He's done that in a few games where we end up with 3 or 4 cbs towards the end. I don't really get it and agree it invites pressure. Maybe he thinks it facilitates 2 up front but I'm not convinced.
Not sure having so many CBs on the pitch was the issue, think it was simply that Livermore went off, and as vital as he is to us, taking off a 34 year old who's been asked to play basically every game for us since October and who had already been booked seems a fair gamble, one which just about paid off!
It's very possible. Holding our own as a mid/lower champ side other than the one-season blip with little hope of promotion and hoping to avoid a relegation battle. The football was pretty boring though.
I'm with you. Having spent the best part of 30 years waiting for us to be able to hold our own in the top flight I absolutely loved the Premier League years – even 2019-20 when, until lockdown, it looked like we might haul ourselves out of the bottom three and stay out. 1999-2000 had its moments, 2006-07 less so, but there was never a sense that we were going to stick around. We were Premier League cannon fodder and we didn't belong. But watching us stay up several seasons in a row with barely a worry was fantastic. Even Mazzarri's season, when we took our foot off the gas and the key out of the ignition with six matches to go and still stayed up, had some glorious days. At their best, Capoue, Doucoure, Pereyra, Deulofeu, were sensational to watch. Even the less heralded players had their moments but more than that, the sense of occasion surrounding every Premier League game, the belief that even though the odds were stacked against us we could go take points off almost anyone (Man City being the obvious exception) was the closest to a return to the 1980s. I can remember disagreements with friends about each of them, saying, 'Blimey, mate, enjoy the good bits while you can because the alternative is a lot, lot worse.' And it is. The ground feels shabbier, somehow. It doesn't reverberate, it echoes. Yes, there's the signs of some spirit, fight and togetherness emerging in Val's team, but it's mediocre in comparison.
As much a people like to reminisce about that Premier League squad, they are the same ones who downed tools and got us relegated the next year because they didn't get their bonus. Maxi Pereyra was shirking everything and Doucoure was a donkey. Then when we got relegated 17 members of that squad declared themselves unfit to play in the opening fixture of the championship. Fact is we went about our Premier League campaign the wrong way and sold our soul trying to achieve 17th each season. When it inevitably crumbled it's no surprise the last 5 years unfolded how they did. I'm not interested in going back up unless we are willing to put together a stable team who actually want to play for us under one manager.
I agree with your sentiment regarding this, however, we cannot dismiss the petulant owner who was embarrassed by the cup final defeat and withheld promised bonuses. This was the one act, which pulled the thread allowing everything to unravel. Gino destroyed his own empire through vanity.
I think Doucoure deserves a bit of slack, he was a great box to box midfielder, but not great in a more advanced role, a bit like how Kayembe struggled before he was given his current role
I guess he meant in that final season as he was an excellent player generally. We had some great times along with some pretty rubbish games but that is to be expected really.
TBH, he’s played the advanced role really well in Dyche’s Everton team; his injury lay-off has seen their performances slump.
West Ham away in Project Restart instantly springs to mind. We had a real chance at beating a fellow relegation rival and considering our final two games were Manchester City & Arsenal, it was basically last chance saloon. They turned up and folded like a garden chair. It was embarrassing (and even more so due to being on Sky). After that it was effectively done, the mathematics being the only thing keeping it from being official. Evidently something kicked off after that game as the next day Pearson was given the boot. It baffled me how it was the same group of players (Sarr, Dawson and Welbeck aside) that dragged themselves up against Wolves at Wembley.
The culture in sporting organisations is set at the top. And, as they say, a fish rots from the head. I'm not saying that the players should be absolved of all responsibility but something was questionable about the culture at the club despite the relative success on the field. As a supporter, I obviously didn't enjoy the downsides any more than anyone else did. The capitulation after lockdown and the complacency after beating Norwich and Newcastle at home in back-to-back games was as rubbish as anything. But I do think it's odd to look back at four successive seasons where we survived comfortably enough and focus on the negatives. It's like looking back at the period from 1982 to 1987 and remembering only the 4-0 defeats at Goodison and White Hart Lane, the FA Cup semi-final thrashing by Spurs, Paul Atkinson, Neil Smilie and Neil Price etc. I do reminisce about that Premier League squad and I accepted the types of players and personalities they were, flaws 'n' all. Watching them was a lot, lot better than what's followed since 2020. Even the promotion campaign behind-closed-doors was workmanlike and functional. The subsequent relegation side was just about the least appealing Watford team I've watched in 40 years – virtually no redeeming features at all. And this, well, this is fine in a sort of treading water, maybe-something-will-come-of-it sort of way. A good number of the wins we had between 2015 and 2019 would be in my top 25 Watford games.
Yep it was utterly fantastic in every regard. It is bonkers to think we were attracting players like pereyra and especially Deulofeu, a truly world class talent. Totally different to the other times we were in it, as you say. For a couple of years we were genuinely a glamorous club, and that's not something you can say about even the peak 80s years. I still hold our hope we can get back to those days.
Doucoure was one of our very best Premier League players and it's no surprise to see him continuing to perform well. His form did drop off towards the end of his time here and we probably should've cashed in a season earlier but even though his passing went awry towards the end, he was still so important to the team with the amount of ground he covered and support he gave in both attack and defence.
I seem to recall that Doucoure had a slow start to his Watford career: Whichever coach it was tended not to pick him for the first team. Once he got going he was one of our best and most effective players ever. But when it all started to go wrong he became a shadow of his best. By no means was he the only one: Pereyra, for instance, was at Imran Louza levels of non- performance. There was surely stuff going on behind the scenes and I would think the boss played his part in it all. That unpaid bonus thing sounds like a huge mistake, if what we have gathered is true.
Big Nige at least seemed able to motivate the team initially (although actually picking our best players helped!), but didn't he suffer a bereavement during Covid?
Did he? He got Covid, certainly. https://www.skysports.com/football/...ving-watford-and-desire-to-return-to-the-game EDIT: his mother died just before the pandemic.
I notice when looking at the upcoming fixtures, Sheff Wed play their cup match 2 days before we play Southampton meaning they get an extra 48hrs rest before our league match with them on 31st. If our ability to turn around so many results this season after slow starts is really connected to superior fitness levels late in to the game, then it will certainly be put to the test at Hillsborough (assuming Val plays a full strength team against the Saints).
Thought it was a bit daft for us to arrange the game then but maybe we had no choice or it was decided before the FA Cup schedule?
I'm not sure exactly how it works but assume we were just told that was when the fixtures were going to be played, with our only bit of control over the home game being able to pick either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Yeah that's true but you can't remove every attacking threat you've got. You have to have some way of keeping the ball and putting pressure on their back line. It stopped all momentum we had instantly and almost cost us the win. Personally I'd have been OK with Livermore going off first and leaving Asprilla / Martins on for a little longer just to have the outlet. Don't forget, Bristol City will only have 3 days to prepare over our 6. We could have easily left them out longer. Oh well, I'm still happy with Val and the team, just think that could have backfired a lot.
