One of our fans on Twitter says we shouldn’t be upset by today as there are worse things going on in the world. Classic watfordfanism.
Possibly the most annoying thing about this situation is that, when was the last time we started games as well as we do under Papa Clau? We've been ponderous, unsure, wasteful and lethargic at the start of games as long as I can remember, under roughly the last 467 coaches. Already, Ranieri has got us starting on the front foot, pressing and taking the game to the opposition. It's a delight to behold. And it's all utterly wasted.
I think all that does is confirm that he is not good enough. If he knows what he's doing wrong but can't improve then he's obviously reached the top of his ability level. Unfortunately we have now reached a point where we have no choice but to play him (unless Kabs is fit enough for 90 minutes). The fault for this lies squarely with the owners.
Massina went into that challenge half hearted was always coming out of it hurt. Then WTE is ball watching tracking back aimlessly. Was another gift of a goal. Have league one defenders and that’s how to throw away a game against a poor Leicester side. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would love to see the results of a league wide IQ test, it wouldn’t surprise me if WTE and Masina were right at the very bottom, possibly borderline simple.
No one's questioning that or saying anything different (who has a brain) though, nor have they been - see my/our myriad posts on the subject stretching back. But WTE can't be given a completely free pass for putting in an abysmal performance, again - one that literally cost us. They're somewhat distinct issues, in my mind, realistically - micro and macro, perhaps.
So we have a back line with Troost-Ekwrong Cathcarthorse Massinohoper Been at the Cadbury's Rose Doomed to fail I tell you.
On the plus side I thought Ranieri set us up superbly again. The pressing for the first half an hour was excellent and we should have had a couple of goals. I'd like us to show the same positivity in the next two, absolutely nothing to lose.
I also don't enjoy all this talk of WTE/Cathcart/Kabasele being good enough as 'backups' or 4th/5th choice options. Two of them (Cathcart and Kabasele) weren't deemed good enough to keep Mariappa out of the team last time around in the PL - and subsequently played bit parts last season in the Championship, whilst being kept out of the team by the third (WTE). All 3 of them are mid-to-upper level Championship CB's. They aren't good enough to be in a PL squad, simple as that. They aren't good enough to be backups - yet continued ignorance of defensive recruitment by our owner and board, mean they aren't backups at our club - they are first choice. Nkoulou and Sierralta would no doubt improve things - but are we certain thats even close to a mid-to-long term solution even if they are fit? One has played a handful of games and time isn't on his side - and the other seems to carry a lot of injuries and is unproven in the PL. Not to mention we have crap FB's who can't be trusted to string a run of form together over a decent period of time at this level. This club needs 5-6 PL quality defensive recruits - at a minimum. A new GK, a LB, a RB, 2 CB's....and likely more. And the vast majority of the ones we have need shoving out the door so our fans can no longer be conditioned into thinking they are 'capable at this level', 'decent squad players' or 'adequate backup'.
Fair assessment except the penalty made it 1.1 and i genuinely thought in that moment we'd go on to win. Very disappointing, good heart especially in midfield and attack but defence was just disgraceful. Not sure why our goal got VAR treatment their 4th didn't
That’s possibly even a stretch, they did well last season because they had some better players than your average championship team ahead of them. Drop them into a genuine mid table championship team and I’d hazard a guess they’d still look awful.
Please don't bastardise the name of four of our players just because you don't think they are very good. It is disrespectful and offensive. I called out another poster on this a while ago in relation to Mariappa. We all like to hear each other's opinions, which we are all entitled to, but it can be done without resorting to this sort of thing.
Yeah the worse things are up coming games against 2 of the worlds best teams with this defence. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
WTF,nice chap, painfully out of his depth at this level. I'm not upset these days,just frustrated that lessons have yet again not been learned. Just a mirror image of a safeguarding case involving a junior player at the tennis club. The father keeps on and on at his son with verbal abuse. We keep on and on with the hapless but affable centre halves who should have been replaced years since. At least no one is in jeopardy, apart from our collective liver and sanity! B***** it!
I was questioning before today whatever we could repeat the intensity of our performance vs utd and the great news is we did and we were excellent from an attacking perspective . We created chances and arguably could have scored more goals . unfortunately the defensive errors and poor marking let us down . I think we all know Cathcart and wte are not a great partnership and we’d all like to see Nkouolu and Sierellta back in ASAP . I also think Kabasele is an upgrade as although he has brain farts , they tend to come along less often. I’m not sure there is much more to say on The defence issue . We can bang on about it, but Claudio only has who he has to choose from. The situation is the situation . Leicester were clinical with their finishing so we were fully punished and Chelsea and Man City no doubt will punish us as well . I’m taking the positives here as we’ve generally been poor all over the pitch this season but our levels have taken an upturn and we mow have a plan and a style . This is encouraging for me compared to a few weeks ago . The Dennis injury is also a concern as he’s developing into a key player for us. Hopefully he won’t be out for too long . Once we get those defenders back though I feel confident we will have enough to stay up ( as long as none of these injuries turn into long term ones ). By the way the match should have really been abandoned after half time as the second half was a bit farcical, but so be it.
Yep. If we fail to keep a clean sheet against Chelsea and Man City we would break the record for most consecutive games without a clean sheet.
If Pozzo and Duxbury won't sign defenders for Ranieri then I will genuinely be speechless, we've got a great chance of staying up if he's backed in the window. We won't even have to spend a lot of money to improve what we have, a couple of smart loans could be the difference.
It will happen. Not a chance our feeble back line keeps out players who are worth more than our whole defense combined.
Well done TVOR, based on the standard of your predictions you've basically guaranteed that won’t be the score.
What a strange and curious game. I can't fathom how disheartening it must be for Raneri, the attack and midfield to see all there hard work undone by donkey brain defending/goalkeeping. I don't like to slate our players but it's incredibly frustrating to see a team there for the taking and our back line wave them through to score four goals.
Same for Andre Gray and he got ripped to pieces on here for 4 years. Why should a centre back be any different? It’s the same incompetence by the owners.
Today was a free swing. Two free swings coming up then another couple of games where we have no right to expect anything from the games.
I think it's more likely we get something against City than Chelsea, not that I think we keep a clean sheet against either!
The biggest positive from today is that we didn't look so utterly clueless after going behind, we were threatening all game really (I don't know how much of that was down to Leicester, but I suppose if we can trouble them, we can still trouble many defences in this league). Defensively, well, it's always going to be an uphill struggle if we play like that...
