The fact that Swift and Wallace were both free transfers also highlights the level of dross that comes through the revolving Watford door. Especially £10 million of signing that don’t even make the team. Cleverley and Kayembe in midfield is just astounding. It was like playing with no midfield, at one point WBA had a throw in and threw it straight into the centre circle with not one Watford player anywhere even close.
I know that we are trying to promote a positive vibe on this forum, but, apart from the moment of wonder, that was a very difficult watch. We were battered from start to finish. This new system cannot work with the two midfielders that we have, Kamara playing on the right and three forwards. As for the penalty, not worth commenting on. Ending on a positive, we stole a point.
Brilliant performance. We were robbed! I'm sure the keeper moved before Sarr's well struck penalty. VAR would have given us a retake. Amazing performances all round. Edwards has got the Hornets buzzing again. Hard to believe that this is largely the same group of losers who half arsed it all last season and walked into a perfectly avoidable relegation. They now look like world beaters. Throw Okoye and Bayo into the mix and you have us licking our lips! Cleverley, Kabasele and Sema are like cheat mode at this level. Kayembe a beast as ever. Don't think West Brom had a sniff apart from their goal? We will play worse than that and win 3-0 this season. So proud of are lads! COYH. HMSPTL Sails ONWARD!!
I'd say 30 minutes. Was clear so early on we were completely overrun in midfield. Even if you don't make a sub, switch up the formation a bit. 442 maybe.
A massive wake up call. A very poor performance and some baffling decisions from Edwards tonight, which started with naming an unchanged starting line up. He strikes me as a manager who likes to be seen to do the right thing rather than actually making the right decision for the team, which is probably also why Kamara came off rather than Sema. Really can't believe we managed to get a point out of that.
I agree with this. Could have played Cathcart at rb, Kamara lb with Sema and Sarr in front of them. Back three doesn't suit us.
Bachman 8 - some great and crucial saves Sema 5 - needed more support Kamara 4 - needs to be on the left (obviously) Sierralta 7 - actually knows how to defend Cathcart 3 - imo to blame for the goal, weak in air, weak on the ball Kabasele 2 - like he was daydreaming all day, very poor in air, normally because he’s not read what’s coming Cleverly 3 - maybe it’s the partnership but he got overrun again Kayembe 4 - slightly better - again looks poor in this pairing Dennis 4 - great last game, completely out of this one Sarr range of 1-10 - goal 10, penalty 1, general play 6 Pedro 8 - the one shining light. Heart, work rate, passion, skill. Looks good behind a 2. Subs - didn’t get long enough Edwards 3 - fair enough to keep a winning team, but keeping it the same 2nd half after being absolutely destroyed 1st half is worrying. The plan can’t be just hope our front 3 produce a moment of magic.
Ugh performance and yet still bagged a point thanks to some Sarr wizardry. Formation and team selection was all wrong from the off and that shows with WBA dominating possession. Our midfield looks very unconvincing to say the least and to think we missed out on free HG players such as Wallace and Swift.
It’s a shame such a magnificent goal had to be associated with such an awful performance. I don’t see much difference from last season, I don’t see any discernible style of play a all, and our midfield is beyond hideous. If Sarr and Dennis go we’ll be lucky to finish 12th.
Very disappointing the RE didn’t see the need to change things at half time. The tactic seemed to be allow WBA chances because they haven’t got a decent stricker. The midfield was completely over run. Steve Bruce never looks the healthiest of people but he was becoming a such a dark shade of puce that I feared for him second half. You won’t see us get a luckier point than that. RE also has clearly not watched Sarr’s previous penalty attempts to know that for all his skill he is not a penalty taker.
Genuinely awful performance, but definitely take 4 points from those first two games, while RE is still assembling our best team and putting his ideas across. Hopefully Gino sees the potential of this squad and gives Rob what he needs. I tried to say how bad the Championship was. This is pretty much the best the league has to offer and they couldn't score more than 1 against the shambolic display we put on! And would have lost if Deeney taking our pens!
You were quite generous on Sierralta and Pedro imo. Sierralta was pretty good for the most of the match but he was at fault for their goal. Pedro put a lot of effort in, but had a pretty poor game overall.
