We’re playing against a team that conceded 3 goals against Rotherham!! The set up from the start was all wrong. I hate the head coaches that we being in! How is it obvious to practically the entire watford fan base what our best 11 is and what formation we should play. Yet we manage to hire coaches that don’t fit our players every time.
We rarely see Masina bombing forward on the overlap and crossing like Femenia can do. Prefer Ngakia to him.
How has that little **** of a left back managed to get his own personal set of rules!? Next time Deeney accidentally runs over his feet I hope he parks there for a few minutes.
I hope Pedro keeps developing as he has so far because he’s going to be an absolute joy to watch! Plus he’ll keep the club financially stable for a decade when sold!
Last two games we’ve started playing after a Troy spot kick. New tactic: win a penalty ASAP. In all seriousness thought Troy was excellent in the second half lol. Very, very big win.
More enjoyable 2nd half. Still not great, but ok. Deeney played well 2nd half - Pedro played well both halves and deserved motm for me.
Big 3 points! Not great and made it nervy at the end but got the job done ! Well done Troy and nice finish by Sarr.
Horrible final minutes watch, and the performance in the first half was a serious concern, but the fact that we could make changes and rouse ourselves enough was a good sign. Hard to fault Deeney there - he deserves a lot of credit, but also Sarr for his finish - we haven't got to see a lot of that in recent times and it was lovely to see. We did what needed to be done in the end, and hopefully we are building a run. Zinckernagel again looked important as soon as he came on, to me, at least.
Did you know the actor who played Lester Freeman in the Wire does backing vocals on that song? I didn't watch it tonight, but 3 wins on the spin, including one away, is nothing to be sneezed at. Bad night for the BWO.
I think Friday night victories might be my favourite, you're usually the only team playing so then you can sit back and watch your rivals.
Omg blimey Charlie we’ve not only won an away match but scored twice for the first time on the road this season. Xisco four league wins from five, and we’ve scored in all of them. Slowly but surely things seem to be improving. Right in the mix now!
Just goes to show how managers complicate things, like Ivic sticking rigidly to anti-football because of stubbornness. If a totally unqualified competition winner who does nothing but chant idiotic platitudes in broken English can engineer such form, it shows how easily it can be done.
Huge win, first time we've won three in a row this season? Absolutely nothing first half, really terrible team selection from Xisco, no idea what he was playing at. But... Have given him **** for years but Deeney stepped up that second half. Instrumental in both goals and also showed game management and nous. Rest of the team a bit of a mixed bag - e.g. Troost-Ekong and Masina both good defensively but awful on the ball, Sarr anonymous and then did something brilliant. And wow, the referee was terrible.
in seasons gone by we would have conceded at the end for a draw, we are more resilient since new Manager has come in!
He actually outpaced someone near the end there, at which point I briefly sought medical advice on grounds of sudden hallucination.
Hopefully from this point on the away form improves. It must. The first half was poor. Why do we start so sluggishly and allow the opposition to dominate ? We sit so deep that we cannot find the forwards or support them with such a deep lying midfield. Second half we pushed up as Xisco wanted with Masina advancing and we played with comfort. It was great to see Deeney showing glimpses of his former self defensively and attacking wise. That assist to Sarr was delicious and what a finish. Pedro what a joy to watch with the ball at his feet . The sky is the limit for him. Hopefully we hold onto him for a while longer. They all deserve credit. Chalobah and Cleverly were outstanding in defence aside from one early give away. That sort of effort in the second half, playing on the front foot, pressing higher allowing our midfield to breathe and getting width will get us more chances and goals. Stoke huffed and puffed and are average enough. The referee was poor. Missed a clear penalty and the same offender should have has two yellow cards afterwards for shirt pulling on Sarr and Pedro. Great effort, more of the same and need to start games with much more dynamism.
Also worth noting at this point that Troost-Ekong's distribution is so bad as to be a serious concern and something that should count against him as a starter - he passed it to an opposition player under no pressure from several feet early on. I still think Wilmot should be alongside Sierralta, particularly if we are aiming to pass out from the back as much as we clearly are, and did tonight.
Many better teams have come to Stoke and lost this season. Our promotion season was marred by not beating those around us but beating those below consistently. We've done a lot better in that regard. That was not a pretty game to watch but we won despite the referee's best efforts to give Stoke a point as well. A stonewall penalty turned down as well as Pedro's solid appeal. Deeney as much as I don't like him now did an admirable job with the pass and the penalty and it was good to see a more clinical side to our play. It was 2 goals like Huddersfield but we didn't make anything like us much as last game so that does matter. We'll play better but we look very assured defensively which puts less pressure on our forwards which I think will suit Sarr and Pedro more. Given our away record that's a very respectable result.
Sarr MOTM for me. Won the penalty and scored a decent 2nd. A decent 20 mins or so spell 2nd half where we got the goals but apart from I thought Stoke looked quite decent and we were the ones not at it again away from home. Room for improvement for sure. As Chumlax said, we did what we needed to do. 3 points is 3 points, on to the next game.
Hopefully a huge monkey off our backs with an away win. Given the difference in home and away form, I'm sure the issues have to be mental. Hoping we'll put a real run together now; put one together in this league and you'll generally finish 2nd at worst. Was hoping we'd get a third clean sheet, but guess it wasn't to be.
