Well I feared it had the vibe of the Brighton game about it, and so it proved - only this time the opposition managed to get ahead and then become even more defensive than how they started the match. Unfortunately there's nothing in the rules to say that you have to play a certain way, but considering the game is supposed to be entertaining it really is a horrible tactic to constantly use. I'm sure Stoke fans are loving it right now, but I'm also sure they'll be happy when Hughes is given the boot. Even under Mazzarri, I'm certain we weren't that negative. Pereyra is a player who you notice how good he is even more when he doesn't play - we just didn't know how to break them down. Maybe he could have made a difference? Starting to miss Chalobah in the middle of the park more now it seems. Lets hope he's back by Xmas/new year. Our two best all-round performances were against Muff and Southampton - two sides who tried to take us on with football - and we battered them. Stoke were never going to try that, and thus they came away with the points using every snidey, anti-football trick in the book. It's up to us to find a way to break down teams like this at home - so far, we've failed. Can't wait for West Brom at the Vic...... We're definitely a striker light at the moment. Deeney still has a part to play, as he proved against the gooners. But today it didn't work for him. I'm certain though that had Gray started, we'd all have been saying it should have been Troy. Agree with others that Okaka could have been the perfect player for this type of match, but he's obviously had a bust up behind the scenes and I doubt we'll see him again in a Watford shirt. Hope I'm wrong. We haven't become a bad team over night, so lets hope we show what we're capable of in the next match.
Gotta love the fickleness of fans. Last few weeks we've been "world beaters". Today most of our team are "bang average championship players". Next week depending on the result we will be one of the above. Tick when appropriate.
Can someone post a video of Deeney pushing Shawcross over? I've seen the Allen incident and the little bell end deserved it. However the videos only show him picking Allen off his feet and they cut it before Deeney sorts Shawcross out. If Deeney is banned which I don't think he will be. Shawcross needs to be banned as well for throwing his head towards Deeney and making slight contact, therefore he headbutted him.
What didnt help was playing with ten - Capoue is a complete waste of space. U work, yes ? Would u honestly put up with someone like Capoue? Compare with Toms workrate/output ?? How can we expect to succeed playing a first 45 with 10men ?? I've noted onfield (& off field - can't tell ya how) relations with fellow players. Relationships with Capoue are s#ite. Capoue is a self absorbed narcissist - get rid
They doubled up on our wingers and stopped us in our tracks. Showed everyone how to beat us. Deeney isn't good enough to create anything by himself in the centre. We missed Pereyra or even Zarate. As others have said.. a top quality fast creative striker is an absolute must if we are to move to the next level. We lost the game though because our defence is sh1t and has been that for 2 years.
I don't ever want to hear "da noise doesn't travel m8" as an excuse for the **** atmosphere at home. Stoke belted out Delilah so loud it full on echoed throughout the stadium.
They did with possibly the worst singing I've heard on Planet Earth. It was like they were singing whilst banging their heads on a wall. WUR! WUR! WUR! DUH-LER-LER!
And the free kick itself was a pathetic giveaway by us. If I remember rightly Kabasele had one of his regular unchallenged runs forward but shanked the ball straight to a Stoke man. It came back at him but he then lost a 50/50 challenge and they had an opportunity to break on us. Quite quickly it was 4 or 5 on 1 and the Stoke player was going away from goal miles from danger. Which of course was when Deeney barged in for no obvious reason and gave the Stoke player the free kick he needed to get out of jail. Add the poor defending of the free kick that you mention, and leaving free Fletcher at the corner straight afterwards, and the whole couple of minutes were a complete shambles.
Murdering a popular tune wouldn't have cheered us up yesterday. Away fans are like joining an already drunk group sober. Fun to be in it, but from a standpoint removed they mostly look like idiots. 'Xxxx is a ********! I wanna go home!' Yes dear.
God knows what happens when stoke play West Brom. I would rather have my tongue beaten wafer thin with a croquet mallet than watch that
Deeney’s comments after the Arsenal game has seriously ****ed things up for us. Try shutting the **** up from now on, Troy.
