Paredes has been excellent off the bench recently. He adds a bit of power to the wings, unlike Anya. He really is very strong for his physique. Arguably better than the rest of the squad at holding the ball up, bar Deeney. He just backs into players and they can't get round him.
Oh by the way Relegation Certs, Delia has a message for you on behalf of the forum: [video=youtube;Z_8JLkwzpd0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_8JLkwzpd0?t=10s[/video]
I'm just going to point out my views on the less obvious performances: Paredes - Absolutely woeful last week. Good coming off the bench. I think his brainless, run round like a headless chicken act works for the last 20 minutes when nobody is running at 100%. Tactically, he doesn't have a clue though. Joke of a footballer, exceptional athlete. Abdi - I hope he was dropped only due to a niggle, because although I miss his dominant dribbling and keep ball displays from the championship he really is Mr Consistent. He's added a defensive style and aggressive approach to his game. I think he's a managers dream, he picks up new playing styles demanded of him almost instantly. It's obvious he's been told to be wary offensively by Flores, as in to favour defending over attacking if there's any doubt. Clearly a very clever man and I hope he's here for a long while, he is brilliant. Watson - Not sure he's QUITE good enough, seems to miss a few obvious passes and make a few mistakes. Doesn't panic though or tend to lose possession, very good defensively. Should probably find a defensive midfielder in January, but I wouldn't have any complaints if Watson started every week right now. Ake, Cathcart and Nyom were all pretty solid but not exactly troubled. Thought Britos was exceptional, and that's coming from a person who said he was a waste of a squad place and a diabolical defender. Proved me wrong.
I feel like that may have been the Sheff Weds game...? Either way please tell me because clearly my memory has gone to pot haha! Even so, I still think he's been pretty solid this season and last. He's no Capoue but neither are most players.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...nner-Mick-McCarthy-s-men-play-contention.html I can't recall that moment whatsoever...bizarre. Seems like this was the game Ekstrand got injured too.
Was a brilliant game. Never once really felt like they were going to score. Defence was awesome. Britos and Cathcart were rocks. I want to have Nyom's babies. Ake played well again and I hope we can keep him for much, much longer. Watson and Capoue were solid in midfield, striking a great balance between attack and defence. Watson is so reliable and strong, and Capoue has immense ability and an incredible first touch. Jurado was ok but that was about it. I will never boo a player. I'm not like 5 years old watching a bloody pantomime for goodness sake. But I was screaming at him to follow his man back. Seems a bit lacklustre in his efforts and doesn't seem to like tracking back much or display much passion. Shows signs of a good touch going forward and perhaps confidence is key for him. I just hope he gets it soon. Deeney and Ighalo defending tirelessly from the front all game - I would put my mortgage on Deeney from the Pen spot, and Ighalo was my FPL captain so that final goal was sweet after the ref seemed intent on screwing up my weekly points total.
We'll apart from Guedioura which other run around and close everyone down players does he have? Ibarbo clearly isn't defensive minded enough. Nobody can tell me Paredes is a premier league footballer.
Best I've seen Jurado play, and I now accept that he might be more effective in central midfield - but he was no more than OK and we've got better central midfielders
We are 9th without having any decent natural wide players. Sort that out in Jan transfer window and who knows what could happen.
We could easily try and make a cheeky bid for Andre Carrillo from Sporting. I'm only saying this because I somehow managed to get him on a free on my Watford FIFA career mode, but it seems very unlikely that he will be renewing his contract at Sporting and they seem adamant to sell him. He's currently injured and also suspended by the club for not renewing his contract so his stats look crap this season. His stats last season are amazing though...
Still buzzing over yesterday/Saturday but I haven’t had time to put together much of a report over an eventful weekend until now – if anyone still cares! As Saturday home games go it could hardly be bettered, with a performance that wasn't as dominant or cohesive but still second in quality only to West Ham. And as I've been somewhat unlucky with live games this season (been to five home matches, seeing no wins, three defeats and only one goal, that being a penalty against Man U - sadly I had to sacrifice West Ham for my Dad's 75th) what better way to end the curse than this! Even the well documented problem of parking was neatly overcome when I found a nice spot just over 10 minutes' walk from the ground at the quiet end of Vicarage Road, giving me time to eat my packed lunch and get to the stadium 40 minutes early to study our upcoming opponents. Norwich were quite poor (or maybe it's much to our credit that we made it look that way) and having missed both games against them last season, I can now see why they aren't much liked as a team - very niggly and physical, seemed more intent in stopping our players than creating much themselves, and pretty cynical (one of our fans in the Lower GT for once nailed it when their players took 30-something seconds to take a throw-in or corner - "you're wasting your own time!"). After a very scrappy opening 10 minutes when anyone new to football could have been forgiven for not knowing what goal either team was supposed to be attacking and a nervy spell around the 60-70 minute mark, when we struggled a bit to make our superior class up front tell and were a bit vulnerable to the counter (luckily Norwich remained toothless throughout) we pretty much controlled the whole game and could have won quite a bit more comfortably. How Arsenal dropped points to this lot I'll never know. Payney was bigging them up too much in his pre-match analysis, making them sound like a top six side who just lacked a cutting edge, cutting and pasting into his report the usual stuff about being a team that defends and breaks in numbers, having players with pace, unlocking defences with "neat and intricate passing combinations and overloads", using their full-backs to push higher up the pitch etc etc. But yesterday when it counted they looked as limited as any weaker team we've beaten this season, or in many cases last for that