I tell you what we can't depend on Hughes for and that's staying fit. Over a third of the season gone, he's barely kicked a ball and the January window looms large...
I don't think Ivic has been a disaster, and you can make a long list of mitigating circumstances and excuses for him. A lot of these will be valid. However, the fundamental point is, I believe the team should be far more on the front foot in games than they have been. The away form is a joke and there's no reason why it should be so bad. Only 3 goals, and one fortunate win to show for our efforts on the road, and let's not forget, most of those games were against teams at the bottom of the league. We've played the bottom 4, plus a team in 17th & 18th place respectively. We've had it easy on the road yet failed miserably. I feel we've also been fortunate, at home especially. The first goal given at home to Coventry, a rather soft penalty against Preston, a disallowed goal at Wycombe, also the disallowed goal at QPR could have been missed as handball. That was a good spot by the linesman. These are all game changing incidents that have gone our way. That sitter missed by Luton, the amazing display by Foster at Wycombe and home to Blackburn. The worldie to get us the points at Derby. These are things that have gone our way, which are outside of the norm. We shouldn't need a worldie to win at Derby, we shouldn't need blinding displays by Foster to get us points against Blackburn and Wycombe, we shouldn't need to rely on good luck and good calls by the officials. We should be generally better than we are right now. Had we started off against Rotherham in the same manner as the entire second half, I think a lot of people would be calling for Ivic to go. The run of form would have been very bad with only 1 win in 6 or 3 in the last 11. So I believe for Ivic beating Rotherham was crucial for remaining in his post. The pressure is on now though. We HAVE TO follow this up with a win at Brum and avoid defeat to Brentford. We are at the stage where we really have to take this league by the scruff of the neck. We've felt our way in, now we've got to firmly establish ourselves. For me, I don't get the impression we're on the cusp of doing this. Ivic does give a good press interview and he identifies the issues, but there doesn't seem to be too much improvement. The issues are not appearing to be eradicated. I do think playing the ball slowly around the back, probing, is by design, but he always appears to come across as that is not the plan at all. Something is not quite right here. I think the players are carrying out his instruction, and if I heard his press conferences, I'd be a bit annoyed that he's making out players are not doing what he is trying to get them to do. There was a definite change in mentality after the break, right from the off. That had to be down to the instruction from the coach. No way did he fire them up to come out and blow the opposition away. So for me, I think he's only a couple of bad results away from losing his job, unless we can see a definitive improvement in the overall standard of performance.
First half was fun Second half was boring Three points is always good Just 2000 fans made it more enjoyable to watch and they sang more than when we have a full house! Well done to anyone on here who went and joined in.
A poor Rotherham team played woefully in the first half and we looked quite good. A poor Rotherham team played slightly less woefully in the second half and we looked less than average. God only knows how this bunch are third in the league!
All Rotherham did differently in the second half was simply press higher up the pitch and we were immediately reverted back to looking like a mid table bunch of cloggers who couldn't create a goalscoring opportunity to save our lives I didn't see anything last night which changed my opinion on where this team is (or more accurately isn't) headed under Ivic
Let’s just face it. Pozzo has lost a lot of the credit he earned. Our recruiting team are a shambles. A lot of the current squad are not particularly likeable. The Head Coach doesn’t understand the league and is out of his depth. His post-match interviews come across as those of a neutral observer, rather the man actually in charge of shaping our tactics and performances. The football is joyless. Tepid. Boring. The last really decent performance we gave was, ironically, thrashing the then unbeaten Champions elect and European champions. Our away form is an embarrassment. Stadia remain mostly empty. Covid restrictions are all around us. Good Morning, by the way
Good post. The 'not wanting to take responsibility and treating the ball like a hot potato approach' has been running through our team for at least a couple of years now. The only difference in his league is we can do it in comfortable-looking but harmless possession at the back in our own half, while in the PL we'd just hoof it back up field and surrender possession far quicker. I agree the constant approach of returning to safety must be by design. How many times do we turn a corner or dangerous-looking (lol) direct free kick opportunity into safe possession for Foster within 3 or 4 passes? It happens far too many times a game to be an accident. Obviously we'd score from the set piece but it seems if that doesn't happen we head back for safety every time.