We had 70% possession with 8 corners against their one, worryingly it is our fault we didn't win not Stokes! It was up to us to find a way through and we didn't!
Several things from yesterdays game. Teams unless they are part of that mysterious elite are now going to come to Vicarage Road prepared more than ever to bunker. I mentioned this a while ago but I would prefer if we played two upfront for these sorts of games and get both fullbacks pushed on as much as they can. And when they did yesterday as with Holebas and Femenia they can cause problems. We need to move the ball more quickly as well and be prepared to take on the middle of defences by running at players. It's quite obvious we missed Pereyra. He is a cut above Capoue in decision making. And if not flashy when he does it unlike Capoue at times he gets the best results. Zonal marking needs to disappear. It's becoming the same bugbear as it was under Mazzarri. Players need to be told to attack the ball. Despite Richarlison missing his chance he's only a kid. Credit that he got into the right positions. I think Silva could have mixed up the wingers a bit more especially in the first half with Carillo switching from time to time to see if this would have an effect. And as usual Doucoure utterly magnificent. I think he is one of the best players Watford has ever had. Initiates all the moves from midfield, sweeps up danger and his surges with the ball are electrifying. Something I would like to see other players take the risk with nearer the opposition box. Zarate in January would be an interesting option to unlock defences. His (Doucoure) passing is improving by leaps and bounds as an example his pinpoint ball to Richarlison that unfortunately rolled under his foot. And that lift and spin over one of the Stoke traffic cones to play in Gray was a highlight in itself. Independent timekeepers also need to come into play into football as soon as possible. The sheer amount of time wasted by Butland and Wimmer was at least five minutes in itself. Add the near three minutes following the late fracas involving Holebas and the substitutions injury time should have amounted to ten minutes. Not the paltry five awarded. Teams are in effect being rewarded for negative tactics. Stoke are almost on a par with WBA for that. A dreadful team. Unfortunately we didn't press hard enough or show enough urgency in the first half but had we taken one of the chances in the second half I'm sure we would have had a result. One thing is certain most teams are scared to play us.
Which is why we needed our fullbacks right up there in support. I wish this zonal marking idea would be dropped. Unless you have top, top defenders who have been playing together as a unit for a long time it is susceptible to being exploited. Our defenders have been shuffled time and time again and while they are very good are not in the top bracket.
To expand on my post above from just after the game. I do not think it was a bad performance, we were poor only in one area, and that was in front of their goal. I get perplexed when fans pick out players like Richarlison, Cleverly, Doucoure and Carillo for particular criticism when they just do not deserve it. I said last week, and earlier, that a player like Richarlison will not be brilliant every week, we cannot rely on him and we cannot keep expecting the players that are meant to create goals when there is so little movement ahead of them. I noticed three attempts, in 90 minutes, by Deeney to get away from his marker. With one he missed his chance at the near post, and was offside for another but completely missed the ball as he tried a shot, anyway, and the pass was too hard the third time. Apart from that, he offered nothing. Watch him, and it is like he is meant to be marking the defender, not the other way around. Then, he sticks his arm in the air occasionally, so it looks like he wants the ball. He will not out-muscle, out-jump. or out-think the likes of Shawcross, who is an average Premier League defender. How different it would be, if Rich, Tom, Doucoure and Carrillo had one player in front of them who was always trying to get into space ahead of them - pulling the defence in all directions, with diagonal runs creating space for others coming up behind, etc. A player that could beat a defender one on one occasionally, who could shoot straighter than the 37% accuracy Deeney manages. And how different it would be if, when the ball is bobbing about in their penalty box we actually had a player that could anticipate the chances and then put them away. It is no coincidence that Deeney, has barely had a chance to score in two and a half games. Our chances have fallen to our midfield or wide players. How can we get upset with Richarlison for missing his chances, when Deeney never even makes any chances. Gray, wasn't great but he looked more like scoring than Deeney did the whole game. We have sorted a lot out since the last two seasons. Our defence generally copes well against most of the teams we play against, (and that is all we need) and we look far, far better going forward and out wide, but up front we are same old, same old - ponderous, predictable and relatively ineffective. It is not fair to criticise those trying to make things happen when it is the lack of quality ahead of them that is preventing it from happening. I was one of the first to praise Deeney after his performance against Arsenal, but 95% of the time, he is just not good enough. JB and GD will now have a go at me as I keep having a go at Deeney, but I only keep having a go at him because his ineffectiveness continues.
