Tbh, the whole mood was set from before people got into the ground. Everyone queuing outside was fuming before they got inside to see the complete lack of a performance from our **** team.
I can remember Walker Peters getting past him once maybe? Unfortunately that's going to happen because we're Watford and don't have players who are going to win every duel against every player they're up against. There's a difference between being run past and having someone run off you because your teammate hasn't bothered to go with his man. Ngakia is a very good 1v1 defender and he got Sarr into some decent positions with good passes. Plenty to work on but there's nothing about him that tells me he's the disaster that you're making him out to be.
Hugely damaging defeat wreaking of relegation. We're losing far too many winnable games at home, plus we look sh1te. Far too much is wrong with the team. Needs a major revamp. Missed Dennis today, but he's only got himself to blame for so many cheap yellows. Watford get an incredible win at Everton, giving everyone hope, then limp through to defeat in the most predictable way. Hope dashed once more and we're in "relegation mode" again.
It's just beyond predictable. We don't ever build on a big win, we inevitably revert to type the very next game, crumble and put on the sort of abysmal display that we did today 99% of the time. It's been said a few times, but there's just something rotten about this club that's set in. Something stinks.
If you can't beat any of Wolves, Newcastle or Southampton at home and only score one goal in the process then you deserve everything you get.
It was all down to keeping it tight and getting the first goal. That was key. Once Southampton had it they could keep things tight and move us about knowing we would get frustrated and start leaving gaps on the flanks which they could exploit. They also knew how to play and influence a weak Ref. We have some of the most naive players in the division.
Sending emails and letters to get fans in early to then serve up that pile of tosh is so Watford Football Club
Bit like when we didn’t beat Bournemouth, Sheff U , Brighton, West Ham , Palace and Burnley last time.!
Home form is absolutely fundamental to the feel-good factor – or absence of it – around a club. Last week's win was incredible, of course, but by far the majority of people experienced it from a distance and so the emotional credit does not get paid into the bank in quite the same way as it does when we win at home. That's now four pretty poor home performances in a row in the league and the mood around the place reflected it. Unless we can put in an exceptional performance in one of the next three, we may very well get to the Crystal Palace game on December 18 with only one home win in the league.
Sure it's been mentioned a million times but bringing on 3 barely Championship players to change the game is just mental. Please just leave those three at home next time.
Yes,I thought that as I rushed in from work,tore upstairs to visit the lavatory and opened that letter in my haste. Very odd.
Sarr was poor today and WTE should have reacted quicker and cleared the ball for their goal. Thought Sarr should have come off, Tufan brought on and Pedro moved to the right. Why have we such a poor record against Southampton..... such a nondescript team
This is what annoys me when people complain about the lack of atmosphere. The place rocks when there’s something to get excited about. Apart from the first 45 minutes in our opening game against Villa, Watford have been garbage at home. Only one goal scored and one “lucky” point taken since then, this is why everyone is so subdued. I think fans know the score and understand the difficulty in winning games, but we’ve seen plenty of EPL games in the past and we all can see the lack of intensity, desire and professionalism. This is why the players are getting booed off now. It’s because they are not putting a shift in.
You know what, I don't think it has been mentioned. I can see how Cleverley plugged a gap in the midfield, but needing a goal, and bringing in Sema and Fletcher in the Premier League is desperate stuff.
It's a depressing example of where we are at. I've said it a few times - I think our very best 11, performing to close to their maximum, with everyone fit, is good enough to stay up. Unfortunately 5 of those 11 were missing today in Etebo, Dennis, Sierralta, Nkoulou and Rose who can't bring himself to put the burgers down, and it makes a huge difference to the balance and quality of the team. We then end up with games like today where we have a weakened and therefore poor first 11, and have to bring on three mid-table Championship players in trying to chase the game, who are inevitably all woeful.
Same problem as every week (freak result at Everton apart): Lower Championship standard defence. Yes the rest of the squad are mentally fragile and only play well when they're feeling good. Yes we could do with more depth in a couple of positions. But the defence undercuts everything. Every game we play with this defence, we will likely lose. Maybe the odd weird win like last week. No-one should still be getting surprised at this stage.
