FA Cup Final - Manchester City 6-0 Watford FC - 18/05/2019 Match Thread

Don’t the Charity Shield.

 

Be careful what you wish for.

Always, always start strongly.

Say that in a GT voice.

Say that in Clough voice.

See, it’s true.

 

No. Most of the tabloid press hate him as well. Some for dubious reasons.

 

Whilst Guardiola plainly has strengths, he is a narcissist & a bully.

He gets away with it because he knows he can get away with it.

 

Aguero is a supreme player.

The best in the Prem since Henry.

Jesus is in the Citeh post room in comparison.

It was all SuperPep mind games. See separate post on bullying.

 

My fleeting observation is that, this season, Silva D has been required to do more of the hacking.

I suspect because he’s likely to be less bookable (being tiny, Captain often & a legend). Refs queuing up for his autograph afterwards.

 

I’ve heard his managing style is influenced by Fergie, but I think there’s a bit of Mourinho in it but with better man-management and football. Both managers like to think they’re god, but with Guardiola this thought is more justified.

 

Hear, hear, MG.

We won the Bottom 14 trophy.

That’s our finest result after GT’s second place.

 

Ake is clearly out of our league &, bizarrely, I suspect the Brighton ones, too.

Not sure the Burnley ones are an upgrade. The boy Keane has been wayward since he left them.

 

Don’t mention.

 

His smartest tactic is to ensure the deck is always 80:20 in his favour.

He’s a politician.

Where would we have finished under him this season?

 

I really didn't need to imagine that.

 

This is, of course, the whole point of the (non) Champions league: the top clubs get into it, make more money, so stay in the top places, get in the Champions league, make more money etc.

It is football's old boys network and only Spurs have really broken into that top few in the last decade.

 

They pressed together in certain situations eg when we gave the ball away for some of the goals. We totally lost our shape and compact play 2nd half, all our efforts were individuals chasing the ball and chasing shadows. They conserved some energy and we had wasted much of ours, plus when losing it is harder work to overcome fatigue. On top of that they all (bar Kompany) have pace, only Gerry does for us.

Big part of the recipe for conceding goals.

We could've sat back at 2 or 3 down, and lost anyway. Then we'd have had different things to moan about but still no trophy!

 

The pace thing is hugely important in football.

 

I heard he used some of his income to buy a house? Outrageous!

 

Fergie was always a bully, both at Aberdeen and the early days at United. Only when he started to achieve success with the class of 92' onwards did the media show respect based on results. Mourinho created his own myth by feeding the press entertaining sound bites. His has been a slow fall from grace as he failed to adapt, became ever more rigid in his methods and his moaning increased. He never takes any responsibility. Guardiola has already been canonised but I sense the media might start to turn on him if he becomes linked at all with enquiries into Citee's transfer dealings. The cult of the manager has largely been fuelled by the media so much so that the club board/ owners are now hyper-sensitive and ready to pull the trigger.

 

Can't argue regarding the points about our fitness, lack of running back, pressing and general stamina. I hope Gracia takes note. I think we put in alot of effort in the final league games for little reward. Capoue looked spent after the West Ham game. We have, Del Boy apart and since Fulham, become less clinical in front of goal. There is little excuse for not maximising stamina, running and fitness however. This is different from the technical quality clearly evident between say Gray and Aguero.

 

Everton were knocked out in the qualifiers for the Champions League to Villarreal, not by Liverpool. Liverpool had to start in the first qualifying round as a result of finishing outside the top 4, they humorously had to start their season on the Anglo-Welsh border against TNS

 

I think at the end of the day the most important question is 'does Gino know what he's doing?' The answer to that question is so bloody obvious we don't even need to answer it. The PL is exceptionally competitive but we are growing and evolving every year. One of our biggest advantages now is that our transfer options are hugely improved. Remember Diamantini, Ibarbo, Sinclair, Oulare, Suarez, Arlauskis?
We could survive next season just by signing a top centre back and keeping the same heart and fighting spirit. But no doubt Gino has his eye on a few others. Remember last summer's head scratching over Wilmot, Dahlberg & Quina? Not bad for £5m! Gino has to work within a budget, he's not father Christmas, that's why we couldnt spend £20m on Ake 2 years ago, maybe this summer we could spend that kind of money on a defender but we probably wont. All in all Gino must be delighted with our progress over the last 7 years. We should be too!!
On top of that our fanbase has really come of age this season, proving that passion is more important than size. This is predominantly due to the work of one man. Sure we've had our moments in the past but Roy Moore's drive and organisatation have transformed our support and the results were plain to see at Wembley. Although the score was a kick in the cojones, we could view Saturday as the celebration party of everything that's happened over the last 7 years. Whatever the next 7 years brings most of us will still love Watford warts and all and if things go to plan it could be pretty amazing.

