Bachmann - What can I say!!! Pollock - A good steady game Sierralta - I thought he played well Morris - Not too bad Ebosele - Had a very good game IMO Larouci - Likewise, probably his best game yet. Sissoko - A good steady game Kayembe - did Okay, but not his best Chakvetadze - A decent game, but again not at his best Ince - earned himself another start, as he played well and looks pretty good as a set piece taker. Baah - a good game and nearly made the full 90mins, but he is not a no 9 IMO Porteous - did pretty well when he came on Andrews - not a bad cameo, but nothing special Vata - was pretty anonymous, but did not have much time Doumbia - Likewise to Vata Sema - overall reasonable, but WTF was that cross all about? All in all, despite the horrendous keeping errors, probably our best performance for a while.
Our two main problems are the two problems we've had for years.. Bachmann is unreliable & we don't have a striker...
Saturdays preview; Kwadwo Baah hosts Blackburn Rovers this Saturday in a lunch time kick off. Injury news - Kwadwo Baah is injury free so it's a full healthy squad Likely formation 0-1-0 although TC may opt for 0-0-1 It's unlikely the game will last for 90 minutes, with Baah usually playing between 20-70 minutes.
Turn what around though? We all had no hopes for this season and so far it's really not as bad as we expected. Yes he's made some strange decisions at times but he's also had us play some good stuff. We are a mid table team, and with mid table teams you'll get inconsistency. I don't think any new manager would do any better. The fact is we just aren't as good as we used to be and we have to accept that.
Agree with your post - but I'm not sure I agree with the bit in bold. There's always someone who can do a better job, just as there's plenty who could do worse.
Same old comments every time a manager is exposed. I remember the same stuff said about Ismael, yet had he stayed we’d be in League 1. More evidence of the lack of wanting to win at club. From the boardroom to the players to the fans. Happy with a day out and a defeat.
I don’t get this idea that Bachmann is an average championship keeper, if for example you look at it the other way round, when we had David James you could immediately see he was a cut above and was destined to play at the top level, ridiculously athletic and able to make saves he had no right to. Your typical championship keeper is more anonymous, pretty solid around without really being that noticeable either way. Of course they’ll make the odd error every few games, but that is the same as at PL level, if you watch Edison as an example he’ll regularly make mistakes, but they aren’t necessarily always punished. Bachmann has a negative influence on games pretty much every game, he’s a half decent reactive stopper, but he’ll get caught on his line, have a meltdown, or flap around like he did last night pretty much every game we play, that isn’t a ‘normal championship keeper’ at all, he’s way below that standard. The goals he cost us last night he could’ve cost teams at a much lower level than the Championship and it would have been no more acceptable. He’s crap and a complete liability.
Sema awful this season? Sema has been awful for 6 years aside from a 6 month spell when we first were relegated. A dreadful player in my view.
Quite. I have no idea why seemingly the majority of our fans seem to always arrive at the conclusion he is “more than capable at this level”, irrespective of whatever chaos he has caused the previous game. The 5 year deal with the captaincy and the message that sent from the owners was a terrible decision.
The main thing to come out of last night is Ince should play because he can actually take a set piece.
No it really doesn't. Obviously when you are capable of more physically bullying the opponent you stand an improved chance of winning the match. That didn't happen vs Leeds but Bachmann's blunders made that near impossible and were nothing to do with the physicality or nastiness of either team. Our goal (the only other goal of the game after the GK errors) even came from Baah basically bullying their defenders. Citing the Leeds game actually undermines your original point, which was your claim that we need more players in the squad capable to "dig in, get nasty" - because Leeds really were a bunch of wimps and played most the match as if they couldn't give a to55, yet still won due to a combination of opposition incompetence and having a squad with many many millions worth of talent more than the opposition. It rather was another demonstration of the rebuttal point I already made that Leicester and Southampton managed to get promoted from the Champ with a bunch of mostly high quality, tippy-tappy fancy dans. Other teams will have been trying to be more physical with us in other games but failing because we ourselves were stronger. Teams don't generally go in to games just trying to avoid being physical, and more often than the other way round this season we have been the team to win the physical battle overall. You're just taking one or two games and pretending it's somehow fully indicative of our situation this season - simple as that. We're not going to be able to win the battle every single time - especially against one of the very few teams in the division specialised in aerial set pieces on a boggy pitch (and we actually won more tackles and made more interceptions than Luton). Leaving Carlton Morris unmarked at the back post is also more a failure of organisation and concentration than of not "getting nasty". Coventry and Millwall were also both robust this season and we matched them fine.
I think this issue is you clearly don’t understand what bullying actually means in the context it’s being discussed. Baah did not bully their defenders for our goal, he literally ran round one of them.
Struijk tried to go shoulder to shoulder with him but he out-muscled Struijk in getting passed him. He then burst on to reach the loose ball to finish while the other Leeds defenders were carelessly playing statues. I don't see how that is not an example of Baah showing more than the opposition of "the ability to dig in, get nasty and win at all costs" (or at the very least rather Leeds failing to show those qualities in that instance). Or what else is "the context being discussed" within this discussion of which you were not a part?! I'll be astounded if for a change you have managed to make an uncalled for interjection where you haven't just failed to comprehend something yourself and then thrown out some more entirely irrelevant or at best pointlessly tangential verbal diarrhea.
It was in the box, their player would’ve been scared of making too much contact, Baah literally just used his pace to run round him like any forward player would do who has a bit of pace about them. Honestly, if you genuinely think that was an example of us “bullying” our opponent, this is a new low even for you, worse even than blaming the pitch and set pieces for Saturdays debacle. Truly sad to see.
