I'm going to be in the few here - but seeing it again, I still think it's a very very soft penalty in 34 seconds. Even Mike Dean seemed bemused it was given. Lacazette did very well to buy that one - no attempt by him to play the ball - He's gone backwards into Dawsons path. Ah well - I won't miss VAR.
. Right, so you are disqualified from commenting on the entire season because you didn’t watch 90 minutes when there was always every chance that the game was up? Still, you with your constant “bedwetter” claims have been proved absolutely right today so I am sure you are in an excellent position to tell everyone else what’s right and wrong.
Lol, Tierney's shot was going wide before Hughes' lame attempt at a block deflected it in. Back to the same level of performance he showed in the first half of the season in the last few games.
Mike Dean wasn't convinced ! Think it was a bit rash by Dawson tbh but sure the striker made the most of it.
****ety **** **** ****. Mourning period over for me now. I just want to get back to watching live football in a stadium now, don’t care what division.
Oh dear. Still, let’s not waste a chance to criticise others despite the fact that one has been proved spectacularly wrong, eh?
We actually played ok today. I couldn't fault the players for a lack of effort. Unfortunately we have no defence & we never invested in a proven goalscorer at this level.
I'm genuinely surprised John Terry wasn't in full Villa kit celebrating with the lads like his Chelsea days in the champions league final
He was getting ready for Chelsea’s Cup final celebration. By the way, after what Arteta and Pep did with their team selections in order to relegate us, I hope Chelsea beat them next week, and Real Madrid (hard for me to say) smash City in the second leg.
Having seen the goals it'll have been the most comical thing to see Yarmalenko's goal send Villa down. Out of the 3 clubs though, fair play to Villa - We can point at VAR against them where Mings somehow stayed on, Hawkeye bizarrely not working etc but they turned up where it mattered most towards the end and seem to have the unity when it counted most. Think they'll struggle next season mind you without some sound investment in that squad.
Thing is - another day, Wellbecks one on one goes in, as does his flick (great save by Martinez), Bobby P's shot in the first half goes through the keepers legs - or Troys header at the end goes in. The 2nd was a lucky deflection off hughes as well - could have easily been a win with a little luck today.
Roy Keane wasn't keen on the Villa celebrations I suspect. The club accountant and bank was probably breathing a huge sigh of relief unfortunately.
They will be down. Grealish will be gone. They have a manager that no-one really wants to play for. Outside of offering stupid wages to attract players, they will be pretty much left with the same squad they have now. They are certainly one of my early favourites to go down. Would also put Palace going down along with WBA. Outside bet would be Sheff Utd with second season syndrome. Depending on the play-off winner, they will most likely go down as well. Especially if it’s Cardiff or Swansea.
Me neither - made my peace with it after the West Ham shambles - Looking forward to see how the squad shapes up in the next few weeks and to see who the next Steve Leo Beleck will be. Exciting times.
That’s been the story of our season. No luck whatsoever. I don’t think I’ve ever known a season where absolutely everything has gone against us. I do think there was a collective will to see us go down though. Mouth piece Sutton has already come out and said “Watford going down is the best thing for football”. I think we’re probably the most unpopular team in Premier League history.
Owners anyway. Shearer said he was stunned we sacked Pearson and it made a difference. Not sure it did really ..
Been out for a few beers this being to drown my sorrows. I am still gutted. I still love my club though and hope we can rebuild and return even stronger. I’ve tried to remain positive throughout and have argued with one or two, such as @NathWFC and @Jumbolina Tonight we are probably all gutted at our relegation but then I look at what’s happened over the last few months. I know some on here have suffered with COVID 19 and maybe some have suffered worse than others. The fact that me and my family still have their health means more to me than football and despite the disappointment of today, I hope you and your families are all well and enjoy your summer. We will be back
No surprise Chris Sutton has had a moan about us. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...-football-Watford-relegated-Championship.html Someone should remind him that keeping managers doesn't always work either. Look at Bournemouth and Norwich.
We actually kept Gracia for 18 months I believe and had Flores for a season plus Walter. No one really knows what went on with Pearson and Flores was rubbish.
