I believe that a decent striker would improve Chaks "end product " For any half competent striker seeing a team mate who draws players onto him , can beat them with ease which in turn creates space in the final third is the holy grail.
A first away draw since April. And also a first league match since April in which we’ve not won from a winning position (2-2 v Brom). After scoring five in the second half at Wednesday, we’ve now failed to score after the break in our last two away matches. Yesterday was the first time we’ve scored twice in the first half in the league this season, and Bayo’s goal was our earliest of the season (9 minutes, or 9 minutes 6 seconds lol for those of us there!). One little moan. Porteous getting a needless late yellow for kicking the ball away. That’s 7 for the season, including two quick bookings since his return from suspension. At this rate, we will face yet another disruptive ban in defence sooner rather than later. Stupid.
The performance was excellent, thought we were really good in the main but a few individual errors cost us. If player cam was still a thing then the camera for Baah wouldn’t have left the Crowne Plaza - he looked like he hadn’t woken from his afternoon nap. Brilliant recently but not last night. A few times he got an earful from players around him for not dropping in when needed. Bayo ran himself into the ground and was getting increasingly annoyed at Chaks lack of pressing behind him. Bayo pressed the keeper but the out ball was always on because Chak wasn’t following in. Andrews absolutely honks defensively. He gave Gray the freedom of the box for the equaliser. Same old with Giorgi “he looks so dangerous” is becoming more and more tiresome without him having any end product. The difference last night was Giorgi looked dangerous, Gray was dangerous. Louza was excellent, as were Pollock, Porteous and Morris. 1,200 ‘Orns was a good turnout.
Your evaluation of Bachmann made me chuckle Opti! I agree on the sluggishness and footwork for the goals but the “fine otherwise” comment is amusing considering that he had nothing to do except try and save 2 shots that probably had a combined XG of 0.3 and was below par for both! Keeper aside I thought we played really well. Pollock immense, Bayo had a great game and we largely outplayed them. Just one of those days and a lot more positives than negatives.
Dropping two points late in stoppage time always hurts. Doing so due to a goal from a former player, who had the technique of wheelie bin, the touch of a brick wall, and the disregard for national pandemic lockdown procedures of a Tory PM, hurts 1000 times more.
Regarding your Bayo\Chak point and as I have already said a decent striker would improve Chaks stats and I know that Bayo has bundled a few in recently but between December last year and a few games ago Bayo had scored twice so he was definitely not helping anyone's assist stats .
I've always wondered where you get your stats from, it's always interesting to read. On a side note I actually thought Porteous's yellow card was harsh. The whistle had barely gone when he was in motion to kick the ball over the top. The ref seemed to be guessing at decisions in general all night.
We are one of the top scoring teams in the league. I get that Bayo is still high on the boo boy list but Giorgi’s lack of end product is on Giorgi and is something he needs to change.
I'm not a boo boy as I try to give a balanced take . As I have said it is very hard to get an "assist" if your striker rarely scores . As for Bayo moaning at Chak. Well I can lip read and Chak retorted with " well , if you didn't keep giving the ball away we wouldn't have to press so much " . Probably.
What was the comment at AOP if you don’t mind me asking? Genuinely interested, not trying to corner you!
I’m not bemoaning Chak’s lack of end product. He was heavily involved in both goals. The way he set Larouci up for the first assist was top drawer.
Just to confirm with this ‘Georgi has no end product’ thing that gets used a lot on here, you mean his finishing? As in he doesn’t score enough goals? Because I pointed out last match that he had (probably still has) created the most chances from open play in the entire league.
For Gray’s 2nd goal, I got the “you are a grown man” look from my wife. I was shouting expletives and slapping the coach hard, to the point that our dogs were panicking. I’m sure all wfc fans felt the same way, but most would have reacted more maturely. I thought our attitude to the build to that goal was careless and casual. Kayembe should have hoofed if way up pitch. From the resultant throw Bayo and Louza were half hearted in challenging for headers, Andrews gave Gray so much room and Bachmann looked like he had his boots nailed to the floor. Tom has got to get that mentality right. If Gray was under pressure for his shot, it would have been all positive and my dogs would not have been spooked.
To be fair, the top scoring thing is a bit of an anomaly as Reid’s regular stats updates show. Chak does need a better end product when trying to score. But they all do. Baah is wasteful, Bayo regularly shows awful technique in front of goal, Jebbison…well! And for all the comments, Bayo doesn’t get booed - he gets a number of fans frustrated that he often looks so bad in front of goal. Some will point to how many goals he’s scored but I think it’s just as pertinent to point to how many he could have if he’d even scored 50% of the big chances he’s missed.
He also took the FK for Pollock to cross for the 2cnd. Not sure how much more he is expected to do in all honesty.
After Kayembe meekly tapped the ball out, the ball was by Bayo’s feet as the Plymouth player was scrambling around for the ball for a quick throw - 99% of players are switched on enough to kick the ball away, feel the wrath of the home fans and let his teammates get back into shape. Players do this is the 5th minute of games for crying out loud, yet we are too brain dead to do it when the clock has run dead to win 3 points.
