I was thinking about this today, it may be that having Troy back means the ball is hoofed forward further up the pitch thus negating the possibility of players being out of position when the move breaks down and the opposition attack. It may be that without him we are playing it on the deck committing too many players forward and getting chinned on the counter attack. I don't like hoof ball but right now we need a win, so may be the boring football may get the results. When's he back anyway?
I think we are missing the team not playing like a bunch if ****s, along with occasionally winning a game.
He was at the Vic last tuesday and did an Interview with Emma and Welbz. He said it's going well but can't put a date on a return just yet. He is enjoying those free teas though. Maureen must be proud.
Until we get out of this mess, hoof ball to Welbeck May be the answer. We lose so many balls around the centre circle playing tippy tappy football, lose it and then we are through on goal. 4-4-1-1 formation.
What we're missing is confidence. Unless we get that back sharpish, it won't matter what QSF or his replacement try to do. The squad are so bereft of confidence they're taking to the pitch already beaten.
That certainly wasn’t the case three games ago against Arsenal. It probably was against Man City, for historical reasons, and it was against Wolves but shouldn’t have been.
We need it in our game plan amongst other things. But confidence is very important. The players need to fight like they are up against it. Not capitulate like it's already over.
Back to the basics, make games ugly and grind out a win. We haven't got the confidence to play good football at the moment. But we have enough physically to make games scrappy, and hopefully nick a goal. I honestly think that's how we'll have to play to get our next win and the confidence will come after.
I don't think we are missing hoof ball at all seems to be more to do with confidence, we played some of the best football we have played in a long time during the second half against Arsenal and it was all on the floor and the players seemed to grow in confidence, then City came along and smashed that confidence right out of the lads.
I disagree. There was a marked body language difference once Cleverley's goal went in. The players suddenly believed they could get something; the fact Arsenal were clearly rattled probably egged them on too. It's unfortunate we played City right afterwards, really. Straight into Wolves instead of City and everything might have been different.
Hoof ball is a valid element of any team, especially against teams that press or bring their fullbacks forward regularly. I'm not sure that we need to revert to it as our base plan yet, however. What I think right now that we still need more of are the following: 1) Defend as a unit. QSF said this in his first week here and it's still a work in progress. I'm not sure who should be directing traffic, but we're having too many situations where unmarked players hurt us. Communication and familiarity with each other should be critical here. I think we need to get set on who is in the spine and on the back line and let them play together for a while. 2) Close the space early. I couldn't even attempt to count the number of times youth coaches bark this out - and it's still critical. Teams doing #1 above and that have confidence do this naturally, whether it's a press or just solid defending. We are giving the opposition too much time to pick out a pass. A notable exception was during the comeback vs. Arsenal. We smothered them all over the pitch for periods in the second half. NO ONE likes to be closely marked. We need to make the opposition uncomfortable and play faster than they like. 3) Finish. This I think will be a lot about confidence and a little bit about familiarity. 1 or 2 go in and all of a sudden they start going in in bunches. Deulofeu and Sarr get a little more familiar with each other and with Welbeck/Gray/Deeney, then they know where to put the ball. Honestly I'm far less concerned about #3 than the other 2. Good defence almost always begets good offense. Part of the reason is that the opposition gets frustrated and they start making mistakes.
People have written off the first half against Arsenal because we went in at half-time 2-0 down, but I watched the game again to confirm my impression at the time that Watford were much the dominant team for the first 20 minutes before Arsenal scored. That's really my point: Watford need to start matches positively to try and get ahead. If they could do it against Arsenal, they should be able to do it against Wolves, but they certainly didn't.
I agree we weren't that bad in the first half. I simply think that the body language was far better after TC's goal, that's all.
Cliche but we need a ball to go in off someone's backside, an early minute own goal, an early penalty. ANYTHING, We need to go 1-0 up in the first twenty minutes against Sheff Utd, grind that victory out and then we will believe we can stay up.
We don’t need hoofball. Hoofball means you’ve got a 50/50 chance at best of retaining the ball. A 5 second punt up field is likely to see the ball coming straight back at you. If you retain the ball the opposition can’t attack you. Our main issue is that we go behind cheaply very early in games. We’re then prone to being caught on the counter attack exposing our weak defence whilst simultaneously finding it harder to break teams down because they are happy to sit back and let us have it. Playing hoofball would just play into their hands even more.
