He wasn't terrible, but I certainly think he was one of our weaker performers on the night. As usual. I just appreciate how composed and comfortable he is on the ball and I do think he looks a good defender overall. He's inexperienced and will make mistakes here and there but as long as he's fit I'd have him over Femenia all day. Looks better in every department.
Foster was outstanding , they were unlucky but the best thing , I actually started to believe we could score goals again. the goal last week from JP was superb, the one he scored today was the kind of goal we need him to score week in week out and the kind we normally would t score I was watching with Blackburn commentators , they were not happy with the ref
Really enjoyed that. Gave away too many chances, but fortunately we've got the best keeper in the Championship (even with his error) to bail us out. Also looked more coherent going forward, and created a good few openings. Actually thought Chalobah was better than usual, most interceptions for us apparently. Gave the ball away a few too many times and conceded some silly fouls. Some of which were clearly trying to slow the game down, though. Made a good block from one of their corners. Garner was excellent, defensively and going forward, love his workrate! Sadly got written off by some but need to remember he's 19 years old(!), can already see him growing into the side. Cathcart looked shaky again after his appearance at Derby, think he'll struggle to get in ahead of WTE apart from rotation games. I really like Wilmot but he can get skinned quite easily by tricky wingers. Capoue took 5 minutes to acclimitise before bossing the game. Ridiculous he's playing at this level, absurd. Blackburn look decent going forward but slightly unorganised at the back, much like most of the top half teams in this league. Feel like there's more to come from this team, but we're still securing good results. Roll on Bournemouth!
Ken Sema is hugely underrated. Solid player with a wand of a left foot. Nobody will get more 'assists' than him this season.
Strange sensation watching that game. Delighted with the win, but I thought we were poor. Too much hoofing and nobody for Watford willing to get on the ball in midfield. Capoue looked so much better than the rest when he came on. Great peno save, but thought Foster badly misjudged their goal. I think Hughes coming back in will help and Gray playing in a central role with Pedro and/or Sarr playing off him or providing the chances for him. I was impressed with the ball retention and passing of Blackburn. Happy with the win. Get 4 possibly 6 points from the next two games and we will start believing. Very hopeful for the season ahead. Sky red button way behind live play. One camera and no replays may have hampered my review of our performance!
Another good win playing in 2nd gear with some quality to come back still as well as waiting for Sarr & Capoue to get up to speed. However, was very impressed with how comfortable Blackburn looked in possession. Armstrong was a menace all night and Holtby was very good for them. Bournemouth another tough challenge on Saturday but we have to play better than that! Cathcart and Chalobah need to be dropped. Capoue & WTE to start in their place, surely!?
We seem more positive about the Blackburn performance than their fans do! A good attacking display when we had the chance scoring 3 and creating other chances. Lost a lot of the ball left too much space in midfield... Defence was ropey probably not helped by Kabasele having one of his funny unreliable games. Also any time we touched them seemed to be a free kick !! Excellent from Foster ofcourse.
Woeful. Let the keeper take a goal kick while the ball was rolling along his six yard box. Lino, any danger? Let countless free-kicks be taken from the wrong place, including one that was (no exaggeration) a full 25 yards away from the incident. Also both he and the lino seemed clueless half the time as to whether it was a goal kick or a corner, gormlessly staring at each other until one team shouted loud enough to be given the decision. Also (thankfully) didn't have the backbone to send off Kabasele, and I'd say the penalty was bought by Holtby.
We would never have won the match if it wasn't for Foster, we conceded way too many chances and got a little bit lucky. Having said that it was amazing to see us creating chances. Garner was all over the place, he gives us so much energy, I also thought Chalobah was very good tonight. Pedro was very lively in the first half but looked shattered in the second. Sarr looked miles sharper than he has done so far this season, should have took his chance but made one or two key passes and caused them problems particularly when he was out wide in his more natural position. I thought Kabasele was solid again. Brilliant to see Capoue get some minutes I think he will play a vital role for us this year. For me it still seems slightly like we are trying square pegs in round holes in some positions and some players are still finding their match fitness but it is starting to come together now.
3-1, but we rode our luck. Luck runs out eventually. A better side would have royally spanked us. We are in the Championship so that may not happen. We won ugly, but we won.
That was exactly what I was expecting from Blackburn. Some of their movement going forward was excellent and should of had more, but they always give you chances which we should of taken also. More of the type of Championship game that I've been expecting but hasn't materialised. A wins a win and that's what matters. Roll on Saturday where I'm expecting the same type of game as tonight's. I do really hope that Blackburn are around the playoffs though a very exciting team to watch.
Weird game . Thought Blackburn were the better team in gameplay . We looked dodgy in defence but then could easily have scored 6 tonight .
Capoue Hughes and Garner is the starting midfield 3 for me , when all are fit . Sarr and Pedro look to be able to work as a front two . However in every game this season we have lacked cohesion which has come from lack of midfield to break the lines and pass more progressively .
