Watford 1-2 Manchester City - 04/12/2018

I agree that we are struggling in the final third but didn't Gracia already state that he wants the team to be more clinical with their finishing.
I don't understand what people want, should pozzo make a kneejerk decision and sack yet another manager and have a new one give us a bounce just to find that we don't have the quality to finish a few weeks later or do we let Javi have time to form a team.
Last night I heard a comentator express surprise that a new contract was given to Javi but I think we are in a much better place than we have been since QSF as we actually have a squad we can field with a bench, unlike other years when we had to scrape the barrel as the sickbay was the residence of most of the squad.
I think it's to early for a knew jerk reaction, we all know there will be lean spells but let's not over react.
In reality we are a mid to lower table team so we should expect to beat other teams in our abbility group but we should not be surprised if we are beaten by them or have had spells as we are now.
But we shouldn't forget that we have in the past showed a desire for some continuity on the manager front.
Let's give it a chance because I think we are in a good place to move on from both Managerial ability and squad contentment.

 

The BT Sport ref (Peter Walton is it?) said it was a definite handball and should have been a penalty. Personally, it looked ball to hand and would have been ridiculously harsh.

 

Nonetheless it’s 8 points out of 33. Those are Mark Hughes numbers.

 

No, its 20 points out of 15 games. And, using my psychic powers, I can tell you now that it'll be close to 30 points from 20 games by the time we go to Bournemouth. So no need for anyone to jump out of the window

 

When you say we need a ‘result’ against Cardiff do you really mean a ‘win’?

 

It's also a slightly unnatural way of putting it. I've never seen anyone say a team got 40pts from 114 over a season.

 

In this moment, yes

 

Jesus, thats some confident predictions based on a team that couldn’t beat Fulham, Newcastle or Southampton. But it’s okay...the results didn’t match the performances.

 

There's nothing kneejerk about sacking a failing manager.

Yet we have the lowest points total since returning to the premier league.

 

'case closed'

 

The window's open, please don't let me stop you jumping out of it

 

And I assume you’ll be stood at the bottom convincing my splattered body that everything’s okay?

 

I was recently sent a video to help with the coaching of my sons team. It is from a Barcelona match, how they play from the back and how inviting the opposition to press them played in to their hands. It's brilliant and incredibly simple and the manager at that time was Pep. I think there is a fair chance that he tries to do the same with City so to press high up the pitch may not have been such a good idea as it opens up the middle of the pitch where if you give City space in your in a whole world of trouble. Last season, which a lot of people seem to think was a better performance than last night, we had a proper go and got horribly thrashed. Last night we tried not to leave space in between the midfield and the defence give them less space to work in. Unfortunately at least one of the goals was down to one of our own players gifting the ball back to them in a poor area which I do admit we did too often. To say it was dire is unfair as I just think we approached the game differently so we could stay in the match for a longer period of time and then if still close take a few more risks later on which is pretty much what happened. The problem is, City are worlds apart from everybody else including Liverpool and whatever we did it was an inevitable defeat. Yes they wobbled a little in the last few minutes but had we played this style for the whole game, we would have run out of steam after 60 minutes and they would have scored 6 or they would have picked us off earlier and we would lost by 10.
I didn't enjoy the game because it's the only game we have a t home where I pretty much know we don't have a chance but I felt we approached this in the right way so as to give us the best chance of getting something.
One final point, when we lose, can we turn the forum off for a couple of hours until everybody has calmed down a bit!

 

I don't feel we played poorly because of tactics, but it was because of the application of the players. They made too many fundamental mistakes, which they never normally do. Watford have been really easy on the eye all season. Working little pockets and making things happen. They have been robust defensively as well. The team has a nice shape to it and seems strong.

However, if players do not perform well, and there were a long list of underperformers last night, it contributes to City having an easy match. It was embarrassingly one-sided. I know my team, and I know their abilities and limitations.

Last season, we didn't get thrashed because of playing badly. We got thrashed because Anthony Taylor and his team missed TWO offside goals. He missed a blatant shove by Walker on Richarlison in the build up to Aguero's hat-trick goal. He missed a stonewall penalty for a foul on Chalobah with the score at only 2-0. All these things going against you was far too many and this is why it was such a big defeat.

