Few positive performances today, particularly Quina, TDB, and Ngakia. Not bad from Wilmot and Estupinan either, while Chalobah showed some flashes of good link-up play. I thought there were some good patterns of play that were evidence of solid work on the training ground, especially in moving the ball for switches of play to the wing-backs. Easy to look good in a friendly game, a different story in a competitive game. Interesting week ahead.
That was a good win. Too early to say the foundations are in place but two back to back wins in Ivic's first matches is nice. Thought Gray looked very good for once, Quina scored a goal Pepsi G would of been proud of. Tired towards the end but they were not far off full strength. Bit of a bad result for Spuds but a bit of revenge of last season I guess. The big Ngkita looked great again and Bachmann made some smart stops. Played with freedom and never looked overly dominated. Will be interesting to see who starts Friday night vs Boro' in our opening game.
Not dreadful. Pros: - Our defence seemed pretty solid overall - Ivic has got us looking to keep the ball well and play a quick passing game - Ngakia seemed very good, both in defence but also with positive passing - Quina had some lovely touches and scored a good goal - Dele-Bashiru seemed decent again - Gray's link-up play seemed much improved of late and he showed some good pace Other: - That CM is very lightweight. Cleverley looked really slow. Another ball-winner is a must. - Pervis looked good defensively and tidy enough in his passing, but he's very erratic going forwards - If we lose Suarez then we desperately need another CF. - Gray getting injured would actually be a real blow. - Playing just Quina and one other CF won't see us creating many chances from open play. When we got the ball out wide to cross it was only the two of them in the box and neither of them are much in the way of targets. - Joao Pedro tried hard but looks a way off from making a significant impact still. He seems very much like an 18 year-old, still lightweight and slightly stroppy/lethargic - Murray looks a bit off the pace still, unsurprising though perhaps as he's only just joined - Dan Phillips is young but looked poor tbh - just gave away dirty fouls and lost the ball - Wilmot was good defensively, but hoofed the ball aimlessly a lot for a supposedly "ball playing" CB. I felt sorry for Pervis at times because he made loads of runs but Wimot's distribution mostly either ignored him or was poor to him. - Bachmann was okay overall but spilled a couple of crosses - Penaranda is a nothing player A new DM, CF (Suarez permitting), and probably CB, still seem a must.
Ngakia was the best player on the pitch, both wing backs looked very good in fact Thought the defenders were generally very good, including Bachman, who had little to do but was very vocal throughout Quina was excellent, could have a huge breakout season this year Strangely enough, the forwards suddenly look like an issue, neither Gray or Murray did enough up top and the rest of them are now AWOL or too raw (JP) or **** (Penaranda)
As I posted earlier, I don’t really care about the result today. Would have swapped today’s win for one against Spurs in the league last season as those extra two points would have kept us up. What I cared about was watching a side with plenty of young talent and promise play with high energy and with good movement and passing. I’ve spent the past few weeks reading and listening to supporters say how much they’d like to see a real clear out of the toxic overpaid prima donnas who helped get us relegated, and be replaced by the younger players who barely seemed to get the chance they deserved. Well today they got that chance and I think it was encouraging to watch. We’ve won a match today with a starting eleven full of players who we are fairly sure will still be with us after the window shuts. It’s not as if we won today but then shrug our shoulders saying ‘oh but half this lot will be sold soon so it doesn’t count for much’ Next step is to find out why Suarez, Foster etc didn’t play today. To hope that over the next few weeks we can at least hang on to the likes of Sarr, maybe Capoue in amongst all the departures. And get a few more experienced heads in too. It’s not all doom and gloom on that front. We’ve at least been linked with a few talents, including Grimes Busquets and Troost-Ekong. An encouraging afternoon. When looking at our squad list, don’t discount the Ivic factor. I believe he will get the best out of what’s at his disposal and this will give us the edge over many of our rivals this season.
Worth £5 to watch that. Refreshing. positive. Encouraging. No fear. Quick passing, pressing forward. Everyone good to very good. Cleverly excellent I thought. Well done Pedro for getting back at that **** Alli. Great to see our Emma again. Looking forward to the season, non stop games and good youngsters coming through.
I agree, but who though? Especially if Gray is injured (please no). Murray looks behind in pre-season JP runs around a bit, but does not look a goal-threat and is still getting out-muscled pretty easily. He also looked better in the channels Perica has disappeared already Suarez? Yes, if he's still here
Would we be happy if that team (with Foster in goal) started on Friday? For me I think it was the right set-up against Spurs but in the Championship I would probably replace one of the midfielders with an attacker.
