Yep - really. We cannot afford that again - if that happens against any other team we lose. Cannot afford a player doing silly things like that
My 2 cents.. - Miguel Britos.. Where to start? He's an absolute liability. I've no doubt he's a nice guy off the pitch, but he's been pulling this **** all throughout his career! He arrived here with a ban carried over from Serie A for decking Morata (I think?). He's a decent defender, but is more than prone to moments of madness like the one we saw today. Too slow, and NOT good enough for where we want to go. Time to get rid. - Chalobah and Doucoure are a fantastic midfield partnership. Doucoure in particular just hoovers up everything in midfield. At least 2 of our counterattacks happened because Abdoulaye ran his man down in midfield, dispossessed him of the ball, ran with it for a bit then pinged it forward. Definitey one of the best Watford mids I've seen in the Pozzo era. Magnificent stuff. - Andre Gray. I don't really get the criticism he's had from others on here after his performance. Not only was he playing as a lone striker, but one of his key deliverymen was subbed off and replaced with a defender! You know from then on that his chances are going to be few and few between. It's unfair IMO to judge him too much on today. I'll tell you what I did see though, and that was him being inches away from getting on the end of Batman's excellent cross. Richarlison also teed him up superbly against Bournemouth, only for Gray to sky it over the bar. Yes that one was a poor finish, but let's look at the positives. He's getting in the right positions! As soon as he gets his first goal, I'm sure he'll be flying about the pitch and itching to get more. - Richarlison. Isn't he quality? Not as good as against Bournemouth, but always dangerous on the ball, and was making Brighton's number 2 look like such a mug, that he finished the 1st half on a booking, and Hughton subbed him off! The right call IMO, as he would have ended up with a 2nd yellow after RIcharlison was done with him. - Femenia. I didn't realise he is 2 footed! Lovely feet, and did a decent job at RB today. - Brighton. Not great, even when they had a man advantage. They need some serious investment upfront IMO if they are to have a chance at getting out of this league. - Brighton fans. Seemed like a decent bunch, had a chat with one or two of them on the tube home. Will be a great away day. Hope they stay up, but after what I saw today, there is much need for improvement. - Knockaert. I enjoyed the booing, and was more than happy to take part. Odious man.
Already he looks an excellent signing. Looks like he can play on the left quite comfortably if needed, which is a bonus considering our recent injury & suspension record.
Even before the sending off Gray was poor. First 10 minutes in particular he was shocking, everything he could do wrong he did. I have no doubt he'll end up being a good signing for us though.
Not Greys' type of game. He regularly allowed the CB to get in front of him and didn't challenge for many aeriel balls and those he did, he lost. When Deeney came on that immediatly changed and he won a couple of headers and free kicks. TD would have been more suited to this type of game. That said, Grey did an awful lot of running and closing down and on another day would have grabbed a goal. It was a hot afternoon and I thought we had a lot of stamina to last out the whole game.
To come away from that dissapointed that we didn't press them hard enough in the last 20 minutes is in hindsight an outstanding fricking position we find ourselves in. Down to 10 men in the Premier League for ~60 minutes and I'm annoyed we didn't go 2 at the back and throw Kabasele up front for the last 20 show how amazingly far we have come this season alone. Don't get me wrong, Brighton were absolutely piss poor and unless they invest will struggle to score 10+ goals this season, but even down to 10 we were almighty. Cleverly and Gray ran their bloody socks off. Gray deserves a goal(s) soon. Ran like a lunatic. Dacoure is fast becoming unbelievably superb in midfield. Chalobah is looking fantastic. Richarlison is on another level. But for the liability that is Britos we would have absolutely walked that... and almost did with our super 10. Total disappointment that we showed no urgency in throwing Gomes up for the last free kicks but this team is looking pretty outstanding.
Not at his best but I refuse to criticise any player that sweats blood for the cause for the full time they are on the pitch, as Gray did today. In fact, they all did after the Britos red mist moment.
I tend to agree. We started slowly but I reckon we would have done them in the 2nd half. We were the better side for the last half hour even with 10 men. Alas we will never know.
