I would've given myself a hernia booing if I was at the ground. So glad it was just a case of getting off the sofa and slagging off the pathetic shitbags on here instead.
Isn't that half the fun? There's no substitute for in person verbal abuse, where the players are forced to listen. Sofa abuse is wholly unsatisfying.
The toxic negativity amongst our supporters can be divided into two categories Those who are generally fed up and literally nothing will please them Those who can only remember the last 90 minutes of Watford's existence: the last game was bad therefore EVERYTHING is bad I can at least understand the former and suspect the generally **** year the world is having is fuelling that kind of mentality. The latter are just frankly morons who will entirely forget every being dissatisfied if/when we get promoted. Being positive is a lot harder than being negative. Negativity is the easy route. I choose to be optimistic. Either way it's not enjoyable coming to this forum at the moment.
Maybe it's a lot harder to be positive about WFC at the moment because it requires being dishonest with oneself. There are lots of things it's easy to be positive about. I'm positive about my job, my family, my physical health etc. Because all the evidence is strongly in favour of good times. Watford, however, has had a terrible 18 months and the surgery required to excise the cancer from the club has not gone anywhere near deep enough and malignancy remains.
Because people have a differing opinion? Not sure what you expect from a football forum if you expect everyone to be on the same train as you. Call it toxic all you want but any negativity is generally backed up with some reasoning or evidence. It's just cast aside by sneering supporters such as yourself who don't agree. Have you ever been negative about the current regime? How do you know its hard? Because you don't agree with it? Weren't the positive ones completely non-plussed about relegation or losing a cup final 6-0? Does that make them emotionless husk fans who just enjoy a day out? I'd rather be emotional about my football team than someone who stands fingers in ears without any care for what happens and isn't bothered by results, league positions or events that impact the club.
I remember with fondness supporting the team when we were crap. We knew where we stood then. Back in the 90s we knew fine well we are utter dog droppings, and we were well satiated by any tiny morsels the team threw our way. A point, or even just a goal were enough to satisfy our paltry expectations. Now we have have tasted the sweet nectar of being an ace side, albeit for just a fleeting few seasons, and it has turned us fans into monsters.
Just thinking, and I'm sure pretty much every club outside of the big 6 Prem clubs will say the same, but how many times do we follow up encouraging displays against decent teams with a **** performance in a game we should be winning?
Agreed, can I also add that I'm bored of threads like this every time a result doesn't go our way. I think about 3 new ones appeared after the game yesterday
Kiko is the best left back we have. Weirdly, he is better at left back than right back and he is certainly better than Masina.
I don't entirely disagree that we have muddled between bland and poor whilst being very well drilled defensively. We desperately lack an out and out striker, that is a bigger issue than the lack of a left back others have mentioned but that will change. The other thing to not dismiss is the bigger picture of performances. Fans not being at games is having an impact across all leagues and Watford are no different. The reason the Premier League is interesting this season for the first time in years is because intensity levels and quality levels have dropped off hugely. Normally the PL is a borefest but there have been loads of goals and weird performances this season. It is no different down the leagues. Teams will be very different with fans at the games. Some will prosper, some will get even worse with a crowd.
In fact I think Kiko at LB with Sema playing wide left in front of him makes us quite strong defensively on the left side.
Genuine question, would we prefer tedious 1-0 wins and to grind our way, week in week out to automatic promotion, or free flowing entertaining Zola style football but we finish 6th and end up in the play-offs?
Ill go for the tedious 1-0 wins. But we have to get them and that Wycombe display doesn't inspire that. I was left thinking of the IT Crowd quote about trying to walk it in
It's the Championship guys , and it won't become the most "exciting" league in the world until late March early April . Until then , it will be a slog.
I know he's a few years older, but only a few, but how would you explain his 20+ goals a season in this division?
Gray will do fine in this league and in this team, as long as we don’t ask him to trap 80 yard balls from Cathcart like last season, then nobody will be disappointed.
I’ve always thought that with Gray in the team we have player better football and he offered more of a threat going forward than anyone else. With Deeney in the side we revert to long ball because of his lack of movement and apparent strength at winning aerial duals. Under Silva we started well with Gray in the team. Under Garcia in our best season in the top flight Gray started and we won our first 4 games. Gray is key to promotion for us and the sooner he is back the better.
He had one good season with Burnley in the Championship and that was five years ago. There are plenty of players who've had a great year during their career when everything they do comes off, before their true lack of talent returns and they quietly slip away to see out their days scuffing around in the lower leagues. Gray is one of those, I'm afraid. I'd love to be proved wrong this season, but I'm willing to bet my house and all its contents that I won't be
He had a decent record for both Luton and Brentford as well before that (roughly 1 goal every two games) and then a half decent premier league season with Burnley as well scoring 9. His championship season is hardly a flash in the pan, he’s always scored goals.
His goals for the Scummers were in the Conference League! And his record of 16 in 45 Championship games with Brentford is hardly earth shattering. Sorry mate, but Gray is absolute sh1te, but if you're looking for something to cling on to Deeney will be back soon
Why did Brentford buy him? Because of his record at Luton, why did Burnley buy him? Because of his record at Brentford. He scored 16 in the championship for Brentford, then 2 the next season before Burnley bought him and he scored a further 23 that season. Then he scored 9 in the premier league with them the season after that. That’s three fairly consistent seasons.
We can keep quoting numbers from Wikipedia at each other all night, so stats aside, based purely on watching him with my own eyes I believe Gray is one of the worst footballers I have ever seen. If he goes on to score 30 goals this season I'll be happy to say you were right and I was wrong about him, but that just ain't gonna happen.
He clearly won’t score 30 goals with 8 games already gone, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t get 15+ which is a decent return, pro rata.
In my mind I have based all my hopes around Gray’s return. Please stop these posts as it is traumatising me. He is the missing link.
No comparison: Kiko is a wing back, Masina is a full back. In other words, who's better, Shakespeare or Mozart?
We don't know yet as he's not played. If you had said "Gray may be one of those i'm afraid" then fair enough.
It’s not players like Wycombe’s that we could do with. They’ve got 1 point to show for their season so they are obviously not quality at this level. But... What they do have is spirit. And that comes from the atmosphere around their club and that comes from the top down - trusted ownership, a manager that isn’t always 3-4 games from the sack etc.
Andre Gray has a record of 41 goals & 18 assists in 88 Championship games. 171 minutes per goal at this level which is not to be sniffed at. For sure there's a question mark over whether he has just regressed rather than it solely being the fact the Premier League is too high a level for him but I think it's more likely that his level is The Championship. We've seen it before with our own Tommy Smith, then there's Danny Graham, Leroy Lita, Matej Vydra, Marlon Harewood, Cameron Jerome & so many more names, they're just the ones off the top of my head! The classic "Too good for The Championship, not good enough for the Premier League" striker.
Off the top of my head I'd put Andre in the same bracket as players like Steve Butler, Dave Bamber, Trevor Senior, 'Harry' Willis, Jamie Moralee, Devon White, Nathan Ellington etc etc
