Watford FC 1-0 Sunderland - 01/04/2017

After we lose today, surely Gino MUST start listening to us

 

Can't go today. And I'm relieved having seen that line up. It looks very very fragile.

 

luvverly

 

Made hard work of it, but I'll take that.

More enjoyable performance than recent weeks...just need to be more clinical.

 

Up to 10th.

 

7pts splitting 10th from 18th. Glad we're at the top of that pile. Keeps Tuesday interesting too.

What is it with Watford's home crowd? Jon Marks pointing out with 10 minutes left that they're on edge and nervous. Everywhere else I've been home crowds cheer and encourage their team across the line to a win. Ours just seem to transmit worry and panic even when we're winning. You can hear the shrieking and whining loud and clear on the radio. I'm certain it affects the players and leads to the headless chicken ending we seem to specialise in.

 

Well that was a bit nicer to watch than normal.

Big fan of what Doccoure brings to the team.

Very surprised that was Britos first ever goal for us.

34 points 29 games puts you 10th!? Happy that we're top half but hardly a good advertisement for the top English league!

 

how the hell is this team in 10th.not that im not happy. but after recent weeks it makes 0 sense

 

Are we safe?

 

Decent performance from the lads that, what a keeper Jordan Pickford is though. We're unlucky not to have picked up 2 or 3, but Sunderland's back line was solid and we need more clinical finishing in the final third. We never looked like letting Sunderland score even after Kaboul went off injured. Cathcart played a blinder, and Britos was very good as well. Holebas did a good job on his wing, and Janmaat was lively once he came on. Doucoure and Cleverley both put in solid shifts, and even Capoue had a right go at it. Niang was excellent but just needed end product; Amrabat similar on the other side. Okaka nearly scored a few times and was really good on his feet today. Class job by Gomes to round it out.

If Sunderland weren't so awful it wouldn't have been so comfortable, but we looked the winners before we even scored. We need to be more ruthless in attack but overall solid job. How much do you reckon Pickford is going to cost after Sunderland go down?

Edit: We'll be 11th or 12th in a couple hours depending on the result of Southampton-Bournemouth, thanks to our atrocious goal difference. Not quite really top half.

 

Because we're not as bad as the 'melts' on here think we are and we're performing at the level of a midtable PL team, over the course of the season?

 

hold on its april fools

 

but we are bad. maz is rubbish. we beat a very very poor dare i say ****e sunderland team by 1 goal. dont let this win gloss over the last few months. the fact that there are 7 points between 10th and the relegation zone says more about the league than it does about us. still want maz out.

 

We beat a very very poor dare I say ****e Villa team by 1 90th minute goal at home last April. And we couldn't even keep a clean sheet against them.

 

We played well until the goal (and didn't hoof) and then sat back needlessly afterwards

MOTM for me was Doukante

 

The players start hoofing and panicking well before the crowd get nervous.

Just because the commentary only start mentioning it 10 minutes out doesn't mean it's not been happening.

 

Relieved we won but admit I'm still nervous at how tight the whole table has got. Thought 34 points would have been enough at the end of the season back at Xmas but Leicester, Hull, Swansea and Palace are looking transformed

 

Sunderland are garbage and made us look good. Okaka is a waste of space, Cleverley was miles off the pace but everyone else did fine. Doucoure had a very good game and easily MOTM, Niang second.

 

True, fortunately Boro and Sunderland are still languishing at the bottom. Burnley have been quietly moving closer to the drop zone, could easily see them getting sucked into it.

 

The set up after going a goal up is frustrating. But that doesn't detract away from the fact that our fans are some of the most nervous and negative around.

They also suffer from extreme confirmation bias. You hear somebody yell over the top negative comments about a player, and then every comment they say from then on cannot be positive.

You'd think that Amrabat and Kaboul were league 2 quality if you only listened to their screeching.

 

If amrabat got some half decent end product he'd be league 2 quality

 

Boro play Swansea and then Hull. Table may look clearer in two weeks

 

I thought Cleverley did really well today alongside Doucoure. Ball seemed to stick to Okaka so he didn't have a bad game either in my book.

 

Good win. Everyone played well, although Sunderland were abysmal. It's difficult to remember a club which looked like absolute relegation fodder, as we saw today.

I think we need to be more confident about where we are as a club. We will need a few years to build a squad capable of constantly hitting mid table. But we are a comfortable distance away from the bottom 3/4 clubs.

Today we did exactly what Maz ordered. Control the game. Be brave and direct. Make runs (although we still have too many players holding back and waiting at the edge of the box).

With a quality finisher, we'd have been home and dry half an hour in.

 

Capoue was in beside Doucoure and Cleverley was more advanced and barely touched the ball. Okaka offers no option as he is always dropping so deep to hold the ball up, so when he plays it off there's nothing on, it's a pointless exercise.

 

Not sure what game you were watching - Cleverly was constantly involved!

 

Cleverley was magnificent once again. Okaka was OK. Holebas and Doucoure also played very well.

 

Absolutely no idea how anyone can say Okaka was poor today!? He was one of our best players!

Didn't give the ball away, held it up really well and gave O'Shea a really tough afternoon. Personally think we looked better with him up top on his own over our very own Captain and talisman. In fact, I think Deeney could learn a lot from Okaka in terms of hold up play. I also think this helped both Niang and Amrabat who knew they had a genuine target man to play off of.

All in all, a really big result and a better display! We still like to make it hard for ourselves at times, but that's what low confidence does for you. A win on Tuesday night makes us all but safe. Disappointing that Palarse and Hull both won, but we can only take care of our own business.

Doucoure MOTM for me, closely followed by Cathcart.

 

Agreed, cleverly was very good today.

What a gentleman Jermain Defoe is though, when Kaboul went down with a hamstring issue Defoe could have very easily played the ball down the wing and followed it up completely unmarked, yet he ran it out of play. I've always liked him as a player now I think I love the bloke, (can you imagine Holebas doing that)?

 

Cleverly and Doucoure were both excellent because they employ the revolutionary tactic of... passing and moving

Draws the opposition out, creates space and reduces hoofing

We also looked a lot better when Cathcart went in at CB for Kaboul. The former is limited at this level but at least plays it simple, is predictable and doesn't create problems for himself like the latter