matter. The only real negatives for me, which were nothing to do with the game itself, were the fans. Considering this was the first game I've seen them win and having missed Swansea and hearing how great the atmosphere was, I was expecting quite a bit better, but apart from just after the first goal it didn't really truly come alive until injury time. Thought many of the fans around me especially early on were unnecessarily tetchy (comments like "we're giving them too much respect" - really?, "second ball, Watford!" and Jurado seeming to do no right in the eyes of some), yes I can understandable people being a bit tense with this being a winnable game on paper which in itself brings its own pressure on the team, and there was a slight possibility that we could be dragged into a relegation scrap were we to lose with a tough (but not as nightmarish as many are making out) run of fixtures ahead, but anyone would think that we were the team six points behind Norwich and not them! The more like-minded fans among us (sadly less notable than the vocal ill-informed minority) knew that this was never going to be a complete walk-over. Now, on to the players: Gomes - had little to do, but pretty solid and reliable on the whole with what he had to do, though once again his catching at close range wasn't as secure as it's been earlier in the season, with a few dropped balls and unconvincing parries. Nyom - hard to fault him, once again not greatly tested in defence but excellent going forward and supporting the attack. Cathcart - back to his best, much better and more positive in possession in keeping the ball on the deck with no sacrificing of his defensive strength, snuffing out the threat of Grabban and Redmond. Britos - difficult to argue with his MOTM nomination. Probably a toss-up between him, Capoue, Ighalo and Watson (if his set-pieces were a bit better) but a really assured performance, alert, controlled in possession, swift turning circle and loved his bicycle kick acrobatics! Ake - very good again, not the fastest of our players, but more than makes up for this with his work rate, skill on the ball and for an 11-stoner, his physicality with his consistent ability to beat his opponents and shrug off challenges is really impressive. Capoue - rock solid, showing intelligence and astute positional awareness with the way he protected the defence the full width of the pitch, covering the danger of Wisdom and Olsson with real determination. Watson - positive in attack and good with the ball on the ground, showing him to be just as vital as a playmaker as protective midfielder. Anya - was he really that bad? Yes, as before he lacked an end product and his crossing wasn't always great, but against lesser teams at least his pace always gives them something to worry about, he creates space and he was the heart of (and even made a few on his own) some of our more promising attacks. Jurado - I've already defended him here. Not our best player yesterday, but he's earned his start. Deeney - don't remember so much about him in the first half apart from the penalty and the assist to Ighalo for the offside shortly after, but he was an ever-present threat in the second, energetic, harrowing players and providing numerous assists to Ighalo that eventually led to the all-important second. Ighalo - Not only did he cement himself as a Premier class striker if there were any doubt, but he showed a willingness to work hard which hasn't always been apparent, tracking back on a number of occasions. Abdi - was all over Norwich's wide men, never allowing them to find any rhythm - it's much credit to him that after he came on Norwich barely looked like getting anything from the game and even at 1-0 we were looking comfortable. Paredes - OK, quite good in possession, though didn't really see the point of the substitution other than to relieve tired legs. Guedioura - even as a last minute sub, his impact was obvious, ensured we kept hold of the ball nicely even if the game was wrapped up by then. So, 9th in the table, sitting pretty around 1.5 points a game for the third time this season. Ain’t life grand sometimes? Yesterday had so much to be positive about, both in the short and long term – it marks the point of the season where for the first time I truly believe we will be staying up, just as Bolton away was when I finally started to believe we would be getting promoted, and to go from a for the most part perennial lower midtable to relegation-threatened Championship side to one with already more than half the points needed for survival in the top league in early December little more than three years later is nothing short of phenomenal and a huge testimony to the way the Pozzos have transformed us as a club from top to bottom, on and off the pitch. Also, quite apart from our colossal improvement over the last two miserable seasons we were in the big time, this is probably the best and most exciting Premier League for us to get promoted to with nothing of the depressing predictability of previous seasons – no team or group of teams running away at the top, three big clubs in the relegation zone and getting unexpected results in recent weeks meaning that there’ll probably be quite a big points total needed for survival and no team being miles adrift at the bottom – literally any team can beat anyone. Who’d have thunk it at the start, Leicester being top of the table and Chelsea being near the bottom three so far into the season? This is what many of us feared we’d miss when bidding farewell to the Championship, but it seems just as competitive up here as it was ever was down there. I can even learn to tolerate the high matchday prices, parking problems and lack of evening league kick-offs if this continues – happy days indeed.
Try getting to an away game if you can - the atmosphere is usually great, and there's less moaning I find.
I think we often suffer a little when the game is both a little tense and there are signs of the other team being allowed back into the game. Do think we need to channel the 10 men v Huddersfield atmosphere a little more often at these times but not always easy.
Good advice. And LondonOrn if you go by club coach there's plenty of time to enjoy a packed lunch. You can also break the tedium of the journey up by seeing how many "eddie Stobart' lorries you spot. Give it a try
I've stopped eating fast food all together, it's all expensive tasteless badly cooked 5iht. I would much rather a home made sandwich from fresh baked door stops, loaded with an inch think layer of salad, roast chicken, roast beef, fish fingers or other filling of choice. It's high time sandwiches were seen as the enlightened option.