Looking back at it I blame Kayembe the most for that goal. With the ball at his feet he had the chance to boot it back up the pitch. Just get rid of it, out of danger. We would of been able to get back into shape and probably see the game out. Trying to be cute and fancy in the dying minutes of a game always ends in disaster. It's not all on him as Andrews was bog awful with his space awareness but Kayembe needs to learn to clear the ball not pass it along the by-line.
Shame that we lost that late goal as in many ways that was our most complete away performance . Started properly on The front foot with intensity and should have been more ahead. Then in the second half although we sat back Plymouth had precious little. All apart from those 2 minutes of inexplicable Gray quality we were completely in control. So so disappointing that we fannied around and didn’t just clear the ball with barely 40 seconds remaining . That is the first time we’ve conceded a late equaliser and our game management at home has been decent so hopefully a bit of a learning experience for them .
Precisely . Although he clearly needs to work on his goal tally , which is very poor , the big difference between the Georgi of this season and last season is he is doing less running into blind alleys, losing the ball and his distribution is regularly of very good quality .
I think it’s wrong to concentrate on why and how the late equaliser was conceded for the loss of two points. The main issue is the mentality of the team for most of the second half. There won’t be many away games where Watford enjoy such dominance and are very clearly the better team and they should have pressed home that advantage at 2-1 to make the game safe instead of trying to ‘manage’ the game out.
Of course you’re struggling to process what happened: Andre Gray scored not one but two world class goals and rescued a point for a team that deserved to lose on balance. I’m not the statistician that you are Malts, but without looking this up, I can categorically confirm that this NEVER OCCURRED in the 4 seasons and 100+ appearances that Andre Gray played for Watford Football Club. Last night was a freak showing from him. The only things reminiscent of his Watford spell were the misplaced passes, and the amusing attempt to score late in the second half (not long before the 2nd worldie), when the ball bounced off the back of his head and landed in the ball boy’s lap.
I’ve been critical of Bayo, but his work rate is good. And yes his finish was not pretty when he scored last night, but it goes down as a scrappy goal by someone who was in the right place at the right time. I always felt like he was trying too hard to score beautiful goals before, so I’m alright with his botched finishing if the ball eventually crosses the line. And not scoring in the one v one was frustrating, but happens with every striker (except Matty Vydra).
Breaking news Apparently we are appealing that match, looks like Plymouth named Andre Gray in the team and then replaced with someone that could actually hit a barn door - very dubious , apparently it was Harland in a Mask Was in the pub watching (wish we would stop playing on a Friday , trying to explain to a whole pub in Exeter that this game does matter and shouldn't be turned off is hard, the only thing going for me was the hatred of Plymouth). From what I could tell Bayo and the mad Scottish man scored again(which is good, finally Bayo is scoring) and the striker that scored a rather unimpressive 19 goals in 113 appearances for us suddenly decided to find the back of the net. I don’t really blame anybody for the two Andre goals presumably Bachman watch him hit the ball and assumed it was going into the top of the stand.
Me too. But even though he deserved a bit of a slap for such a defensive lapse, Robbo can look after himself.
Giorgi’s great but when you’re striker is not a 20 goal man, then the 10’s playing behind need to add 5-10 goals each. Giorgi is on the 1 so far, not good enough. I miss Almen Abdi.
I hate Bachmann more than the rest of the fanbase combined but even if he dived at full stretch he wasn't saving either of those goals.
Through gritted teeth you have to say Gray looks a very astute pick-up for them so far, in contrast to the free agent signings we’ve made over the last few seasons who’ve usually got injured early on and barely featured. There was a lot to be pleased with last night, but of course results matter most and change opinions. Another 60 seconds of holding on and we’ve have all been praising the team for a mature performance closing out a win on the road at a ground where even the league leaders have lost this season. Fine margins. We draw so few games too that sometimes it’s hard to know how to process stalemates Point gained or two lost etc. Definitely two lost last night, and it hurts, particularly when we kick off the Championship weekend and can only sit back now and watch other teams climb above us. We are a long way short of being the finished article (lots of moans last night such as Sissoko’s reckless streak, Bayo’s finishing, Andrews defending, Baah’s decision making, understandable though for his level of inexperience, and obviously our inability to see out the win) but overall this is a most enjoyable season so far, full of chaos, goals, unpredictability, sheer bonkersness at times. I love it.
I think the most important result of the Saturday games is Hull vs Lootown. Last night would be another point ahead of those cavemen up the M1, and another nail in Edwards' sacking target. We're not going to make the playoffs and I agree it's about taking it game by game and trying to be difficult to beat. Sometimes results like last night happen and an ex-player puts in a super show for the cameras, but we did ourselves proud overall to not lose at a ground most teams have struggled at. We need 24 more points (or around that) to be assured of Championship football next season, and we're on course right now. Injuries were always going to hamper us with the squad depth and it's proving correct, but we have a good squad who care about the cause, which is a lot more than the selection of ex-PL players we used to have who didn't give a damn.