It's a good thing LR is not a real scout. Otherwise the number of young players he has lambasted without analysis would be enormous. The reason the other members of the defence are lambasted is because they have vastly more experience. Ngakia is still learning on the job. And he is learning in a system that is a shambles defensively. Yes there are things he can improve. He can improve his core strength to better hold off opponents, sprints so he can get up and down that flank more and I would like him to open up the pitch but then again we are so prone to losing the ball upfield it's playing on his mind no doubt. He can improve his crossing for certain and peripheral vision to track runners played in behind or off him. But he has plenty of excellent attributes which if he continues to learn and improve will make him an excellent asset. He is tenacious, he has some flair on the ball, uses it far better than the rest of the back four and is thoroughly committed. One can never analyse a defender in complete isolation either given the coverage infront of him has been non existent and he is trying to cover Ekong at times and the lack of a proper defensive shield where Etebo is being badly missed. Thorsby in January or too late now. In a stronger squad and side we could bleed him in against weaker teams, perhaps for a half hour here and there but we do not have that luxury. I am more than willing to give the youngster time. Some players learn and grow others do not so in time it may turn out he did not have the ceiling we hoped for. But I am sure all like minded Hornets want to see the best of him and for him to develop further.
I wonder if we still do not have a team psychologist. We keep seeing the same mental fallibilities from week to week. How Ekong at his age has not learnt to not give the ball away at least once a match is reprehensible.
Firstly QR system is crap. My old man couldn't get in, snotty steward tried to blame him and then a guy from ticket office cand and took a look and he couldn't work out why the QR wasn't working. The same happened for the next 5 people. Amyway on to the match, I thought the midfield did okay, Sissoko looked good and Kucka done alright. It was just every time we went forward it broke down in the final third. Sarr was ridiculously poor today we kept getting him in dangerous situations and he would make the wromg decision or just take an easy option despite the fact that every time he decided to take a player on he caused them problems. Usually his crossing is very good but it was poor today. I don't want to give him too much negativity as some were around me today. He will have a bad game every now and then as will every other player. Fletcher should bury that chance at the end. Ngakia got torn apart and offered us nothing going forward. I did think Massina was good though. Josh King had a good game, he held the ball up well. Fosters distribution was better than I have ever seen. The ball he played to King out of his hands in the first half was a thing of beauty. Ekong should have done better with the goal and there were one or two occasions the defence looked a bit dodgy. However I actually thought we looked a little bit more solid today. Southampton scored from their only shot on target.
Agree with this. Ranieri is quoted as asking for patience from the fans but the reality is we saw a year of largely turgid crap leading up to relegation, missed the promotion season and so to the home crowd what we’re seeing now is just a continuation of the crap. We’ve not had any respite from it. That’s not Ranieri’s fault of course but it’s why there’s an obvious bad vibe around the place.
@reg_varney Bit of a shocker in the last quarter. The ABs just upped a gear, had superior fitness, found the spaces and game over after Williams ran onto the grubber. A lot of work for Pivac to do. More in the rugby thread at some point.
Disagree with this. Southampton missed at least three sitters and Armstrong put a few decent chances just wide from inside the box. It could have honestly been 4 or 5-0 against a team that had only scored eight goals in the league before today.
On this forum I tipped Livramento to be a star early this year before he'd even kicked a ball at senior level, and predicted him as the player to have a 'breakthrough season' in the PL this season in the predictions thread. I know a good young right-back when I see one. Just a shame that Ngakia is mediocre.
Hopefully next week the subs bench will have some impact subs on it I'm calling for jp and hernandez as both are not starter's
Similar to getting smashed at home by Brighton, Wet Spam and playing for a draw at home to Sheffield UTD in the relegation season. Means we are going to need some more surprise results from somewhere
Looks like from the club’s short highlights video that Adams’ shot took a fair old deflection off Ekong. That seemed to be what took it beyond Foster.
Ngakia was feeding Sarr, and others, quality through balls until he was taken off. He was, if Sarr had not been so s***e today, the source of our primary threat to Southampton.
Today felt quite similar to the Newcastle game (they even scored at almost exactly the same time with a similarly fine shot) even though Newcastle had far more shots on and off target, which shows the poor performances pre-Ranieri weren’t all on Xisco. The difference was Southampton managed the game better and that was a major reason why they got the win and Newcastle didn’t (and almost got robbed of even a point). It also lacked the atmosphere the other game had in the second half, just fizzling out as we hardly ever looked like getting an equaliser. Quite surprised we managed four shots on target compared to Southampton’s one, as while a lot of their chances went wide or over, Foster did make some saves - what exactly does a player need to do to get a shot on target?
