They we fouling him every time he got the ball. He drew a ridiculous number of fouls today. It's hard to do much when you're getting kicked off the park and the ref isn't doing anything to stop it.
An awful game between two sides bereft of quality and an absolute shambles of a referee. Rose was the only one of our starting 11 who deserved more than a 4/10. Our central defence is appalling. Who could have predicted that not strengthening this horribly weak area could end up costing us? Oh yeah, everyone. Dennis, Sarr and King were mostly ineffective. Sarr just didn't look bothered. I just hope he keeps getting the odd goal so that some idiot buys the hype and gives us 40m for him in January. We massively overpaid for a very limited player who can only impact games where he's afforded space and time. Sissoko looks nothing like a footballer. Athletic but devoid of any skill. Cathcart must never play again. Neither must foster. We got a point, but Newcastle were awful. They could and should have been 4 up before we nicked a goal. We are so appalling. It's extremely worrying how disjointed and lacking in a plan we are. Wtf is the point of Xisco.
And yet clearly he doesn’t, as you now concede, so those of us who were more cautious after the first 90 minutes - dismissed as “bedwetters” - had a point, no?
Agree with almost everything here. Will say that WTE had probably his best individual game for us with Cathcart creating almost all our defensive issues such as that suicidal back pass. Additionally, once Tufan was on the pitch our front 3 looked a lot more dangerous as we had someone who could pick a pass forward without gifting it to the opposition. However, Sarr's lack of offensive pressing short changes the pressing work King and Dennis do to try and make something happen a lot and think selling him wouldn't be a Season ender if the right offer comes in because of that issue. Deulofeu did learn to do that but Sarr doesn't seem to have taken that lesson and goes missing during periods of the game because of it. Also thought Sissoko played fairly well today, able to try and carry the ball forward and puts himself about with aforementioned athelticism to good effect.
It was a 49-51, both went for the ball and Clevs came off worse. Free kick for a foul on the keeper was reasonable. Unlike most of the ref's decisions. Send him back to Oz - if they'll let him in.
It might have got a bit lost as it’s busy here tonight, but I posted earlier that was our first drawn match at the Vic under Xisco. Quite some fact considering he took over last December. We’ve only drawn three times on the road under him too, the last being at Boro on 5 April.
Midfield selection made no sense at all! When will he learn, that in games where teams sit in against us and we need to break them down, we need more creativity in there!? I like Sissoko, i'm not sure about Kuca and Cleverley is Championship level at best. Was screaming out for Tufan to start today and maybe even Louza in there. I think Xisco is too one dimensional and, to be frank, fairly clueless tactically. As much as he's a great bloke, he will cost us points with his selection. Unless Sierralta has done something that warrants him being sold he should be in the side as one of the first names! Even Kabasele is miles better than Cathcart. He shouldn't be starting ever again!! IF we manage to stay in touch with 17th place by January we HAVE to throw everything at signing a couple of quality defenders and possibly even a keeper!!
I am a very negative person , I hate everybody and everything , yet I still wonder if I’m watching the same game as everybody else sometimes. yep we were not the best and pretty poor in the first half , but there are positives 2nd half was entertaining end to end stuff We came from behind to salvage a point Sarr scored again with a great header (4 in 6 games) It’s defiantly reasonable to criticise the performance , but we are not as shambolic as some people are making out
It was the other end of the pitch to me but it looked like the keeper was well toward the edge of the box and just threw himself into the air and landed on Clevs.
Can relate to most of this. Think it's different if you're at the game. Had a lot of fun today, although the comedown from King's non-goal was a kick in the b011ocks
The chance in the first minute, from what I remember of it happened from Kucko driving with the ball around the half way line passing it to Josh King who played a through ball to Dennis. I don't remember Cleverley being involved, he certainly didn't set it up.
Don't think so. As I said earlier, I quite enjoyed the game in the end and I wasn't in the stadium (~8000 mile round trip is just too much, sadly.). It's just that some people only see the negative, some only see the positive, and some see varying degrees of both.
Most of the 2nd half was appalling. We nicked a goal when we had been very much on the back foot and had looked nothing like scoring. They had the best chance after that and I still can't quite believe they missed it, but right at the death it got a bit exciting for about 2 minutes.
Yes, that's pretty much exactly what happened. Being a keeper doesn't allow you to just body press someone.
