Nothing wrong with deluded optimism but I also think it’d be deluded optimism that Man City will misplace as many passes as Arsenal whilst also sitting back and allowing us the freedom of the pitch. As you say though, hopefully we can remain competitive for 90 minutes which would be significant progress. If nothing else Norwich proved City do commit a lot of players to attack and are susceptible to a quick counter-attack. We started to look a bit more threatening with that yesterday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Agreed . Cleverly in that advanced pressing role that Silva played him worked superbly yesterday . He’s such a simple, efficient and effective player . For me the 4231 should be... Foster Jan Maat Holebas or Femenia Cathcart Kabasele or Dawson Capoue Doucoure Del Boy Cleverly Sarrs or Pereyra Wellbeck
Came through loud and clear quite a few times on my stream, especially during our strong opening period and after we equalised. Where were you seated in the stadium?
In his post-match interview QSF mentioned that Welbeck currently has pain after each time he trains for a few days in a row, so a plan needs to be worked out for him.
Just goes to prove the importance of drinking your milk. If you don't, you'll end up playing for Watford Stanley.
I got a job with him, he said I’d come in handy. I had to start on Monday, so I had a bath on Sunday.
But he pays so badly, you had to work 11 hours to be able to by your girl some flowers. Beaten to it I see...
One of our (many) weakness does indeed appear to be our inability to play to the whistle , we suffered from it all last year , would think we would have learned by now However fair play Capoue clearly put an excellent shift in yesterday
They weren’t scared. That’s just an excuse. Outside their strikers they are well known to be a fairly spineless bunch. That’s been shown over a longer period than just the second 45 minutes on Sunday. Saying they were ‘scared’ is just another way of them admitting they were arrogant at 2-0 up and care out for the 2nd half in first gear. You can’t do that against modern PL teams.
You can’t have gone to games where Kevin Pressman or Paddy Kenny we’re in goal against us then. I used to relish them getting a GK...
I don’t think it was written off as a case of ‘We will always lose to Wolves away’... It was fair to see it being a very difficult upcoming fixture given our first 4 games. When we beat them last season, we were flying. That’s an important distinction to make.
Not that I care, but any news of a reason for Success’ omission? Seemed bizarre we had no strikers on the bench and no mention of him given Welbeck wasn’t involved.
Right now, we have to build the team back up. We are not miles behind everyone. Two wins and we'd be third, for example. Two areas of concern are defensive gaps, which hopefully Flores will rectify tactically. The other issue we have is a chronic lack of finishing ability. No one can hit a ball cleanly. So many times we scuff the shot, mishit it or send it soaring over the bar. I don't think I've ever seen a team so bad at shooting as we are right now. Players have to find some type of composure, but that just stems from confidence. We have to keep shooting and fans will probably get frustrated if we keep missing, but I think the Watford fans are extremely tolerant. Eventually, if we keep shooting, even wildly, we will get into the habit of knowing if we miss, it's not the end of the world. Not shooting in the first place, because you are not confident enough, is. I hope this will eventually lead to better composure in front of goal and a more clinical finish as a result. Use Tom Cleverley's performance on Sunday as an example. He wasn't afraid to shoot. He hit the ball plenty of times at the Arsenal goal. He scored one, had another two well saved, and missed the goal on a few other occasions. More players have to be prepared to have a go when the opportunity arises.
I don't think it has been said but Gerard was absolutely superb in all aspects of his game. Attacking he was a menace but defensively he was a different beast to what we normally see from him, he shoved players aside with ease and still retained possession.
Because he was playing in what is clearly his position - wide in a front 3. His attacking capability is wasted playing either wide in a 4-man midfield or narrow as one of 2 up-front. He’s a natural in that Mane/Salah role for us. And that’s the formation that suits the players we have best.
I agree. However, a lot of the efforts on Sunday were unfortunate and not really down to composure. Deulofeu had a couple that were inches wide and not from easy positions. Cleverley has 2 heading for the top corner were it not for Leno and the CB’s block on each occasion. Sarr had a great swivel and hit from nearly nothing. Only Doucoure could really be accused of a lack of composure on Sunday. One from distance that went for throw! And the other straight at Leno in injury time - but I’m loath to blame him too much for the latter and I’m sure he was dead on his feet by that stage. But he should have at least made Leno work hard for a save - either side of him and it’s likely a goal.
I accept we did get shots on target, but there were also a lot which just needed a steady head. Cleverley, Janmaat, Doucoure, Deulofeu, Gray….and that's just from memory, had presentable chances but because they rushed their shot, we saw the ball balloon high or wide. That's not to take anything away from Cleverley's other efforts or GD's close shot. But 31 shots in total, and many were wasted by a lack of composure. That's not just from Sunday, it's a constant theme which has blighted the side for years. I would much prefer we shoot though, even if it's a bad shot. It creates a mindset, that it's good to shoot and no one will complain if you do. What we've tended to do in the past is have the ball in a shooting position, but elect to pass it wide. When the cross comes in it rarely finds a Watford player as we're terrible at attacking the ball in the air. We are not a side that scores headers, although we should be far more productive at this. We should adopt a shoot on sight policy as a team, and if we get used to shooting more, I would expect we'd get better at it.
I think you're spot on when you say finishing ability comes down to confidence. We're snatching at shots or hesitating just a second too long and so the chance becomes more difficult. Hopefully QSF can calm them down but in the meantime shooting lots is the best solution. Currently, when we are scoring goals, we're not doing a lot under our own steam either. Since the semi-final we've scored 9 goals in the league in 11 games. 3 of those have come directly from opposition defensive howlers (Arsenal this season, Wolves and West Ham end of last) that we'll take but can't rely on. That's an unusually high proportion although credit is due for putting pressure on. 1 resulted from a lucky deflection off a defender that fell perfectly for us (Newcastle this season) and 1 was a penalty (Arsenal this season). Plus Gray's 90th minute equaliser against Southampton last season was a nice finish but resulted from an almighty scramble that really only happens at the end of matches. So out of 9 goals there are only really 3 that were genuine decent moves - Deulofeu x 2 at Huddersfield and Gray at home to West Ham this season.