A good day for the Happy Clappers, who've been laying low and licking their wounds since the dreadful end to last season. Meanwhile the Knicker Wetters and Boo Boys have run rampant through the forum all summer like a dose of the clap. Gleeful and ecstatic in the many ripe pickings of negative news coming from the club. Is this a momentary lapse in the Knicker Wetters and Boo Boys strong run in the ascendancy ? Or are we seeing a more permanent change in the power structure , with the Happy Clappers perhaps taking up office in the forum corridors of power. The season awaits.
Agree with this. In terms of the game, the main negative was we did have a tendency to overplay it at times . Then it was good to see a watford team with some confidence & self believe again
Yep, we beat Spurs in pre-season so that means the team today is definitely good enough to mount a sustained promotion challenge. Fact.
But surely it can’t be evidence to the contrary? As much as pre-season can tell anyone, and pre-season is largely about finding out things, what do you think this game indicated?
It must be really tough living inside your head. Had we lost or even worse been stuffed, then fair enough. But to refuse to even contemplate a positive, ever, must be wearisomely debilitating.
I know it is just a preseason friendly, but it was by no means a spurs reserve team and they definitely would have wanted to win the game so for me I see this as a pretty big result. Until we essentially changed the entire line up i thought we looked very impressive. Iviv clearly wants us to be playing quick short balls through the midfield to pull the opposition to open up opportunities for killer balls. Ngakia looks really good, my MOTM but I thought there was numerous strong showings. Chalobah looks willing to look for key passes which is really good to see as I felt like last season he was slow and playing the safest ball possible. Watching Dawson try pass it out the back will never comfortable but I thought the defence did a good job in limiting a very potent Spurs attack. Biggest concern for me was the absence of some players who we've been led to believe will be at the club this season, only time will tell I guess. Shout out to the production quality of the livestream though. I thought it would be something akin to a live feed of the match but the full works of two commentators and even half time analysis was surprisingly pleasant. I enjoy it when commentators are only really interested in talking about Watford, Something that we would pretty much never get in the prem. Worth a fiver.
I'm not, clearly there are positives in the performance. I'm simply not revoking the fact that the line-up today is not at all what I'd want or expect to see from a team looking to be promoted, based on the fact that we've won a friendly.
It makes me laugh. Any time we've lost in friendlies it's inevitably "it's just about fitness and getting players up to speed", but when we win it's suddenly much more than that? I'm not saying there are no positives to take from today, that would be ridiculous, but I'm not naive enough to think winning a friendly against Spurs means that that line up is good enough for the coming season.
Agree The usual posters will continue to have a go at Cleverley but he looked good today and this system will suit him. His strength has always been move and pass and he will be a player that keeps things ticking along.
Good to watch , was a bit like watching 4 or 5 different squads with all of the subs - but that is to be expected. thought the 1st 1/2 we looked pretty decent , great goal , good penalty and a couple of good chances, real shame the last kick in the second half didn’t go in and was saved off the line by Son I thought passing in the first 1/2 and pace up front looked excellent a lot of well timed passes getting us in behind Tottenham.
Ngakia, Estupinan and Quina all looked decent, Dele-Bashiru was alright. Nice to see us try and play rather than hoof it at the "big man". But it's a friendly. Friendlies and the results in them mean very little, that's a fact. Every pre-season is full of bizarre results, but they mean next to nothing when it comes to the competitive football starting.
Seen everything written above and hard to disagree with most of what has been said. Main takeaways are: Where does Sarr fit in if we are thinking of keeping him? Doesn’t fit this formation. And Wilmot looked very comfortable and should be thought of as a starter. Biggest concern by far: Where was Suarez? Hope the club reference why he was missing rather than have fans guessing. Also odd to not at least have Foster on the bench but that’s a minor concern and likely easily explained. Would seem to me from this that Capoue, Deeney and Welbeck are almost certain to be off.
I think the most reasonable thing to say today is we definitely saw some positives, but it’s also foolish to look at the starting 11 today and not see glaring weaknesses. We’ve got the makings of a really good side at this level, and it’s promising to see young players taking opportunities to impress, but we desperately need at least one central defender to lead the line at the back. I’m hopeful Suarez will be starting next week.
Certainly some positives today. I liked the look of Pedro, but concerned he my be lightweight for this league. Defensively we looked decent. There was a good energy to the team, so hopefully fitness levels are good. But it is a concern regarding the forward line. Where is Suraez and Perica? Agree that Sarr is not going to fit into that lineup, unless he is going to play upfront
Going to be harsh here - but based on a 25 min sub performance I thought Murray was awful and did very little other than kick people. I don't think we looked bad when Pedro was in the centre, think its more a mobile striker that made us look better. Murray coming on killed that option
Possibly. But we have a £40m+ player, play to his strengths and stop trying to convert players to do other things. Insisting on keeping him and then playing 3-5-2 would be incredibly ‘Watfordy’.
