Bad luck to lose Dawson. Bad finishing from GD,good keeping from Pope. Poor keeping from Foster for the goal.Poor concentration to give the initial corner away from an innocuous position. 1-0 the game is over for all of us and it seems,the players too. The worst feeling is the sense of inevitability about it. There's no way out of this. Sanchez Flores may not be the answer but he's got few options and the decision making by all the players is woeful. Sad times.
I usually need to rant and throw some invective after such a display but today I'm just too sad. I could rant about Flores, but I don't think we will replace him with anyone better. I could rage about several players who were appalling, but what's the point? I've been saying they are **** for 2 years or more in some cases, but the owners, for some reason, think they know more and have stuck by the likes of Kiko, Mariappa and Gray. I could direct my bile at the owners, who've seemingly used their huge experience in football to know more than I do about recruiting, choosing to blow money on luxury players, unsuited to this league or our circumstances, rather than fixing gaping holes in our defence or attack. But what's the point anymore? Nothing changes. The "we go again" mentality pervades and we will. We will go again. We will fail again and we'll all say the same things again, whilst the people who either spend or earn millions, fail to change anything and we continue on our inexorable descent down the escalator of relegation. The focus now should be on building a side for the Championship, because I can see a summer of disruption and panicked activity, followed by a season of struggle in the Championship. This side is not coming straight back up without shipping out a load of the luxury players, the back boneless jellyfish and ageing never have beens which bulk out our terrible squad. I am sick of this season, this team, this club all of it.
Oh that's damming with faint praise! Bassett's Watford were hopeless. Burnley are vile to watch and presumably to play against but they know what their plan is and execute it very well. I don't like it and sport should be joyous to watch and play but for them,it works. It's up to others to find answers.
Gracia last 10 games -one win-20 conceded and 7 scored QSF last 9 games -one win-18 conceded and 6 scored Vive la difference
We did ok till they scored ..without creating clear cut chances . Then the rest of the game was a pointless excerise in a team lacking confidence against a side who knew how to take advantage. The subs made little impact and we do seem to get worse as matches go on. VAR penalty was right I think.
The decision-making capabilities of our players across the board is absolutely pathetic; genuinely embarrassing. Deulofeu, Capoue, Doucoure, Gray, you could go on down the squad list until you hit the u21s, meanwhile the Pozzos don't see any need whatsoever for striking upgrades. On a related note, there was an Athletic article from the start of the international break that claimed if we're playing two at the back by January rather than three, then we won't look for a centre back, because we'll be fine with what we've got. I only noticed it yesterday, but I'm still shocked by it now, I feel like it was snuck out post Norwich to try and mask the message. If it's true, they still haven't learned, and we might be even more ****ed than we appear. One thing this has confirmed is the opinion of those of us who saw the Norwich win not as a glorious return to form but a lucky win on the back of a quite poor performance earned primarily thanks to one of the most inept single performances by a team in the Prem you'll ever see from Norwich.
Completely true. There were people who thought if we could just struggle to January we would somehow recruit players to get us out of this mess, but we've seen time and again that the Pozzos are out of their depth in recruiting anything more than bottom of the Prem/top half of the Championship type players. They are cheapskates where it counts, for our team, but utterly frivolous when it comes to signing potential investments. They will sign many Jao Pedro types, who will never play for us and probably never should either, but wont sign 2 decent bloody centre backs or a Premier League quality striker. They deserve relegation and I hope it bankrupts them. The rest of us are just unfortunate enough to be along for the ride. **** the pozzos. They've peaked long ago for us and well overstayed their welcome for me.
We were by far the better team up until their first goal. Plenty of promising positions including three Del Boy breaks which resulted in only one shot straight at the keeper. We absolutely must make more of those promising opportunities. The Dawson 'double injury' changed everything. We only have five CBs in the squad. With Kabesele serving a one-match suspension and Prodl injured again, once Dawson gets injured continuing to play five at the back requires, by necessity, a player (Massina) out of position. This, i.m.h.o., is where Quique falls down. Having found a defensive formula that works he sticks to it like glue even in extremis. He needs to be a bit more imaginative when circumstances dictate. Once Dawson went off we could have done something different. For the 'Kiko haters', he was much better today. How could the ref. only allow four extra minutes in the second half unless he was simply 'putting us out of our misery'? I thought he got it about right with five in the first half given the two 'Dawson stoppages'. But in the second half there were three rather extended goal celebrations, an extended VAR review, five? substitutions, a lengthy stoppage for an injury to one of theirs and the ref. was constantly warning them and pointing to his watch regarding time-wasting. So my take on how many minutes should have been added on would be about ten. I suggest if a ref. did actually add on an appropriate amount of time for once and that 'watch pointing' actually meant something then Burnley's cynicism today might have been precluded. Given the amount of money floating about in the PL then everybody involved in it should take responsibility regarding the paying audience in both the stadium and on TV and be required to quit taking the p.ss. As far as I'm aware, there's no particular need to get things sorted before an ad. break for 15.00 Saturday k.os. On 'happy-clappers'. I have yet to be persuaded of their existence. I don't see them on here (just some with a bit more perspective than others) nor do I see them in the stadium. I commented on the match being 'pugatory' on more than one occasion today and nobody around me disagreed. And that was in the Rookery. So it seems to me that 'happy-clappers' are a bit like the Loch Ness Monster or the Law of Averages. Something that doesn't actually exist. But which a few 'sad little sacks' on here continually insist does exist to satisfy their somewhat 'intellectually limited' agendas.
