We didn’t deserve that...

Really, why?

 

I think fans do have a right to feel anger and let down by the way the team just folded on Saturday. It was embarrassing and no one should feel disentitled about how they should feel about it.

It's nothing to do with losing. I was over the FA Cup long before the final whistle. I put on a bit of a brave face on the eve of the final, as you cannot go into that match, even as a fan, with a defeatist mentality, but my feeling deep down was we were going to get thrashed. I knew before the game that 6-0 in 1903 was the biggest defeat as I purposely looked it up, so I even put £5 on Watford losing 7-0 at 150/1, because that's the type of thing Watford do. My thought was, if I'm going to be miserable, I might as well earn from it.

What anyone thinks will happen is totally unrelated to what will actually happen though. As long as you go to a match, give off a good vibe and support the team, which most of us do as always, then as a fan you can do no more. The rest is up to the team on the pitch.

The fans were a massive credit for Watford. We all should be extremely proud of ourselves for the way we behaved and took the result on the chin. I think we won a lot of support from neutrals because of that, so hopefully that will reflect in the media going forward. How we're portrayed as a club is important. It attracts sponsors, new players, retains players and it's a good thing all round.

So the team took a battering, and maybe we're seen as a bit of a joke, but Watford as club should be revered highly because of how the fans responded to the humiliation unfolding in front of them. It was a brilliant response.

There are lots of positives to be taken. I wrote something yesterday about that, and the achievements of the Pozzo ownership. It has been amazing when you stand back and take a look. It doesn't mean you can't have a moan, or you can't pick up on faults when they occur. That's natural and healthy. You have to vent frustrations sometimes. It doesn't mean you hate the club you support or that you think it's rubbish.

Going forward, we do need to improve defensively. That's a number one priority to me. We need a leader at the back. We need to get away from Deeney being the catalyst for everything we do. We need Deeney, but we need others to take on that responsibility too. We need someone who can actually head the ball. As a group we are really weak in the air at both ends of the pitch. A smaller Premier League club has to maximise set pieces, and this is something we could easily capitalise on. So I'm wishing for two powerful central defenders who are leaders, who love heading the ball and will be a threat at the other at of the pitch from corners.

Get that, retain who we want to keep, then I think next season could see genuine improvements.

 

Nothing against Mariappa but he does get caught out of position quite a lot and the pace that used to get him out of it is slowly declining. If he is caught 1 on 1 he very rarely comes out on top now.
Ok for back up but should be 4th choice but we have known that for a while. I don't thing any of our centre backs are good enough for top half in the Premier League

 

Agreed. In 1880 we didn't even exist as a club, people need to get some perspective please.

 

Very well put and exactly how I feel about things.

 

I didn't say fans shouldnt feel anger. But with some it starts as soon as the first mistake is made after kick off. That was the point I was making with that bit of my post.

But I sensed that you didn't genuinely feel positive before the game, I even asked why it had happened as it wasn't consistent with your previous posts. But at least you tried to feel positive as you know how important it is in sport. Unfortunately, a player can't hide or "try" to be positive, they either are, or they are not, and so the fact that they were saying they could win means nothing. The set up, the way they played in the first 20 minutes gave their attitude away. They were scared stiff.

It is the club's job to actually make the players believe they will win.

Not easy, but the best coaches manage it

 

I think the players did believe they could win until the first goal went in. Then we stopped our intensity, players such as Delefeou stopped their defensive work and we started making more mistakes. Its a pattern that has happened after conceding against the best teams for a while. Maybe there is a problem with the mentality of some of the players in that they give up too easily against a top team.

The set up had to be defensive in my opinion, we were never going to go out and outplay Man City. We also had four good chances in the game. Pereyra's was the best chance at 0-0, in the second half he had the opportunity to shoot but maybe due to a lack of belief decided to pass to Hughes and the move broke down, Delefeou had a shot that went wide and Gray put in a perfect cross but Deeney failed to make the run were he would of scored an open goal.

 

No one suggested that we could outplay them, but in the one aspect of play that we could have matched them, in our pressing, harrying and intensity when they had the ball, we let ourselves down.

But we were not closing down as we should have been. There was a lack of urgency from the start when they had the ball and they were allowed to build their attacks from the back as our forwards were trotting back. One of the few times we forced an error, we nearly scored. But we defended really well to keep them out until the 1st goal, and we were pretty good on the ball.

But, the fact that we gave up so soon after going behind demonstrates that our confidence in winning, was wafer thin.

Just my opinion, though!

 

I wish Gino was as pi55ed off as me after the final, he might have invested in a couple of decent defenders!