A few years ago I was walking through the rose garden in Regent's Park. All the various varieties of rose were labelled. The only variety that I remember was the array of yellow roses around the public toilets. They were called 'Golden Shower'.
Livermore was on the other side back then which probably explains Waterloo. (Kalu was judged too old and was excused from the battle)
There was much speculation he was too old to fight but handed in his draft papers noting his age as 19, a prime fighting vintage. He was accepted but never actually well enough to fight.
Unreadable match thread hijacked by one self obsessed narcissist. No wonder so many have left, you’d never read this thread and think we’d won.
Don't agree. A forum is about different opinions and anyone's free to post what they want. If you don't like someone's input, then just quickly scroll through it - easy. It would be very boring if everyone were the same and every post was a variant on 'hurray!' each time we won.
Legend has it that even then, Mr Bayat roamed the battlefield after the fog of war had rolled away, looking for those who'd survived the fighting to sell them on as footballers later (number of limbs wasn't an important factor)
I totally agree with this, and people don't seem to realise. Every season, the weaker players become our best players as the squad gets watered down year after year. Next season, who knows, James Morris could be our best player as we sign players with less ability than even him. This reversal of playing squad has been going on since 2019 and is why I'm so deflated in the Watford 'project' , if indeed there is one anymore. This season is just a means to an end. Get through it without too much damage. There is no ambition, as the summer window and this current window is proving. The sooner Gino goes the better, then maybe we can truly start growing as a club once more.
Having watched the game again; Great win but we were clearly second best, making the win even sweeter. That first Livermore goal was truly a thing of beauty. Why no celebration for either goal - did he play for them ???? Great tackle first half but terrible defending by Andrews to let in Armstrong for that one on one. DB asleep in the box giving Colback time for his 2nd half shot requiring save by Hamer. The far post defending was shocking for their goal. Totally asleep.
Of course our squad is so much weaker than our prem and "failed-to-bounce-back" squads ! What did you expect when we failed to bounce back up and are adapting to slashed revenues and slashed costs ? Sad but necessary.
The lack of celebration from Livermore wasn't a respect thing to QPR, it was more, 'I'm above all that. I just want to play and ensure the team wins.' He's a team player and it's not about personal ambition and delight. He does take it to extremes though, but you could see he was really delighted and was holding himself back. I would like to see more joy, but I get the "too cool for school" attitude. I scored, now lets not fuss, go back and do it again....we have a job to do....that's his attitude. But having said all that, I do like to see players lose it in the moment and show their unbridled joy. With regards to the goal we conceded. I think it illustrates the unfairness towards Bachmann on this forum especially. I saw plenty of comments and tweets (X's) about the goal against Chesterfield being all his fault, but it was virtually a carbon-copy at QPR and no one blamed the keeper (because he's currently in vogue). As I say I think it's unfair. Bachmann could have done nothing about the Chesterfield goal, nor could Hamer do anything about the QPR goal. Both were defensive issues. The cross came in far too easily, and that was down to Morris on both occasions, and no one was marking the man at the back post. I think that was TDB's man on both occasions, although I could be wrong in that. Either way, we need to sort out our positioning, as those goals are far too easy and should be defended a lot better.
You can build a good squad fairly cheaply, with intelligence and good planning. Neither is part of the hierarchy's ability. We've had riches far beyond the majority of any Championship club. We've had the greatest income revenue in our history pouring into our accounts, yet all it did was to create a massive hole of debt. This is totally because of the people running the club, and they should not be excused for one second for the mess they have created. The club will do well to survive them.
Which is what we have done in the summer and are enjoying the benefits of now. Four years worth of damage wasn't going to be undone in one window, but what was achieved in the summer was a lot more than expected. VI has stripped it back and built a good squad and it is a base that can be built upon.
Yes, VI is doing a great job, in spite of the ownership. What are they giving him? He's producing miracles and I think the ownership is laughing, thinking, I don't need to invest, this guy turns pigs ears into silk purses. Until I see real ambition from the owner, he's going to get both barrels from me, as he deserves it. There is no credit from me for the direction we are heading in currently. Gino has been forced into it because he is skint. He can't afford the hire and fire policy, he can't afford to sign players.......he's being forced into doing things the correct way, but it's against his entire nature. This is why he is dangerous as he's far too egotistical and thinks he's right about everything. Some label that accusation at me, which is fine (not true of course), but I do not run our football club. I just post opinions, which means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Gino is truly a narcissist and this is a dangerous guy to have around as he surrounds himself with yes men and no one can break through his own self-belief to tell him he's making bad decisions.
