He's like me playing Championship Manager 2. Double substitution every game at the 65 minute mark, give or take.
Yes but they have 2 CB’s who were heading merchants. Long ball was never the option tonight, irrespective of the pitch. The tactic should have been canned when it was obvious it wasn’t working. They sat deep from the very first minute and Xisco just stuck with the same tactics and formation for 90 mins hoping something would happen - rather than doing anything to change it. Has got some decent results so far but I see very little dynamism from him or ability to affect the game pro-actively.
Think the conditions made it more like a pub match. The times they did try to play fast 1-2 touch often got slowed down taking an extra touch Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Grey clearly can't play up front but as we're lumbered with him for the foreseeable, could he be converted to a full back? Probably not, but there has to be some way of getting some return from him between now and when his contract runs down. Could he be made to do odd jobs around the stadium? Or walk other players' dogs while they train?
I said generally, but happy to explain further. first half we were quickest to the ball, passed it around quickly, got into severely good positions and should have been in the lead at half time which would have been deserved. I think you’ve even said yourself (if it wasn’t you then apologies) we should have scored 2 or 3. The reason we didn’t is because of our inept strike ‘force’. Gray in particular. If we go in in the lead Millwall can’t play how they fix second half. But we didn’t and I’ll admit second half was not good. But yet we were still the better team and still could have scored a couple, unlike Millwall who created almost nothing bar one 5 minute spell in the first half. So in summary, we were the better team, we kept them out comfortably, we created a few good chances. Not perfect but then that’s why I said ‘generally’ played well.
We really didn’t get going 2nd half after a positive 1st. We definitely don’t look like a top promotion side on the road. Still in single figures for goals .
Too soon to come to a conclusion like that re the playoffs. We don't know who the other 3 playoff teams are, which players will be available for the 4 playoff teams, and their form at the time. We have a very good defence for this league which is a plus so if we win the playoffs 'ugly' so be it.
Fair enough. I’d prefer to say we played well in a couple of small spells but generally were poor. But then I’m one of the chief-bedwetters so stands to reason!
Stop embarrassing yourself buddy. Would a glory hunter celebrate an away point at Millwall, or froth at the mouth claiming it a disgrace? Chumplax; embarrassing himself since 2013 (but I didn’t join then coz Watford were doing well, honest). Good night.
Comes more and more obvious by the day. Xisco resorting to comments on how he’s got the best strikers in the league to try and give him confidence knowing full well the guys ****. But not all grays fault tonight. Tough game hopefully look back and be thankful if a grinder out point away from home. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well in all honesty it’s easy to see why some are totally pissed off and in that camp, I ended the game frustrated and knowing it’s likely to keep happening all season. Just felt we played ok and with a decent striker we would have won, possibly by a couple of goals. Same old story and fairly sure we are all bonded by our feelings on Grays performances.
Not all of us... Although his chief-cheerleader now tends to just not mention him rather than defend him so the day gets closer. We seriously need to figure out a way to unlock teams who set up with 9/10 behind the ball and are happy with a point - we’ve been fortunate that penalties have dug us out of a hole in that respect at times. But the points we are dropping as a result will mean Top 2 is out of reach I suspect.
Not sure on that, as we were easily the better team and they looked pretty bad. Should have won and overall I do blame our strikers, with Gray being worse then Deeney.
Guess we can rule out Brentford, Norwich, Reading and Bournemouth too then, seeing as they all drew with Millwall as well. Time to lump on Swansea!
It's likely to be teams like Brentford (1-1 home), Swansea (1-2 away), Reading (0-1 away), Bournemouth (1-1 home). We've only beaten Norwich from the top 6 and I don't think anyone else is likely to break into it. Maybe Bristol City (0-0 away). So we've not beaten any of the likely play off candidates this season. The evidence is there. No one is likely to roll us over, but to win key games against the top sides you need to take your chances. It's going to be two extremely tight and frustrating games, where taking your chances will be vital. We've failed to score in 8 of our 25 games. That's an extraordinarily high total for a promotion chasing side. We've only scored more than once in 7 games. We've tried and tried to resolve this problem from within, but nothing is working. The answer lies in the transfer market. Our season relies on what Gino does in the transfer market this week. Unless we sign someone who is at least competent in front of goal, we're not going up. That's just my opinion though.