Yes, we still probably would have lost the match but it should have been a lot closer than it was. Last night was the opposite. We were never in it. City should have destroyed us and would have had it not been for a MotM performance from Foster.

We played well after we had scored. We had them on the ropes then, so we were able to do it. I think collectively the players thought the game was lost before a ball was kicked. This is why the game went the way it did. The final score was marginal, but that's football. If you put both performances back-to-back, last night was the 6-0 defeat and last season was the 2-1 defeat.....had the matches played out as expected.

 

I'm sure you'll be up on your feet in no time

 

Bet that's what they said to Nnnn.

 

I haven't seen anyone really mention it but I think the referee yesterday (Paul Tierney) deserves a bit of credit. By far the best referee to officiate a game for us in a while. Made very few mistakes and was very fair for both sides and didn't retort to waving yellow cards left right and centre - hope we get him again

 

Post #302

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Yes I was pleasantly surprised. I saw him (I'm sure it was him) take charge of the Spurs v Rochdale cup game last year where VAR was in operation and he made a totalbollocks of pretty much everything

 

Why on earth would the club say they've got money to spend?

 

Exactly. Especially when they have absolutely zero intention of spending any of it.

 

I think we will have to agree to disagree ass I thought tactically we got it right last night but do admit that some players didn't perform. Had the midfield been better then I think it was the right way of going about things but they were collectively poor. Quina definitely brightened things up when he came on

 

You say "agree to disagree" then go on and agree with every point I made. Confused.com.

 

To appease fans that have been calling for a striker and CB for the past 2 years? I would rather a few clubs know that maybe we have a bit of money to spend over fans being concerned that we have no money at all, even after selling a player for £40m/£50m and having a pot of TV money.

I don’t think saying ‘we have funds if required’ and ‘we’ve got loads of cash and we are looking to spend it’ are mutually exclusive statements.

 

There’s a way of keeping things tight yet still pressuring the oppositions use of the ball. We stood back are respected them in possession far too often last night

We should never have gone out and tried to match them blow for blow last night, I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that. But there was no real intensity to our play in trying to regain possession.

 

I think fans will only be appeased when the club actually strengthens the team. Saying "we have funds available" just makes it even more irritating that the team wasn't strenthened in the summer at CF and CD.

 

Who thinks that then?

 

Typical Watford, losing, but not losing badly enough to endure I win my bet.

Haven’t been this annoyed about losing a bet since Jobi McAnuff missed a sitter in the last minute at Selhurst Park in the play-offs and cost me 3 grand on my Watford to win 3-1, King first goal scorer.

Rubbish game all in all. Chalobah needs time - look at how long it took Bobby to come back from his long term injury. He’ll be fine, but we’ll suffer a few more sluggish performances before he’s back at his best.

Need a striker.

 

You're so weird. Elton said he was inconsistent which is the very definition of his performances over the last few games especially the difference between the Leicester & Man City performance.

Weren't you shouting the same stuff at everyone that season when we slid down to 17th?

Oh we're not happy with no wins in six we must be halfwits, I'm so righteous because I stick by my team no matter what level of performance they put out. Weirdo.

Newcastle, Southampton, Liverpool, Leicester & Man City. You couldn't ask for a wider range of opposition difficulty wise, not a single win in there. Concerning.

16th in the form table. Concerning.

Two goals in 5 games. Concerning.

There's some very alarming signs there but yes let's ignore them and call out those brave enough to bring them up.

 

I agree. But at least then we would have an indication of whether Gracia thinks what he currently has to use is good enough or if he is indeed being dealt a poor hand by the recruitment team.

 

After 15 games played:

2017/18: 22 points, 8th in the table.
2016/17: 21 points, 7th in the table.
2015/16: 22 points, 10th in the table.

2018/19: 20 points, 11th in the table.

Quite literally, our worst season since returning to the Prem. Yet nothing's wrong you're spot on @Travis Bickle

 

Fair enough. Didn't see your post but it's good to see I'm not the only one who thought so

 

If we win our next game then it's our 2nd best start to a Premier League season.