From Football 365's "Winners" section for the weekend : Richarlison Proof that everything Silva touches turns to gold. Watford’s ability to sign a whole new squad of unrecognisable players has been well established by recent managers, and few expected an unknown £13million signing who had never played outside of South America to make much of an impact. But the opener in a victory over Bournemouth and the winner against Swansea have seen a 20-year-old Brazilian endear himself to thousands in Hertfordshire. Only eight players have completed more tackles (18) than the forward this season, each of whom are defensive players. This is Samba style infused with steel.
Hardly well outside the area (although the foul occurred just before this second) so still not a penalty.
That's ******** though. Where was silvas gold touch v man city? And his 2nd half change of tactics was more like the touch of a rapist. Also, we've hardly got a whole new squad. Lazy journalism from a clueless ****, as per usual. Rich is ace mind.
One thing I liked about Saturday was how Carrillo, Gray and a couple other of the players on the bench sprinted down the pitch to celebrate with the team after Richarlison's goal. Seems to be a great team spirit at the moment, 100 times better than last year. Everything I have seen from us this year only highlights just how negative Mazzarri was on so many levels. How we sat back, how we would rarely try and keep possession and how those tactics seemed to create a crappy atmosphere both in the team and in the stands. I know we have got better players this time around but Silva is building something brilliant here. Everyone working hard for each other for the good of the team. Femenia's sprint across the entire length of the pitch to stop a Swansea counter attack and Mariappa's block showed the team mentaility perfectly. Only disappointment was our change at half time. Losing that 3rd man in midfield caused us problems and could have cost us the game. Glad it didn't but I hope Silva doesn't change things like that again. Even if Capoue was injured for example, I'd have still brought on Watson or Pereyra. Oh well! Feels good to have a last minute winner. Cant remember the last time we had one, especially away from home. Onto West Brom, cant' wait!
The foul was a pull on his arm a whole mowed stripe of the pitch further back, it was miles away from the penalty area. Richarlison never regained his balance or control of the ball properly and then fell over after taking several more strides.
Last week we lost 6-0 when it should have been 4-0 because of poor officiating, and the forums were full of criticism for the ref. But this week we won 2-1 but we had 2 blatant penalties denied us. We scraped the win but it could have been worse if Swansea had not been so weak. Not sure that Lee Mason has suffered much criticism. Anyway, what I'm saying is we won in spite of a dodgy ref.
Oh for flip sake, now I'm going to have to start a New York Watford Supporters Club. Alright, what should we call ourselves?
Dont think so, there was nothing to suggest that anyway. Wasnt it just part of silvas tactical masterplan to make a competitive game of it?
Tactical sub. It seemed that Silva wanted to match up their 352 as their only real threat was aerial.
I suspect it was because of the way he was playing. I was astonished to see others saying he was playing OK. You'll see on this thread that I called for his substitution at HT - everything he touched turned to shyte. Gave the ball away, got dispossessed, passed it straight to them, put in powder puff tackles, shot well wide from miles out rather than passing to better-placed teammates - near enough every problem we had in the first half stemmed from a Capoue cockup.
Did we? I can't say I noticed to be honest. Mostly when I see you've posted I sort of assume you're just arguing with Rentboy1 and ignore it, no offence. I think the problem I've got is that, in the old days, when we were ****, people like me would wander in at about 2 minutes past three, have a wazz, maybe a drink if the bar was open under the stand, have another wazz (alright I'm not as young as I used to be, you've got it to look forward to soon enough if you don't have that problem already) and then skulk in to find somewhere to stand on the edge of the away section, amongst other like-minded souls and chat about cheese. Now, with all this Premier League reserved seating and often sold-out allocations nonsense, I'm having to put up with being dumped alongside people who actually seem to insist on taking the whole thing very seriously and (incredibly) watching the game, whilst offering a running commentary of their inane, borrowed opinions on the action. I knew these people existed, but I didn't used to have to tolerate them, now I've got no choice. On Saturday, in addition to the aforementioned ******, I found myself next to a lad of about 18 who spent the entire first 15 minutes hollering about how ****/lazy Gray was. After the goal, Gray seamlessly morphed into Capoue and the outpouring of bellendery continued until half time. After half-time, I was treated to 45 minutes of hearing how Holebas (by now playing wing-back) was clueless for not being in line with the rest of the defence and how ****/lazy Deeney was. I'll tell you, I'm getting a job lot of these to take to West Brom on Saturday. I'll hand them out and I fully expect the away end to suddenly transform into something resembling that scene in Land of the Dead when all the zombies become transfixed by fireworks and the living get a bit of peace for a while.
