Let's face it poor finishing has seen us drop wins against Newcastle, Fulham and even at 0-0 Success managed to divert his chance wide of the post. Tonight. Had that been Alcacer we might have had the lead. Yes us. The plucky beggars who don't deserve to be in the PL because our stadium is too small, our fan base is too quiet and because we cannot spend the billion pounds plus that will get the collective tongues and arses of the media wagging and fawning over us at any available opportunity. Oh that throw in by Manchester ****** was magical. Oh my fainting heart as read by Ian Dorke.
Alcacer saw what was going on. Imagine him rolling into town, seeing the grinning idiot and Andre Gray?
It's crystal clear confidence is at rock bottom. You can only keep creating chances and missing them for so long before the facade slips. Now we're taking a second too long over everything and trying to place every shot when hitting the damn thing as hard as you can would be better. The same players are starting to make the same mistakes every game. As a Watford supporter that was one of the worst types of performance you can hope to see. @Jumbolina is bang on describing it as submissive. But the ex-pros and neutrals seem to have been quite impressed. Man City are obviously much, much better and should have been out of sight before we scored. Foster was top notch. And clearly as a damage limitation exercise, both in the sense of goal difference and causing even more confidence to ebb away, it probably worked. Cardiff at home is going to decide whether we're in the race for top 10 or settling for orbiting the relegation fight from a distance.
Ian Dorke is the ignoble, malodorous, ******ous, infantile sycophant created after 1992 to create false narratives and lavish praise on a select few while treating the rest of the circus animals outside of the big six as an unpleasant mess that one cannot avoid. Well just for the present. No doubt copious amounts of tissue have been expended by TV executives winking over the prospect of Farcelona (we support human rights but Qatar is fine by us) playing Cesspool for the fifth time in this fantastic Superleague of the future.
I hope there was a whip round the Rookery to show our appreciation of the footballing gods deigning to turn up at our decrepit hovel. Must have been an eye opener for them the size of the dressing rooms. And no heated seats to get those toned buns just the way they wanted.
My main gripe about that game is the same as the one from Saturday. We have no real leader on the pitch, no one setting standards or tearing into players for a lack of effort.
We were schooled tonight. City are a different class. Hopefully the last 10 minutes will give us some confidence for the next game but there were very few other positives. Chalobah looks no where near match fit. His touch was aweful. Hughes offered little and I think we need to revisit the Doucoure song. But I have to say how absolutely awesome City are. They must be a contender for the best team in Europe at the moment. If they weren't playing us their play would have been a pleasure to watch.
To be fair, we were reasonable in limiting the damage, then got a goal to make it interesting. I don't see that an attacking performance with high pressing or committing men forward would result in anything other than getting proper tonked.
Could we all get a grip. Last couple of times we've played City its been 5 or 6 nothing. This time we nearly got a draw. They didn't give up, they kept fighting. Face it, they aren't hundred million pound players. You can't argue against buying the league and then moan that we haven't got all world class players at the same time. I think we played very well and on to the next game we go
I am hoping that Delefeu gets the chance to play wide right and maybe bring the Deeney Gray partnership back next game as well. Don't think Success Deeney works so well as they pick up the ball deep so Success Gray would be the other alternative. Will see what Gracia thinks.
What's the issue? This is just your standard atypical Watford mid season meltdown & no one does mid season meltdowns like us. Make the most of it whilst it lasts, you know deep down it's the only real excitement you'll get until May when you finally feel relieved when we confirm 17th place.
Premier League is boring, City are boring, Mahrez always scoring against us is boring, another plucky defeat is boring, another mid table season is boring, not upgrading our strikers is boring.
We didn’t “nearly get a draw”. A fair score would have been 1-5 perhaps? It’s what I expect but what grates is we just stand off in awe and watch them play. At least get stuck in and get in their faces. In what world did we play well aside from plucky scoreline!???
Does anyone know if Savage's tongue is out of the Man City players arses yet? Yes, Man City dominated, they were always going to, but I've never heard such one sided, suck up commentary. God only knows how he didn't go "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when they scored their goals. Awful commentator. On the game - Chalobah - Needs more games. Simple as that. Looked very rusty. Foster - immense. Cathcart and Kabs played well to in the circumstances. Quina was a bright spark to. Really think we need to buy a striker and a left mid in Jan. Bobby P is quality, but he just isn't on it enough. I think having some serious competition for him will keep him on his toes more. A striker is needed as well - Success has done well this season (based on his failings last season) but isn't the finished article yet. Troy is troy - Would have him in the squad regardless as he can turn a game (such as Spurs), but we need more up top.