This is why I said this was a must win match. Now because the defeat was so emphatic, it spells certain relegation. We have no chance of getting out of this now. It's game over. Our fragile revival has been smashed to pieces. We have to win 10 of our 25 remaining games. This is a team that has won one of their last 17 Premier League matches. It's not going to happen, no matter how much I want it to. Flores got what he deserved. Again we play a beatable team at home. Play with 5 defenders and two DMF's, yet still ship in 3 goals. It's just ridiculous how defensive we are. I've said this countless times, this formation is ok for the away games but just does not work at home. We set out for a 0-0 draw and that's just not a good enough ambition. If Flores is still the head coach by next weekend I'd be amazed. His job was hanging by a thread before Norwich, but now after today, it is very clear. Flores will not change the direction of the club. He has to go. To be fair, I thought we did ok in the first half, but was very concerned when Dawson went off. We should have gone four at the back and brought on Deeney or Sarr and change the formation to 4-4-2. Once Burnley scored the first goal, and you replace the name of Burnley for any team in the Premier League, Watford are sunk. The defensive formation has no possibility of changing the game around. It's impossible to do this. At least we now know our fate. We are gone so at least the anxiety should disappear. I'm sure a few people will say it's not over until it's over, which of course is true, but unless there is a fundamental change, something huge, there is no reason to think Watford will start winning. Why would they? Have we improved under Flores? I just don't see it. We are still vulnerable when going behind. People say it's a confidence thing, and maybe that's true, but it's down to the coach to instil that. We have nothing left to lose, we have to go gung-ho. We need to score goals and play in a way that will create loads of chances. We're going down anyway, but at least we'll see a few decent, exciting games in the process.
I've just watched his post match comments with the media and I cannot even detect he gives a damn. He sounded despondent, but to him it was "we go on the next game" attitude. He did at least point out the injury situation is ridiculous as we all know. I just get the feeling he knows we are doomed now. He played with the water bottle and made more eye contact with that then he did anything else. It's not over, he knows that, but I get the impression he feels nothing is going to change, and we do not even look remotely capable of surviving.
Played the waiting room/ health spa loop again continuously before the game today, just to get us in the mood ...
Who would have thought Dawson going off would make such a difference ? Putting Massina in at CB was a huge mistake, clearly made us weaker at the back. We would have been much better going to 4 across the back and adding an extra bit of protection to the miidfield. Putting Deeney on straight after the 1st was a pure knee reaction. Grey had done OK, we lost all intensity up front, it reduced our movement & stopped Doucoure making positive runs forward I actually forgot Capoue was playing until about 5 minutes to go. There is so so much wrong at the club at the moment. Changing manager is just moving the problem on to someone else.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? A red player goes down in the penalty area after a clumsy challenge by a yellow player. The referee waves play on and the yellow team breaks quickly to the other end of the pitch and forces a corner. The referee then stops play and, after spending two minutes with his finger in his ear, draws a square in the air and brings play all the way back for a penalty to the red team. ANSWER: Hundreds of people leave the stadium vowing never to go back because VAR is completely ruining football As soon as we went behind we collapsed today but my irritation at our second half performance is nothing to my sadness that football is being completely bugg ered as a live sport spectacle by the absurd VAR FLORES OUT!!
Not sure that was the case this time as it looked like a penalty in real time but yes there was the usual delay without any communication.
In other words, they're just like Bassett's Wimbledon. I just want them to be transformed into Basssett's Watford.
I felt sorry for the guy who stormed out at full time and declared "I've been watching this **** for 61 years", I've only been watching this **** for 31 years. #winner.
I don't know what's been happening for @Burnsy , but sometimes life can dish you such a crap hand that all you have to pick you up is your team. To watch that performance, which wasn't bad but just too poor, is just another kick in the ********.
It's a mad idea,but it may just work! Transform all other 19 clubs in the PL into dismal versions of our former selves. I've got some foil,a few biros,a snake costume,once worn and half a packet of porridge oats. I'll see what I can create.
What was your favourite hapless moment of the game? Gray backheeling it straight off the pitch? Capoue's free kick? Holebas corner straight out of play? Cathcart running along not even looking at the ball and letting it bounce on the edge of our box when they hit the bar then heading it over for the corner when there was no-one within 20 yards of him? Add your favourite to the list! We are a ******* shambles.
