@lowerrous - we play Galatasaray today in the Daraselia Cup knockout phase. The winners play Valencia in the semi-final. I believe the k/o is 6pm* if you're able to watch. Sadly I won't see it 'live' but may watch on catch up at some point, like the Juventus game. I'm not asking you to withhold the score in saying that and would enjoy one of your summaries if you have time. *you and anyone else planning on watching should check that time, I'm not sure if it's GMT or Georgian time - and I don't mean that between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries!
The Galatasaray game is below. I will put the match report with spoilers etc. in my following post. As one can see from the number of subs a few players were missing. Perhaps unsurprising given this was the 3rd game in 3 days.
Match report: Aside from the first few minutes we completely dominated them. A 4-1 victory where the scoreline did not flatter us at all. Particularly pleasing was the nature of the goals, with 3 of the 4 being excellent composed finishes, and we came close to a few more as well. Galatasaray seemed lacking in energy and belief, and their goal came when we were already 2-0 up from our keeper passing the ball straight out to their striker for him to produce a decent finish. Aside from that we were rarely troubled. I found out the scorer of our 4th goal vs Juventus - Tony Cowie, who started as a striker today and got our 3rd goal with a good run and tidy finish. He has looked quite good in his cameos, though faded physically towards the end of this game. Our opening goal was a peach from Smith-Daley, who also scored an excellent free-kick in the Juve game. He's a strange one. With the ball in attacking areas he comes alive and looks one of our most dangerous and skilful attacking players, if not our most. However off the ball he often seems like he's chasing shadows or is not fully switched on, and struggles to get involved. He plays a bit as if he's either a year or so younger than the rest, or like he's a recent signing not fully acclimatised to the rest of the team, though I'm not sure if either is the case. It no doubt doesn't help that he's being asked to play as a kind of RWB, which I don't think suits him at all. He needs to be the right-side of a front 3. Definitely not saying he'll be the same standard, but there is something of the Asprilla about him with his slight frame but wand of a left foot. Another of our goal-scorers vs Juve, Moulton, dropped back from LW to central midfied, and was back to not being so involved - similar to the Dinamo game. He seemed a bit leggy. Notley at LCB yet again was very impressive with the ball. He's been a consistent highlight this tournament. Next to him at LB Vancea did well with a run to win the penalty for our 2nd goal, but has been consistently middle of the pack in these games and seems a bit sloppy with the ball for someone who I thought was meant to be highly rated. The penalty was slotted home well by Galajevs. He's quite difficult to judge really as he's clearly much more physically developed than his team-mates. He was very dangerous today and was unlucky not to score from open play, but he can often have heavy touches with the ball. Against other more physically weaker opponents like Galatasaray today those don't matter so much as he can still bulldoze his way past opponents even with loose touches, but against Dinamo who were all more similar to him physically it meant he'd get dispossessed fairly often. Our fourth goal was good play from McLoughlin, who I think came off the bench in both the first two games and seemed decent. On to Valencia tomorrow afternoon then.
I've just finished watching and agree with the majority of what you've said. What I'm really impressed by is the football intelligence both with and without the ball. There just appears to be a very good understanding of the game in general in their movement and decision making. Movement at the back to enable a choice of passes in tight spots, well timed tackles as the ball arrives at the feet of attackers, clever picking up of space by the midfielders and the importance of a team ethos throughout both games I've watched rather than individual performances have been standout points for me. I thought Smith-Daley, like you, looks an exciting talent but possibly because he has an impressive turn of speed in tight spots or just when changing direction. If his overall game catches up with that particular skillset then he could be fun to watch. The standouts for me today were Moulton for his intelligence when in deeper positions. Not flashy but then he didn't need to be. I thought it an unfussy but effective performance in a position if not executed well, the defence can be put under a lot of pressure. Akinyimika (#4) intrigues me. According to the club site he was scouted playing grassroots (park!) football and at times it shows but at the same time he manages to break the game up well defensively. Nowhere near perfect but there's just something about him I like. Galajevs was exciting to watch with some neat footwork at times. A particular highlight was sitting his defender on their backside as he walked around him with the ball in the penalty area. I'd like to see him on a decent pitch where the ball rolls... well, where the ball rolls! As you say LR, against similarly sized players it won't be as easy but a lot to like already. McLoughlin I liked too. Picked up some great positions and used the ball well. Appears to know what he's going to do before the ball is at his feet as, to me, he looked a step or two ahead of the Galatasaray players at times. Notley was good again and as he was without Scrivens in the middle I thought he was less ambitious today but no less impressive for it. Joe Georgio (#8) was quite good too in the defence I thought. Overall there just appears a lot to like about how they try to play. They look good playing quick short passes all over the pitch but were also effective in playing long when needed. Pace is there throughout the side whoever seems to play which is not something I've always associated with our young sides in the recent past. There also appears to be an understanding of being not exactly horrible opponents, but there's a nice bit of niggly get-under-the-skin-of-the-opponent to them. Kudos to the coaches at the club for that! I also really enjoyed how the last two games have been refereed. Sensible stuff.