Britos tucked us up big time today. Stupid tackle, even if he got the ball that was gonna be a sending off because of the way he lunged in to it. His lack of pace made him a liability at LB. Happy with a draw given the circumstances, but would've been a win if we kept 11 on the pitch. Thought the 9 remaining outfielders ran themselves into the ground so fair play to all of them. Can't doubt the work rate of any player in that side today. Gomes also had a solid game all round. I'm not too sure I understand the way Silva decided to use Gray today. 90% of the balls to him we're either long balls to his head or balls which required him to hold the CB's off. Both the brighton CB's were double his size meaning this was never gonna work. If we planned to play like this Deeney should've started or come on much earlier. Why didn't we hit balls early into the channels for him to chase? Use Gray the same way Leicester use Vardy to unsettle defences? Brighton had no pace in their defence at all, not even with their full backs. I'm also surprised we didn't target Bruno for 10 minutes before half time. Get Richarlison running at him and try getting him sent off. He was on a booking and was always gonna be subbed off at half time. We had a fair bit of the ball at this point, but weren't direct enough. Chalobah and Doucoure cover so much ground. Cleverley is a brilliant squad player and will do any role to his best ability. Femenia looks a good player. Prodl and kabasele were decent but kabasele dives in too much. Richarlison looks class, but chose to cut in every time rather than trying to get down the line and whip a ball in (this could easily be due to him being tired which is understandable given the amount he ran).
Interesting stat: Britos had 2 more touches on the ball than Gray today Make of that what you will...
At the end of the day this is still our best start in the P.L. With five points from our first three compared with a previous best of three points! 99-2000 LLW 2006-7 LDL 2015-16 DDD 2016 -17 DLL 2017-18 DWD
The problem with Gray after the sending off was that he had no support and had to cover a huge amount of ground. He was isolated and had it not been for being a man down I think we would have seen a better game from him today, particularly as we persisted with pumping high balls up to him all afternoon like we did to Deeney unsuccessfully last season.
Agree with this. Seb was particularly frustrating with this today. Not criticising as retaining the ball was imperative today when we could, but Doucoure going sidewards to Chalobah or Richarlison only made it a mixed bag on that front.
Discipline cost us today big time! I dont know what Britos was thinking with that challenge and he would never have had to play out wide if Holebas did not get sent off in the midweek fixture. First of all I felt sorry for Amrabat today as he looked like the best player on the pitch before the sending off. Interestingly when the fans were singing Nordin Amrabat Cleverley clapped the fans and encouraged the song which made me think that the players know that NA is better with confidence. Doucoure absolutely instrumental to the side he really is brilliant and as the song goes he never gives the ball away. Chalobah is a very classy player at times but sometimes he can be very careless and gave the ball away on more than one occasion in a dangerous part of the pitch. Cleverley is gold technically good, good leadership and works extremely hard my man of the match. Richarllison is a real talent best buy so far always looks a threat. Gray worked hard but did not get too much service but he ran and ran closed down and made it difficult for them to play out from the back. As for Brighton I know its still early days but from what I have seen of them I think it is fair to say that they simply don't have enough quality and they will be going straight back to the championship.
Most of my post-match thoughts have been mentioned already. The less I say about Britos the better. I have never been so sure that a red card would be brandished, immediately following the tackle. A huge shout to Cleverley, who slotted into defence and still came out on top in most of his battles. Chalobah was excellent. Femenia was really solid and Kasabele had his best game for us. It keeps astonishing me how Richarlison constantly shows that he has more quality than anyone on the pitch - even if sometimes I wish he'd run and receive the ball in front of him, so that he could use his face in behind, rather than slowing play down. Amrabat was also playing well before the sub, and will be disappointed to get hauled off so early. It's only the most idiotic and embarrassingly unaware individuals that booed him, before the match even started/ whilst playing well. Just pure nothing between the ears stuff. Nothing went Gray's way, but I liked his effort. I think Silva should have subbed him earlier. I thought Carillo could have been a little braver with his running, and he didn't always seem to be able to catch up with play during counter attacks, despite his apparent pace. For them, I thought Dunk had a very good game, and their corner taking was excellent and put us to shame. However, as it stands, they are absolutely lacking up top and destined for relegation. Gino needs to get Gibbs in - not having an actual PL-ready left back today cost us two points.
Gray had a bit of a mare, I think he's better than that though. Not really suited to that game the same way britos isnt a left back. Britos I think went in to do one of those tackles where you clear the ball and take everything. However he missed the ball. I think hes a decent centre half though.
