Here’s the one that really got to me - our long throw ‘expert’, Holebas - not exactly Dave Challinor of blessed memory, winds up to try to reach the near post, and who do we put there to try to get the all important flick-on? Andre bloody Gray. Brain dead.
Regards the match tactics, Watford were crying out for three, not two up front. We didn't have somebody like Roberto P making runs to drag defenders away when Deulofeu was surging forward. Gray is too static and doesn't help in this respect. It all went to pot when Will Hughes went off and we "lost" midfield despite Hughes' tendency to make unforced errors in passing. We needed to "go for it" and play three up front but Deeney for Gray was soooo negative and didn't help us against a robust and well drilled defence. Sarr when he came on hid out on the touchline mostly and didn't do the work that Hughes had done to win the ball or show for it. You might have well said, Burnley, please attack and score at will now, gents. Ah, and so they did.... Classic cautious QSF and his reticence to attack has been and will continue to be our downfall. They'd already negated our threat at set pieces by rough housing Craig Dawson out of the game in the first half with not even a yellow card against them for doing so; so ineffective was the ever grinning weak ref Tierney. No coincidence Burnley surrounded Paul Tierney and harangued him from the opening minutes for any decision against them, with their bench doing the same to the fourth official and linesman. Again all without any punishment.
A bad afternoon made worse by the absolute **** at the back of the Rookery who literally spends 90 minutes shouting "f*****g c**t" at anyone and everyone on the pitch - Watford players, the Ref, the linesmen, opposition players - regardless of what's actually happening on the pitch. A particularly fine moment was when he launched into one of his eloquent tirades against the ref for stopping the game......for Dawson's head injury. When, finally, this numbskull was asked to tone it down a bit as there was a young boy in front of him, he launched into an aggressive rant that people should take kids to the Family Stand if they didn't like it. He just didn't get that it wasn't swearing that people objected to, but his incessant, unnecessary aggression. A **** of the highest order. Lovely journey home, too - accident on the M25 meant I didn't get home until 8pm. All in all, an afternoon well spent. Anyone want a season ticket?!
A number of people were discussing what seat number he was, to do this. Because people right at the back stand and move around, it's hard to tell which seat he's officially associated with.
The crazy thing was he had three defenders in close attendance, in front, behind and to one side. when the throw came in. Could we not deduce that that might free up space in the box for someone else instead. Nah lets throw it towards Gray anyway.
During the two or was three corners they had in the first there was at least two Burnley players all over Foster preventing him from getting anywhere near the ball. Every time the ball was delivered into the six yard box and should have been easily caught.
My guess it’s Papa Pozzo finally letting out his frustration with how his son has mismanaged things making the club odds on for relegation and thus sullying the family reputation forever
1. We are not a team that can cope with the “tactics” of Burnley. 2. Our attack is woeful. It is a surprise if we ever score a goal when we get in the final third. I don’t massively rate our defence but they are put under more pressure as we can be the better team for long periods, but the chances of us scoring are so low that mistakes at the back are magnified. The opposition will always gain confidence if you create chances but don’t take them. 3. Other than if someone in our team can go on a scoring run it is difficult to see how we can pull ourselves out of this. I can only see this being a luck thing (e.g. Ighalo), as not one player has shown any ability up front for some time. I’m not as despondent as many here tonight as I half expected this, that we would outplay them for periods, miss every half chance, and then let them get an easy goal. I didn’t expect three though.
Yes, but what's the club supposed to do? Give a rebate when we're **** and bump the price up when we're doing well? That would play merry hell with budgeting.
Likewise. At half time, Mr HH texted me to ask how the game was. I replied "We've done everything but score....which means we'll probably concede a sloppy goal and lose". Also like you, I didn't expect it to be three sloppy goals though.
We could save so much time if we didn’t bother with free kicks and corners in the opposition half. We have no one who can take either.
Wood's first goal should have been disallowed apparently. Wood clearly pushed Cathcart in the back which gave him the time and space to score the first goal. Palace had a goal disallowed against Liverpool for the exact same offence. Another example of big club bias. They look for things to help clubs like Liverpool, and never in a million years would that type of goal be disallowed for us. It's a football fact.
They did mention it on MOTD. Guess that sums up life at the bottom . Just look at the penalty- Foster saves but it then the ball hits the post and roll in .. Overall 3-0 was a bit harsh as I thought we did well first half against a strong physical side who were quite niggly but did a job I guess they will say ! GD was the best attacker again whilst Sarr and Deeney looked like they lacked fitness naturally. Defence was distrusted by Dawson going off and they made us pay from set plays.
Today was another club record. It was the first time Watford have gone 11 home games without a league in their entire history. Well done boys. Here is the full list:- Arsenal 0-1 Southampton 1-1 Wolves 1-2 West Ham 1-4 Brighton 0-3 West Ham 1-3 Arsenal 2-2 Sheff Utd 0-0 Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea 1-2 Burnley 0-3
Watford have a team who seem to do everything by numbers. I long for the odd flash of originality or inspiration and something to be done quickly or suddenly. This is not a new thing. The only recent time they stepped outside of this box was at the start of last season, when they scored some spectacular goals - then it died away. They limit themselves by their limited approach.