I presume the most promising 3 or 4 will be taken by prem clubs so nice to at least see them in a Watford shirt.
Honestly that doesn't surprise me. While he gets about the pitch well, technically he seems a bit below a lot of his team-mates. Ha, I just found the below, and it turns out Smith-Daley is indeed the youngest of our latest scholars intake. Albeit he'll only be at most about 9 months younger than the oldest of our players at this tournament, rather than a full year or more. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/24457021.couple-familiar-names-watfords-newest-scholars/
The game vs Valencia starts in 20 minutes. The below link should work for both watching the game live and also watching it back once it's finished.
Match report Teams: A fairly even game which we narrowly lost 2-1. We had a few good chances to get more goals but weren't quite as clinical as we had been in previous games and luck wasn't quite on our side. Cowie managed to get clean through one-vs-one in the first half, decided to round the keeper and seemed to almost pull it off, but the keeper made a very good dive to take the ball away from him. Lamothe also chased down their keeper in the first half and his tackle ended up cannoning out off the underside of the crossbar. It was another strange game from Smith-Daley. He was a bit better helping out defensively, but too often with the ball he was trying to get rid of it before it had even got to him. Then he popped up with yet another excellent finish for our goal - his 3rd very good goal of the tournament. He really is erratic, but the talent is there if he can piece it all together a bit more. Moulton has played pretty much everywhere this tournament so far and today was at RB. He was again relatively solid, but subdued. Galajevs wasn't as involved as in previous games and looked a bit tired. One thing I'd forgotten about but re-discovered when researching some of the players, is that our striker today Caydon Lamothe, as well as our striker in the first game Mathis Eboue, were both called up to an England training camp in January of this year. These training camps are to look at a wider number of players though and as such aren't as selective as the proper squads for matches, which I think Vancea was once part of. Also, Mathis Eboue it turns out is the son of Emmanuel Eboue! He was also released by Arsenal in his earlier years. So yet another well-known players' son passing through our academy. I think both Lamothe and Eboue are both a year below most of the rest of this squad as they joined up for England u15s in January and have not yet received scholarships. Eboue looked fairly silky in our opening game, but was lightweight and as such struggled to get too involved. I don't think he's played since and assume he must have got injured. Lamothe has not particularly impressed me in his outings; he's full of running but his first touch has seemed surprisingly poor for someone who'd received at least some degree of England recognition. https://x.com/WatfordFCAcad/status/1749482941233660400 Not really anything else to add about any of the others who featured that hasn't already been said. But it was a good showing overall today and another very respectable performance against good quality opposition.
Thanks for the report @lowerrous, good stuff. I haven't watched it back but you mentioning tiredness is no real surprise considering the awful pitch, heat and games on successive days. Valencia on the other hand had at least one day off so will have benefitted from that no doubt. Good signs though overall, now just a question of keeping them and finding a way into first team football somewhere, hopefully eventually for us for a few.
Oh, there was a 3rd/4th place play-off today for Watford. In fact there was a 5th/6th game as well as the final, all today. Somewhat surprisingly, Juventus beat Dinamo Tbilisi on penalties in the other semi-final so faced Valencia in the final game of the competition. I've not watched so I can't post any spoilers but here is our game from earlier today, this time played on a real pitch and not some weird NASA interpretation of what it would be like playing on Venus. Spoiler: Valencia/Juventus Score Valencia 0 - 1 Juventus
I couldn't believe we had yet another game! Just finished watching it. It's late so I'll post more on it tomorrow. But SPOILER for those who wish to know the result... . . . . . . . Spoiler: Watford vs Dinamo Tbilisi Watford 1 - 0 Dinamo Tbilisi . Lots of changes from both sides, but some minor revenge for our opening game defeat to them
Brief match report further to the above. The teams: Both sides with lots of changes relative to their meeting at the start of the tournament, with both leaving out some key players. The game itself was also of an lower quality and lesser intensity than the opener, completely understandably given the changes made by the two sides and the likely tiredness after a relentless set of games. Out of our team I think only Vancea at LB and Akinyimika in CM started every game in the tournament. Interesting to see the two young lads who'd previously had England training camp call-ups in Lamothe and Eboue start next to each other as the two strikers. Eboue I thought seems to have more about him, even aside from the fact that he scored our goal today with an okay finish with his weaker left-foot. He really does get nudged off the ball and/or falls over far too easily at the moment though. Lamothe has not impressed this tournament really, he's seemed to mostly chase shadows and look sulky. Smith-Daley had a game that only seemed to show his worst traits with none of his redeeming good ones - especially his habit of trying to play a one-touch layoff 9 times out of 10 whenever the ball comes to him, regardless of if a team-mate is actually available and ready to receive it. or whether he has time and space to take a touch and either dribble or pick out a better passing option. Everything he does is at 100mph, and it can pay off in goal-scoring situations but look wasteful and odd when he's under little to no pressure. He went off with an injury that hopefully wasn't serious. Ultimately it was a deserved victory in a relatively scrappy game and some minor revenge for our unfortunate opening game defeat. The players overall have impressed me more than I expected going in to the tournament and done well given the standard of the opposition. The coaching is also clearly of a good standard as we've continued to move the ball well for the most part throughout the tournament despite the frequent personnel changes.
