We still had chances though. Extremely disappointing. The important thing is not to let that very late gift of a goal demoralize the team and knock it's confidence for the run in. Jokanovic, his staff, the senior players in the team and the fans will all need to play their part to lift spirits and inject positivity for the games after the international break. Guedioura is not the classic 10 a la Abdi/Forestieri. Vydra vis-a-vis Ighalo. Layun.....the less said the better. It's tough to acclimatize but he needs to do a lot of work in the summer to cope which I am sure he will do eventually. Didn't press hard or high enough to counter Ipswich doing the same. Not enough penetration from the flanks and the final ball from them and through very poor. Set piece delivery awful for the most part which has been a strength recently.
Because we missed the target with every good chance. **** happens. Ighalo should have scored, Deeney (I think, possibly someone else...I remember the chance clearly but not the shooter) should have scored and Guedioura should have given a completely unmarked Deeney two tap ins instead of blasting wide. Shots on target are not the same thing as opportunities created. We had good chances to score and we didn't take them through a combination of poor finishing and poor decision making/vision. They had one good opportunity and (just) scored from it. Again, **** happens. I'm sure we'll bounce back right after the break.
Can't fault Ipswich for playing to their strengths, it was a perfect away result for them. I don't think they will get promoted, and if we both end up in the play offs I'd prefer to avoid them.
Important not to overreact to that We threw everything forward gambling for the 3 points and got done on the counter with pretty much the last kick of the game. One of those days Still in the auto places with our destiny in our own hands Only real disappointment for me was Layun, absolutely anonymous again and a waste of spot in the starting 11
What I found odd was that our best moments in the first half were when we actually passed it around quite nicely but had no penetration. Second half, we came out and scrapped passing the bloody thing altogether and just thumped it forward whenever possible.
And I'll tell you what is really *****ing annoying. Send all the centre backs forward for a FK and then bloody pass it short and lose it!!!!! What is the fricking point!? I'm sure thats what cost us the game at the end?
Whoops. Liked in error this time! I really don't like to see .... off WFC. Time to emigrate south or east then I think.
Realistically, it was just an off day. I'm kinda glad it's happened now. Joka will know that we've got to do better and we can work on it in the next two weeks. As for Ipswich - if anything positive can come out of today we can be happy we don't support a god awful, boring, talentless side like them.
THT you said we'd finish mid table a few weeks back so surely you're happy to be so horrifically wrong? We're second for ****s sake. On another day, Ighalo scores his chance or Adlene scores his or Watson clears the ball. It happens. Slav won't be overreacting and neither should we.
A poor performance today but for once Joka got his team selection and tinkering wrong. We can't play games against the top sides with no natural width or pace. As soon as Forestieri dropped out of contention, any plans to drop Vydra should have been shelved. I also think where there is no Abdi or Forestieri, Anya should be playing and we should be outright 3-5-2. We were too narrow and too slow to second balls today. I have to agree that Layun was very poor.
we troubled them how exactly? Not one shot on target in 95 minutes.....I was more concerned with not being able to pass to our own players within 5 feet throughout the game! Layun has contributed zero ever since he arrived and his lightweight presence over Munari against a physical side was crass and Ipswich must have been delighted....we're now going to have a disgruntled Vydra when he was on a rich vein of form
This is about as depressing as it gets as a fan. We've done so well to get to top spot, only to give it away meekly. It was a carbon-copy of the match we played against them two seasons ago. Lost that 0-1 in the final minute as well. This underlines to me why it's so important to go up automatically. We do not perform against teams in the top 8 and always struggle. I give us very little chance against anyone over two legs in a playoff semi final I'm afraid to say. It was clear today was going to be a game of very few chances, but sometimes in matches like this you just have to settle for a point. It's totally unacceptable to over commit like we did in the last minute. I could see our shape was all wrong and was thinking to myself if this ball is cleared we are in big trouble, and this is exactly what happened. We were na*ve in the extreme and got punished. We shouldn't be making mistakes like that at this stage of the season. We have just thrown away a precious point for absolutely no reason. It's a shame neither Forestieri or Abdi were available to us today, as I would have thought their abilities would have been enough to have tipped this match in our favour. We just played into Ipswich's hand a great deal, by playing it long too often. We did match Ipswich's strength though and we did not get bullied. We just allowed ourselves to get mugged off right at the very end.
Ighalo at near post? Guediora if he had squared it first half? Guediora if he had squared it second half? Vydra running through the box only to be taken down, unfairly I'd say The numerous sh*t balls in from Motta? None of them were good but being able to put crosses in and worry the defence a bit is troubling them don't you think?
It happens. Ipswich made us play their game and we know how what works out. We'll have a stronger squad after the break so maybe now's the time to lose, rather than against a potential auto spot team. Accept it and move on.
