The last time we won our final fixture of the calendar year was the Xisco promotion season when in fact Boxing Day was our last match of the year. The year before, we beat Villa 3-0 on Dec 28.
I know many won’t agree - but if we are to be keeping Jebbison, I really don’t understand dropping him after one game. It’s not like he needs to be rested. And he was improved in the last game - it really can’t be doing much for his confidence and TC came out and praised him after Portsmouth. It really doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.
Let’s see if it’s just basic rotation and maybe he then gets the nod for Wednesday It’s 4 changes today I think? One enforced of course
I agree with @Burnsy starting Jebbison would of been the best thing to do in building his confidence. He made a chance all on his own last game and I cannot remember a striker we've had in recent times who can do that. Bayo made a decent lob/pass for the winning goal but apart from that did very little. Kayembe... ugh.
Just been reading their forum, feeling the need to call the Samaritans now. Seriously though it's sad to see fellow football supporters having to go through what they are. Hope things improve for them starting from tomorrow, 3-0 to the mighty 'orns.
I am feeling quite disappointed with that line up. Would have rather us start Jebbison and give Ebosele a start.
He sort of is. Tom said yesterday he hadn’t been impressing in training (as much as Andrews and Ngakia)
If I was him I would be asking to go back to Udinese. Completely wasted here when he does play it's as makeshift left back. Getting benched for Ngakia and Andrews is ridiculous.
Thought Ngakia was much improved on Thursday to be fair. And Andrews has provided a bit of a goal threat this season which might give him the edge on Ebosele?
Every match day we discuss the starting line-up and decide we don’t much like it. Nearly every match day we start badly. Only 9 first half goals all season.
We’ve played terribly and won a few times. Today we played terribly and lost. It’s frustrating but overdue. I think we’re due a 5-6 game winless run tbh. We’re probably a mid-table team who’ve been riding their luck. That said, Cardiff were diving and time wasting all game and didn’t have anything about them. Would love revenge in a few weeks.
Agree it's been coming. We have full backs who can't defend, almost no midfield and strikers who rarely strike.
Time to call it on Jebbison, he is never going to score a goal in a Watford shirt. Completely unacceptable miss. We need to sign either of the strikers we have been linked with in and send him back to Bournemouth, he has none of the traits of a decent striker.
Dogshyt performance from first to last. Dogshyt dogshyt dogshyt. I can't express how pathetic that was, and what a terrible failure of a coaching performance that was from Our Tommers. And what a great time for it to come, too. At home against one of the worst teams in the league. What a fuccking waste of an afternoon. It's genuinely insane that Sissoko and Kayembe can be found starting a game at this point in time. There's no excuse - we all know and can and have seen just how shyt they are, and together it's genuine profligacy. I can't imagine what excuse TC has for it, but whatever it is it won't be good enough. The one silver lining is that this time round our boy Rousy can't complain when I label this as bad as any performance this season. Indeed, this was the worst performance of the season, in a season punctuated by several utterly despicable, abject performances. A strong hat tip to Jebbo, for his hat-trick of open goal goalline misses. It's genuinely astounding - you've never seen the like. Anyone who has seen the peerless film 'Master & Commander' will have had no choice but to come to the same conclusion as me - he is a Jonah; our Hollom. We have no choice but to jettison him after today, even if he goes on to become Ronaldo's equal.
FFS why do we not take points from crap teams. Lost our home record (was going to happen at some point) , missed Baah on the pitch, bad sub choice
Didn't see the second half as I had an errand to run but considering the score line didn't change I can guess nothing happened much in our attempt to get back into the game, I'll read some of the reports on here. From the first 45mins that had to be, without a doubt, the worst first half performance I have ever seen. I was at the game when Palarse thrashed us 5-1 at the Vic many seasons back and we trailed 1-3 at half time and played better in that game. I do not know what the players' were smoking before the game but whatever it was chuck it out. This home loss has been coming for a long time. We should of lost at home to QPR, we should of lost a home to Middlesbrough because both of those sides missed chances that you would expect them to score. I know in football you make you're own luck, and boy have we been riding our luck at home for a long time. Our best performances at home have been Stoke and WBA a few weeks back. Every other game we have stuttered through, got a last gasp winner or equaliser or held on to a slender lead. That first half performance was completely unacceptable, and I know we have an average midtable side who rotate heavily but that was not an excuse for even trying. Cardiff cut us apart time and time again and went through our non-existent midfield like a knife through warm butter. Kayemebe was abysmal - every attack we tried just died as soon as he, or rather Sissoko got on the ball. Absolutely need replacing the pair of them in January. It's games like this I wish I lived back in Watford because I would of loved to of made my voice heard at HT, let alone FT. I think Cleverley knows, or he should know after this game, he cannot keep changing the backline as often as he does. The defence is the most important part of a team and his chopping and changing is never going to create a settled side. Porteous was sloppy and Andrews looked like he'd never seen a football. I might be sounding overly critical here, but I was fuming at HT, I expected Cardiff to come and play for a point but we bent over after 47 seconds and gifted them the lead with yet ANOTHER early goal. This is beyond a joke now, how slowly we start games and as much as TC speaks about addressing it, it clearly needs sorting out going forward. Were we going to make the playoffs this season? No, but is a shame to lose our unbeaten home run with such a shallow and weak performance against a side we really (on paper/form) should be dispatching. Portsmouth showed last time out how easily it is to create a chance and score it, because out of moat teams, our players' seem to switch off in games at crucial times. Today was no different, and although I am basing this entirely on the first half, I think it probably describes a lot of our performances this season overall. Our away form is terrible results wise despite the performances somewhat improving, and however we try to sugar coat today - we we're overly due to home loss. It's a really sad way to end 2024, but I hope TC is given at least a chance in the January Window, because with players' like Kayembe, Sema and Sissoko still on the books and one of them totally out of favour, we need to look at who we can bring in. I know Gino is Scrooge when it comes to cash but if we continue to flounder with the players' who are just not good enough we are going to finish this season poorly when it has shown a lot of promise. It's not all on Tom, the players' need to take a lot of the blame but TC needs to be more aware of how he sets the side out. Now we have finally lost at home, I think a bit of pressure will be off the players to maintain it - but that doesn't mean we put in a first 45 like we did again today going forward.
