I’d bench Kayembe. Because he is, and always has been, turd ultimately. The odd half-decent game but he’s just a very bad footballer.
We dominated the possession. That's about it. Coventry had more shots overall, more shots and target and actually scored. It certainly was not a dominant performance. We were crap.
If you base going to a game simply based on our results, I'm not sure you understand the team you support? This is Watford. We're going to lose games, sometimes quite often. Not bringing your kid to a game because we lost to Coventry is beyond strange.
Yes it was sort of the "it's only Cov, we've won our last three this should be no problem" sort of performance. Problem is we are not a top side, actually nowhere near one right now even in this division, so if that was the mindset of the players then they got exaclty what they deserved today. It was not Millwall levels of bad, but it was still poor and there is no doubt fans's are leaving the Vic very dissapointed with the effort. Bilic can only do so much from the sidelines and the players' need to stay focused for these next two games. After that, have a break sure - but if we go into the WC with three straight defeats after three straights wins, that would be the perfect image of our season. I hope and pray that does not happen.
Some extraordinary and hysterical comments on here with a few decent ones in between. In a division where it is clear anybody can beat anybody, Watford lose to a well-coordinated side by one goal. Yes, I was as frustrated as everybody. And Coventry's approach wasn't designed to making your fall in love with them. But rather than pick on individual players, even though some had poor games, I would criticise Watford's overall approach: Surely, against a team who pack their defence so well (plenty of organisation), you must move the ball forward faster rather than in our measured, elaborate way. You might call that panicky and thoughtless, but pumping the ball into box early, before they get back and organised, is worth a try, even just some of the time. So I would criticise our defence and particularly our midfield in that respect. Yes, we do miss Louza.
Struggling to think of a decent performance out there apart from maybe Asprilla and Bachmann. Sierralta got absolutely roasted by Gyokeres today, it was embarrassing to watch sometimes. Troost was Troost, not good enough. Gosling looked like a midfielder filling in at right back and then we have Mr Kamara. We have a lot of thick players but this guy is surely top of the list, I have no idea what goes on in his head but it can't be much. Also, can he not learn to throw the ball at people's feet rather than have it bounce up at knee height? Idiot. The midfield was terrible but we know it's terrible. If JP has a poor game, which he did today, then what chance do we have of progressing the ball with Choudhury and Kayembe? Both of them take too many touches, underhit passes and simply cannot pass a ball forwards. Sema was alright but didn't get in the game, JP had a mare, Davis was alright first half but yet again looked absolutely f*cked an hour in. He really needs to build his fitness in the WC break. £30m Sarr was so bad I'm not sure how to describe his performance. Wrong decision after wrong decision and then when he got into a good position the final ball was dog dirt. Bilic got it wrong today, we had no idea what to do against a competent side who were well drilled. However, the lack of energy and imagination from a team that is on a three game winning run tells you everything you need to know about this bunch. We're a team with a few good players and a mentality that crumbles when we're faced with decent opposition. Mid-table guff in other words.
Can you name one post (LaClusazSki aside) which contains anything that’s ‘extraordinary/hysterical’? Every comment seems very fair and the debate being had by traditionally positive and negative parties is being done healthily. And also, I would happily counter that teams who come in the Top 2 don’t get there by holding the attitude that ‘this is the Championship and anyone can beat anyone’.
Davis to Bayo is a definite downgrade, but I would suspect that was more of a precaution as he's just been injured and doesn't have a great fitness record
However much you dislike him, there are posters on here already trying to claim we're too easily rough-housed by teams - a "midfield" of Choudhury, Asprilla and JP would be suicide in that regard. No chance it would work. I'd even say put Gosling in there if you hate Kayembe so much, but you can't play without any midfield.
Deeply frustrating. Too many 6/10s out there today. JP was far from his imperious best and Sarr huffed and puffed to little avail. Cov could be described as "dangerous yet limited". Their game plan was obvious and we should have been wiser to it. All that said, we created enough to win that game and it just wasn't our day. Had a couple of chances been converted for a 2-1 win the same performance would probably be reflected on favourably. But we must improve. On the flip side, I did get a few sympathetic glances from the away fans as I trudged forlornly down Vicarage Road. They know how tough it is for us off the field and I almost felt like they didn't want to celebrate to hard.
