If it's possible, I will swap Maximim for Sarr right now. He puts in more effort than Sarr in all games. Most people I have come across though thinks Maximim and Adama Traore are average players because they are not known for scoring hattricks on games or having lots of assist. But for me a player like Dennis will flourish more playing in the same team with either of them than Sarr because whenever Maximim has the ball and running towards goal, most teams make plans for two or three players closing him down which gives another player more space to express themselves, unfortunately for Newcastle, Wood, Wilson and Joelington ain't the type to benefit from playing with Maximim. Even our little Pedro will do wonders. Sent from my TECNO P701 using Tapatalk
ASM gave the ball away cheaply about 10 times yesterday. If it wasn’t for the mistake he would’ve been nothing but a liability.
I agree. ASM is a match-winner on his day, but is far too sulky as a player. He has purple patches in form, but it's far too fleeting. He's more off than on. Even the Newcastle fans are happy to get rid.
Most telling was the mood of the Newcastle fans, players and especially the manager after the game. Eddie Howe said he was hugely disappointed, he looked totally gutted and demoralised. Compare that to Ranieri who recognised that confidence was low after losing 6 games on the trot but at the same time he still conveyed optimism and belief. If you were a player who would you want to play for?
Without wishing to labour the point, Joelinton also hit the bar in the first half from stealing ahead of Ngakia who was on his heels and slow in trying to make the clearance.
We can get that from Etebo if we play him in a more advance position. Sent from my TECNO P701 using Tapatalk
Sarr was off-form before his injury. Whether he was 100% fit I'm not sure but I can say with absolute certainty that within the club they absolutely rave about him as an athlete. A fully fit Sarr offers a lot off the ball as well as on it. He has speed & strength but an engine that can get up and down the pitch all day long. This is one reason why the partnership with Kiko worked so well - when Kiko overlaps, he knows Sarr can cover him. If we can get Sarr back, truly rested & recovered from injury, I believe he can make an enormous contribution to Watford staying up!
Annoying that it took us to go behind before we had a real go at them but I suppose that can be expected on a run like ours and the extent of the match. Positives are that we stopped the rot, promising from the new boys and we never stopped until the end. Excellent buildup, great cross and an even better finish from Pedro. But another individual error. But they came from both sides they capitalised we didn't.
Newcastle is always a decent away day and yesterday was no different. The Geordies have always been deluded but they are on another level now partly because of their newfound wealth and partly because of smug Saint Eddie. Ngakia was solid in the first half, defensively we were steady all game. Cathcart has been our best centre half this season so it was no surprise to see him get the nod alongside Samir. All three new signings were good and gave us a more assured look. It also makes a massive difference not having Flapman in goal. One brain fart from Ngakia cost us big time. Dennis was really poor. Cleverley in for Kucka against Norwich would be a smart move. Yesterday was must not lose, Friday is must win. Tuesday is looking likely for a postponement.
It was probably all in the later stages of the game but on Mot'd they showed 4 clips to show how Newcastle had no outlets from the back, and it looked like we had 5 players pushed up closing them down.? Seems we can press when oppo sit deep but we're nervy when they come at us, but hopefully if we can gain some confidence in the group this will improve, we've done it earlier in the season.
Having watched the game for a second time on Sky’s game of the day, I realised we were nowhere near as poor in the first half as I’d thought watching live, probable due to my state of nervous agitation. We didn’t have enough possession, but we put together some decent moves, which became more frequent in the second half. Overall, we definitely deserved a draw and, if anything, had the slightly better chances. The most important thing however was stopping Newcastle getting any momentum or confidence from a win. They looked as poor as ever and the expectation of their big crowd will always count against them the longer it goes on. Job done.
To add to my earlier comments, the way a minority of our fans acted upon leaving was an embarrassment celebrating like it was some famous victory. Banging on the windows of cars, gesturing and trying to look for a fight when Newcastle fans just appeared to view them as irrelevant. I always thought Newcastle fans were deluded, however that was not the impression i got this weekend. Quite the opposite. Decent bunch and a proper ground in the city centre. Were it not for the blood money and the fact we're in a relegation scrap with them i may have wished them well for the future!
Craig Cathcart yesterday: 44 passes - second most behind Kayembe. 93.2% accuracy. Far and away the best of the team. 7 clearances, 3 tackles, 4 aerials won, 59 touches (the most of anybody on our team), 3 accurate long balls and 1 'key pass'. Credit where it's due, he did very well yesterday at the heart of a completely rejigged defence.
Stats are one thing, using the old eye test I for one think he’s awful with the ball. For the first 20 minutes his touch was horrible, what should be one touch to control and one to pass becomes about four with him after he’s bobbled it controlled it and then found a pass he thinks is safe enough to play. By then the opposition have normally worked out he’s worried and put him under severe pressure. He puts the midfield under needless pressure sometimes with passes fired into them despite someone being on their back, like Sissoko yesterday which put Wood through and Cathcart to be fair recovered well. His scanning is also awful, he’s horribly slow and he turns like a tank. Apart from that he’s great.
I think Dennis is being judged slightly harshly here. Unfortunately, as a team we’ve reduced our attacking intent in order to try and be harder to score against. So less space given to players like Dennis with more defenders around him and fewer options when he has the ball. Yet he’s still managed to wriggle out of some tight situations and is still looking to create. If Sissoko didn’t turn into a Sunday league footballer when it comes to shooting, Dennis would have had an excellent assist.
Just noticed Cucho’s reaction to the goal following his perfect through ball to Kiko. How can anyone not love the little scamp? ******* loves the game and the club, clearly. He’s our very own Dani Rojas.
