Unlikely, but maybe we're saving Andrews' legs for a game we might have a chance of getting something from? But TDB next to Porteous vs this Leicester side sounds like a disaster in the making.
That did not look a penalty at all - their player just ran in to the back of Chak, who on the replay didn't even attempt to tackle the player. At first I thought the ref was going to book their player for diving. That was a complete gift for them. Shame as we hadn't actually started too badly.
Shame we probably deserved a draw from that, good intensity in the second half , should have carried on putting the goal keeper under pressure
Always liable to happen when the starting line up is poor in key positions and we spend the first 2/3rds of a match barely bothering or, indeed, laying a glove on the opposition. A dodgy af penalty awarded is an almost equal hindrance, to be entirely fair.
Might be wrong but Leicester looked pretty average really and I don't think will get promoted.. We gave them too much space and time... until suddenly we didn't and looked the better team. They only had 3 shots on target FFS. Ref was a bit baffling and a fat ****.
Porteous at fault for goals again by stepping out and losing his duel. He's completely played himself out this team. Leicester were no great shakes but neither were we today. They had a fortune penalty and we had a fortunate goal gifted to us. 1st half was dire from us but subs made positive impact. Dennis looks increasingly dangerous but he needs to look across the line more as offside numerous times. Overall looked a little more on it today. Would try Adeyemo next game and sub Dennis central. Rajovic did not dot a thing right today.
The main difference between the two teams today actually turned out to be the ref gifting them what seemed to be a joke of a penalty. Some may point to the lack of quality from us with our final ball, but it's not as if Leicester played any better than us really or created more than us. It would have probably been less annoying of a game had Leicester just played well and steam-rolled us 3-0 as opposed to them being unfairly handed the points. Though he gets stick, losing Bayo to injury will still be a blow; though a small silver-lining is that we'll have Dennis playing more as a CF going forwards. In the last few minutes of games like today we could have done with still having the option of adding a CF with more aerial presence. TDB wasn't actually that terrible at RB today, and Andrews when he came on at RW was atrocious and seemed even more lost than the player behind him. As with Asprilla playing LW (which thankfully only lasted 5 minutes today before he was moved to his clearly more suited central role), hopefully that was another experiment not repeated again. Porteous again was at fault for their second with him rushing out and getting nowhere near it, and in general was very rash today even for him. But in general our energy levels and performance looked a bit better today than the last few games. Real shame that we couldn't get at least what wouldn't have been an undeserved draw to show for it. Kone was very good today, as was Hoedt (again). Sema was also very good and we really have missed him. Hamer had basically nothing to do other than their goals. Even though it was a loss, that gave me a bit of an encouragement that we still have it in us to do a bit better than we'd shown the few games prior to this.
Agree they weren't really at the races today, but dunno whether this is a whoosh or not - they're 11 points clear of 2nd place, promotion is practically a formality for them at this stage!
Exactly what I was just about to post. They're miles clear. They won't care about winning when they're off their A game... that's literally the essence of promotion winning form!
That game was a lot closer than most of us probably imagined it would be. Solid effort especially second half and it was great for Dennis to get off the mark on since his return. I thought on another day, we don't concede the penalty and we draw that or even win. Leicester were certainly not at their best but when you have a strike force as toothless as ours your never going to trouble them much. Losing Bayo so early on (looks like another Hammy) was a blow of course and I hope we seem him back before the season ends. What this does mean however, is there is a chance of Dennis starting games as he was lively again today and he lifts the atmosphere when he plays which is a good thing. No win in six now but at least we put in a much better overall effort today than midweek. Nobody expected anything out of this fixture and we got nothing but we were certainly not humiliated and credit to the lads for trying today. It was however, yet another game where we do next to nothing first half and Leicester could of had the game wrapped up after 45mins but they seemed very off today and just more or less took it as a pre season friendly it looked. We deserved our goal today and I hope the improved performance can push us on now to get out of this winless run. We know the playoffs are dead in the water. we probably not going down either. So it's a matter of lets finish as high as we can. Today was an improvement on past games although that is probably the only real positive we can take from it. Not too sure what our setup was about today either, very strange as when we got into the final third we had no real outlet to attack. On to Norwich, tough game as they have really picked up form as of late.
Have you actually looked at the table? It would take some sort of miracle like them winning the PL for them not to get promoted. Edit: sorry I see a few others have beaten me to it.
A good performance overall. Lacking in quality but we all know that, can't fault the effort though. Long live Ismael.
Did feel like they were in a low gear tbh . But maybe that was down to us . Bit unfortunate the one time we did push up in midfield they scored. Dennis made a big difference.
We were crap outside of them gifting us an open goal. They weren’t even that good either - although they probably would have stepped it up if they needed to Val throwing Rajovic under the bus today feels like poor management with Bayo now injured also.
When given space they looked pretty good fluid passing , very quick break , and their goal keeper is a maniac, you can defínales see why they are walking away with the title. Having said that they might be a bit of a very good one trick pony. Was surprised they played as much long ball as they did, we are so used to playing out of the back these days. I would say that we managed to rattle them in the second half and they stopped doing what they are good at and started panicking (may be a bit of an exaggeration)
Porteous gave the word 'obnoxious' a whole new meaning today. An utterly shambolic performance from our flying Scotsman. Constantly out of position, mostly at fault for the second goal, rash and seemingly permanently diving into nigh on unwinnable situations. His set was complete by ranting and raving at anyone within a ten yard radius after his latest comical attempt at a tackle. It seems a shame to single out one player so acutely after what was a respectable team effort against the champions-elect, but his showing today was one of the most contemptible individual performances from a Watford player in years, and that's up against some very stiff competition.
I don't see how that was throwing him under the bus? He rarely plays more than 60 minutes for us and today he played 55. I would have liked for us to have tried going a narrow 442 for a while with Rajovic next to Dennis, but ultimately subbing him wasn't the strangest decision VI made today.
It would be funny in a sadistic way to see him in the PL, he’d make Femenia look like Roberto Carlos to Gary Neville.
Brilliant stuff today. So unlucky. Well worth the standing ovation at the end. Spot on from Ismael as well. Hope we reward him with a 5 year contract like Jeremy. No home win since November but who cares! Ornz!
Do I? A - admit I didn't think they were so far ahead of Southampton Leeds and Ipswich. B - double down and say I'm right - watch this space. Maybe throw in a HB1 type quote that the forum is about opinions. C - Quietly skulk off and if it turns out to be true, declare I'm a genius.
yes pretty much agree, except I would add that you could see he did actually want to win he was going forward , was throwing himself into everything , wanted the team up the pitch , wanted the team to attack , if he had 10% more sense / slightly less rash / a little bit better at football , he would be a great asset. Wonder if he plays because his attitude is there , can’t see him pulling out of a tackle no matter who he is up against , stick him in a ring with Tyson fury he would take his legs out
Can someone with more knowledge tell me what was to be gained by playing TDB over Andrews today? Don’t think TDB was bad just can’t work out the rationale.
There's been something irritating about Leicester for as long as I can remember. The way they treated Gordon Banks after the World Cup... Keith Weller in his silly white tights... Lineker.... the clacker things they give their fans... Jamie bloody Vardy etc etc etc. But this latest team really boils my pi55. What a bunch of arrogant to55er5.
Because we have no backup RB and it's probably more so to give Andrews a rest. Don't forget we now have backup in the sturdy and never injured Ngakia to return on a fresh four-year deal. Until Ngakia is fully fit and starting, TDB will be scapegoat as a "fake RB" for a while to come. Clearly he plays much better in the #8 role but as you said he wasn't awful today.
