I don't get the attitude in bold. Your view does mean something and the club has been run incompetently and disgracefully for about 4 years now, and we still have multi layered management filling their boots with our club's money while the transfer budget is miniscule. There is no way this 5 year deal comes from the manager - you know how it works and Pozzo confirmed he isn't changing anything. It is important that these poor decisions are challenged and questioned, even if ultimately supporters can do little about it. The goons that infest our club would love it if all the fans were passive.
So we will now have a team club captain who gets defenders to take goal kicks if we are going by last season. Even less work for him to do I guess. He was pretty good against Palarse the other week, and out of the three we have, is the better of two evils over Hamer.
I presume he meant the captain decision. Ismael won’t be here 5 months so a length of contract isn’t going to be down to him as you say . I thought we were moving away from long term contracts but obviously not. Now everyone else will be asking for that long .
@Jumbolina Morning Jumb. My opinion matters a little on here as I’m a long-standing member of this forum but outside of it, I stick by my earlier comment that my thoughts are really irrelevant. Don’t misread this for passive indifference. I don’t like 5 year deals for players who aren’t top drawer and I don’t like a lot of things about how we are run. The power I and you and everybody else here has is to vote with our feet. We have the freedom to put money into the club coffers or if we are unhappy about how’s its being spent then obviously we have the power to stay away and be armchair supporters instead. Will I stay away because Bachmann has a new deal and is Captain? No. Do I like it? Hmm not especially. I’ve said so here, but in the context of knowing the world will keep turning whether I like it or not. I just want to start the new season feeling optimistic despite our obvious shortcomings. I’m trying to see the good in everything VI decides and I’m sure he’d had told Pozzo if he really thought we needed a new keeper. Maybe I’m naive, but I’m just trying to apply sensible logic to the situation. As I said, I’m more anxious about the lack of a decent number two and I’m not referring to my bathroom habits this morning!
Not sure about Bachmann as our No1 keeper, but I think he could possibly be a good captain. Let's hope the the resonsibilty of the captaincy helps to improve his keeping and he leads us to promotion.
Passing the ball to Louza who was surrounded by Palace players. A ridiculous decision from Bachmann which cost us a goal. He did the same thing last pre-season although I think he passed it straight to an opposition player. He can't be trusted with crosses and his distribution both long and short is woeful.
He maybe had better options to pass to but Louza still had enough time to do something with the ball - I'd say the two bigger mistakes were either Louza deciding to take a touch rather than laying it off straight away, or the first touch he took being a terrible one which went in to the air and thus meant he was unable to pass it with a second touch. We also can't see if Louza was perhaps calling for the ball. Rather get such things out of the way in pre-season anyway, which could be the case from the sounds of it. His long distribution was actually very good in our previous promotion season. I don't know why it became worse last season.
We'll have to agree to disagree, I think Bachmann should have seen that Louza was in a poor position to receive the pass and it was a risky one to play in that situation. It ultimately cost us but as you say it was only a friendly.
I don’t mind Bachmann and have definitely seen worse. 5 years seems excessive though. 3 would have made more sense. Would I have liked a new keeper, yes but there are other positions in the team which are more urgent. I don’t like keepers as captain at all. Too far away from play a lot of the time. Centre back would be my choice or possibly centre mid.
I do think Bachmann has shown some good adaption to the higher line he needs to play. Think there were points under Xisco he did manage that style to some success. His passing is a bigger question mark than his sweeping instinct which I think has looked of an acceptable standard and has reisted being too deep in his box when needing to stick or twist. If he's going to make poor passing decisions because he's having to adapt to a new style of play, at least in a Friendly, that's the time to make those mistakes and have it corrected.
I think the contract extension and decision to make him club captain need to be separated out. If Bachmann is comfortable at Watford, and both affordable and competent enough for Championship football, then a 5 year deal in isolation night not be the worst move. He's approaching peak years for a goalkeeper and it may well be that for the level we're at right now its thought that we couldn't do better for the money. In which case why not tie him down to an affordable contract now? Should we somehow get promoted, it doesn't stop us from bringing in someone who can play at a higher level with Bachmann a reasonable backup and should we then get relegated again he comes back into contention. We've taken similar approaches with other players who can do a job in the Championship but fall down the pecking order when a step up is needed. The club might also be thinking of him as a saleable asset worth tying down. Those of us who see him week in week out might scratch our heads at why he continually seems to attract interest from other clubs, but attract them he does somehow. He has developed a profile (helped by his stints in goal for Austria) and that possibly gives him an outsized value. Making him captain though is another matter. Like many others I'm not a fan of goalkeepers wearing the armband - they're too far removed from the action and can't impose themselves on a game as easily as outfield players. Bachmann's temperament is also clearly not suited to a leadership role. I agree with all those characterising him as hot-headed, petulant and shrinking when under pressure. In many ways he has epitomised the mental frailty of the team over the past few seasons and has at times inflamed the situation rather than calmed it. So for me, juries out on the new contract, but highly sceptical on the captaincy.
For me , whoever calls heads or tails before the game begins is irrelevant. A good team should have a number of captains on the pitch regardless of whether they wear the armband or not . Do we have sufficient "leaders" this season is the real question in my view .