Foster 8- could have done better for the goal, but fantastic otherwise, and a vital penalty save Femenia 6- did well when he had a chance to get forward, great ball for the first goal, a bit suspect at the back as per usual though Wilmot 6- Looked a bit uncomfortable with the ball on the floor at times on his weaker side, but did well in the air I thought Cathcart 5- Poor, gave away the penalty and who knows how that would have affected the game had Foster not saved it Kabasele 5- Could easily have been sent for an early bath in the first half, and made the first error for their goal. Did improve in the second half tbf Sema 7- Again, Mr Dependable, such a good ball for the own goal Chalobah 6- Puts his foot in, but gives the ball away too often Cleverley 6- Similar to Chalobah, albeit did score. Probably a little bit ahead of Chalobah in the pecking order, but I wouldn't have either of them going forward, especially with Hughes to come back fairly soon Garner 9- Outstanding, was everywhere, putting a foot in, getting up the pitch, as well as threading through those key passes. Best game for us by far, maybe he's gone some way to cementing his place in the first XI Joao Pedro 6- Not his best game at all, you can really tell he's not a natural striker, a more clinical striker would have kept up with play for that missed chance in the first half (which he perhaps should have done better with anyway), and he fluffed another one. Didn't really get involved as much as we'd like, but did the little things well Sarr 7- Such an asset at this level, so lucky to have him. Gets us up the field and away from danger, could easily have ended up with an assist (does he get one anyway for the Cleverley goal?), should have got his name on the scoresheet himself too Capoue 8- Played the cameo role to perfection, an absolute joy to watch. Can't wait for him to play for us regularly, surely he starts for us at the weekend Ngakia 5- Little bit of inexperience from him, could have been given a second yellow on a few occasions
You can see Foster's GoPro in the corner of the goal. Will be interesting if/when he puts that up on his YouTube channel in a few days
Not sure I'd describe that as an 'ugly' win, Derby was the epitome of that, that was entertaining, and I think on balance, we deserved it, we created the better chances, and apart from patches either side of half time, we generally had a measure of control, and should have had more goals. Still will need to be better against Muff, they have the kind of players who would have punished the defensive errors we made today
Just got this from the Twitter account of HMS P1ssTheLeague, apparently its from their 46 match tour of every Watford game this season. Here it is from this afternoon, moored up on the Grand Union canal in Cassiobury Park. Staying here for a week so all the passengers can soak up the highlights of Watford High St, before heading up the River Chess for the away trip to Wycombe.
Three home wins on a spin.....(well 5 if you count the Scunthorpe and Spurs friendlies) This was our hardest match and probably our worst performance of the season, but ironically produces the best result......that's football for you. I think you've sometimes got to congratulate the opposition, although it's easy to be generous when you win. Ivic will not be happy with that. In fact I think he'd be fuming. We were bossed in midfield, but maybe the ease in which we found ourselves 2-0 up, ensured the players switched off a little. It was all too easy. We've pretty much controlled every match this season, apart from the first half at Wednesday, but tonight was totally different. We lost every stat count, apart from the most important one....the final result. The defence held up quite well, but I thought the referee was a bit too whistle happy, and the penalty was a typical one given by a referee being conned. Good play by their forward running in front of Cathcart then diving. I'd be very surprised if any contact was even made. But Foster made a remarkable save, which was almost a match winner in itself. He'd be disappointed with the goal he conceded tonight, but overall he was excellent and had to be. Sarr was quiet, but destroyed Blackburn with three devastating runs, two of which produced goals. He should have scored to make it 4-1, but that would have been a ridiculous score line. But to play this poorly, and still earn a comfortable win is very encouraging. No way would we have got away with that in the Premier League and that's the difference. We have that Premier League quality. We take chances like a Premier League team and make saves like a Premier League side. At the end of the day, this is what counts. 13 points from 6 games, and third place is satisfying. We still have a long way to go to get to the potential this side has. We still have Gray, Deeney, Capoue and Hughes to integrate fully. I've said from day one, we will win this league with a record 100 points. Maybe the points total will not be quite that high, but we should be top two if not champions for sure. This is our potential, and if we don't achieve that with the squad and coach we have, we would have massively underachieved.
First goal was class, won't see that kind of football very often at this level. Some of the other stuff definitely ticked the "sexy football" box. Garner, Pedro, Capoue are all clever footballers, adept at moving the ball well. Get Hughes in there too and the creativity will increase. Add to that the quality deliveries from Sema, and the raw pace of Sarr and that's pretty exciting going forward. After the start to the season, we were all a bit worried that Pedro might not be clinical enough but 3 in the last 4 is very impressive for a 19 year old.
Goals here for anyone who hasn't seen them: https://www.skysports.com/football/watford-vs-blackburn/report/429776 Also, this was nice from Sarr:
He wore the numbers precisely because he played in nearly all positions. It was only once he had collected about 8 out of 11 that GT put him in goal and so on to finish the set.
Thought that was a very comfortable victory, shows how tinpot the rest of the league when the best team we've played still concede 3. If we had the team that got us promoted last time round we'd have the league wrapped up by Christmas. Smash Bournemouth Saturday and top of the league we goooo
Enjoyed the game. Garner excellent. We rode our luck and on another day would have drawn but another 3 points on the board. I thought Cathcart was poor and hope we can see a lot of T-E in his place. We will need to play better against Bournemouth to win.
My god its a right COG fest in here tonight. The imbalance doesnt make for a good party. Too many tops, not enough bottoms.
I missed the game and reading the thread I've literally no idea what to take from it. Utterly contrasting opinions varying from, we could have got hammered but were really lucky, through to we were sublime. I do get the consistent thread that Cathcart was shyte though.
Garner, too. Shame we couldn't get that £5m option in the loan, would have proven to be a steal, I think..
I don't remember him playing in all the positions. Granted it's over 20 years and memories fade but.......
Good point. Certainly covered a few. He definitely wore all the other numbers up to doing the last two when he had a nervous couple of minutes in goal...
Book me a sea view cabin please captain. Think I saw some bedwetters frantically scrubbing skids from their underpants near shore though.....