Massive thumbs up to an entertaining Shout Box tonight while listening to the game on the radio. @Smudger especially very amusing with his take on the Bald Pepsi as I call him. As for the game, well what else did we really expect? We showed them far to much respect for almost the entire match, Foster kept us in the game at we were fortunate to just be one down at the break. When the second went in I thought the flood gates would open but credit to some poor finishing from them and some saves and desperate defending we kept the scoreline respectable. The late goal was very fortunate but with our strike rate of late il take whatever we can get. To be fair Deeney had two really big chances tonight, the first he over stretched and the second was the header not long after we had got one back. Had it been a draw it would of been totally undeserved. I will not go into their superstars because they buy the league title and just walk over everyone else. I would of taken 1-2 at kick off and we played well after we had scored. Goals breed confidence, and we cannot score them of late. We take the lead in a game, we generally hold on and win. We fall behind we capitulate and don't try. We have a capable squad with a few who are here for the paycheque each week, and that dead wood needs to go. Everton away with the Silva grudge match up next. Difficult. I don't see this as a slump per say, we are playing well overall in games and points will come. We need a goal scorer and can't reply on midfield scrambles and wonder goals to keep us up every year.
I'll agree on Chalobah, however the number of misplaced passes in the first half...and they weren't difficult passes...leads me to believe it's psychological. Still want him to anchor the midfield, however he needs to take his chance when they come along because he'll be back on the bench when Capoue's back.
Every player needs game time and lots of it to get back in their stride after serious injury. Yeah his passing was poor in the first half but that wasn't helped by the very tentative team performance around him. Put him in a confident, winning team with a bit of swagger and he'd look much better I expect.
Needed to start the game with the intensity we finished it with. The most annoying thing is that both goals were preventable, Sane's goal didn't even touch his foot! Everyone was pretty average but Will Hughes & Roberto Pereyra both need to be dropped. I can't blame Javi as I have no idea how you set up against City, you go for it you get ruthlessly exposed on the counter, you sit back like we did keep a solid shape and then some lazy tracking from Success costs you. Don't think we ever believed we'd get anything. That Ederson save with his foot from Deeney looked INSANE. They missed a bucket load and Foster saved a few. My initial reaction was Douccoure should've scored from that chance in the box, was a tame finish. Not sure if we need two new full backs (again) or if their wingers were just that good.
Foster fully deserved MotM. Made some excellent saves that stopped it becoming embarrassing. Defense did alright. Cathcart and Kabasele should remain our CB partnership. Holebas gets a lot of hate on here but he’s better than Masina. The love for Masina is what I call ‘Mason-Zeegelaar syndrome’ whereby anyone who’s not Holebas is seen as 10x the player they actually are just because they aren’t that moody bast*rd. Chalobah looked incredibly rusty. I would have thought training would get you close to full sharpness, even if it can never quite replicate a game, but it looked like his first time kicking a ball in a year. Doucouré not much better. What on Earth has happened to him? Thank god he has that incredible engine to fall back on when his footballing ability deserts him. Hughes was hardly in the game. Was excited to see him finally playing centrally but a game where we had 2% possession was not ideal timing for the lad. Quina looked okay, but he needs to realise he won’t have time to waste on the ball at this level. If you’re in midfield you have to think and play much quicker. I liked his enthusiasm though. Deulofeu is such a conundrum. More talented than perhaps any player we have but so so wasteful. Also, while he’s definitely not a striker, I would like my wingers to be able to put in a decent cross given the amount of good areas he worked his way in to. Success can’t pass a football to save his life. That (and his finishing) can be improved with work; and it’s going to take a lot of work. Deeney did nothing until injury time. If he’s not got team mates around him to chase his aimless flick-ons then he is of no use at all. Not a bad result, but given the performance I think that flatters us. Edit: Forgot Pereyra even played tonight. Can anyone name one thing he did?
Was cringe worthy. We've had many keepers in the past who didn't look where they were passing as well... and put it into touch.