A decent workout. Not a very inspiring performance but, as everyone knows, you can't read too much in to pre-season friendlies. I'm sure Rob will have the boys fired up and raring to go for the big kick off
Well that was… worrying. We don’t seem to have a clear game plan and there’s no point putting Dennis and Sarr in if one of them doesn’t turn up. In fairness Sarr did, with his worldie and winning a penalty. No idea why he’s still taking them though. Should have stopped putting his hand up for them after the Man Utd debacle last season. Edwards needs to sort this team out. If Kamara starts on the right again I think I’ll cry. It’s ludicrous, makes him look completely ordinary and gives the opposition free reign against Ken on the other side. The club have pretty much signalled that the team will be bonkers until the transfer window is shut but that doesn’t excuse the pathetic midfield pairing, the perseverance with the same tactical setup all game and the inability to stop crosses coming in.
Dog **** all over the park and dog **** from Edwards. A footballing miracle we've come out of that with a point.
It’s not rocket science is it ? Disappointing that the midfield wasn’t changed after the weak performances last game and continuing Kamara on the right and Sema on the left was just madness. Will lose all faith in Edwards if both of those issues aren’t rectified on Friday.
Sema wasn't so terrible I'd pick him out as a reason we were so gash. He had neither Cathcart drifting out of the middle to help or Pedro/Dennis really dropping back in to help. Bachmann was excellent, I'm not his biggest fan but he did nothing wrong. Cleverley did nothing right. Gaspar looked very very comfortable and solid defending. Overall we need a plan b. When we pressed, we left huge gaps for them to pass it comfortably through our lightly populated midfield. When WBA pressed, they all pushed up onto a Watford player meaning the player on the ball had nowhere to pass it. Sarr has taken 3 god awful pens since Deeney left. Never ever again please.
I've been a fan of Watford ever since Jokanovic took over. In my opinion this is the worst Watford performance since I've been watching. I also can't remember any team looking worse than this. I'm truely shocked we got a point here.
Totally undeserved point. Will reluctantly put it down to the team still working on the shape and being a work-in-progress… And it’s obviously very, very early days - but FGR fans did tell us Edwards struggles to affect a game when things aren’t going his way and he lacks a Plan B. Well that was certainly the case this evening. Poor efforts all over the pitch - think Sarr and Sierralta were the standout outfield players for us, but I accept that Sarr is a bloody frustration a lot of the time. He showed what he can do on a few occasions tonight with his pace so it’s crazy he doesn’t make that the cornerstone of his game. He can’t remain on pens either - a lazy, lazy effort and not acceptable. Bachmann absolutely robbed of MoTM. Can’t understand how he was overlooked. Embarrassing that we allowed Wallace TWENTY-ONE crosses. One player - 21 crosses. Now it’s fair to blame Sema for this - but not him alone. He had no help whatsoever against 2 players all night. Kayembe and Cleverley are a disaster in the middle. Just don’t look like a pair at all and a simple game plan from Bruce/WBA had us overrun all night - other coaches will take note. This goes back to Edwards, he must work on other systems to keep the opposition guessing. We look ropey as hell with 3 CB’s - now I understand the 2 man CM is a symptom of having Sarr and Dennis still. But Edwards has to find a way of making it work. Joao Pedro, and Dennis especially, were really really poor. Lastly, just like last season, we are far too timid and nice. There’s no way the West Brom player shouldn’t have seen red there - it was clearly denying a goal scoring opportunity. But our lot should be surrounding the ref and demanding the red card. We know how bad the officials are and they often need reminding of what they’ve just seen. Overall, it’s a good point. But the performance was an alarm bell. This will be easily forgotten with a good performance and result on Friday - but anymore of this kind of effort and I think we can be concerned, even after 3 games.