Really enjoyed all three games for totally different reasons - just feels so good to be watching Watford again Did anybody notice Britos accusing the Diver of elbowing him earlier in the game as he went down the tunnel. The guy is an idiot Frustrated by Gray but he was totally isolated. He will come good for us if we have patience Thought the sound level from the crowd was really good today. Love the Doucoure song Thought everybody played well, especially Nath but special mention goes to the Bat - not sure why but everything came down the right and he was always looking for the ball despite the groans from the crowd
My views on the game, although as usual virtually everything has already been covered here so might end up repeating stuff: Brighton - under Hughton - are incredibly defensive so for me, this game was never going to be a classic. I watched their match against Man City and it was very dull, taking City with all their attacking talent over 70 minutes to break them down. Against Leicester last week, they conceded after about a minute which ruined their game plan and thus resulted in an easy home win. Had we gone ahead - even with a man less - I believe we would have won comfortably. It's the way Hughton plays. It ended in tears at Norwich, and unless they find some cutting edge up front, it will be the same for Brighton, similar to Middlesbrough. You can't 0-0 your way to safety. Britos - I'd have started him over Mason, as I don't think he's ready yet. But you can't legislate for one of the worst tackles ever made by a Watford player. For me, the error was playing Holebas on Tuesday, as there was always a risk we could lose him for this match. I'm not in the 'get rid' camp though. He was decent against Liverpool and made a goal saving clearance early on last week - we don't have enough bodies to discard him. kaboul is always injured, kabasele is inconsistent (great today, poor on Tuesday) and Cathcart is out again. He made a huge mistake - lets see him atone for his error and pay us back. Knockaert - can't stand him. He's a cheat, we know that. And the bizarre incident where he tried to win another penalty by putting his head down to incite the high boot further proves that. If you're going to get sent off, take out the most dislikeable player. He wasn't badly injured (which was lucky, I know), so as far as I'm concerned it's further payback for his appalling dive 4 years ago. So hard to judge individual performances in an attacking sense becaus of the sending off. Gray struggled, but playing against Brighton was always going to be tough for him as they sit deep. Playing with 10 was therefore a nightmare. I'm sure we'd have seen Troy earlier if we still had 11 on the pitch. Goes without saying that all our midfield did very well. We miss Pereyra - really hope he's back after the international break. The changing of ends before kick-off was almost a sign this wasn't going to be our day. Hate it when that happens. Have heard Garth Crooks stating it was the worst tackle in 40 years!!?? It was bad, but what a load of sensationalist nonsense. He can't retire soon enough. Jeez, Alan Shearer booting Neil Lennon in the head was waaaay worse, as is any two footed challenge we see a lot of. We've had a decent start, and even though the first defeat will come soon enough I reckon we'll gradually improve as the season goes on. Brighton were always going to pick up a point sooner or later, so with 10 men for 65/70 mins, it has to be a point gained for us. Usually hate them - but think this international break has come at the perfect time. Get some players back fit, hopefully a new defender or two, and the team can recover properly from an energy-sapping afternoon.
Am I the only one who found Britos's tackle quite funny in a Cantona bonkers sort of way? I mean reprehensible and potentially very serious, but utterly, utterly mad. I can't remember many Watford sending offs when at least someone in the crowd didn't think we were hard done by. Unanimity of head in hands yesterday.
Is that out of every Prem player or every Watford player since then? Also we all have to bear in mind that Britos will get at least one more red card- against Chelsea when his head turns into a heatseeker missile to Morata
Never a penalty the Doucoure/It'saKnockaert incident FFS. Corollary is if you are short enough and lower your head you can't be challenged for a ball you a second favourite for.
There was a point in the second half when Doucoure and Chalobah were dominating the middle and we looked a different class to Brighton even with 10 Those 2 are as good a pair as you will find outside of just the dozen usual top teams in Europe imo
Funny you should say that but given that Knockheart was okay I did chuckle about it watching the replay this morning. Just so excessive.
In his last eleven Watford appearances Britos has been sent off three times. If this is wrong don't blame me it was in The Guardian.
There is one. Barry behind me thought it was a yellow and that the ref was a cheat. Barry is almost as potty as Britos however.
It seems if he is centre back and we are doing well in a game and he is not under extreme pressure he behaves himself and plays ok, however take him out of his comfort Zone, if he doesn't fancy it or Xmas is coming up it's a sure sign he will do something rash and off he goes!
Absolutely agreed, in a way although he is a ****** I can sort of see where Garth Crooks is coming from. There have definitely been many worse tackles in the last 40 years, Roy Keane on Alf ingerhaland (sp?) immediately springs to mind, but with many of these tackles there was a reason behind it happening, perhaps revenge from earlier on in the game or they were reacting to something that had just happened. But Britons sprinted from a mile away and just cleared him completely out for no apparent reason. I think it's funny and completely bewildering in equal measure.
