We looked really poor today, but Liverpool made us look poor. Damn but they're good. Sometimes in The Prem s**t happens. You're meet a brilliant side on top form & you get hammered. It comes with the territory. Exactly the same thing happened to Everton yesterday, and they're a very decent side. It's painful & humiliating but in itself it means very little as long as you can successfully bounce back afterwards (especially when are still 8th in the league). Honestly I would be more worried if we'd been beaten by a s**t Hull side today like Southampton, or lost to West bloody Brom AT HOME like Lesta. Obviously if we don't do well against Lesta & Stoke after the break when we've got some of our injured players back I will PANIC!!! .... but until then I won't. We shall see.
So just ignore the manner of defeat, defending and the historical significance of the defeat and just pretend that Liverpool really are footballing immortals and that losing so badly doesn't play any role in morale or on exposing faults.
Don't panic, none of us on here have any control on what happens, as long as we take points from the lower sides we shall be ok, yes it's disappointing when you get heavily beaten, but maybe amongst other things it's a wake up call!
On the argument that Walter knows best about Sinclair because he sees him in training all week: isn't it important for any manager in any profession at least to ensure that employees feel valued? How does putting him on the bench every week but not even sticking him on for ten minutes in an effectively dead game achieve that? Walter clearly doesn't rate him, his prerogative I guess but if I were him I certainly wouldn't be sticking around given half a chance.
What does significance matter? It's you who I was specifically thinking of when I posted about purely being argumentative for the sake of it. Travis I know sees things differently from me consistently, but you seem to have set off on an orgy of deliberate and provocative arguing out of pure bloody mindedness
I suspect Walter does rate him but feels he just needs to get stronger physically. More time in the gym needed. It probably depends on whether or not the player himself feels he has a point. If he does he'll work on it, if not he'll be off.
Can't be any weaker than Pereyra, absolutely gutless performance. Pulled out of challenges multiple times, took the safe option with passes, easily got shrugged off the ball ten times plus, I know Liverpool are intense and press high but he really shirked today.
Absolutely, it's what they do. My point is that we gave the ball away several times even when not under much pressure - little flicks and back heels in ridiculous positions on the field. Of course it happens. But not in such an abject spineless fashion as today How many other teams have they beaten 6-1 this season ? It was ****. Get over it.
I blame Gomes for this fiasco, he was nowhere to be seen for the last four goals. Liverpool were excellent and we played right into their hands, bad day at the office, sick as a parrot but we move on, we must just take each game at a time now.
Haha. Whatever mate, if you say so Anyway, I actually kinda like Watford these days. You guys play with passion. All the best for the remaining campaign. Hope you better your last season's performance.
I must say out of all the people on the pitch today, I don't understand the complaints about Pantilimon. He made several very smart saves today and none of the goals scored while he was in were saveable. Honestly, there were some moments of excellent defending from our back line but they were inconsistent to say the least and there was no help from the midfield. It says a lot when Britos was the best striker in the team, though. Deeney had a couple moments of quality but was generally poor, Ighalo the same. The thing that worries me the most is that we've got players who clearly should not be in the side but Mazzarri refuses to start anyone else. Why on Earth did Kabasele not start in CB? Where is Doucoure? And why did we bother signing Sinclair if he doesn't even get played in a situation like today? Edit for another thought: real credit has to be given to Amrabat and Janmaat for our goal, I watched it again and the two of them created it beautifully out of nothing. Lovely finish from Janmaat too.
Interesting sentence on wdsport. But for all of Liverpool’s brilliance, Watford made it too easy for the home side on a bitterly cold afternoon on Merseyside. As was the case when you saw the team rock up at Southampton and Swansea last season, the Hornets’ squad were simply not up for a fight and the number warming up in tracksuits, wearing scarves or snoods – Juan Camilo Zuniga had a head garment which covered all but his face – smacked of a team who didn’t fancy it. Think they got it spot on.
If we play 3-5-2 which I don't think we should, but if we do why on earth did we Janmaat instead of Kabasele or Mariappa? Get Pererya in the middle, he is not a wide player. Drop Capoue who has been utter bobbins now for weeks. Liverpool were very good but some of our defending was embarrassing. On the plus side I was out yesterday until about 3.30pm so only saw the last 25 mins so in my view it was a decent point!!
... just bad Liverpool defending: both Sky & the BBC said so, so it's true. I haven't read the Telegraph report but I'm sure they would agree that it was purely due to a forgivable lack of concentration, being 5-0 up.
