It was different to previous dull away games. It was fairly obvious to me, and borne out by the stats (30/70% possession for the first 45) that until we scored Preston had no intention of playing a game of football and just put 7 bodies in the box. It's not easy to get through a parked bus, especially on a bobbly pitch designed not to encourage passing.
Their fans on their forums were generally unhappy with their tactics with comments like "We defended well, but that is to be expected with 11 men behind the ball." As we found to our cost last season, it is very difficult to play that way, sitting back to defend for the entire game without letting an error or two undo the good work. The penalty may have been a bit lucky, but it is more likely to go in our favour if we attack as we did, we made our own luck. We had nine shots, wheras we have often not managed more than a couple before now. I would think that the teams around us are worried that they can easily lose momentum and are probably worried about us finding our feet as it comes to the business end of the season. We don't have to be perfect, we just have to be better than those around us, and considering our poor play generally up to now, I believe we have more room to improve than they do. We shall see.
I agree with this. It was a controlled performance from us, and if anyone deserved to win then it was Watford. However, Preston did open us up very early on and Ched Evens missed an absolute sitter. They should have been leading at that point, and I'm not sure Watford would have found a way back. It's a case of result influencing opinion to a degree. Was this a much better away performance than what has gone before? Marginal at best, and only the result was satisfying. It went our way but was far from convincing. We have real problems away from home, and that continues. Have we turned the corner? Bristol City suggested maybe, last not suggested not. Top two is still on, but it's a tall order for me, unless those clubs above start dropping off.
I thought we played very well. A bit toothless maybe but we've been saying that all season, except now it looks like there's a noticable style to our play so I'm sure it'll start to click away from home. What I can't understand is why we've just watched weeks of turgid **** and now all of a sudden we've got Cathcart and Sierralta making triangles with Hughes and playing out from the back. Is this actually grinner's football or have the players forced the change? It's obvious that changing system, moving Hughes into the middle and losing Deeney has transformed the team but I'd love to know exactly what happened in that meeting after Coventry.
We still need a decent forward, someone who can make intelligent runs, trick defenders and then get on the end of crosses. We look a million time’s better with Hughes playing in his correct position though. I reckon we’ve just about got enough quality in attacking players to overcome the goal scorer issue, but we’re going to struggle when teams park the bus like that. In the games against Bournemouth, Norwich and Brentford second half we’ve looked good with more space.
I'd still like to think that my feedback to Hive TV was a big contributing factor. I said at 11am on Saturday morning that the inclusion of Deeney and Gray would be a factor that stops me from watching the games, and at 2pm, they were dropped. Fan engagement at it's best!
And also knowing that you will have to hold it up for 16 seconds, then square it to him on a plate only to see him take 2 touches, get closed down and then blast it point blank at the defender. Or you can whip it in perfectly and he won't meet it. Or you can bamboozle the defence with a slide rule pass right onto the penalty spot, but Troy will be left flat footed and start windmilling those bingo wings in frustration.
Good to see well deserved praise for El Gaucho at the back. Have to admit, i was one of many who thought he was purely squad filler and that King Ekong was gonna be our main man. Would be good to see how El Gaucho steps up in the Prem and whether he's the centre back upgrade we'd been crying out for for 3 years.
I have a feeling it was now you mention it, funny I remember Ross Jenkins losing his tooth but I don't remember that for certain. Was a few years back though and nice to see us get another win there at last.
Sure but we had great possession and few shots under Ivic too. 8 away goals (inc pens) in 15(?) games is a staggering statistic, and only one shot on target last night ? Difficult to breakdown a parked bus, sure, but presumably the other top sides face the same issues and seem to manage it.
Don't agree. I was very encouraged by last night's performance and thought it was way better than the vast majority of what's gone before. The passing was better, the movement was better, the tackling was better, the commitment was better.
Do they? Norwich have won just 2 more than us, Brentford 1. My guess is they face very similar challenges (parked bus, **** pitches etc) and the grass isn't that much greener, albeit the main difference is they both played their best formation and team from day 1 whilst we messed about for half a season.
I believe we would have a 40% chance of winning the play offs. This is based on the fact that we have a decent squad with flair players and a solid defence and of the 28 London area teams to enter the championship play offs 13 were promoted (46.5%). In the 12 play off finals between London (inc WFC) and non London teams, the London team won 10. WFC have a 40% success rate in the play offs. The 2 teams to knock us out of the play offs since the 80s have won 6 of the 9 play offs they have entered. We have a decent track record winning 2 of the 5 play offs we've been in. Reading's record is 0 in 5, Brentford is 0 in 2, Norwich and Swansea are both 1 in 2. We are the only team currently in the championship that has won the play off final more than once and if we win it again we alone will have the 2nd highest number of victories, 1 behind Palace. In all 5 of our play off appearances we succeeded when our pre play off form was good and failed when it wasn't. The odds would be against us but I wouldn't say 1 in 4. In any case we need to try our damndest to get automatic.
