My sympathy of Gracia.... 1) Had a good start to the season. Deeney and Gray starting up front. Then Watford have a bad day and lose 4-0 at home to Bournemouth there is uproar in WC FORUMS people saying Gracia has to freshen things up. 2) Gracia freshen things up brings in Success and Delefeou as this false no 10 which relies on midfielders getting into the box. Results get positive again and people in WFC forums happy again. 3) The false no 10 thing brings some low key results with chances not being taken. Uproar again in WFC forums with people saying ain't good enough Gracia is clueless etc. Must be hard being a manager.
So many terrible decisions all in one game, probably summed up by this particular bit of idiocy. Double substitution with the chance for one of our (generally pointless) long throws so we immediately set up with Gray trying to win the flick on and Deeney at the back post and they head it away.
Its all been said before countless times. Junk this awful 4222. We have good midfielders, play a formation that uses them to their strengths, 451...4231... Stop playing Hughes out wide. Play him in the middle or not at all. Stop playing Delia Foo as a #10, he's a winger. Stop playing Mariappa period. He's an emergency squad cover player. Ditto Gray. Ditto Holy Bass. Stop selecting players who are clearly visibly obviously off form. Most of the terrible decisions are the ones Gracia is making. We are going to be so spanked by City... what's the premier league record win?
Unfortunately our 2 DMs only seem to be able to pass sideways or backwards. Except for when they give it away.
What's frustrating today was that Ben Foster hardly had anything to do and we still come away with nothing!
Really disappointed. Thought we'd get a draw but as usual it appears the good start hid long term frailties.
As predicted, As predicted we will be appealing against another unjust red card. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...-hornets-will-appeal-etienne-capoue-red-card/
I don't think anything has really changed: 1. We’re still a good team with some great potential 2. We still have an obvious squad weakness up front as most people have been pointing out for a while 3. We’re no where near top 6 4. We had lots of attacking play but failed to score as in previous games. 5. We can still have a great season 6. Gracia is not suddenly a bad manager 7. We so obviously need a good striker and then who knows what we might achieve 8. People tend to over react and say silly things on Internet forums Actually the one thing that has changed for me is that I have finally given up on Gray, I like to stay loyal and support all the players but the long term critics are right he’s not good enough.
The most damning stat is again no shots on target. Not getting in an EPL quality striker in the summer is now having an effect. We are creating the chances but we need someone clinical like Vardy. Gray is not good enough and Success needs to practice. It's hard to see when we are going to score again. Can't knock the team for effort but a lack of quality and poor decision making in the final third in successive matches is now beginning to bite.
We've failed to score in 5 of our last 8 games, despite creating a plethora of chances. Before that, we were scoring wonder goals, which was never likely to be maintained, and papered over the cracks. Gray has never looked like taking chances. It's normal for him to have bad misses, that's his game. Once in a blue moon he will score, but that's not good enough. Deeney rarely gets into position to have a chance to score, and when he does he often passes to another player to avoid the responsibility to shoot. Okaka has been a huge disappointment, a good debut against Everton is all he's got to brag about. Success is an exciting player with a lot of potential, but like all the others I've already mentioned, just does not have the composure in front of goal. Hopefully Penaranda will give us something different, but I think it's a long shot if I'm honest. All we can hope for is that the midfield/wide players take up the burden, but it's hard on them. They are not strikers, but because of our deficiency up front, they have to be the players we completely rely on. We've had Gray, Deeney and Okaka for long enough and we know their goal output will not improve. Even though, result wise, our form has been of a relegation side for all but the first 4 games of the season, I still have faith. I believe our results will improve but if we don't beat Cardiff in a couple of weeks, I will start to get a bit concerned.
It's almost worth losing to Cardiff to see how quickly the biggest snowflake on the forum turns against the coach and claims he never ever wanted him in the first place. Almost.
Couldn't make it today due to family stuff ... everything on the pitch seems so predictable after recent games ... but, really moved and feel proud to be a Watford fan with the banner today. Really important thing to do, in the spirit of what football has always been about - and sometimes gets lost...
The first 15 was end to end and enjoyable. Lots of noise from the crowd. Thanks to the 1881 for the banner and the resulting free bar at half time. Nice touch from their vice chairman. **** result and depressing to watch lots of squandered opportunities, poor passing and giving the ball so frequently. As said at least we can bounce back when City come to town.