Here is Bachmann's media apology to the fans in full. Read of it what you will. Thank you to Andrew French on Twitter. Goalkeeper Dan Bachmann voluntarily spoke to the local media following last night's game at Elland Road, apologising to his teammates and the supporters after his errors led to the 2-1 defeat against Leeds. Often getting players to talk to the media can be tough even after a win, it’s harder still following a defeat and nearly impossible when the player in question has probably cost his team the game. So for that to happen, and for Bachmann to wait around in his kit until after the main press conference had finished, is virtually unheard of. “I’ve let the lads down today,” he said. “As a goalkeeper if you make a mistake there’s usually only one outcome and that’s all part of the game. “I’m disappointed because the way the lads played they deserved to get a bit more today - we reacted well to the start we had. “And I can only apologise to the fans who have travelled such a long way to watch us play and lose because of the mistakes I made. “I’ve apologised to the lads in the dressing room too, and I just hope the supporters who travelled can have a half-decent journey back. “I let them and the team down, but when you are a goalkeeper and make mistakes that’s what happens.” The Austrian international shared his thoughts on the two that went past him. “The first one the ball moved a little bit, I was caught in two minds and it’s slipped through my fingers,” he recalled. “I need to watch it back to understand that one more, though I don’t really want to. “I don’t think I’ve ever made an error like that in my career, and so I’m quite lucky in that respect. “For the second goal there was a slight deflection on the cross, I saw a striker coming in the corner of my eye and the ball was spinning. “I should have gone and caught it, I half pulled out and then it’s fallen straight to their player. I made the wrong decision in that split-second moment. “They were two mistakes on my part which let the team down.” Bachmann praised his 10 outfield teammates for the way they responded. “I’m really proud of the lads for the way they performed, especially in the second half which I thought was one of our best performances in a long time,” he said. “I don’t think many teams come to a place like this and play the way we did for periods of the first and most of the second half. “When we had the ball we cut through them quite easily with a lot of desire and intensity. “The first 10 minutes of the second half were incredible and I don’t think that happens here very often. “You could have heard a pin drop at the start of the second half, apart from our fans.” It’s been a difficult few days for Bachmann, who returned from injury at Luton on Saturday only to seem to struggle throughout, which limited his kicking. “It was the first time in my career I’d had a quad injury and you’re a bit wary,” he said. “When you’ve had an injury before you know what the feelings are, but I didn’t know what to expect. “I’ve kicked about 30 balls today so there are no issues there.” Did the events of the first seven minutes last night dent his confidence? “Not at this stage in my career. If you were younger and in a stadium like this then it can get intimidating. “But I’m 30 years old and played in a lot of big stadiums and big games. “Mistakes happen, but the biggest thing is how you react to them. I can’t change it now. “I felt like I reacted well and made saves in the second half.” It was put to Bachmann that stepping forward to speak to the media after such a bad night personally indicates he must care for Watford. “I’ve been here for seven and a half years, and I hope people understand how much I care for this football club. “I do a lot of work in the community because I want to, and because the football club has given me a lot in my life and my career, and so have the fans and the people. “I’ll get a lot of pelters for my mistakes tonight which is understandable, and the supporters have the right to do that. “I’m only human as well, and today my mistakes have cost us. “What hurts me even more is the lads played so well.”
As i said in my post, he's fine at this level. Makes mistakes but he makes a similar amount possibly less than the vast majority of keepers in this league. Clearly he should not have played the last two games but that's down to TC
There is no way on earth Bachmann saves us more points than he concedes. Surely all keepers have a positive XG saved ratio anyway?
Just because you said it in your post doesn’t make it true. Anecdotal statements about other keepers making as many mistakes doesn’t really prove it either, what other championship teams do you watch religiously week in week out? Championship keepers by and large are not poor keepers, of course they all make mistakes just like Premier League ones do, but not to the level and consistency that Bachmann does. He’d be a poor keeper one or two leagues lower as well, a critical mistake or more pretty much every game is not “fine at this level”.
Having watched the Sky highlights, I thought the other players were less than enthusiastic to congratulate him on the couple of good saves he made.
"iT wAS In thE bOx!!!" You do realise you waste your own time, as well as mine, with your repeated, needless, stupid interjections?!
I've seen enough poor opposition keepers just by watching Watford. The Millwall and Leeds keepers I've seen this year have been poor. In fact of those I've seen this year I can't think of one I've seen where I thought I wish we had him instead of Bachmann We both have an opinion, I think he's ok at this level, you don't, neither of us can prove it either way as we don't see enough of other keepers but in my time watching football at this level I think he's ok
I've just posted this on the Bachmann thread but, as the debate about him is active here, here are some facts relating to our apologetic goalkeeper: Season 23/24 Rankings Goals against per 90 (1.19) - 8th Save percentage (70.8) - 8th Clean sheets percentage (40.7) - 3rd Penalty save percentage (66.7 [2 0f 3]) - 2nd equal Season 24/25 Rankings Goals against per 90 (1.54) - 19th Save percentage (68.6) - 16th Clean sheets percentage (12.5) - 19th Penalty save percentage (100 [1 0f 1]) - 1st equal Sources: [Accessed 23/10/24] https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/2023-2024/keepers/2023-2024-Championship-Stats https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepers/Championship-Stats
I am utterly convinced that @a19tgg and @lowerrous are married. I've never seen people bicker as much as they do outside of marriage!