Clutching at straws. He’s worked on positional stuff for weeks with three at the back. So slotting massina in there was just a wet plaster on an arterial wound. Maybe a better idea would of been Chalobah as one of the three at the back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been saying ever since it quickly became apparent that Gray wasn’t good enough that we were two strikers short. That’s two goalscorers, not just forwards. We’re constantly using makeshift alternatives like Deulofeu. Over the last two years our rivals have signed innumerable real strikers that we could have tried for, many from other English teams, while we have just filled our squad with various midfielders.
I couldn't follow the game, thankfully, but a 3-0 defeat at home in what was realistically one of the lost important games of the season given our position and upcoming run of games? Predictable, but shocking nonetheless. Just give up now I think, no point embarrassing ourselves further. Forfeit the season and we can all enjoy the next 6 months without having to worry about seeing how much lower we can sink every week. Then we will be refreshed and ready for the Championship.
Just seen the result. I’ve found life is a lot easier when you accept you’re going down. Re-hiring Quique was unforgivable, and now we’re going to have to suffer half a season of losses with no goals scored. Groundhog day. The only reason we’ve got QSF back is that someone’s clearly pissed off Gino and he’s very beautifully getting his revenge. No one is that incompetent, to re-hire the worst Watford manager tactically of the last decade. I’d have to be a sadist to watch this season any longer, as long as Quique is at the helm. Sleepwalking to the Chanpionship. As someone who followed the team home and away over the last decade, I’m enjoying having my Saturdays back. Went to a fantastic brewery in Reading today and had mac and cheese with bbq beef as a snack. No regrets.
Most of my feelings have been expressed already but I wanted to add one thing. Have we actually improved a player since signing them? There's been numerous occasions when we sign an exciting player or someone we think will do well and they turn to ****. The biggest example of this is Hughes. I remember when he signed he took a little while to be orientated into the first team and then he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. His close ball control was something I, at 32, hadn't really seen in a Watford player very often. He also could pick a pass. Now he is awful at both of those things regardless of position. This can be said for a number of other players. I guess Capoue has improved from before he was with us and maybe Doucoure but I'm struggling to think of anyone else. We drag players down even when we have hit some form in the past. And we seem to take every ounce of creativity out of them beyond short spells. Sanchez Flores was always the wrong choice and although we are clearly going down, I'd like to see us actually try to win some games so he needs to go by the morning.
If you paid £500 for a season ticket. You've paid £46 per goal we've scored this season. 2 of them were penalties which is also exciting. Plus VAR is worth the entrance fee alone. You can pay more than that for a haircut, so pretty decent value imo.
I guess our model doesn't incentivise coaches to develop players. Even obvious things, like spending a few hours coaching Gray to challenge for the high ball, rather than duck behind the man, might give some benefit, but its it's obvious that nothing changes. Coaches know they will be here until results dip and then replaced. They don't choose players to come in, they just have to make a selection from what they're given and the players themselves know that they could well be playing on the other side of Europe by the end of the next window, either because they've earned a big move, or because they're going into Pozzo Purgatory on loan.
I generally agree with both these posts, it really does seem that we cannot keep our players at the level they arrived with, let alone improve. With very few exceptions, our arrivals start off well, and fizzle out. I'm like a stuck record, but I think this is all down to attitude/mind/culture at the club. I'm not saying correcting it is an easy task, but getting the best out of a team of employees, whether it is a football team or an in a normal office, is always the most difficult, but ultimately most tangibly rewarding aspect of management. When I look back at Zola's time here, and I fully acknowledge that he lacked coaching ability in many ways, but that is the last time I remember seeing our players play with a high degree of confidence individually. We saw players pull off stuff back then, that ours wouldn't even try now. But getting a coach that has that ability, as well as the technical ability, is not easy.
This season has been a massive opportunity wasted and imo it all comes down to lack of preparation in the summer. We were always going to drop at some point, but having got to our 5th year, we crumble at the first sign of struggle. This situation was completely avoidable. There are several teams in this league who we should be doing better than imo.
TBF to the Pozzos - getting relegated via a points deduction because of going broke would be heartbreaking. Getting relegated because of being a bit too shyte is just upsetting and would soon be forgotten.
Unfortunately our present predicament brings these half wits to the fore. They are everywhere in the ground,perhaps not as unpleasant as this individual, but there nonetheless. Hopefully he can be identified and then be relocated to the IT or marketing department of the LTA, where all the other buffoons live.
There are two fouls in their first goal, first Wood pushing Cathcart, and secondly Tarkowski has both hands on Holebas' shoulders and pushes him down as he heads it back across.
indeed. Surely this can be remedied on the training ground. We don’t even need to be good, just have a basic level of competence. It just smacks on unprofessionalism and has been a problem for 5 seasons. The key part of yesterday’s game was about the 55th minute. We had two consecutive corners. Holebas hit a woeful first one to nobody which ended up as a second one. He then shanked the second one straight out. Burnley then got two corners. Two fantastic deliveries which caused no end of problems and the second one was the first goal. Surely some basic hard work on the training pitch could at least get us above the level of rank incompetence?