Well there are a few pages of interesting reading. What i love so so much is that everyone has their own opinion, but that opinion its only a right opinion if you agree with "me". The days of having your own voice seems to have gone and we somehow have drifted in to a vortex of bullying you in to accepting someone else's opinion, regardless. I really don't believe that we won that on luck alone, of course we rode our luck through a mix of our own poor poor defending and their inability to score. Why are QPR where they are? Not because of yesterday but because they are rubbish in the final third. What's one of our achilleas? We know that Sierralta is neither a midfielder or has great positioning as a center back, we know that Hoedt is either brilliant or bog standard average. That's why they are playing championship football. Why wasn't it all luck? because we did our homework on where out best scoring areas were. Livermore scored both his goals in a 3 or 5 meter square outside the area. This is the exact same square where Hoskins, sorry Healey, Chakvetadze, Martins, TDB, had some sort of failed effort before Livermore scored. Evan Ince had a 1/4 chance in the exact same area. That doesn't happen by luck, that's identified and worked on. Perhaps @reids or @LouOrns will have some data about how many attempts, half chances, failed shots we had in that area. Despite having our backs to the wall, we dug in and didn't give up. That's all about player culture. Having that culture and mentality in your DNA is vital for any team to dig our results. As GT once said, he would much rather have a player with 70% determination and 30% ability than 70% ability and 30% determination. He was right, although I'm sure someone's going to reply and argue that GT was a crap manager, had no idea and will dispute his theories. As they say luck is where preparation meets opportunity. What this clearly shows is that Val is getting players to listen in training, execute what the coaching and analytical team are identifying. It's a million miles from when Hodgeson said, you can coach them all week, have a game plan, but if they go and do their own thing...... Val is creating his luck through preparation and the opportunities we manufacture. 3 points is 3 points, i don't care how we get them, at the end of the season no one cares how we played, we just care about how many points we have on the board.
VI is doing a fantastic job, but I'm not sure it's a robust base for the coming seasons. 2 stand out players at moment are Livermore and Hamer (34 and 36 respectively), Lewis is on loan and Asprilla will be the next player sold to balance the books. Quite a few gaping holes to address if they are gone with limited funds, and Bachmann difficult to shift on his 5 year deal. I think Ivic has done brilliantly with what Pozzo has given him, but will have potentially even steeper challenges in years to come. The squad will regress if anything.
Interesting point! Looking at where QPR have conceded their (open play) goals this season that area definitely seems to be a problem for them (Livermores goals marked with a 1 + 2)
No chance Bachmann saves that certain equaliser at the death. One of the best saves I've seen from a Watford keeper since Foster's save against Sheff Utd away in the PL.
Steeper challenges to come but the first one to address was the mass clear out that was required for years. Look at all the dross that was moved in the summer; Sarr Kabasele Ekong Hungbo Pussetto Assombalonga Gaspar Bacuna Okoye Quina Kalu Fletcher Ferreira Kamara Araujo Davis Hause Add in the loyal but past it players - Cleverley, Cathcart, Gosling. And of course the one diamond from last season in Pedro. That is a hell of a strip back to the bones and I was surprised we managed to move that many players on in one window. But I agree with you stripping it back is one thing, building it back up is another...I suppose my point is you can't even look at the building stage until the strip out has happened, and it finally has.
I agree with this to a degree. Of course you have to have the foundations in place. You've got to put players in likely positions so they can score goals, or they are setup to repel attacks and reduce scoring chances of the opponents. But when the opposition is controlling play, opening you up and creating good scoring chances, only to be thwarted by their own lack of pedigree (which we can do nothing about) or our keeper having a good day at the office, it's far too fragile to continue like that and expect to win. We have had many victories that fit nicely into the "smash and grab" category. This is great when it's going your way, but football has a habit of going against you. Their keeper makes a worldie save, the second shot deflects wide instead of taking it away from the keeper, Hamer pushes the ball to Armstrong instead of a safe zone etc. All small things, but can easily be reserved. It's not as if we're dominating and winning games comfortably, whilst being very little threatened, as we have been in the past in this league in recent seasons. Wins convince people things are good, but I don't trust it. We're on the right track in terms of coach and what he's trying to achieve with the squad. But, the quality of playing staff is limited and this is why, all small details have to go our way in order to win. Right now, we are having an extraordinary run where small details are going our way.....this is why I am considering us to be on a lucky run. Enjoy the wins of course, but I'm not convinced by them.
This might be an extension of the same point but what do you make of Ismael encouraging shots from distance and practising hitting the corners in training? Is that sustainable when it's practised and we're working decent positions to shoot from outside the area (rather than random pot-shots)? Or would you expect that strategy to level out longer-term? Seems like it's potentially an xG-buster - but I'm also sceptical about whether xG-busters really exist.
0.05 xG for the initial shot, but jumps to a massive 0.46 xG in the post-shot xG, which shows how great of a save it was!
Hard to say really, there's no harm in shooting from range when the opportunity presents itself - both of Livermores goals yesterday it was (in my opinion) the optimal choice to shoot. I do think Martins shoots a bit more from range than is ideal but he's pretty good at hitting the target from them so again, can't really argue with the strategy. Whether it levels out or not remains to be seen!
I've seen Bachmann make equally great saves. When it comes to shot stopping he's a top keeper and has regularly made that type of save. He's just pretty crap at other aspects of keeping and has a dodgy temperament.
Not the most convincing of displays but it's another 3 points and now 1 point off the play-offs. I see we're also the 5th highest scorers in the league, which was quite surprising - makes you wonder how ******* awful it must be to support some of the absolute dross in the league. I'm sure it's been mentioned but VI got very lucky not to completely **** it up with those awful awful substitutions. Really looking forward to Bristol City away, could potentially end the day in the play-off places! All in all, not too shabby for a team fighting a relegation battle
I hope we drop the two inverted wingers tactic soon as all we seem to do is run into a congested central position for very little gain. You can get away with one player doing it but not two.
Bachmann is a very good shot stopper so I think he saves that as well. What Hamer has given us is calmness
I think they are better than bog average but each to their own. You might not agree but this is the most enjoyable season in four or five years - attitude and application play a big part in that.