I doubt Millwall were as poor in those games as they were tonight. To say they were ‘there for the taking’ is an understatement
Written up some simple tricks for Xisco to turn those pesky draws into wins this season: 1) Stop playing Gray 2) Stop playing central midfielders as left wingers when we have Pedro / Zinc on the bench 3) There is no 3, just do the top two and we win almost every game against this league of cloggers Gino can help with 1 by signing an actual striker, he's still got a few days left of the window.
I guess it just shows what the Championship is like really. I mean if we had any sort of form away from home goal wise we'd be flying.
Frustrating is an understatement. I suppose if you add up cold,January,opponents clearly intent on keeping what they began with and Gray it was always likely. I don't want to be cruel to him,but it really IS playing with ten men. Not only does he snatch at chances and have the touch of Harold Shipman but the number of times he waits for the ball instead of moving towards it is lamentable. For the love of the gods do not play him again. The next time he scores I'll have one of those tartan shopping trolleys on wheels,zip up booties and a telegram from the King. We could have lost and Chalobah will be sent off before too long. We missed Cuddly,where is he?
I'll say it again... play Dalby alongside Deeney. He can hardly be worse, has hunger and will want to prove himself. Until Perica and Success come back then it's Gray. We may as well stick a dog turd in place of Gray for how good he is.
Its a lottery though. In a 2 leg affair we can try and get the 0-0 away from home and try to win the home tie where we have been good, if the topsy turvy home and away form is still prevalent for the rest of the season. As you say it's about taking your chances when they are presented to you. And with a player like Sarr in the team it just needs a moment or two of quality to make the difference. Plenty of 'bookies favourites' have got turned over in the playoffs. I'm not writing off our playoff chances by any means.
Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing. Or like with Fifa, vaguely having a look to see if anyone's a bit tired and then doing a like for like sub. I'm convinced the club follow a similar pattern in the transfer market - have a quick look at their FM stats and go from there. Its the only thing that explains the moronic signings we've made in the past few years.
I wouldn't be surprised. Look like a team of Sunday league players + Jed Wallace. I don't think results like this will condemn us to the play-offs, much like the win against Norwich doesn't confirm top 2. Still all to play for, imo. Agree we threw away 2 points though. They were awful and were gagging for FT from about 60 mins.
On another day and with a striker, instead of Gray, we would probably have won that in the first half. But Millwall knew what they were about on that dreadful pitch and shut the game down in the second half, which just became a slog in the mud. They played for a draw and they got it, and they have done a lot of that at home this season. One of the disadvantages of watching on tv is you cannot see the movement (or lack of it) off the ball. I just wanted Watford to route one it down the pitch during the last quarter but there was too much sideways and backwards passing, a la Ivic, for my liking. But maybe the movement up front was at fault. As someone has already said, there are Watford players who look to avoid passing to Gray. And Deeney's lack of mobility really was showed up today. I know people on here will say I'm making excuses for a poor second half display, but muddy pitches destroying the quality of a match is not a new phenomenon. Frustrating, as Millwall looked cr*p in that first half, but they knew how to shut the game down. Ref a tad card-happy.
I feel that Gray only played to give Pedro a breather due to the fixture congestion and that Deeney and Pedro is the no 1 pairing at the moment. Think some people are getting their kni*kers in a twist over it. As I said, no one player was to blame for that largely disappointing performance tonight.
TBH I don't too much of a problem with his subs, they're generally reasonable, it's his starting elevens I take issue with.
Fortunately we won’t have to play on that pitch again this season and hopefully not another away from home as bad. Had that been at home we would have won with goals to spare, the only winner was the pitch, it was a lottery, and completely un-predictable. in the circumstances we take a point and look forward to playing Q.P.R. Next Monday!
A fair summary. I think I've become oblivious to the constant ineptitude of the refs. I think we all know Gino is not signing a striker so we must play JP. Gray has had more chances than even his mum would have given him. Enough is enough.