In the second half Cleverley was picking up the ball every time on the right hand side of midfield from the defence, moving up the pitch, clipping a cross in or pass, move breaks down and ball is cleared, he stormed back to take the ball off of Kabs, and then did the same, this happened like Groundhog Day for a good 5 mins at one point.
Yet in the early part of the second half Kiko got in behind them a couple of times and was making runs but was not used. Unfortunately a number of bad decisions made yesterday in the final third.
I agree with those who say that Deeney coming on changed the game and won us the Arsenal match. But, as others have said, his comments after that game, and his reaction yesterday isn't doing us any favours. If he continues like this he's going to end up as a sad caricature of what he once was and he's going to end up wound up by other team's players and fans ...
Stoke will do what they always do. Finish 10th -17th playing rugby while the owners rake it in. They have zero interest in entertaining. I can understand why the big 6 want a bigger slice with leeches like Stoke and WBA about.
Stoke came with a game plan, stifle the game and snatch a goal on the break or from a set-piece. I think we should have played with three at the back in the second half but with Holebas and Femenia pushing on we played with two most of the time anyway. Seems like Richarlisons confidence took a beating after missing those two sitters against Chelsea to me. Shame we didnt have Okaka on the bench as against Stokes big men at the back we might of go some joy out of him. I think Troy digging his fingers into Alans face will be looked at also, totally lost his cool which is a shame.
After yesterday it's becoming clear what sort of side Watford are. An extremely effective away side, but that's it. Watford at home are poor and are too easy to play against. Looking at every away game, we've been the better side in every match, but at home it's been the opposite. I think we've been quite fortunate to have picked up the 5 points we have. Brighton should have beaten us (thanks to Britos' madness), a very late goal against Liverpool and Arsenal, so it could have been much worse. We were poor against Arsenal until Deeney came on. Even the cup against Bristol City was a terrible performance. Yesterday was when it became very clear to me. Stoke nicked a goal and had no trouble in defending that lead. I think most could tell it would have been unlikely we would equalise and that's how it panned out. Give Watford space, and they are very impressive. This is why we have done so well away, as the onus is on the home side to attack. This seems to be the same trap we've fallen into as we did with Zola. Great away from home, but just could not break teams down at home. It's unfortunate for fans that only see home games, such as myself. I've not really seen us play well yet. The good form and performances have largely passed me by. Beating Arsenal was great, but was it deserved? No, if you're honest, we got a bit lucky. I think away from home, we've deserved to have won every match, but at home most teams have found it easy to play us and take something from the game. It's a complete turnaround for Silva, who was always so strong at home, but a little bit vulnerable away. We need to find a way of grinding teams down at home, but you can only do that by being solid at the back, which is something we're not. We gave Stoke a soft goal, and that gave them the initiative to defend what they've got. At home, we've got to be out of the blocks and at them right from the start. But we were so slow and ponderous and all that does is relax the opposition and they are able to play themselves into the match.
It's ok, there's no need for you to get too upset about that, but the vast majority of supporters are home fans only, so it is unfortunately that the majority of Watford fans are not seeing the very good Watford performances.
Whatever has gone on causing Okaka not to feature at all since he was excellent against Liverpool needs to be reviewed. I believe he's got some sort of 'previous' as a disruptive influence somewhere else though. Whatever, the current situation is no good for him or us. If 'bridges could be mended' then he could be playing regularly which would surely be good for him and he'd be a better option up-front for us than either Troy or the tattooed man. Time for a bit of dual humble-pie then.