There really are some long ball teams in the Prem this year. Swansea put in 35 crosses against us. I watched the Spurs West Ham game and all West Ham did was hoof it and hope for the best. The 3-2 scoreline flatter them, they were atrocious. They only managed to score when Spurs went down to 10men. Up until that point, Spurs should have been about 6-0 up. I expect something similar on Saturday against West Brom. They have made the least amount passes in the league. They have also passed the ball backwards less than any other team, so most of their passes go forward. They also sit 9th in the table for crosses and all their goals have come from inside the box so far this season. It will be a typical Pulis set up, defend all game and try to score from a set piece, go for a 1-0 win just like Mazzarri.
I have to say I agree with that rant above (another_mrlizards). I expect a huge percentage of these bellends at home games, but now they have polluted the aways too. It's as if everyone has to take the football extra seriously and show it the utmost respect just because we're now in the premier league. I find it baffling, and quite unsettling. When aways become just as **** as home game then there's a grave problem. But we're not there yet thankfully.
One of the small benefits of watching away games at home, where the only ranting is from the wife about the messy house and the dog about next doors cat taunting him from the safety of the neighbours garden shed.
Lizard. I did say this was going to happen, but no one took a jot of notice, too busy dancing round with the other 303. It will get worse before it gets better. Mark my words.
I didn't really notice how poor Capoue was, then again I didn't really notice him at all. We were dominating up until half-time and was confident we'd go on and win by 2 or 3, comfortably. The change in formation/tactics almost cost us the game, should've just swapped Capoue for either Watson or Preyera.
Just wanted to say what a bonus Kiko Feminia is turning out to be even though I had a hunch he'd do OK. Again I think this shows the strength of the Pozzo's scouting network. I believe they had an eye on him for years. Great technically, good pedigree but confidence issues on the pitch. Now both the stats guys and the papers have him as Motm. The secret of his success must be the Silva factor. Don't think QSF and certainly not Mazzari would have unlocked his talent. Kiko like most players I suppose thrives on the right belief and support. On this form Jaanmat has a tricky job displacing him. But a great contrast from last season. Just praying Chalobah is out for weeks rather than months.
Yep same here. The only thing I can remember him doing is having a long range shot that he hit incredibly hard, which i think was blocked. He had better options I remember thinking. That being said, I value Clive's opinion and he's not one to make stuff up, so I'm happy to accept that capoue was utter dung.
They were gradually getting more of the ball and creating chances before half time and Marco made switches at HT to counter that ... but of course Swnasea switched formation themselves, cancelling out our changes. This is pretty much admitted by Marco post match so I reckon next time he'll give it ten minutes after the break. Also alternative tactics take time to be ingrained but you have to have them all the same or you get found out rather quickly .... Note we did get stronger towards the end, Richarlison's goal was no fluke.
I'm all for it. Yes it made him look a *** this time, but I'd much, much rather have some dapper foreigner trying mad formations and making daring substitutions at half time than some dour **** who waits til 75 minutes before making the same change every match. Reading through this thread I see some people were live-posting during the match. Calling him all the ****s under the sun. Absolute whoppers.
Both Doucoure and Capoue had been booked in the first half. Wasn't a surprise to see one of them changed.
Maybe. But Marco apparently took the point that he could have waited. When you're winning at h.t. you have the advantage (and not only in the scoreline). So if Marco had waited he might have chosen a straight Capoue/Watson swap or gone for Roberto a bit earlier and moved Tom C. back. Instead of Capoue/Wague. When you're playing poker and have the other bloke on the run keep your cards close to your chest.