Foster - 6.5 - Wasn't hugely tested but gave away a penalty. Couldn't do much with the second goal. Okay performance. Femenía - 6 - Quick on the flanks and trying to break to make things happen. Prone to getting caught out of position and showed a slight lack of defensive nous. Mariappa - 4.5 - Today he was a major weakness at the back which I feel Cathcart had to work harder to cover Mapps. Wrong selection from Gracia with our best defender in Kabasele once again left on the bench. Cathcart - 7 - Was our best defender today as he covered extra ground and remained relatively solid. His lack of pace can often be an issue especially if the other defensive partner isn't the quickest such as Mapps. Solid. Holebas - 6 - Tried to go forward on most occasions without any real end product. A few decent set pieces but on the whole quite average, although I don't think he is helped out by a lack of attacking threat. Defensively he did an okay job but was often backtracking due to Vardy's clever play exploiting our vulnerable back-line. Doucouré - 6 - Not hitting the heights of last season. Gives the ball away more often and isn't having as big of impact as he is capable of. He still shows glimpses of quality and does a lot of hard work for the team covering a lot of ground. Can play a lot better. Average performance. Capoue - 7 - Despite his sending off at the death, I thought he was our most composed midfielder dictating the play and doing a lot of crucial defensive work. He is a very important player in Gracia's systems so the suspension (if not rescinded) is a little worrying. Chalobah looks likely to get his chance or perhaps Hughes will be pushed into the middle. I suspect the former if sticking with 442. Hughes - 6 - Has huge potential but slightly wasted out wide. Has wonderful touch, skill, weight of pass and movement but needs to be more influential in games. For that to happen he needs to be accommodated more centrally in the team. I think he is doing as good a job as possible on the right despite his lack of pace. Pereyra - 5.5 - Hardly in the game. Had a chance or two but failed to impose himself on the game. Looked slightly disinterested and was a frustrated figure during the match. Has the most natural ability in the squad but is quite inconsistent and often lacks that extra aggression or urgency in his game when needed. A very valuable member of the squad but not at the races today. Deulofeu - 5.5 - Similar to Pereyra, as in has so much potential but is too inconsistent. I would prefer to see him reverted back to right wing. Not a striker at this level. Showed a few attacking bursts forward but no end product. Another frustrating performance. Overall ineffective but worked hard. Success - 6.5 - Worked very hard, holding the ball and making direct runs. Produced a very poor effort just before half-time which could have been a crucial turning point in the game. Physically strong performance without posing enough danger in front of goal. Final ball and link-up play can be improved. Substitutes Deeney - 5 - Failed to have an impact on the game. Wasn't very involved with play and had very few touches. Didn't pose much of a threat. Chalobah - 5.5 - Had less time than the other two subs but wasn't great in possession. Gave the ball away a few times in dangerous positions. Probably rusty through lack of game time. Will need to take his opportunity with the probable suspension of Capoue. Gray - 5.5 - Got into good scoring positions but failed to convert with very feeble efforts. Should have scored at least 1 goal with his chances. Lacked composure in-front of goal.
serious answer, yeah he'd blend right in with all the rest of our Championship-level misfiring strikers.
That's incredibly generous considering he had so little to do, and one of the few things he did do was have a massive brain-fart which gifted them the opening goal against the run of play.
On a bad run. Man City next Tuesday. I'm leaving the country for a week! Hopefully it'll be better when I get back!
. It was poor defending, Foster wasn't fully to blame. Vardy is difficult to play against especially when playing such a high line with an average defence. He was a bit rash in coming out and unfortunately he got the man. 6 to 6.5 is a fair score.
On a more positive note i switched over to the Xmas songs and caught this from 1973 -released just after we had played a goalless draw at home to Halifax in front of 5,000 in the third tier and i thought how far............ but then what does that mean if you cant convert your chances
Err, it's almost as if there are rival managers out there trying to stop us just playing our own way!!!!!!!!!!
Sadly I agree. Was hoping he'd come good, but the header that was totally off target and the air shot from 5 yards was the final straw. His woeful first touch I can live with it he can put chances away, but he can't even manage that. Okaka would have caused far more problems and he's second rate.
