I thought the crowd’s reaction to him was borderline hysteria. I dunno if it was because of the time wasting in the Portsmouth game 3 days earlier at the forefront of people’s minds but a lot of the jumping up and down, screaming and counting was plain odd. In my view yesterday involved two tired teams, neither of which was much interested in letting a game of football break out. So they both regressed into falling over, lazy tackles, taking an age over throw ins and other set pieces and whatever else they could to pass the time without having to actually run around. And unlike the Pompey game I thought that applied equally to us yesterday.
I have a horrible gut feeling that our "decent run" is quickly coming to an end, and we will revert to the norm of recent seasons. Tom has worked hard with what he's got so far, but somehow our squad alway wants to withdraw and play safe as soon as possible. A total lack of hardy midfielders is nbr 1 problem. A good defence is only as good as the first line of cover provided by it's midfield. As it is our defenders get pulled all over the place as a swathe of oppo players come at them. So that's 1) DM areas are very weak, 2) Defence looks poor and little confidence. Then it's left with attacking mids to make something happen. So effectively Chak, Vata and Baah have to get things moving best they can. Half of it "works" half the time and the other half we look negative and likely to concede any minute we're under pressure! We're a poor team but have enough get out from our attackers to keep us "just about" in most games - and that's now starting to hurt us... Whilst TC (has to) play nice guy to average players and "nice quiet newbie" To GP I feel a bit pretty fed up...
The great thing about stats is you can twist them into supporting whatever view you have! maybe we have been lucky or maybe just super clinical in front of goal? In previous seasons we have slipped away like you are suggesting for this season, and it may very well happen again. But i live in the here and now. We deserve to be where we are right now. Generally, I like what I have seen in the first half of this season, more so then the previous 2 years. Here is hoping for a good 2nd half of the season and the continuation of the feel good factor we have experienced for most of this season.
Agree. If we stay with 5-2-2-1 we have a thin but suitable squad to play it. 4-3-3 doesn't work as we don't have enough quality and depth. With Ebosele, Andrews and Ngakia I'd say RB for this level is fine. Agree on the rest. Ogbonna I like but given he's already been out for months with a hammy and is unlikely to work in a back 4 due to his lack of mobility, that leaves Sierralta and Porteous who have too many weaknesses in their games as it is.
We really do miss a Livermore-esq sort of player. Our midfield is so weak right now especially going through the middle and a decent DM would really help shore us up at the back. We also still need a striker who knows where the goal is, I also think we need a LB and a CB to replace Serrielta. If Sema goes in the Summer that's another position we need to fill even as a backup player. RB seems to be okay for now. I know Ngakia still divides fans, but Andrews has more poor games than good recently.
Aren't there supposed to be some coloured arrows on this type of chart showing how well the player did in each of the criteria shown ? Did you forget your crayons today ?
I would suggest that our elevated position is down to other teams not taking their chances rather than us being super clinical in front of goal .
And yet he scores goals. Who do you want to chuck on losing against Cardiff with 20 mins to go when the ball is being chucked into the box? Rajovic or Jebbison?
This 100% , there's no doubt Raj is an unbelievably limited player but without doubt he could score goals. Almost certain he would have scored 1 of the chances Jebbison missed over the past couple of games
Just had a first chance to see a replay of Jebbison's late header-miss: Dear oh dear. He was standing in the position to receive a knock-on header and that is really the only reason to be there. The ball duly came just right for him, not even too fast. All he had to do was nod it into the empty part of the net, which was 2/3 yards away. As I had thought, watching it live, his miss wasn't even close! Sadly, this was just the icing on the cake in a series of dreadful, clueless performances, which is all we have seen from him. His double-jump to head the ball when he was nowhere near actually had my daughter laugh out loud.
Maybe Watford would start games better if they had a settled defensive line-up and a settled modus operandi. Of course injuries occur, but there does seem, to me, to be too much chopping and changing. They were all over the place against Cardiff, with nobody seeming to be prepared. To be fair to Cardiff, they had a coach who knew Watford's squad well and I think it showed. They exposed Watford's defensive frailties time and again, not just for the two goals.
Much has been said about the referee's performance but I think he was about par for the course in the Championship: There seems to be a policy of 'letting the game flow' which results in games becoming a bit of a rough-house. Watford lost the physical battles in this game most of the time and frequently the crowd bayed for free-kicks when actually no foul had been committed. Having said that, I think football is peculiarly rife with non-application of the rules: My particular bugbear is shirt pulling: It is cheating and yet it went on non-stop throughout the game and I don't think there was a single blown whistle for it at any time.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jxj9...ey=648eor5jssizjnm8ilci4mc3r&st=auo7zg0n&dl=0 @BigRossLittleRoss @Sahorn @Vic
The motm was their no. 47, (Robinson?). He showed good understanding of his role and exposed Watford's defence repeatedly with intelligent runs, good ball control and non-stop effort throughout the game.
The slow starts are creeping in again. 10 mins 1-0 down against Burnley 10 mins 1-0 Pompey 1 min 1-0 Cardiff…
And you think keeping him as a last desperate option is good business? I'd rather sack off both him and Jebbison, (though it would seem we are contractually stuck with this one) and take a punt on an actual footballer.
I don’t think Pozzo is willing to invest so “good business” is a moot point, but I’d also prefer all 3 strikers to be replaced in an ideal world. In the meantime Bayo > Rajovic > Jebbison. But agree they are all poor.
Riza has said they are going to appeal as in his words "If anyone thinks that's a red card then I'm a monkey's uncle"