Some credit has to be given to Ivic. Despite it not working out in the end he did create a tight backline. Yes strikers in this division who can finish their chances are few and far between. We have had the odd moment of luck as well but the organization had to come from somewhere and Vlad and his staff do deserve some praise. It's just a pity he did not have a more positive mindset and was also not given the support to strengthen upfront. As for Perica and Zinckernagel. We should be wary of judging them again off the basis of a few minutes. Perica needs to get minutes into him to sharpen him up. Zinckernagel as well. He probably has been surprised by the speed of the league compared to the Eliteserien and it may take a while to adjust to. He has the technical ability to do so no question. However he needs to show the same commitment as the captain and others did in harrying and retrieving the ball. I say this because we do have a tendency to be down on players before they have had a consistent run in the team. From Doucoure in the past to mocking Sierralta after his effort in the League Cup. Gosling played efficiently as well last night and so far so good. No sign of any injury. Off the ball all the midfield trio were excellent but Chalobah needs to improve his passing. Three times in critical phases of play he misplaced a pass which given his former pedigree one would not expect of him. Sierralta on his current form should be back in the Chilean set up and force his way past one of the Diaz brothers into the first team line up. Imperious again aside from the one error in the first half and out wide once against Evans. I would still like to see Wilmot brought in. We all saw how well he has played especially in the game against Swansea, dropped to make way for Troost-Ekong and been left out since barring being played out of position on both flanks as a fullback. It is mismanaging another young player who has plenty to offer the club going forward.
That's a fair comment, and I agree with it. However, we are still not creating enough. Only one shot on target. Had no penalty been awarded, then it would most likely have ended 0-0. Only other real chance was in the 90th minute when Preston left gaps trying to get an equaliser. That's why I say it was a marginal improvement. It's going in the right direction, and the commitment was a lot better, but end product is still an issue in these away games. We need to win a lot of matches in order to go up automatically. This was far too marginal for my liking and could easily have been a draw or had Evens taken that sitter, maybe even a defeat, although that would have been harsh. After all, even though it's traditionally a graveyard venue for Watford, Preston have the third worst home record in the division. So that has to be taken into consideration. Yes, it was a good, solid win with lots of positives, but we need to improve by quite a margin if we're to pick up points consistently on the road.
My guess is that the better players in the squad said 442 is sh1t caveman football and wanted to stop playing pub football and start playing to our strengths in a 433. The difference between Sarr in a freer role in a 433 compared to a 442 with more defensive responsibilities is huge. Having a mobile #9 and our best midfielder back in central midfield also helps a lot.
We still have to play Norwich, Brentford and Bournemouth away, Swansea at home. They all have to play each other. If we can win this mini league AND make sure we do not throw points away at teams lower in the league through complacency, poor selections and effort then we are still very much in the picture for automatic promotion. We deserved our win against Norwich and should have beaten Bournemouth. Controlled the match against Swansea up to the point we scored. Played poorly against Brentford and should have been losing in the first half but then should have won the match but for that crazy challenge late on from Kabasele. It is not as if these teams are light years ahead of us in playing power. Brentford still remain vulnerable defensively, Norwich can be got at. Swansea would be the toughest nut to crack. Hopefully news about their manager leaving next season unsettles them.
From their home results there's been Preston 0-1 Swansea and Preston 0-0 Reading, with the others rest to come. They've beaten Brentford, Norwich and Bournemouth away this season too.
One thing I noticed yesterday was that we moved the ball up the pitch a lot better. We were able to find ways of playing through their press and get the ball into the final third within 3 or 4 passes. I haven't seen us do that at all this season, so that was encouraging. Now to work on the bit when we get to the final third...
Even my brother and I agreed that despite the stats, there was much more intent, football played, willingness to be creative etc. If we had exactly the same no of points by now but had played like this every game, i don't think we would have had any of the recent discontentment.
And quicker I'd say. Less ponderous square balls at the back and more desire to move it forward quickly. It must be nice being able to knock it long and wide knowing you have the likes of Sarr and Sema chasing after it.
Your posts are regularly absurd, and here's another one. If we met Brentford in the play-offs, would their being a more central London club trump our being a kinda London club?! Or would the fact that they're regular bottlers and we've done alright in the past have more of an impact? Or could it be that neither of those things actually have any relevance or predictive power whatsoever?
Did we? "Especially" in the only game of the season in which we were actually completely out-classed?! Not much of an endorsement that.
Brentford could go either way: London side but with a poor track record like Millwall. It's actually really interesting, people say the play offs r a lottery but the track records of teams differ wildly (Derby and Ipswich 1 promotion in 8 attempts vs Hull 2 in 2 and Palace 4 in 7. Reading and Sheff Utd have both lost 3 finals and never won the play offs. Forest have lost all 3 semis and Brighton 3 out of 4. My favourite stat is that Midlands teams have appeared 32 times in the play offs but only had 6 promotions (18 75%). 6 of the 8 most successful play off teams are from the south including us and Swindon (WTF!!) My inner geek had a field day with all this I can tell u. It doesnt look like a lottery if you look at the results. There's a clear pattern of winners and losers. The only real problem is that as far as I can tell the results are inexplicable!
I'm going with track record. Brentford are a small team with a 0/2 record like Millwall. It's the bigger London clubs that have better records: West Ham, Palace, Fulham and little old us. Hopefully you'll feel less absurd when you're running round Wembley with your **** hanging out....
Was talking about the ability to score away from home, not necessary our relative wins/points etc. Haven't checked but I bet Brentford have scored more than 8...
I think historic record in play offs won't be relevant. They are a lottery, so 1 in 4 chance. In practice we will probably have a better than 50/50 chance against 2 of the other 3 and a less than 50/50 chance against whichever of Naarch, Brentford or Swansea miss out on top 2.
I think the number of shots we took were a sign that we are creating chances, whilst the number "on target", demonstrates that we aren't shooting straight when we get them.