Can't quite work out what i've just seen, left pretty speechless by how shocking we were but on top of that how incapable we were of changing things!! Bachmann's (or Barkman's) shot stopping was the only reason we came away with anything. His decision making and presence in the 6 yard box is still tragic!! Felt sorry for Sema, yes he absolutely pony, but he was doubled up on time and time again by Furlong and Wallace (who was the best player on the pitch by a mile) with no support from the lazy disinterested Dennis!! Kayembe and Cleverley should not be playing together in a two man midfield ever again! So slow and so poor with the ball! We need a central midfielder just as desperately as we need a RWB, if not more!! If we are going to persist with a 2 in midfield it can't be both together!! JP worked his nuts off again, showed some moments of magic again, it's just a shame he's playing with a bunch of morons! Felt for Kamara too! Out of position and taken off when it should've been Sema coming off! I think we could all see that. Interesting to hear how RE assesses that performance because it was utterly pathetic! I hope he says it how it is and isn't one of these deluded Managers that thinks that was acceptable. As for Sarr, well, he's undone that goal with yet ANOTHER dog sh*t penalty!! I said to my boy he'd miss it. Still having nightmares about the two attempts he had to score against Man Utd last season from 12 yards!! Why on earth isn't JP on pens!?? Only positive to take, it's a point away against a tough side that will definitely be in the top 6 come May and surely we can't be as bad as that going forward?!? Still 3 or 4 players away!
thought Pedro put a hell of a shift in. Him and Bachman were the only plus points apart from a wonder goal A great atmosphere alongside a fairly undeserved win last week papers over the cracks which are that our squad was crap last season and isn’t a lot better this season
A point was very well merited in the end - WBA battered us all game and if it wasn't for a wonder goal by Sarr we would of lost that. They are a good side and I can see them up there at the end of the season. I do feel for Sarr for the pen miss, that's actually the third one he's missed in a row (friendly not counting), maybe we should put Dennis or Pedro on pens? Had it gone in and we'd won, it would of felt very fortunate, as we deserved nothing from the game overall. Our midfield is non-existent, we may as well put four training cones out in the middle with Watford scarfs on. Carved apart time and time again down the left especially - Sema is a squad player at best, he shouldn't be starting but then again you have to say what else do we have? Cleverley blowing out of his arse second half. One criticism of Edwards tonight is his game management. We should of made the changes a lot sooner. WBA were guilty of it as well, they made late subs in a game I thought they were odds on to win after they levelled on the stroke of HT. It's def. been a learning experience for RE - the state of our midfield is going to hamper us. No Bayo, no Asprilla (was on the bench) TDB nowhere to be seen. It is worrying, we are powder puff when it comes to chances through the middle and it forces Pedro to drop back and help out when he should be feeding the strikers. Kayambe did alright, one really decent tackle by Kabs tonight even Dracula made some decent stops - but he was glued to his line especially in the first half and they were peppering us with shots. I said we would draw and I was right - it was just about a fair result but WBA def. edged it overall. Am I too upset about the penalty? Not really, we didn't deserve to win and Sarr saying sorry (again) means it did mean something when he missed. Bank the point and move on to Burnley on Friday night, Another tough game - we knew our opening four games were going to be hard but we've got 4 from 6 so far. Pretty good - despite having a league one level midfield.
Very, very early days and obviously things can change very quickly, but if RE persists with this **** much longer it’s eerily similar to Ivic and how he approached it. I know he was probably trying to make a point to Gino about the players he wanted, but just play our best players in their best positions!
How we got away with a point. WBA completely schooled us. What Edwards will do once Sarr and Dennis either leave or down tools cos they’re both sulking, Pedro tried but none of them held the ball up to relieve pressure. Manaj should of come on way earlier kamara should of switched to the left when gasper came on. Keyembe needs to trust his right foot. Abysmal. If Burnley do their homework they’ll have a nice away day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A few more thoughts credit to WBA they were very good and had exactly the right plan against us, with the players to carry it off, not many teams will do that to us. Sarr’s penalty was ****, but it did look like he thought he was going to be stopped from going due to WBA players ******* around , then he realised the ref wasn’t going to and sort of panicked. why do we never bring subs on when it’s obvious it isn’t working , surely the manager didn’t think we could just hang on for a point I guess you have to give credit to the defence they only conceded one goal and we were getting battered
