Watford Fc 1-1 Southampton - 28/02/2024 - Fac4

Spot on about both those subs.

 

It would be a real thrill and a privilege to get to see Klop oversee a mauling of our boys. A real honour. The man is a national treasure.

 

Better keep your fingers crossed we win the replay then!

 

In the stands, I thought we played very well and every player put in a shift. Our starting XI was very good and Soton were pinned back for most around 65 minutes of the game where we should have had 2 more goals than we had at that point.

Bachmann has had a bad Season and has rightfully been dropped, but I don't think he did a lot wrong, goal included. He claimed a large number of crosses, his punch was strong and wasn't the main reason why they scored. He deserves criticism for mistakes but he should also be given praise for what was a very assured performance as he held every speculative long shot and made some smart saves when needed. Pollock and Hoedt were great and Pollock has shown why he feels hard done by not playing more up til now even if he's slow on the turn.

Koné looked fatigued but still had moments of high quality carrying the ball while Chakvetadze put in a shift. Hopefully Koné is only cramp but will see in due course. Sierralta I thought played well but he missed 2 big headed chances from corners he should have scored from. Asprilla and Martins were very bright and Bayo was Bayo; excellent pressing, movement and did some good hold up play but his lack of composure wasted some good chances as usual.

The subs we made did make sense for what we had available and you could sense the momentum shifting in the last 20 minutes after what had been an excellent display otherwise and wasn't overly surprised we conceded at the end as Soton brought on strong attacking options while we brought on weaker defensive options. (Sema and Dennis looked rusty, Koné sub forced VI hand to inrpovise option there and Porteous wasn't enough to help defence)

Dissapointing for sure but not for a lack of effort or entertainment which is all we can ask for. It was telling that up until the last 10 minutes the Soton fans were very subdued and worried by how we played.

 

That’s my problem, I know it’s illogical and not entirely his fault but he expects a cross when there’s a shot, then 10 seconds later he goes early one way when the shot is heading for the other corner. Probably both unlucky but when you can’t stand a bloke it’s more fun to blame him.

 

I think most of the subs made sense, but bringing on Porto as a 4th centre back meant we had absolutely no midfield and invited so much pressure it was always going to pay. Also came straight on and gave away a ******* stupid free kick in a dangerous position. If you really dont want to use Livermore - what is the point of having him there? just wasted spots on the bench where we could have used a midfielder.

 

Don't think it's unreasonable that people wanted us to win this game before the draw was made and now can't be bothered with it knowing the prize is a spanking at Anfield.

I want us to go as far as we can in every cup but am also realistic enough to know that if we were regularly gubbed five and six nil up by them when we actually had good players, then were we to get through, this would be a boring game where they'll beat us comfortably in second gear.

 

Could even have put Porteous on in midfield to run around like a headless chicken harrying their players. Certainly can't have done any worse than Ince who looked utterly clueless in that role. He had three touches of the ball!

 

I’m probably being hugely naive here, but the likes of Cathcart etc. were very heavily mentally scarred by regularly coming up against the likes of Salah & Co. And City, we always seemed to know we were beaten before a ball was kicked and just rolled over asap as a kind of coping mechanism. I genuinely think this team despite on paper being much worse, will give a better account of themselves, because they don’t have the mental scarring and it’s just a free hit of a game for them.

 

I also think that something which isn't good news for Saints also isn't good news for us - ideally if we fail to make the playoffs and somehow get promoted ourselves, then we want all three of the just relegated teams to go up so that the Champ is much weaker next season to give us some renewed hope. We want one of Southampton or Leeds to catch Ipswich (who have been stumbling a bit of late) and take the second automatic spot from them.

 

Presumably by that logic you also want Luton to stay up?

 

I also think Liverpool will approach the game against a mid table Champ side differently than against even a bottom 3 Prem side. Big changes to the 11, lots of kids, and possibly a bit of complacency. That's why cup upsets happen. OK, they aren't the norm, but they do happen and we've created them in the past.

You don't get those famous, big wins unless you are there to start the match. OK, we'll probably be 2-o down inside 15 minutes, but the 1% chance that we dump them out of the cup, that's worth beating Saints for, for me.

 

Yep, the PL is the be all and end all in terms of winning it and the money from CL qualification, so the top teams very rarely make significant changes against the bottom teams as they can’t take anything for granted. The players also care about their records in the PL, so playing a low ranking side is a good way to boost their goal scoring and assist records in the competition that people really only take notice of them in. We’ll probably still lose 5-0, but relatively speaking that’s still a significantly better performance from a mid-table championship team compared to us rolling over by a similar score as a premier league team.