 

One of my favourite ever football quotes when TNS qualified for the Champions League: 'they'll be celebrating in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight'

 

See also: Raith Rovers of Kirkcaldy

 

I don't think MC see that wide a gap despite Aguero's history and achievements. Last season Jesus kept him out if the team for long spells. It's only this season that Aguero reclaimed the first team place. Both score hatfuls when they play. Not the same as Success coming in would have been for us .

 

Couldn't agree more with this very well put together post!

 

Guardiola didn’t select him.

Not necessarily the same as Jesus being as good as Aguero.

That’s the part of Guardiola I don’t warm to. Tough, ruthless boss or someone who is happy to make a poor decision because he can.

I err to the latter.

Aguero bigger than Jesus.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus

I didn’t realise the killer of Lennon was a Christian fundamentalist.

 

Mr Duxbury, welcome!

Good post.

 

The reason City won was because they are better than us, which is totally understandable. The reason City won by such a big margin because they wanted it more, tried harder and were physically stronger. That's unforgivable, in my book. Running, working hard, winning your physical battles are all in Watford's control, but they didn't want to do it, not even on the biggest stage.

It was a cup final. You run until you puke. They just didn't want to know after the second goal went in. That shows a lack of character. For some reason, that crazy goal and red card against Arsenal was the catalyst for the end of the season as far as Watford were concerned. They nosed dived full tilt at half time at Chelsea. From that point onwards they stopped playing completely. I hope when they analyse the season, they look into what caused that complete collapse at Chelsea which carried on against West Ham and City.

That sequence, destroyed the memory of a very good season. At the end of this campaign, I'm glad it's over as I was sick of it. Sick of getting my hopes up only to be dashed by players going on their holiday's early, yet again.

Is it a mental thing with Watford? Do they fear success (not Isaac)? Why do they always pull up short, when they can achieve such good things? It's so frustrating, but the club has to understand why such a thing continually happens.

 

Was that Diamantini any good when you loaned him out to Granada?

 

They certainly run out of steam end of every season and psychologically lose it when going behind. I don't think it is in anyway deliberate or to use an oft used phrase they are 'already on the beach'. It has to be solved in the future if we are to reach our potential.

 

I think one of the biggest culprits to this was Deeney himself. He got himself sent off against Arsenal, and I believe his mouth got him into that. The officials were looking out for him. Then we suffered as a team without him for the remainder of that match plus the Southampton and Wolves games. When he does come back he's totally anonymous and probably plays his worst three games of the season.

When he's on it, Watford are firing, when he's not, then we fade. We need to be bigger than that as a club/team. We cannot align ourselves to the mood swings of just one player.

I think there's a big of a myth surrounding Watford. We are labelled big, strong, physical and very effective at freekick routines. We are none of this. They say our team is full of big characters, again, is it really? If it was, then these of end season collapse would not continually occur. We do have some characters, but we also have some weak individuals as well.

When we hopefully make these signings at centre back, I hope to see at least one of them being a clear leader.

 

Andre Gray would get 20 goals a season playing with those players. Discuss...

 

More likely to be a 4 year contract

 

Excellent post. It's like some teams have an inbuilt characteristic they just can't shake, no matter the players or the manager.

Just like Everton are destined to fail against Liverpool and Tottenham bottle it.

I actually think Deulofeu is the player with the most desire to win. Yes it usually manifests itself in him hogging the ball and losing it more often than not, but I hate it when he goes off and we're chasing a game. I don't blame him for not wanting to pass to our players when we need a goal.

I guess it's the Barcelona mentality.

 

Thanks Mr Dad, I hope we can still rely on your support when we relocate the Watford franchise to Hangzhou, China. All the best, Scott

 

Why bizarre? Brighton have a decent defence. Their attack is poor.
(Of course, this is very largely a function of their tactics under Chris Hughton.)