I think the "probing" passing around the back is based on the assumption that when the forward pass presents itself, we make it & hit our target. Too often we do not attempt the pass, and when we do, too many are inaccurate. I think Wilmott, for example, tries to do it, but our defenders are just not good enough to make the tactic work, especially not into the congested, competitive midfields we see in the Championship. It is here that Ivic needs to modify our style.
We don’t look for Sarr enough and he also doesn’t make enough runs. First half with red button games it was easy to spot Sarr out on the wing, we rarely looked for him and he rarely looked to run in behind. That should be the main focus of our play, but it very rarely is.
http://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/troy-deeney.57489/page-13#post-2892856 same old Watford ,i am afraid
It was great to back to the ground last night and I thought it was very well organised although I saw quite a few people struggling to get in as their barcode wouldn't work Enjoyed the first half, we played reasonably well and certainly could have been further in front. I'm all for players conserving energy in what is a pretty brutal fixture list when you look at the amount of games being played in a short space of time, but god that second half was terrible. I would love to know how many times Kabasele passed it to Ekong and vice versa but it's not their fault. Every time they did this in the second half I looked what was in front of them and so often Cleverley or Chalobah were moving out wide which meant that we had nobody in the middle to give the ball to. The difference Hughes made when he came on shows the difference in ability between him and the other two. I would say that Chalobah and Clevs as a partnership is the worst possible one we could have. The pace of the game is quite often dictated by the midfield and Chalobah is far too slow It was a win though and we are still very much in the mix currently so guess we should be happy
I think the deterioration in players' attitudes is down to Deeney being back in the dressing room. When Deeney was training away from the squad everyone was saying the attitude and mentality of the squad was fantastic. Troy claims to be a leader and talisman but the mentality and attitude is worse since he returned. No doubt he'll be demanding a new 5 year contract after his tap in goal against a league 1 quality defence!
It was good to see football up close, reminded me how quick the game is actually played at ( apart from Watford attacks obvs) in terms of time on the ball and speed and weight of the challenges. Was dissapointing that nearly the whole game was played in the third of the pitch at the Vic Road End. I was hoping to see that Rookery net bulge again in the second half, but will have to wait a little longer for that joy.
I wanted to ask about, there were a number of very close calls but coudnt tell from the stand, whats was the TV verdict ?
Well my verdict from watching it on the TV were that a couple of them appeared to be onside. The pundits weren't really paying much attention.
Honest answer is couldn't tell due to the angle. Sarr looked like he might have been on a couple of times, as did Perica when he was played through late on but couldn't tell for certain from TV angle. Linesman would've had a better view than any of us watching remotely.
I can’t say I’m surprised to see this set of players display their weak mentality, and fail to put in a full 90 minutes worth of intensity. It’s plagued this squad for the last few seasons at least. How many times have we seen them on the cusp of victory or glory, and then completely bottle it? How many times have we saved a game late versus throwing it away late? We’re don’t have the sort of ruthless mentality requires for success. That much has been made clear during the last 24 months. We started well, moved the ball at speed and really pinned them back with Femenia and Ngakia playing really high and being available for the quick switch time and time again. When we did work the ball inside, Cleverley in particular did a good job of getting into the box, combining with others, and should have done much better with a couple of shooting opportunities. Their forward players were totally isolated and we recycled possession with ease when Rotherham did managed to clear the ball because we didn’t give them time to play out, or even pick a forward pass. We should have been at least one more goal to the good at halftime. Second half was rubbish. No intensity. No tempo. Partly on Ivic because he clearly can’t motivate them. Partly on the players for being so soft. We could have humiliated Rotherham if we had an ounce of killer instinct.
Rotherham barley ventured past the halfway to press us in the first half but they were much higher in the second half. That could be because we backed off but they were definitely more adventurous.
We are Watford. Beating teams is not enough - we need to be scoring lots of goals and playing stylish football
Thank you HB1. Finally, nearly 12 hours after the game finishes someone says something positive about Deeney. Everyone else just opted to ignore his assist and goal (which wasn’t as simple as you 1st thought), because it didn’t suit their pre match bile. Comment on the game, not your preconceptions.
I'm one of the few who will consistently post positive stuff about Deeney. I have always been able to see the value he brings to the side.
