Goals. Attacking better than defending. Controversy favouring us. And our turn to score the stoppage time winner. A good night!
It was a fair shoulder to shoulder challenge, not our fault the keeper is weak as p1ss, nothing wrong with the goal.
Woah. I went as far as telling Manatleisure that it wasn't personal - but he was relentlessly positive when the reality was there was (at times) negative stuff on show and some of the claims he was coming out with were, to my mind, pure fiction.
Once again, you, ZZTop or anyone who wants to come in and talk more about events on the pitch etc aren't being stopped from doing so. If enough of you do so, then the tide will turn and you'll get more of what you want to see from it. It's nobody else's fault if you don't do that. And the bit in bold is ridiculous as has been explained many times by many people over the last few months. If I have issues in my life with outside matters, I'm a 36 year old man - I deal with them at source or I speak to someone because I'm unable to. It's a bit insulting to suggest otherwise. If I'm unhappy with the way the team is playing or setup, or the way the club is being run - I'll vent here mainly. Doing so doesn't suggest anything else other than that.
Nope. Because he didn't needlessly cross the line with weird, random personal insults.....we were capable of disagreeing with each other in a civil manner. Good attempt at humour though.
I wasn’t on there last night apart from asking about the details of the comedy Cleverley goal so can’t comment. Pretty sure this is the 7th time you’ve said you won’t be going on shoutbox again though and yet here you are. Flouncing doesn’t work if you don’t follow through with it.