The worst thing about this after the dust has settled this morning is just the embarrassment of it all. We finally got a drubbing a la 1999/2000. What a great start to the week and the two week break from domestic football.
Exactly this. There's clearly a direct correlation between how warm players wrap up in the warm-up and how poorly they perform on the pitch. Hopefully throughout the winter we can show how much we "fancy it" by warming up in just T-shirt and shorts, think that'll send a big message to the opposition and put us on the front foot. Another good example of WDSports sharing that extra bit of know-how that ordinary football fans just wouldn't be aware of, thanks WD!
I can;t fro the life of my understand when we didn't go all out after HT. Behrami for Gueds at the very least, with maybe Sinclair replacing Capoue. Watson coming on made a difference, but was never going to make a fight of it. The game was lost a goal or two more might have made it look less embarrassing.
Monday morning and that really did happen then.. An absolute shocker, everyone has them yes but we really did seem to roll over and let Klopp tickle our belly which is the most worrying thing for me. I think Mazzari got it wrong from the start, you cannot go away to a flying Liverpool with a makeshift back 3 including Janmaat and 2 up top. They pulled us apart and could have had more than the 6 they hit easily, we only scored due to them naturally dropping off. Pereyra being stuck out on the left doesn’t work, he kept trying to cut in on his right but so painfully obviously they dealt with it every time, he seems one of those plays that needs the space and the freedom in the middle. Can’t really lay much blame at Troy and Iggy they had next to nothing to work with but we really shoot ourselves in the foot going with 2 up top. Though I really hope someone screams at Capoue for playing blind passes time and time again, be it a little flick in to no one or a no look pass 10 yards behind the target. It’s like he forgets the basics tries to be ‘too clever’ which is fine if you are 5-0 up but on the other team just keep it simple! There’s not much else to say about it really, most of the coverage is about Liverpool’s brilliance rather than our many failings which is fine by me but I do hope this results puts the fire back in their bellys over the break and they play with a bit more anger and desire in the next match. We seem to manage this quite fascinating trick of getting a raft of players in over the summer then having the same 11 play week in week out who don’t feel the heat of competition for their place, Capoue/Behrami/Iggy/Deeney and Pereyra it seems can be added. I feel for Sinclair not even getting 10 mins with a display like that, we’ve struggled to score many lately so he must look absolute rubbish in training. Hopefully when our injuries return things will liven up again, Mazzari doesn’t seem the sort to take this well. I can imagine and hope the players will be put through their paces this next couple of weeks because that’s a long time to stew on a loss like that. At the end of the day there is no shame in losing away to Liverpool at all, but the manor of the defeat and the mistakes made have to be examined. The squad cannot just chalk it up to experience and move on they have to react because they have collectively had their pants pulled down. It does happen from time to time and we will probably learn more about the squad from how they react than the match itself. We need to see Capoue and Behrami putting the all action displays in again, we need to see Troy dominating defenders again and we need to see some movement in the box to get on the end of one of Amrabat’s crosses. It has been a fantastic start to the season and hopefully this acts as a kick up the backside rather than derail us. Also, a professional side let alone a Premier League side should never suffer a defeat like that and say ‘it happens’ or ‘they’re just really good’ and accept it, their pride should be hurt and they should want to put it right asap. Something I have found quite interesting and maybe I’m wrong but weirdly the Watford fans response seems to be more positive after a result like this than after beating a team like Hull and also Mazzari’s English only seems to come up when we lose.
In fairness I think the forced sub of Gomes put pay to any 10 min runouts. To Debut Sinclair in that match wouldn't have helped his confidence.
Poor performance again but this time we actually played someone half decent and got trounced, could've been 9 or 10 - pretty shocking really. Yesterday showed how much we lack in depth and unlike last season, we've now picked up a few injuries and it's starting to show. Defence all over the place, it's terrifying to think we might have no Gomes Cathcart Prodl Holebas next game. Amrabat is great going forward but isn't a defender, when will Walter learn? Deeney and Ighalo useless again, far too static and gives the midfield no options. Then again, did the midfield get stuck in traffic or something? All in all a terrible day but was expected by many. For once i welcome an international break
Good as Liverpool were, some of the goals we gave them were absolutely pathetic. Goal 1 - Britos shanks a clearance on his right foot, conceding an unnecessary corner. They take a short corner with Pereyra outnumbered, Holebas belatedly tries to get across to make it 2 v 2, Janmaat looks at Mane rather than the ball as the cross comes in and gives him a free header. Goal 2 - Routine pass into the feet of Coutinho who is being marked by Janmaat who inexplicably turns his back on him so can't stop him cutting inside, shot into the middle of the goal that Gomes possibly could have done better with. Goal 3 - Britos loses a header to Firmino from a long punt, Holebas backs off Lallana allowing him to float a cross to the back post where Can doesn't even need to jump as Amrabat lets him run in unmarked into the six yard box. Goal 4 - We clear a free kick but then don't react when the ball comes back in, Capoue beaten far too easily, Behrami loses Firmino and is caught flat-footed as he taps in. Goals 5 and 6 were pretty well-worked and there were no glaring individual errors but by that time Liverpool were in showboating mode because of the earlier goals.