I get that Sarr isn't exactly Messi, or even Deulofeu, but I wouldn't be too blasé about selling the guy who almost single-handedly got us up, and has scored 4 of our 7 goals this season
That was a pulsating game. How did it contain only two goals? Newcastle should have been out of sight at half time. We rode our luck massively, but it's still us damaging ourselves. Foster d1cks a ball straight to a Newcastle player but luckily gets it back and manages to clear. Cathcart carbon-copy and somehow Newcastle literally miss an open goal. These self-inflicted wounds are occurring in EVERY single match. Second half with Tufan on, we looked a bit better, but mistakes were never too far away. Big criticism of Xisco for the Kucka/Pedro change. That destroyed us immediately and Newcastle opened us up time and time again. Only wasteful finishing saved us during that spell. Somehow we reached the final 10 minutes on level terms. To be fair to the side, we actually finished on the front foot and could have won the game, however, 3 points from this would have been a miracle.......but only a linesman flag denied this from actually happening. Having said that Murphy should have won it for them with a 1 v 1 in the final few seconds, but luckily for us he had no composure. The referee experiment, which Watford always seem to be the Guinea pigs for, failed miserably. That was one of the worst performances from an official that I've seen since the last Jon Moss match I saw. He might even be worse than Moss, which tells you how bad he was. So in corresponding fixtures between this season and our relegation season, we're now 7 points below that total, which is pretty sobering. I don't think we have a hope in hell of staying up, unless something radical changes. We're grateful for a point from a side that hasn't won a match all season, with fans who are taking the p1ss out of their own side with many injuries to key players. It's not looking very good is it? The team, with the players we have, might still struggle, but the level of competitiveness should be a lot higher than it is. 7 points from 6 games doesn't sound too disastrous, but we're burning through far too many winnable matches. It's just not good enough.
yeah that must have been bad, I was at home screaming at the TV when he scored, VAR is definitely a mood killer
It’s the natural thing to do after each match to look at the much bigger picture and proclaim confidentially that we should stay up or that we are no hopers and heading down. I’ve done it too. (After Wolves). But really it’s semi pointless, so so early in the season, and with new/returning players coming into the side and things yet to settle down. There’s a long season ahead. Who thought we’d go up last year after Coventry, or that we’d go down the year before after Liverpool? Chances are we will blow a few matches this season that we were thinking were bankers to win (done so already in fact today and against Wolves), and heaven forbid probably grab a few unexpected points along the way too (as we’ve did against a Villa side who today won at Old Trafford). 6 matches in, and we’ve picked up points in half our matches, and are marginally ahead of the point a game ratio. Tough fixtures lie ahead for sure, but two of our next four opponents are yet to win a match so far. I’m disappointed (after last season’s excellent defensive record) that we are yet to keep a solitary clean sheet. That scares me when I think the likes of Lukaku, Salah and Ronaldo lie in wait. I cannot understand the Sierralta situation. On the plus side I’m pleased (and surprised) that we have a player who has already scored 4 times, and is one of the division’s top scorers. I wasn’t expecting that. Even more of an achievement when you consider we’ve not scored in half our games. I’m liking the signings of Rose, Sissoko and Dennis, while Tufan, Etebo and Kucka have all shown something at times. King desperately needs that first goal (34 matches without one now I think) but he already has 3 assists for the season, which is the next best thing. So six games in, not as good as it could have been, but equally too not a disaster. I would still be surprised if Xisco takes us through the whole season, because after the international break you could easily see us losing several matches in a row, certainly in November. But his reign so far seems full of surprises. Everytime we hit a trough and you think he’s close to the exit door, he manages to pull something out the hat (Bristol City last season, the win at Norwich after the debacle at Luton, the win at Norwich last week etc). Today we banked a point that we hoped would be three but probably feared would be nothing at one stage. Our first point from a losing position since Cardiff. I have no idea whatsoever whether today signifies we should all feel more confident or less about survival. That won’t be clear for ages I hope. But I know we’ve got one more point towards the possibility of staying up. I’d take another draw next weekend right now, and hit the internationals on a little unbeaten run.
I don't think that comment is unfair tbh, he didn't do much (not that he had much time), and I was a bit baffled he came on as a #10 rather than a striker or even a winger. Bloke isn't an old-fashioned poacher who does nothing but score goals, but I don't think he's a particularly viable option in the midfield
Fair enough. It's certainly different for me, and I find myself much less positive when watching a stream
Two utterly shyte teams coupled with one of the worst refereeing performances I’ve ever seen made for quite an entertaining game. Sarr was having yet another of his games where he sulks, is largely ineffective but then pops up with a goal. Tufan looks good. Sierralta needs to come back in, pronto. Dennis is better down the middle than Josh ‘Andre’ King.
I don't remember that but a tackle and a pass to a player standing on the centre circle who dribbled and passed it to someone else who then passed it to Dennis is not Cleverley setting up Dennis.
It's not just one comment though. If you're judging JP after his first minutes of the season in a disastrous performance from the whole team then knock yourself out.
Something I've said in the past seems to have really stuck in your throat If so I apologise, its not my intention to pi55 anyone off I have a dry sense of humour and took the whole BW thing as a bit of a joke, sorry you didn't I will steer clear of you in future