God that was terrible. Ighalo was appalling and how he lasted the 90 minutes playing so badly and clearly not fit I'll never know, the midfield couldn't string a pass together and offered no support going forward and I don't think I've seen so many pub league crosses from a professional player in my life as I did from Motta, he made Paredes look Beckham-esque with his delivery today. Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call to the players - we are far from already up and there's a lot of hard work ahead if want to finish inside the top 2, but more than a couple more performances like that in the next 7 games and we won't have a hope. Just utterly sh*t today. I said it in the shoutbox but Layun shouldn't be anywhere near the team unless we suffer a major injury crisis, he has shown absolutely nothing since he's been here and there hasn't been a single sign of that changing. I hope he comes good in the future and I'm not completely writing him off just yet, but thus far he has looked like a nothing player with no sign of improvement.
I already addressed that above. To reiterate, not hitting the target doesn't equate to not troubling the opposition. We had some very good opportunities and we didn't take them. It's one thing to say we didn't get a shot on target but it's quite another to say we didn't create anything. On another day we could have been 4-0 up in the 90th if all of our good opportunities had been converted. Ipswich had more shots on target than us but none of their chances were better than the ones we created. Indeed, they only had one chance of real note (the goal) which was created through our own naivety by pushing up and being out of position when we didn't need to (as HB1 outlined above). The point was good enough and we should have taken it. We didn't. So once again: vintage? No. Poor and deserving of widespread panic? Also no. People are letting disappointment born of expectation form their opinion.
I made this point before and was repeatedly shot down. Our record against teams in the top 8 is laughable and deeply worrying, especially if we do end up in the play-offs.
I actually thought Layun had an excellent shout for a penalty on the second half right on the goal line just to the left as you look from the Rookery.
Poorly set up imo. Guardiola wide? Daft. No pace? Daft. But it's right not to overreact. In our own hands.
Blimey, this or a draw was only ever going to be the result. It was easy money on Watford not to win today. We don't do easy, we never have, we never will. It will come down to the last game of the season at home to Wednesday which we'll need to win, and we will. It's all building to a glorious finale and it's going to be spectacular when it happens. Keep the faith, it's meant to be.
Didn't say we'd come mid table, and I didn't mean for that to come across so negatively. But I do think we played with nerves and I don't think we'll come top 2 because of Bournemouth & Norwich's fixtures. Not sure how that's attracted so much criticism. I say it as I see it. I've never slated an individual player, I've never wished for Joka to go, I simply say what I believe. All I keep reading is "still in a good position, still in our own hands" but that's without looking at what's ahead. I rate our squad but can't say with confidence and belief that we will do it. They've proved me wrong to get to second yes, but to truly convince I think we all had this period of fixtures in mind. Sorry if that view offends.
Saying f**k off Watford like they've done something majorly wrong even though we're second is probably what caused it if I had to hazard a guess.
I hope Ekstrand's injury isn't too serious although it doesn't look good. It was doubly unfortunate in that imho I think we'd have seen Matty on at HT otherwise. Yesterday the general concensus was that the international break was not likely to be to our advantage. Today I'd say the opposite.
Maybe theyd be less likely to play with nerves if some of our fans didn't write them off after one defeat and tell them to "**** off"
Everybody, but everybody, was far too tense. To many are far too tense now. Relax and we might have scored in the first half. Guedioura went three times for Hollywood style glory when a simple pass to an in form Deeney would've been a goal. Too narrow, too slow, and too nervy. Motta lost the plot (knackered?) towards the end, with the woeful crosses. Vydra caught the same virus. Bring on Vydra and Anya and have them playing deeper than a deep thing? Really? Tommie Hoban keeps being bugged up, but for me, I seem to be alone, but Pudil is a better bet attacking and linking up play, or have Anya or Parades or even Layun for a quicker breakaway. Layun was a World Cup wing back after all. Too often at Wigan and here today, Hoban was the spare man when we could've done with a spare player just in behind the front tWO or further forwards, out wide. Poor old Ekstrand. WTF was that dire 1881 new song all about in the second half that all the folk round me were slating before "Watford FC & repeat" thankfully took over? And why, on the windiest day of the week, get sucked into head bloody tennis and long hopeful punts? Suckered into losing the game to a long clearance with Anya the furthest player back for OUR set play? They'll have to play better football against a Derby with players back recovered from injury and Middlesbrough. But, as we were snatching at chances and nervy all round (including the men around me brusting blood vessels in frustration) do we really believe we are good enough? I think we are but FFS, play like you can.
The team has had a real stinker today, and excuses like no Abdi/Forestieri, or Ipswich stopped us playing, aren't good enough. We had too many players on the field who should have done a lot better. It was one of those off days that happen from time to time. There was a degree of effort from certain players, but they were making the wrong decisions time after time. I'm not going to credit Ipswich for that. They must have been as perplexed as I was at our ineptitude at times. It was nice to see a couple of Ipswich fans who had brought their girlfriends, and they clearly weren't their sisters. My faith in that part of the world has been partially restored at least.
