Shoutbox up 26Foster 21Femenía 27Kabasele 15Cathcart 25Holebas 16Doucouré 29Capoue 12Sema 37Pereyra 7Deulofeu 9Deeney Substitutes 1Gomes 6Mariappa 8Cleverley 10Success 11Masina 20Quina 33Okaka
Have no issue in dropping Quina. Capoue is available and has to come back in. Sema has done quite well, and is a physical presence. Qunia is a youngster and they have dips in form once the adrenalin subsides. Playing at West Ham may also have been key in the thinking. He could be so keen to do well that it actually has the opposite effect. He will get plenty of game time and there's lots of matches coming up. No need to use him extensively at this stage. I'm more disappointed to see Chalobah has not made the cut. Hopefully it's only a minor injury rather than dropped because of form. He was such a fantastic player before the injury. I hope he can back to that level again, although he looked a shadow of the player he can be in recent games.
Yes, the injured players declared before the match are Gray, Penaranda, Prodl and Hughes. So we're missing Chalobah and Janmaat from the regular first teamers without explanation.
Let’s have some faith that Gracia knows what he is doing Quina is on the bench not dropped. All the reasons above are valid but also bring him on as an impact sub against his old club - we all know how that narrative goes. Hopefully he comes on and scores the winner Nice little ace in the hole
Lee mason is going to cost us this game. Should of been a red and all the 50/50 decisions going wet spam Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
On reflection a deserved win but only just. A very open game. A pity that we are still inconsistent in the final third. When we click with the final pass as against Cardiff it is devastating but gain today far too often players are not playing the ball quickly enough or turning into trouble. Too many unforced errors including Doucoure who is still playing under par and once again two great chances to finish it squandered which but for Foster could have seen another two points given away. Sema played well in the first half but he needs to learn to use his right foot and I would have liked to see Quina in for him in the second half. Good to see Cleverly get minutes though as it will be a busy time ahead.
Huge result. We're 6th in the Premier League at basically the halfway point. Makes up for some of the undeserved points dropped this season. Imagine we actually had a goal scoring striker!? I'm not moaning again till February! Only bad point from today being Chelsea lost to Leicester so we're going to face the wrath on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas to you all! COYH!
Boooooooooom. Foster's save from that deflected header was absolutely huge. Holebas, Pereyra, Deulefeu, Doucoure and Capoue all brilliant. I LOVE seeing Pereyra and Deulefeu link up like that. Opposition teams can't do anything about it, it's too precise and too fast. Cracking penner from Deeney. Great game between two good teams, chances all over the shop, and we walk out with a huge 3 points. Merry Christmas!
An observation and 3 questions I felt we played strategically and tactically well and bossed the game. Took our chances but with an assured keeper it was fine 1. HB1 I want your assessment of the ref. Seemed fair to me. Anyone who gives Watford and not the opposition a penalty seems fine with me. But also seemed even 2. Gracia. You dont need to shout and swear and be red in the face to be a good leader. At work would you prefer a measured man who is thoughtful or a gammon faced shouter like allardyce. Let’s have some trust. 3. More or less we are the top non-top5 team. And it’s after Christmas. I’m up for giving Gracia some time. The negativity about his tactics in terms of who was picked before the game was massive. We are in a good position. We are doing well. The question? Should we support our good coach and owners or whine like entitled arsenal fans ?
Definitely the correct decision to drop Quina, although he hadn't done anything wrong it was a difficult place to go, very intimating, not the place for a 19 year old with a point to prove!
Great result, got a couple of points back of those which had slipped away recently, happy Xmas to all WFC fans!
How are we 6th? This is madness. We don’t even look like the finished article yet. Add a solid centre-back and a goal-scoring striker next month and we really could be in the Europa league next season!
I'm disgusted he dropped Quina for player of the season contender Capoue. What. Was. Javi. Thinking. Capoue only broke up West Ham attacks 25 times in each half which isn't good enough. Had to score a hat trick before I'd have been happy with the idiot. Isnt Pardew available?
I thought the ref was poor. Gave them loads of fouls for clear dives, lots of soft cards waved about and nothing given for grappling our attackers to the ground in their half ever. The pen was stonewall. No credit for giving that. It's like awarding a correct throw when played out by a player in a load of space who played it straight out without any chance of touching another player. Just a clear, easy decision. Deeney worked hard, but he's so ineffective. He was bullied, somewhat unfairly today and when presented with an easy chance, be blew it. Scoring penalties and huffing and puffing is not enough to secure a starting place. He needs to offer more. He's looked slow and overweight again recently. Picked up the pounds he lost over the summer. Sema is a squad player. Offers something awkward, gets involved etc. but he's got absolutely no pace, guile or ability. He's fine to bring on as a sub to run around and waste time, but he's not the answer if the question is, who should start on our right wing. Pereyra and Del did well. Showed their quality and their interplay for the second goal was great. Holebas was exellent again, apart from some of his deadballs. Hopefully Cleverley being back will pressure his place as automatic taker of all corners. Femenia on the other side was poor. 3 of their great chances came from mistakes/slips/bad positioning by him. Unfortunately we don't have a much better option. Janmaat is equally unreliable at defending. Cleverley was a boost when he came on. Hopefully he's getting fit enough to start in the next couple of weeks. It's easy to forget how his sheer presence and work rate makes us better. Spam were unlucky not to score, but the chances for Doucoure and Deeney were every bit as open as the ones they missed. We took our chance from the spot and scored a great goal to seal the game. They did not play amazingly well and I think we edged it, deservedly taking the 3 points. We're in a great position again. Amazing how 3 games can change the feelings of us all. Before Everton, I felt we were on the decline again, but now, anything is possible again. We needed results in these three games and I'd have bitten your arm of for 7/9 points. We're still weak at centre forward and central defence, but our midfield/wingers were superb again and make up a lot for the shortcomings.
For once a lot of things went our way. Probably our least convincing victory and West Ham spurned a lot of chances. I felt that we would win this one today though as West Ham are not good enough to win 5 on the trot. I nearly fell off my chair when Lee Mason awarded us a penalty. That was probably the most amazing event of the day, yes even surpassing Palace's win at City. Great saves from Foster, but then Fabienski produced a couple of brilliant saves too. We continue to miss so many good chances, and had the opportunity to have scored 5 today. West Ham could have scored plenty also, but then you expect them to get chances at home, especially when they were full of confidence. Great to see us above United, at least for a couple of hours, and a massive 15 points between us and the bottom three (just in case anyone is interested). Shame Chelsea lost today, as I felt we could catch them cold on Boxing Day. No doubt their home defeat will give them that little extra bit of determination, but seeing as we're on 27 points already, it's an extremely healthy position to be in. 20 games remaining and only 4 more wins required to get to safety. 12/13 points only. Wow...…..I know Watford have the ability of stalling badly, but even we can't choke by that much, especially with the way we are playing this season. The pressure is realistically off. From where we are right now, we are serious contenders for 6th place. I expect United to improve under OGS, but if we invest wisely in January and bring in a couple of players that make a difference, we really could make a serious charge.
Success's control for the second goal was superb. He can't head a ball but he can bring a ball down with no fuss.
Javi knows best. "Gurn into Christmas, let's gurn together, we can can gurn with 3 points forever and ever..."
As predicted, another easy victory. We'll beat Chelsea on boxing day as well! Bring on the Europa Cup 2019/2020 With a decent defender and striker we'd easily be top 4