 

Agree-also they are in the League Cup final on the Sunday before the night games of the 5th round on either the Tuesday or Wednesday a few days after.

 

I remember when Britos had been injured for about three months and we dumped him straight back into the starting line up on the left of a back three and basically left him one on one the whole game with a red hot Salah in acres of space as Holebas was wandering around aimlessly somewhere near the halfway line. Big Mig was turned inside out. Great times!

 

We've not "progressed" enough to beat the team top of the PL! We don't need a fixture against them to tell us that.

A more important test will be whether we've progressed this season enough to beat the likes of West Brom and Coventry to make the playoffs.

 

We literally had no other midfielders to use.

We already had Grieves on the bench as our most ready youth team midfielder who is still clearly not yet good enough that Ismael trusts him in key moments.

 

Interesting. Thanks for that! I hadn’t seen the schedule.

I wouldn’t expect us to get close to beating Liverpool. But I’d be interested to see how we coped with the task. How VI set us up, how our players deal with their world-beaters etc. We’ve become hard to beat of late so I’d be curious to see how we handled such a match.

Of course as an experienced football watcher of many years, I know a heavy loss could cause more harm than good. I’d hope we’d at least be competitive though.

 

Annoyed not to get on, Raj?

 

Errrrrrrrrrr.................................?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!!!!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!

Please explain how based on my logic you managed to arrive at that illogical conclusion!

My comment stated that if we fail to go up this season then it would be advantageous for us if the strongest clubs got promoted from the Champ so that the Champ is weaker next season to give us more of a chance then.

The follow-on from that would be it would also be most beneficial if the weakest PL clubs were to get relegated so that they would also provide less competition in the Champ next season.

I would consider Luton to be one of the three weakest PL clubs this season, along with Burnley and Sheffield Utd. Luton would have less financial clout, quality, reputation and attraction if they got relegated than someone like Everton, Forest or Palace.

The only way at which you could have reasonably arrived at your question is if you considered Luton to somehow be a relatively strong side compared to the other named PL relegation contenders, which seems dubious.

 

Or at the very least shovel it sideways away from the goal…

 

Agreed, easy money to be made on a big Liverpool win and a Livermore yellow!

 

If I remember correctly, it was Cathcart you're thinking of; I believe he wasn't 100% before the infamous Brighton game, but when Britos got sent off, he had to go to LB as we had no other senior options (Holebas had been sent off against Bristol City in the League Cup a few days prior)

 

We won't even need Livermore to take those jokers on

 

Set up well and deserved more than a 1 goal lead at HT
Despite the pressure we looked comfortable in the 2nd half until we lost Kone and Georgie and couldn't find out way out.
Disappointed we took Lewis off, surely we would have been better with 7 defenders on the pitch instead of 6
Sierralta and Ince in the center of midfield trying to defend was a little like watching someone in a wheel chair trying to push water up Snowdonia with a fork.

 

Nope, definitely Britos...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/im-very-tired-watfords-miguel-12215091

 

There were 15 minutes to play in a game we were winning and and desperately needed a midfielder.

VI opted to bring on an attacking player in midfield rather than allowing Livermore to play those 15 minutes.

If Livermore was not even going to be risked for 15 minutes, what is the point of him being on the bench when there was seemingly no chance he was going to make it onto the pitch.

Grieves is obviously a different kettle of fish - hed probably would have made an appearance had the game state been different (e.g. if we had been 2-3 up or down with 15 minutes to play))

 

First half was one of the best performances this season, we made Southampton look very poor but the last 30 mins we just completely ran out of steam. The tide turned and we never made the most of our chances. I never feel convinced we are going to make the most of our counter attacks, it always seems to fail at the final hurdle and the chance goes begging. Poor atmosphere from both sides I thought.

 

TBF it was the Soton reserves wasn't it for the first half at least ?

 

The reserves of the relegated 3 are still good enough to be top half in the Championship tbf

 

And Watford reserves.

 

Not exactly ! Didn’t they make a hell of a lot of changes and we just made a couple. They equalised when they brought their first team on.

 

Our 6 to their 9 was what was mentioned on commentary, so a lot for both sides.

 

Apologies if it's been mentioned already but we didn't get thrashed in this cup match.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/4157241.stm