To be honest, it’s a measure of how bad I think Kayembe is, that I’d put Sema in CM and put JP out left. But I really don’t think there’s any make-up of midfielders we could put out that would be ideal without Louza. So we will have to put some out that make us stronger in one area and weaker in another until January. I’d also be keener to put Gosling in there and put Gaspar to RB like you’ve suggested. It’s my opinion that it should be Kayembe that comes out. You disagree and I’m fine with that.
Can we play Luton every week? Infuriating when we wallow in the smell of our own farts and put in half-arsed performances. How many times do we have to be taught this lesson? Anyone will beat us if we drop the level.
In the transfer suggestions thread I'd put Gyokeres as pretty much my first choice signing in the summer had we sold JP. I'd guessed he might be aroubd 10mil, but of course we wouldn't spend that without some kind of windfall of our own.
I totally agree. I guess l had hoped we had turned a corner, but it appears that it was another awful display. Ups and downs of supporting a mediocre side in the Championship. My son will not be too bothered. He would happy to watch Lyon against the 'big' domestic teams. He is also happy to watch local FC Annecy in Ligue 2. It's Sochaux tonight. It's the journey to the destination that is interesting. Tomorrow is another day and after tonight's game, l will take a fresh look.
I actually feel Kayembe has had a good few games recently. He may have been off the pace today but I think he offers much more than Choudhury; people believe he is undroppable for some strange reason. Pedro looked really disinterested today, he must've just been tired as normally he gives it his all.
Was it much different to the Wigan game last weekend? Certainly not our best performance (not that there have been tons of fantastic performances this season!), but on another day we'd have nicked something, but ultimately, with the teams we have available to us at the moment, without Louza, without a suitable RB, and with a few other areas we really could do with an upgrade in, we are going to have these sorts of games fairly regularly, sometimes we'll win them, and sometimes we'll lose
You're being absurd/blinkered then, because we controlled the midfield today and Kayembe wasn't even in the top 3 reasons why we didn't get anything from that game.
Thought Kayembe was everywhere today, winning tackles much more now, more physically imposing too. Was probably my MOTM. His problem is he can’t pass, he’s just a “destroyer” by profile, think he would look better with Louza next to him so he can just give him the ball. He’s much improved under Bilic though IMO.
I thought we started ok. Crisp passing, periods of pressure, a swagger may be a touch to far but we looked confident with some decent possession and build up. I am not sure why the goal was not allowed? Anyone? But cov had a threat on the counter attack and as the game wore on we got progressively worse then after they scored progressively desperate. Almost as if they adapted to what we were doing and we had no plan b so reverted to type. Disappointing but typical.
JP looked injured to me, he was limping in the first half at one point. Not excusing his performance though which was utter gash.
Kayembe slowed down and regressed the play so many times today, and it's so abundantly clear how much the insane extremity of his one-footedness contributes to that and genuinely affects the way and speed with which we attack. He did some good things, too; a couple of cleverly positioned and timed interceptions, as I noted on the Shoutbox at the time, but you're being just as absurd/blinkered by claiming we 'controlled' the midfield and that Kayembe is good enough for a team that has aspirations/delusions of challenging for promotion.
Disappointing , didn’t think they out played us or that we were horrific we just were not in top gear and didn’t make any luck for ourselves JP wasn’t on form, one of his worst performance this year , just wasn’t working for him , but everybody has a dodgy game every now and then Didn’t think they would score, apart from the odd break they just did t look that threatening , but after we had the goal disallowed also didn’t think we would score either not the end of the world but need to win on Tuesday
Yes I thought this was particularly an issue in the first half - they'd crowded out the central areas but there was sometimes some space still in behind their back line. There were a few times one of our players could have tried to turn their defence and find a run in behind of Sarr, Davis or Sema, but decided against it and instead just went sideways again. But pretty much all our defence and midfield were guilty of this to some degree in turning down such passing opportunities. Ultimately it shouldn't have mattered as we created enough chances to get something from the game, but we certainly could have been a bit more varied in our play at times.
