Watford Fc 3-0 Birmingham City - 20/03/2021

He was showing more just before his injury, and like Foster, he will have to wait to get back into the starting XI.

 

The yellow card would be for stopping a promising attack, which he didn't end up doing, because we carried on. Then gave the ball away after the period of advantage had expired. No yellow was the right decision.

 

We have more than the best defence in the division . We have the best defence in the football league and premier league .

City have conceded less but played less games . Goals conceded per game considered , we have a better defensive record than anyone .

 

Nevermind the starting XI I don't see how he gets in the match day squad.

He was exactly what was needed when we were struggling, but now we are ace he simply lacks the talent and class for the top side we are now.

 

But it was also reckless foul play and so worthy of a yellow card for that alone.

 

It really wasn't.

 

That's not how it works. What happens after an offence doesn't influence whether or not it's a booking, that's nowhere in the rules. It was the most obvious yellow card you'll ever see but much like at Bournemouth, something else happened and the referee forgot what they were doing.

 

Best part of today was seeing Chalobah celebrate a first-half block like he’d scored a goal.

For all the talent in the world, it takes moments like that to get out of this league.

 

What would you give the booking for? It hasn't stopped a promising attack, and imo it's not reckless play. He's just held his hand to stop the counter, hasn't shown a disregard for Gosling's safety.

"If the referee plays advantage or allows a ‘quick’ free-kick for an offence which ‘interfered with or stopped a promising attack’, the yellow card is not issued"

"Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned"

Don't think the Brum players pull of the hand would be covered by the above.

It really was.

 

That was a very, very solid performance to say the least. We look the real deal.

It would be the most Watford thing to win our highest ever honour during the one season played behind closed doors. I’m confident.

 

Really good set piece routine for the second goal, I thought. Chalobah mentioned in his post-match interview that they’d worked on it yesterday with Roberto the set piece coach. Never heard of him but encouraging to observe a clear uptick in goals/chances from set pieces in recent weeks. We’ve now scored the second most goals in the league from set pieces after Cardiff.

 

I didn't think Gossling had a particularly great game yesterday, whilst Sanchez is 102 and just about has the energy for a neat and tidy 20 mins. If we had TDB available he'd be my 3rd mid alongside Hughes and Chalobah, otherwise for me it's Cleverley.

 

Roberto > @reids

 

Fair dos, law was changed this season, every day's a school day! How did you know that? Are you a referee? Or just an avid follower of the laws of the game?

 

You’ve seriously never seen a player booked after advantage has been played?

Edit: I’ve just seen the post above

 

Well that makes sense seeing as Dele-Bashiru has been consistently good for the *checks notes* 64 minutes of Championship football he's played in his entire career.

Sure, there were some promising signs but how you come to the conclusion he's the best starting option over Cleverley or Zinckernagel is nuts. He's barely played for us!

 

This debate isn't about Success, it is about the ref. The only correct part of that long sentence in that context is the first clause. 'Softish yellow' - what does that mean? The ref holds up a card coloured by Farrow and Ball, called 'Springtime Primrose'? My interpretation (which naturally is the correct one) is that it was not a yellow. It was not petulant but looked accidental - It was a foul because he caught the player, but not tactically important, not reckless and didn't hurt the guy. The Brum player on the other hand was clearly trying to gain tactical advantage. I can't see how you can interpret it any other way. It was clearly worthy of a yellow. It was the sort of foul which makes me wish we used 'sin bins'. The referee absolutely should have booked him at the first cessation of play, which is something you see good refs do every week.
As to the so-called advantage rule: It quickly transpired there was no advantage and the ref, within seconds, should have pulled play back and awarded our free kick.

 

He didn't stop the attack but he did stop it being promising. Within seconds this was evident and the ref should have pulled play back. "No yellow was the right decision" - sorry, but that is an incredible opinion: The fact that other things were happening doesn't mean it was not a bookable offence; which, by the way, it very clearly was. The fact that it was a few seconds into the past does not make it unbookable.

 

It was so clever and a carbon copy of the one in the first half where Masina got free. Just watched the highlights back a couple of times and you can see the planning. Two hands up in the air is the signal from the taker.

We start with two players in the six yard box and three around the penalty spot. Sierralta is one of the three and triggers the movement by running to the front post - both Masina and Chalobah are not looking at the corner taker when they start their run, they're looking at Sierralta. As he heads off to the front post, so do the two players in the six yard box, creating a massive space to land the ball in at the far post.

The other two players around the penalty spot are happy to be involved in some tussling without really going for the ball and leave a gap for Masina/Chalobah to run through having got free from their markers. All Sema and Gosling had to do was land it in quite a large area towards the back post.

Really smart but simple stuff, would suggest @reids steals this for his portfolio of clubs...

 

Fewer.

 

Whatever. I made a point that the referee was largely anonymous and let the game flow, there was no diving, cheating, bad tempers etc, and a couple of people are arguing about the rights and wrongs of a decision in the middle first half covering a phase of play that lasted less than one minute. I can see why the decision was made in Success' booking, that's all.

 

OK. We agree to differ. But I suspect a large amount of the credit for the sportsmanship was down to the attitudes of the two teams.

 

Sorry but you're wrong. When Gosling was fouled he was 20ish yards inside our half. Success took over and by the time he lost the ball, he was inside Brum's half. The referee wasn't to know that Success would try to dribble past his marker, instead of playing the ball forward, and continuing the promising attack. Once he's played the advantage, and it's gone on for more than 3-4 seconds, he can't book the Brum player.

You'd probably be right if it was last season, by the way. It is a fairly new law.

 

Clever lay off? It was a 5 yard pass! He was lazy, had no pace and looked uninterested

 

Dunno. If a player handballs on the line but forward smashes in the rebound before ref blows for a penalty does he get a red card?

 

I have never seen or heard of this law before. The player deliberately hangs on to Goslings arm to stop him breaking forward. It is a yellow card all day as the Brum player has no intention of getting the ball. It’s irrelevant that we were able to carry on.
I’ve searched for this rule and can find nothing

 

Here it is from IFAB, introduced this season.

https://twitter.com/TheIFAB/status/1278659681200640000?s=19

You can find the clarification under Law 12.3

It gets downgraded to a yellow card for unsporting behaviour.

 

Refs go back and book players after playing advantage regularly.

 

Suggest people fire all further queries about the laws of the game to WatfordClattenTalk.

Although this is actually quite an interesting vignette into how people will still continue arguing the point, even when you've literally quoted the updated rules of the game showing they're wrong.

 

A short pass can't be a clever one? He took up a good position between the lines, drew a defender and had the presence of mind to know that Pedro was coming up on his left shoulder so just popped the ball into his stride. It was good link up play.

 

As hugely enjoyable to watch as a seventeen pass play ending in a goal.

Often I’m left pondering surely they would practice that during the week after some ineptitude at a corner or throw on. Well they really did practice something and it came off spectacularly.

 

For a reckless tackle, sure. But the yellow would 100% be for the nature of the tackle, not SPA. But not for offences like yesterday, where the Brum player has held Gosling's hand in a failed attempt to stop the attack, because the advantage was successfully played for over 3-4 seconds. It's our fault we didn't make the most of it on this occasion, not the referee's for applying the laws correctly.