If Mike Dean seemed unconvinced by the penalty, why didn't he use the screen? That's the whole point of it, isn't it? So the ref can make up his mind and potentially overrule VAR, as VAR is there to help the ref if he's made a clear and obvious error which in this game, did not seem like he had, as it took them over a minute to decide if it was a pen That's only a minor thing though, in a season of monumental ****-ups. We should have won, yet again Arsenal were there for the taking. Our decision making in the final third is SO poor, if Martinez doesn't make a superb save then it's 3-3 and perhaps this would have filtered through to Villa, causing them to panic and WHU to score. If's and maybe's though. All in all, over 38 games, we have not been good enough and deserve our relegation. Bring on the Championship
This was the guy writing on the Guardian live coverage I referred to earlier in the thread ' “People are going to attribute Watford’s relegation to the fact that they changed manager so many times during the season and over the past few years,” writes David Wall. “I’m not sure, it might be true, but given that Norwich and Bournemouth have both been relegated despite keeping the same manager (and every season teams that keep their manager get relegated) I wonder if it might be a red herring. In all cases perhaps the real reason is just poor recruitment/ squad building. And that can happen whatever the managerial hiring policy.” They haven’t been relegated because they kept changing managers, they’ve been relegated because they kept appointing the wrong managers (that and never signing defenders). 6h ago 18:07 Watford did lose today, but they produced their finest attacking performance for many a long moon, and could very easily have won. This is what happens when you give Deeney someone to attack with. The tragedy is that it took until the final day for anyone with team-picking responsibilities to realise this. Perhaps they’d have survived if they’d only got rid of Nigel Pearson sooner. This isn’t a joke, by the way: Pearson was completely wedded to his 4-2-3-1 formation, which simply couldn’t fail badly or often enough to be rejected. Deeney has toiled for months, lonely and hopeless, flicking balls on to nobody. Today he was excellent. It wasn’t a coincidence.'
Of course it made a difference, guaranteed we did not have to pay the bonuses for staying up. Did anyone else compare the Mullins, Howe and Smith interviews before the matches. Hayden sounded defeated. No wonder we were three nil down after 30 minutes. I think there is something for not realising it had gone wrong very quickly into the Pearson appointment. If we had lost at home to Liverpool, you could have made a very strong case to have sacked Pearson during lockdown. Our squad is a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 team. Even 3-5-2 fits bette4 than 4-2-3-1. The latter is about not conceding, great if your forward has lightening pace like a Vardy, but hopeless when your fastest forward is Gray and he is a not a premier league standard finisher. lets hope the players don’t start next season like they did this one. 12 games before winning - that’s from the Audley Harrison school of winners.
The refs dont use the screen because hiding behind VAR absolves them of any responsibility in the final decision. Thats the impression i've been left with atleast, as even though VAR has got quite abit wrong this season they still refuse to use those screens - ultimately to the detriment of ourselfs & muff.
Sad thing is this wasn't news. We've known for years that we don't have striker capable of playing the lone role at the club (maybe a fit Welbeck, but he's been out for most of the season).
You actually trawled through pages of historic posts just to express your petty , and let’s be honest , quite pathetic viewpoint . Even though the term bed wetter was never pointed to you personally you seem to be putting a lot of effort into defending yourself .
So we were wrong to sack him now but could have sacked him earlier in the season ? Well people would have gone even more crazy over it. Yes we were 3-0 down but that also happened v West Ham. All the goals down to bad defending which is the fault of the players on the pitch really.
Keeping Pearson it wouldn’t have been any different. We have a championship level defence who are anything but secure, and forwards who you can’t rely on to convert chances. We make them, but can’t score them - I don’t think the manager or formations or anything will change any of this. Game today was a microcosm of the whole season. Main issue is the model the club operate under doesn’t allow for investments in defenders because their sell on value isn’t as good a bet as midfielders or forwards. So we haven’t invested in the defence pretty much since coming up. I mean Craig Dawson has been the main CB signing.....the guy’s a serial achiever of relegation! Our 2 “must win” games.....in both we went 3-0 behind under 2 different managers. I mean that’s total comedy really.