Strong U21's team against Sheffield United today. Kick off at 2pm, should be streamed live here: Sheffield United U21s v Watford U21s | Professional Development League (youtube.com) GK - Marriott CB - Clarridge CB - Tikvic CB - Almeida RWB - Adu-Poku LWB - Watkiss CM - Dwomoh CM - Ramirez-Espain FW - Adeyemo FW - Lawson FW - Doumbia
Losing. Poor goalkeeping. Shot from about 30 yards, not even in the corner. Went through players but had enough time to adjust. Looked like it went under him.
Myles Roberts has had a good spell at Prtick Thistle so far. Seems to be good at taking crosses and playing high line.
He's looked composed and pops up both ends. One of the few players to have any credit this game for us. Doumbia being outmuscled.
5-1 down 35 minutes in. Genuinely embarrassing stuff for a strong side. I hope we have a receipt for Tikvic - looks dire even at this level. Dwomoh has looked pretty decent despite the scoreline. Doumbia struggling with physicality a bit. Needs to get in touch with Baah's PT.
Keep getting done on the wings. Our wings backs always have a 2v1 situation. Their RW absolutely destroyed us. Don’t know who he is, but he’s is freaking quick. Our press is all over the place. Genuinely looks like Englands at the Euros. Some players are pressing, some aren’t, some are going thinking everyone is with them only to look and see 2 of them pressed. Then our players are out of position. Kayky had some good interceptions considering we look awful. Not being helped by Watkiss at LWB. He looks terrible and I doubt he will have any sort of career outside of league 2 at best. Our forwards are waiting for the ball rather than meeting the ball. Just so bad at the basics.
Suppose someone to be expected to a certain extent if they just dropped a bunch of "first teamers" into the match day squad, though you would like to think they were training the system. Agreed - the wing back situation is dire.
I’ve turned it off. Just awful! Those boys need to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves some serious questions about whether or not they want to make it. Based on today, most of them will not have a career in football. Many of them failed the 4 corner model (Tactical/technical, Psychological, Physical, Social). Many of them threw in the towel, extremely poor mentality, zero passion, zero desire, zero clue about what to do. Many of our passes were laughable. My boys aged 8 and 6 can pass the ball faster with more accuracy than what we were doing today. At least it encouraged them in their journey of becoming professional football players.
Very disappointing performance. Terrible defensively. A few thoughts from the game on some of the players below. Marriott had a difficult game and definitely made one big mistake for one of their goals, and possibly another for one. Tikvic has some good attributes, but unfortunately none of them seem to be defensive ones. Feel like he may need a position change either to midfield or full/wing back. Imagine he'll go somewhere else on loan in Jan. Almeida gave the ball away twice which led to two goals. Don't want to judge him too harshly off one appearance but he'll definitely need some developing. Wouldn't surprise me if he plays for the U21's until Jan and then goes out on loan. Adu-Poku was a small positive. At least in his attacking play, so fast, direct and strong. Defensively was difficult for him, but wing back is new to him so hopefully he can develop that side of his game and become an asset for the first team. Dwomoh showed some good signs. He was getting very frustrated though, will need to work on remaining a little calmer - the body language wasn't great at times. Think he will definitely get a chance in the first team and can see him having a fairly high ceiling but will need see more of him to really know obviously. Doumbia struggled to really get into the game. His first touch was quite poor, and he's definitely very raw. I think there's something to work with though - best for him to stay around the club this season imo with some U21 games and the odd appearance in the cups / league to settle in properly. Adeyemo was poor unfortunately. Could do with another loan at national league level to try kick on. Lawson had some good moments - very raw but his control seemed a bit better than the other two and managed to win a penalty after a nice run. Hopefully he can become a mainstay at U21 level with a potential national league loan in Jan.
Very disappointing for a team that has a couple of first-team players and half a dozen more that have been on the periphery. Hopefully they learn more from this than they would from any victory.