I think there will be enough evidence this season to prove he’s no captain and certainly no first choice. Stupidly thought they would look to upgrade. Last season it appeared every opposition Goalie was more competent and composed than Bachmann. Surely there was someone better available.
I think this is a really interesting thing because it's a widely held (albeit not universal) opinion, but when you look at history there are plenty of very, very distinguished keepers who served as captains. Looking at the top end, where every single advantage matters, you have the likes of Shilton, Buffon, Casillas, Neuer, Zoff, Combi, Lloris, Khan, Yashin. All of them exceptional keepers, all of them achieving great things as captain. While I think it's fair to say that keepers are more removed from the action than the outfield, they also have a far better view of the entire pitch than any other player on their team. I suspect that in practice it's likely a wash. What's important is the mentality and leadership of the individual, rather than the position. Whether or not Bachmann can step up to that remains to be seen, but he wouldn't be the first player to step up if he manages it. Fingers crossed it's the making of him...
Ismael has a problem here, he's made Bachmann captain but it's already clear that he just isn't suitable for this style of play. We might get away with it a lot of the time but as the season goes on the defence are going to lose all confidence in Bachmann.
The only hope is that as time goes by Bachmann and the defenders will become more accustomed to and confident with the new style of play. At the moment, when Bachmann gets the ball, people with weaker hearts should make sure they are near a defibrillator.
The way the manager wants us to play football is a breath of fresh air for our club I'm all for it, you can see in the patterns of play but unless bachman stops the horrendous play with the ball at his feet we are going to let a sackful of goals in ,can't keep holding his hands up and apologising when he makes a mistake he will need a shoulder op in no time
As I've posted numerous times before, there won't be many keepers at all in the Championship who will be that adept at it and there haven't really been many, or even any, possible upgrades available.
I think Bachmann is actually really bad at it. The Plymouth keeper Hazard was very comfortable with the ball at his feet, as he’s their backup keeper. I think Bachmann is flawed but he does make excellent saves, but I disagree we couldn’t find a more competent keeper with the ball at his feet. The three we have on our books are probably the worst we could ever wish to have for Ismaël’s style. He needs a specialist keeper or he has to play a different way. Forcing Bachmann to play a sweeper role is just not going to work. He has to shelve it before it starts costing us goals. In just 2 matches he’s given up 5 big chances with errant passes. That cannot continue.
Agreed. I can’t stand him and have made my feelings very clear about him being a useless GK. We’ve been lucky in the sense it was a very poor QPR team, and Plymouth, who we deserved to smash today, get gifted those opportunities. Better opposition would have scored those chances. We all knew we needed a better GK, especially knowing how VI plays. Instead Gino and Co. make him captain and give him 5 years. His distribution will cost us big time. We’re very lucky it hasn’t so far. Most top half teams like Saints, Leicester, Leeds, Norwich, Boro etc will be licking their lips playing against Bachmann. They will know they will have at least 2 open goal opportunities against us.
He will quickly become a target. It’ll be very easy to set traps for him. He takes too long to set himself and make up his mind where to pass the ball. Opponents will know this and will deliberately close him down. He’ll either panic and give the ball away or will get caught in possession.
somehow he got the 5year deal and the captains armband,he is a great shot stopper but he was,nearly on the half way line on a few occasions today and he can't play a simple 5 yard pass knowing where he is on the pitch ,he moves his feet like he's got concrete in his boots he's like a rabbit in headlights embarrassing how any of the coaching staff think he's the answer
Don't think anyone thinks he's the answer, just we clearly had no intention of spending money on an alternative even if on loan
I'll argue that Bachmann is doing well at playing a high line and sweeping. That's something he's getting right a lot. His passing as you though will cost us goals and points. I just don't see him adapting that side of his game.
Well he’s kept 2 clean sheets so the stats suggest he’s doing well. But that’s where stats are misleading. He’s directly responsible for virtually all the chances opponents have created against us this season. He’s getting away with it but that luck will eventually run out. I like the idea of a sweeper keeper though. If we had someone solid in using his feet then I’d be all for it. But Bachmann flubs so many passes even when he’s under no pressure. He’s never going to learn the skill. It’s impossible. Trying Cruyff turns. He has no idea. He thinks he can do these things which is the biggest danger. He’s unaware of his own limitations and Ismaël is enabling it. Once we concede a few soft goals which WILL happen, Ismaël will be forced to change. It’s just so obvious, but it appears we’re going to have to live through the pain of it going wrong. If Bachmann keeps giving away needless chances which prevents us winning too often, Gino will get rid of he guy making him play that way.
https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/23719576.dan-trying-right-things-blame-says-watford-boss/ A few interesting articles in the Wobby about Saturday's game, Ismael going full Ben Stokes in his philosophy. There'll be some people who respect that attitude, some whose blood vessels will spontaneously burst, I'm going to be patient here, I'm sure some times it'll save us, and some times it'll cost us, let's hope we're in credit by the end of the season
Just seen the replay of the goal. Beaten at his near post from a ridiculous angle. Yet another useless piece of goalkeeping. Giving this guy a five year deal AND making him captain is peak Watford lunacy. It never ends.
