They couldn't afford to upgrade the defence. We had a huge upheaval in the summer getting rid of 95% of the deadwood in the squad. Not defending the board as they clearly have not done enough and we will suffer for it. They never learn.
Question of priorities. They had the funds, they just chose to buy a prospect midfielder off their mate for £9 million who while promising gets subbed at half time most of the games he plays. Our first team is not the owners’ priority and their arrogance means they think it won’t relegate us.
Lots of people have said how the Cleverly sub changed things for the worse. I definitely agree but to me he looked like he was blowing at that stage. We should have made the sub but brought Louza on. Ngakia had a tough time on the left but that is not his fault. I think I remember Kiko covering at left back before. I would swap them round for Wednesday.
Part of that upheaval was self inflicted. Nobody will convince me that Hughes and Chalobah wouldn't have been more use to us than Kucka and Tufan. Whilst we successfully rebuilt the attack, we tweaked the midfield, and completely neglected the defence. Completely.
It is hard to stomach last nights defeat to a very depleted Brentford side. Almost their stiffs side. I agree with everyone on here who have criticised the owner and board for the lack of investment in our defence. WTE was average in the Championship and his positioning and passing was woeful. He was obviously not at a level Watford would need in the Premier league. He looks frightened when the ball gets near him. It is the very basics to stay on your feet in the area. He will not learn as he is playing in a league way beyond his capabilities. Do not pick him again. Cathcart is League One level at best. How has he remained at the club. Dreadful awareness on the pitch. Ok he plays for NI, but if l eat potatoes, l would qualify and get a game. Ngakia looks lost on the pitch and too afraid. He doesn't want the ball. Potential? No way. Bachmann is an on the line stop stopper and offers nothing else. Fermina is ok. Not the greatest defender best he does add to our attack. Rose is finished .. What bugs me is that we could all see this two/three years ago and the club has failed to act. I also agree with those on here who say that January transfers will probably be too late for us. We will now see how much influence/power Ranieri actually has at the club. If the board fail to buy any defenders, then relegation business forecast will prove to be the model they are following. Enjoy your weekend. The lift closet to us opens on the 18th. Plenty of snow. I will glady strapped some skis on Troost-Ekong and send him down the L'Étale (2480m). Let's see if he can make the turns. Joyeux Noël
Well eff-me I am a chump. I didn't realise that the game was last night. Have been recovering from Booster jab and I was convinced it was this afternoon. So was shocked to see the final score just now. Even more shocked to see we effed it up right at the end but not so shocked that it was one of the usual suspects whose complete lack of defensive ability has cost us again. The AFCON can't come too soon for said individual. This was going on while I watched Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. Their oeuve is quite positive compared to our current predicament.
I’m not sure, I think so. Someone posted on the other thread when Kiko’s follow up was disallowed for encroachment what the rules are.
Completely. Again. Always. It’s important to remember that this has always been the case under this owner. The usual mob on Twitter are trying to make out this is a now problem.
Going back to the Molle Wague debacle, I think it's been 9 windows in which only Sierralta has come in and looked like a top centre back signing, albeit at a lower level. He's still completely unproven in the Prem. Apart from that Nkoulou is our best centre back signing in that time.
And even then it was just dumb luck, that the 6th choice centre back at Udinese was much better than they thought.
It was this mob that tried to send Doucoure off on loan to disappear like so many others and he only didn’t go because the plane was delayed or something. They then refused to sell him at peak value despite promising the player they would. These guys hit paydirt so infrequently. Yet they are geniuses apparently.
Another lesson not learnt from 2019/20 (and arguably further back, maybe include even last season). We cannot defend one goal leads away from home by playing defensively - think of the points we lost which contributed to our relegation in the end after going 1-0 up at average-at-best sides by playing this way - Southampton, Sheff Utd, Aston Villa, Brighton, it seems it doesn’t matter who’s manager. Then the games we’ve won convincingly by continuing to attack after taking the lead (Bournemouth in 2019/20 and Norwich and Everton this season). Why could we not play the second half last night the way we played against Chelsea? If we’d played that way or even how we played at Leicester, there’s no way we’d have lost two points let alone all three.
Shouldn’t have counted and should have been retaken. Yet more evidence of our lack of professionalism. Compare it with Man Utd, who were straight on to Moss when Kiko slammed the ball into the net, surrounding him and indirectly drawing VAR’s attention to it. Instead our bunch of mute no hopers do nothing. Plus Aussie ref on VAR screws us over again. Why isn’t this checked like they do in cricket for a no ball when a wicket is taken?
Yup. It’s not exactly hard to check both. More so the edge of the box because the lineman is first resort for the keeper on the goal line. A matter of seconds and could easily be done routinely before the restart.
Just watched the lowlights. I thought Masina's comedy challenge against Villa late on was the height of brain-dead stupidity. Unbelievably, it has been surpassed by someone deemed not good enough to get a Pro contract at Spuds and deemed surplus to requirements for Udinese stiffs. That was just so depressing.
That Aussie bloke is truly an awful official. But you're right, why are none of our players saying anything?
Sam Ellis would've ripped off his arms and then spear tackled him into the nearest compost heap in the Vic Road allotments.
Just to see if that "challenge" was as bad as everyone says. At that precise point in the history of the universe I actually didn't have anything better to do.
I’m astonished. Frankly I would have thought even doing nothing at all was preferable. Each to their own…
Well, I like to see things with my own eyes and come to my own conclusions if at all possible. Even when it's bad.
One thing which annoyed me about the commentary was their mentioning of Brentford’s “never-say-die attitude” and how they “never give up”. Isn’t that the minimum requirement of a team with limited quality that is looking to survive in the Premier League, especially one that’s just been promoted? And it’s not like this has regularly resulted in points, before last night they had only gained three points from losing positions, and gained points through goals in the last ten minutes only twice, and very early in the season (Liverpool at home and West Ham away). In the meantime, they have lost eight points from winning positions, far more than us even after last night, including a last gasp goal conceded at Leeds recently. As was the case with Bournemouth, this fawning over them doesn’t fully correlate with reality.
One possible explanation for this season's transfer policy would be that the summer was a scatter gun freebie spree (plus Louza and Sissoko) to be followed by January signings to cover the freebies that didnt work out and the championship players who couldnt make the step up. If that's the case and the right signings come in then we still have a chance. It was impossible to predict what a lot of the players would do this season. Few would have been surprised if Bachmann, Sierralta and Rose had stepped up and Dennis, King and Sissoko flopped, but so far the opposite has happened. It's the failure of Bachmann, Sierralta and Rose to contribute effectively along with the reliance on Troost that has made the defensive situation so dire. There can be no excuses for the unfathomable and exasperating reluctance Gino has in relation to signing quality centre backs. I'm sticking with my theory that Gino's wife has a thing about shagging quality centre backs and that's why he won't sign any. Ironically the Pozzos will probably be quite happy with the window due to the money they are likely to make selling Louza and Dennis when the time comes. Given how close we came to financial calamity last season and the fact our best 2 players are currently worth around £100m combined, the situation our club is in now is incomparably better than last season. That's a huge positive for me as my main concern is that there continues to be a team called Watford that has a stadium to play in, regardless of the division. On the downside we do seem to have an owner who is willing to play fast and loose with the club's financial security and stadium ownership. The noises coming out of the club are that the aim is to be less reckless in future. I sincerely hope that proves to be the case. As far as this season is concerned, unless Gino has a few aces up his sleeve, it looks like we are in big trouble.
Can't see how we make a profit on Louza currently. Nobody is paying more than £9m for him on current output.
