That’s one of the most dull, turgid games I’ve watched in a while. Chuffed with the win (what a goal Pedro!) but seriously work to do. There’s surely a few more gears to go up if we’re going to be able team challenging for promotion.
On the basis of the last two years, Deeney and Gray would struggle to urinate into a urinal. I can be happy with the results and critical of the performances.
Are you putting your status as high as Ivic on this? Do you think all Watford fans disagree with you or just the ones (like us) that hang around this asylum?
The difference in a fairly dull game was their superstar fluffed his chance and ours score a beauty. 3 points, happy days
Good win, regardless of how we played. Next 2 games are against Blackburn and Bournemouth. Both teams I expect to be up there come the end of the season. Thankfully they are both at home. After that we have Wycombe (a) Barnsley (a) Stoke (h) Coventry (h) Before the next international break. Beat Blackburn and Bournemouth before facing those 4, and we will be setting ourselves up for a great season.
Oh, so now if we have an opinion on these things and dare to point out that it matches with the managers opinion then we are somehow also thinking too much of ourselves? It gets better. So to recap - to be a "real fan" you must clap along at all times, not have any opinions on anything to do with performances unless it's "yay, we won!", and you're only allowed to agree with the manager when he's being entirely positive, because having the same opinion as him if it's one of us having performed poorly is to apparently overrate yourself. Excellent stuff.
More like he won't be deployed at all except for maybe as an occasional sub, given he'll be off in the next window.
I think Ivic probably has improved our defence, but we are in the Championship now and it shows. In the Premier L we would have conceded several times. Derby have scored 2 all season and look thoroughly toothless. Other than that they seemed tidy. The form so far of both teams and the way they set up and the way they played made a low-scoring snooze-fest almost a certainty. Watford's problem at the moment is clearly in attack. I'd like to see them shift the ball forward quicker and be more unafraid to have a go at half-chances. Of course if Pedro scores like that every week, that would be alright with me. Wilmot is not the perfect defender for me. Not yet. There's a bit of Kabasele in him. But I do like the way he is prepared to venture forward into attack from time to time. His second half helped to put Derby under a bit more pressure. As was pointed out the other week, he is prepared to play the riskier ball forward than many of the others. Quina frustrates me: There is plenty of skill there, but he seems unable to read a game well, from minute to minute and move to move. I also wonder about his stamina. Troost-Ekong was feeling his leg when he came off and Pedro was limping too - I'm not sure it was just cramp. Ken Sema is beginning to look the best all-rounder we've had in a long while. Put him in any position and he seems to know what he is doing. He may not be a star, but he is pretty good and is proving very useful. We may have only scored one but we should have had a penalty. The defender's arm was well away from his body as he dived in for the block. Of course the ball has been hammered in and the ref does not have VAR. Cleverly's charge-down was perfectly kosher - his arm was tucked into his body.
I agree, but we have at least 4 players missing who would've walked into the starting 11 tonight. We've played 5 games, won 3 and only lost 1. Conceded only 1 goal. Things haven't been clicking up front, but that's to do with how little Sarr has played, lack of a fit striker (Murray doesn't count) and a decimated midfield behind the aforementioned lack of fit striker. Lots to look forward to.
Tough night for the wetters; another away performance masterclass with half the first team missing.... best dig out those balance (wet) sheets.
Good question, actually haven’t looked. However playing on the pitch that you are most use to always helps.
Is the fact that Sarr was clearly withheld from the squad in case of a sale less funny now that we've scraped a 1-0 win? Why are you going back through quoting everyone? Bit sad.
They did also say the club knew his plane was due back one hour before they left for the midlands So had planned to play without him, but hey, who knows what to believe
Not at all what I said. You are just incessantly, crushingly and tediously negative. You are not the moral guardian of this board, needing to sit in judgement and tell us all where we are going wrong in interpreting a performance. As a fan I would prefer to win 1-0 in a limited performance than lose 4-3 playing like Brazil 1970.
He’s akin to the negative pitbull straining at the leash whilst moong, bornsey, Jimbolina, and going daarn whisper instructions....
There’s evidence of this right? Not saying you’re wrong. But I’m sure you can understand such a claim would be questioned?
Quite. But you do realise that those who line up to criticise Nath because they sometimes hate to hear negative truths aren’t the moral guardians too?
This makes no sense. So the manager can criticise what he see’s in front of him. But those who follow the club can’t?
Yes, like I say, who knows on this. It was something the commentary said just before kick off. They said they knew he would be late so planned to play without him.
Also...was in the pub and then watched a film so didn’t comment immediately after the game but don’t want to be seen shirking positive results at all... Great result. Weakened line-ups aside, Derby is never an easy visit and we nullified them superbly. Jury’s out on whether that was because we suffocated them or because they were simply toothless - but you can only play what you’re up against and we were superb in that respect. An away win is always worth its weight in gold. Defensively the best I’ve seen us in months. So refreshing. Midfield was okay with room for improvement. Sema was ace but faded a bit, Chalobah was awful for the main part - and Quina was better than he’s been but still not as ace as we expect he can be. But I can’t wait for Hughes and Capoue to be back, I won’t lie. In attack, blunt until Joao Pedro’s goal. That’s not a criticism either. He’s not a No.9 and for large parts he was isolated while the team was playing 20 yards deeper than we should have been. This improved but still wasn’t great. All in all, I love a win. So congrats to all. But a better, in form, opposition would have been a puzzle tonight. We are far from a Top 2 side and need those missing players back immediately. The squad depth is beyond a concern. 6 more games in the next 2 weeks...we won’t get through those without quality bench rotation.