Since the beginning of last season Okaka probably has the best goals to minutes ratio of the current squad
I wasn't there. Were they really playing a high line against an attack with Gray and Vardy in it? Surely the World and its wife know Leicester's ace in the pack is their counter-attacking speed and Vardy's finishing. Vardy versus Mapps for speed is hanging Mapps out to dry. FFS.
Hardly ever post but after being at the game today feel compelled to add my few pennies worth. The lack of composure in front of goal is remarkable. We either seem to pass the ball to death, being scared to shoot, or fail to attack the penalty area. When we do get a chance we show a lack of composure Deeney failing to make contact with a header when perfectly placed sums it up, although he was clearly not alone. This must be a confidence issue. However what I find most puzzling is the lack of any sense of urgency. We leave every throw in on the left hand side to Holebas, who by the time he has ambled up has given the opposition every opportunity to regroup and clear the ball that he has then thrown to them. Ditto corners. Deeney argues with the ref over every decision, again holding up the play and has been commented elsewhere Capoue and Doucoure spend a lot of time passing sideways. This is admittedly a tad unfair as Capoue has clearly upped his game and is probably more a comment on Doucoure’s reduced effectiveness. When we do show a sense of urgency, normally when chasing a game, we look so much more effective.
I thought our worst player - by some considerable distance - was Deulofeu. Every single time he just ran into trouble and lost the ball or tried some tricky flick which ended with him losing the ball. Utterly dire. I would say Foster was definitely at fault for the pen. I'll see it again on MOTD, but it seemed to me that he changed his mind about coming or not about 3 times in 1 second and that was the crucial delay in him making it to the ball first. The second was a great goal, but I would have liked to have seen him make some movement towards the ball rather than standing there flat-footed and motionless again. Shouldn't he be a bit more on his toes than that? Since we're going to get whacked by City anyway, I'd give that Swedish head-injury lad a go. See what he can do. We never really looked like scoring apart from that one where Success turned on the pace and got past their defender for the through ball - then one on one with their keeper. What an awful shot though. Andre Gray's attempted header was the most inelegant piece of football I've seen in many a day - including on Sunday morning parks. The way he bodily launched himself at the ball in a peculiar tangle of arms and legs reminded me of a drunk trying to rush a door bouncer. About the only ray of light is that Chalobah looked useful when he came on. A bit sharper and up to pace now? He's another that needs to get a longer run out I reckon and City would be a good game to do it.
I think it’s obvious now that certain players need a few (or more) games out of the side as we do actually have players worth a run out. We need to get to the bottom of why Femenia is a shadow of the player he was last season - Janmaat should get back in now in my opinion, or even Navarro. Kabasele should come back in for Mariappa, that’s so obvious now. Masina is a better LB than Holebas but I think Gracia loves Holebas as he gets back in when fit every time - can’t see it being a change that will be made. Doucoure needs time out of the side, and Chalobah now needs to be given his chance to get back to fitness. We forget just how good a player he is. If Cleverley is near fitness, I think he needs to come in for Hughes and crucially, TAKE SET PIECES!!! Holebas is terrible at them. I think we need to go back to 1-up front, with Deulofeu back out wide where he’s far more effective and his natural flair and greediness actually can benefit the team, rather than hinder the attack as it has when he’s played as a striker. I think Success is our best bet as a striker but I do have worries about his ability to stay central. That really needs to be drummed into him on the training pitch. FosterJanmaat Kabasele Cathcart Masina Chalobah CapoueDeulofeu Clevs Pereyra Success/Deeney Deeney although poor today, is our next best choice IMO if we are playing a lone-striker. Plus I’m not sure who’d be captain if he and Maps are left out? Cleverley???
What's all this about Watford dominating possession but missing a hatful of chances? MOTD has proved that Leicester were all over us and we only missed a couple of chances. But at least the pundits think Capoue's red card should be rescinded
To be fair, I watched the WHOLE game and so did the pundits on Soccer Saturday. We did miss good chances, but none were absolute sitters. We did dominate possession though and our ability to not even make Schmeichel make a save of note is a worry. But MOTD’s coverage or analysis regularly prove absolutely nothing.