An utter gutless disgrace of a performance. MOTM: none of the *****. No player came out of that with credit. Not one. There is no justification whatsoever for a wretched, spineless performance like that. We have a team of cowards. And a captain who is all talk but no action. I cant remember a watford team this easy to dislike. **** them all. We pay hundreds of quid to travel to some northern ****hole to watch that? I dont blame for one minute the people who left at 3-0 and 4-0. Quite why I didnt follow them out the ground is beyond me. That article where tommy mooney said deeney is more loved now, what a complete and utter joke that is.
He does that all the time, every single match. He never gets tight and leaves loads of space for opponents to get crosses in. Drives me mad watching him.
They were too good for us. They were always going to beat us fairly convincingly (bookies thought by at least 2 goals). I'm more annoyed that our players look lost, without passion or grit. I'm not annoyed by the loss at all. I am annoyed that when our players passed to them, they barely make an effort to win the ball back. That we didn't try and bully them, and so for them this was a jog in the park. We were very unlikely to win this match. But we could have fought together as a team. We look like 11 strangers out there.
Thought I'd calm down overnight before commenting but it hasn't helped. Im not sure what Walter was thinking with the way he set up the team as many have commented on. I think they thought 'this isn't going to work' and played accordingly. The most embarrassing performance I can remember, with little tactical nous trying to either shore things up or go for a goal or two in the second half (admittedly not helped by using a sub for Gomes) - we just didn't have a clue how to stop them playing. The only positives - how Janmaat and Amrabat play together - good goal, and the Watford fans who were loud and proud even 5-0 down. Walter must learn from this. We are only 5 points or 2 wins above the drop zone and there's a long winter ahead, talk of us already being safe is way wide of the mark. This must also sting the players who didn't put in s shift. Where is their pride ? it has to come out in the next few weeks. A lot of work to do and winnable games coming up.
2 wins for how many teams? 9 isn't it? No one will claim 15pts is enough to keep us up but after 11 games we couldn't expect to be much better placed.
This ^ This squad should be called the "Sunshine Boys" instead of the Goldenboys. Will the team's results and performances trail off like last year as the days get darker and colder? When it's cold or inclement, just like that Monday night in Burnley, they'd rather be anywhere else. Just like when it was swirling freezing rain at Southampton and Swansea last season - where even Deeney warmed up in a polar explorer's hood, like Ighalo, along with the now departed Anya and Abdi.
Okay, it was unlikely that we were going to win this game, but I always say that I want to see us make a decent effort of it, even if we do lose. I've seen one or two 3-0 defeats in my time where I've been able to look back on them and say "we didn't actually play that badly, though". Unfortunately, the scoreline reflected the game on this occasion. I hope we're not going to see the same stubborn-ness from Walter as we did with Quique, i.e. playing the same out-of-form players. I think Deeney did skirt around this in an interview not too long ago, but hopefully it's not something that continues. In mitigation, we've had a bit of bad luck with injuries, so our defensive line was unavoidably weakened. Personally, I was thinking during the game that we could probably use another attack-minded winger, rather than play Pereyra out of position. There's a role for a much more balanced player in the squad that's currently being occupied by Ighalo. I'm finding Kaboul to be hit-and-miss, but hopefully he's just settling into the squad. Amrabat was once again our "best" player (or our least bad player), and I thought Janmaat did okay, considering. Watson also looked good when he came on, and hopefully that bodes well for him when picking future midfields. From about 65 minutes onwards, we actually looked like we had something about us. I know it was game over by that point, but all it does is show that we are capable, so maybe the comments about us not being "up for it" have some merit. Again, I wasn't expecting much from this game, but I'd have liked to have seen better than that.
