Great performance. Louza was excellent and finally looking like what we thought he’d look like at this level. Double goals and assists expected, great start. Martins is growing, says a lot that Val seems to trust him over Asprilla so far. Giorgi looks exciting. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough seems to be true when comparing the two squads from this season and last. However QPR were genuinely awful, we’ll know more in the next few weeks. Lewis & Ince still to come in which does actually improve our 11! Hope we get to see Asprilla & Healey against Stevenage, not many other “squad” players around though tbh so don’t expect a huge deal of rotation!
5 pages of excellent match reviews and barely a mention of our number 8! Helps bringing him on at 4-0 I guess! Very very early days but a few thoughts this morning.... Hopefully we will now recruit from a position of strength for the remainder of the window, rather than had we been awful yesterday and panicked. Of course we still need another striker, but at least Bayo is off the mark already for the season. And the hunt for another central defender will take place on the back of a clean sheet. We can take our time more now to find the right players. Worrying about a lack of goals in our squad is/was certainly valid but it also assumes that things stand still, that with good coaching players still can’t improve etc. Obviously that’s not the case. Two of our players have already scored more than both did all last season. Bayo is already at 25% of last season’s output and Louza 20%. Old habits die hard for all of us but hopefully yesterday will help us temper our reactions when the team sheet is released. Hopefully this season we will prove time and time again to be greater than the sum of our parts, and what’s on the pitch will be much better than what’s on the team sheet at 2pm. It’s one game and nobody knows where the season will go. Yesterday may have been the start of something exciting, or it may be the best this season gets. But we will always have it! And I was impressed with VI’s post-match interview. Very measured, free of cliches and a man who seems to really know what he wants. Farioli is over-rated.
I pay my money and go to the Vic to be entertained Apart from very rare moments I haven’t been for 4 odd years yesterday I enjoyed every moment
If we can find someone to lead the line effectively then we may have a chance this season . But the bottom line is that I would rather be in our shoes than QPRs !!
Last season walking out of QPR we headed past the home stands on our way to meet some mates in the pub. As they were coming out they were singing that Watford get battered etc. Not f***ing singing that yesterday were they the ****s. The person who used my ticket told me QPR were horrific, so please lets all calm down a bit and wait to see how we get on against a bouncing Plymouth side first. Also remember we're still playing Sema and Bachman in this team!
Not sure we saw the best of Sema tbh yesterday in a different position but think he will be key as we kind of know he is a solid Championship player . Plymouth have some very good players but also gave up some good chances to Huddersfield. Main difference is they will come with confidence and look to play .
Generous marking from the local QPR paper. Goalie surely should be getting much more than anyone else! https://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/football-qpr-watford-ratings-championship-03333093
The movement and progressive thought on the pitch was so massively different from last season. Bayo is actually quite good at what he does, look at the first goal. He didn't do that much but it was important. Drew the defender out with him. Quick one touch short pass to Louza and TDB was wise enough to be moving into the space Bayo created. Or probably more to the point TDB was COACHED enough to know this is the plan. Last season Pedro for all his good qualities, takes three touches, spins into the channel then passes it back to Cathcart to pass back to Bachman. Before this we had been quick in the tackle, strong and commited to winning the ball. Everything we were not last season we were in 35 seconds this season. The most stark contrast you could imagine.
You can only beat what's put out in front of you, and we did it with style. That first half was a joy to watch.
Don’t get to come up much but me and my daughter did yesterday and absolutely loved it! Even after crawling around a section of the M25 to double the journey time to 4 hours! Anyway, post one on yesterday - the non football stuff…. I like the idea to play Elton just before KO - they played the “How wonderful life is when you’re in the world” part twice and we the fans were meant to sing it the 2nd time a Capella - I did , not sure many others did but hopefully it catches on! I missed Depeche Mode at the end - but each to their own Was in the family section - was very funny how quiet the QPR fans went at 2-0 (understandably) Could hear the 1881 section singing fairly regularly which was good and the family section joined in with most of it, so decent atmosphere (again, understandably when winning so well so early) One negative - the kiosk in the family section - sold out of most hot food by 2.45 and closed during HT after only about 5 minutes!? Very bizarre and the club lost out on sales.