Don't want him to play really well and us still go down though. We could do with him in the Championship next season (if that's where we end up).
I think we now know that Sierralta is at best 4th in the centre half pecking order, based on the fact we were going to bring on Kabasele (I assume we thought Samir couldn't continue?).
Hmm...yes and no on Ngakia. He is not yet a good defender either I'm afraid. I have had the feeling for some time that he's shaping up to be described as a 'likeable and promising' player for sometime yet. Promising when he signed him from West Ham (but not a patch on the 21 year old full back who's replaced him), promising as he started the Championship and promising with a few Prem starts fitting in around injuries plus cameo sub appearances. But sprinkled within those performances are a number of crucial errors. He escaped last year as Championship sides didn't exploit the errors but as we're seeing this season there's no hiding place. Yes, still 21 but if he doesn't learn, shape up and improve he'll go the way of so many promising players and never really make it. I'd love to see him develop into a strong reliable defender, improve his passing and overlap going forward but I don't see much development (yet), just big question marks I'm afraid. Yes he had handled ASM fairly well in the first half who was off his game, backed up by Cathcart, Sissoko and Kucka. When he got into difficulties yesterday in the critical moment, his 1st half concentration levels had gone, he panicked and froze. Like it or not, he had to take ASM out which, as you say, Kiko would probably have done. Indeed I'm certain Dummett and Trippier would have done that if they had had the same number done on them by Dennis or whoever. I was a bit surprised Ranieri didn't sub him much quicker. Ngakia was rightly distraught and for several minutes after the re-start was all over the place but fortunately Newcastle and ASM didn't exploit him. We had just about weathered the Newcastle post-goal storm when Kiko replaced him although I was staggered to hear Ranieri abused by one or two round me - "we're losing so he replaces a full back, WTF!" - as I thought all his subs (a bit late again perhaps, mind) did swing the match back in our favour. Incidentally it's also interesting that Eddie afterwards was blaming his own team for not going for the jugular when we were on the ropes. You can't tell me that Eddie and 'Jase' weren't shouting for the team to just hold their 1-0. Newcastle were so passive from 70mins and defending so deep it was great to see us score such a tremendous goal to bust Eddie's bubble. Brilliant pass Cucho, brilliant cross under immense pressure Kiko and sublime Pedro header towering above Lascelles. What a moment!!
Whatever happens the rest of the season, yesterdays goal will be long remembered, Pedro has absolutely no right to get the header in, I do wonder if there was a push on King which would have led to a penalty had we not scored!
JP's goal was actually remarkably similar to one of Dennis' first goals, if memory serves me having not refound/watched the Dennis example - I think it might have been his second, given he scored his first against Villa on the opening day? But yeah, totally from memory I feel like it played out almost exactly the same, from the where the ball came from, to the player themselves aggressively running in from some distance and CR7-esque muscular salmon leaping at the opposition centre back, to the flight of the header and where in the net the ball ended up.
Great weekend away in Newcastle I know the Newcastle fans expect too much but they are a good bunch even Iva little deluded. No hostility, no home fan only pubs, no issues wearing Watford colours in any bars. How Saturday football should be. lots of orange looking women though
Ngakia is still a young lad and has not played a lot of senior football. He has things to learn - but he will only learn that by playing. In an ideal world we probably would have brought in a first choice right back, bumped Kiko to 2nd choice and loaned Jeremy to a championship club for a year, but we had other areas of the squad that needed our limited resources first so we are where. I think Ngakia is a far better 1v1 defender than Kiko. He makes mistakes, but so does Kiko and Ngakia at least has time on his side to improve and learn from them. Yeah Ranieri has been caught napping a few times with late subs. You could see Ngakia was rattled - probably thought in one moment he had cost his team the win, given up the chance at starting and was getting it from opposition fans. Yeah - one of the few times we managed to string 3 successive moments of quality together, but further proof that we can do it. Even if it was only a point, it is hopefully a moment to give the team, and Joao Pedro; the confidence to kick on.
Watched the entire match on Game of the Day. It was a much better performance than I expected, however, it was really a Championship fixture in essence. Newcastle have very little menace about them and only one win for them this season is understandable. They need to do a lot more business in the transfer market to have any hope of staying up. I gave particular attention to the new recruits. Kamara was very impressive. That's his first game since November. A debut in a country he's never played in before in the most important match of the season, and it would have been easy to have been off it. He was comfortable on the ball, could play in tight areas, showed confidence and had pace. I think he has great promise, and I'm going to call it now, but he's going to be the best left back we've signed under the Pozzo's. Samir I need to see again, but he's certainly not a weak player from that performance. Whether he's an upgrade I can't decide just yet, but he's definitely no worse than what we already have. Need to see how he performs against better strikers than dead Wood, although the next two games will probably quite straight forward for him too, in terms of tough strikers. Kayembe was a pleasant surprise. I thought he'd be better than a lot of people predicted, but you never know until you actually see him play. Now I'm confident he'll be an asset to us and an upgrade. Can't get over the importance of that equaliser. Could have changed the entire direction of this season. Ranieri stays at the club, Newcastle remain below us with their confidence dented. Watford buoyed by that late equaliser and go into the next two games with a positive mindset. I think there's every reason to think we'll improve from here on in, especially if we sign a couple more players to improve what we have. Newcastle, Norwich and Burnley could be in a real spot of bother if we win our next two, and I've always maintained Brentford be dragged into it later in the season. I don't see any other club in trouble though. Leeds proved today they have far too much quality to go down, and Everton will improve under a new coach....well probably.