Ah that's what it was. Could tell they were playing something different than normal just before ko but from the Rookery couldn't really hear it properly.
Just caught up on the highlights, we looked very threatening in the first half and if we can keep that performance level up we’ll be competitive. Not downplaying our performance at all, but god, QPR we’re dreadful. Only one game in but I’d be very worried if I were a supporter - Ainsworth just doesn’t seem to be a very good fit for them.
It's better than the drivel ITV puts out and calls it "Match Highlights". For all the brass vloggers get at football matches, I would rather watch that than anything "offical" at the moment.
Well well well. What a turn up for the books!! Sounds like we played as a team, we fought as a team and were coached as a team. Only seen the highlights/goals and spoken to a few people that went but on the whole it sounded very positive. Can’t get carried away as QPR are horrific and will probably do well to reach 25 points this season BUT it’s a good start. The result isn’t the most pleasing aspect it’s how it came about. Quality inputs will give you quality outputs. Very simple. Interesting to see we lined up with 11 players that were here last season. No one made their debut and we went and did what we did. As most of us said last season, it’s clear to see who the negative influences were on the field and now they’ve f**ked off we can move forward. Credit to Val. He’s come in, made the adjustments with the current crop of players, put the hard yards in and this is a good start. Plenty of tougher games to come and we will get turned over as well BUT I don’t give a sh*t about that if we are seeing the same application every week. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted to see!!
Thoughts on the team as a whole Well coached Hard working Players picked up some really interesting positions throughout the game, looked to the naked eye that they had freedom to move around, but it was evident they had been coached to move to those unique spaces throughout. Examples - Louza would randomly be out wide as if a winger. The full backs in CM. Even Sierralta as the DM popping up in the attacking position for the 4th goal. Also, from what we’d heard of VI - I was surprised that we kept the ball on the deck all game long, and played out from every tight situation we were put under - and always to great effect.
Can't you just wander round to the Upper GT concourse? Pretty sure once you're in you can go wherever.
Which section of the M25 was bad? Couldn’t go yesterday but I’m wondering whether to try to find an alternative route this season that avoids the M25 as, like you, my journey time is often doubled because of it.
Yeah they were sending us around, but we’d been in the queue already and didn’t want to join another queue and miss any of the game
Didn't he arrive back in training a couple of weeks after everyone else due to the U20 tournament? He might just be a bit behind schedule still.
If Martins can continue to play as well as he did yesterday in most of his games, having Asprilla as backup to him and being able to switch between the two is a nice headache to have.
Got to agree with the majority on here that QPR were woeful. I think their goalkeeper should have had crutches issued when he went to retrieve the ball. I never seen anybody walk so slow except when my wife had her hip replacement. Scoring so early certainly made the boys so buoyant and gave them the belief to push on. Sure this style of play is going to see us losing games this season but from an entertainment point it does show that the boys are believing this season is going to be different. The next few games are going to show we can keep this belief in what the manager is trying to instil in the style of play. Great game, top of the table, what a great feeling long may it continue after so long in the doldrums.
My post points out that Asprilla does not play LW, so he is not backup to Martins. He is currently backup to Sema and Ince; plus Louza and Kayembe as the two right-sided CMs.
That was unexpected. First game in months and a truly joyous occassion. A hard working, committed team always looking to advance up the field putting a hapless opponent to the sword. A (nearly) full stadium in good spirits and good voice. The sun even came out! Granted this was against a very weak opponent, but very encouraging signs that we can put last season's garbage behind us. We are perhaps fortunate to start our season against such a weak opponent to start building confidence and momentum. Almost every member of the starting XI was excellent. The only question marks were Bachmann's infamously poor distribution and Sema on the right didn't really work. Can we perform like this consistently and against better opposition? It remains to be seen. But it looks like we may have a likeable and entertaining Watford team to watch for the first time in years. Very positive!
