the most disappointing thing about today, was not the awful football, but seeing that Frydays has completely changed....this may have happened some time ago (my first visit to Vic since September), but it was surely an omen.....
Players and coach should be thoroughly embarrassed. It’s not even that we lost or even lost badly. We never tried. Things happen in games (particularly against limited opponents) if you run at players, chase them down, move the ball quickly. The crowd gets going with effort and robust challenges. None of that present today. As for the coach, no apparent game plan at any point. Even when a change was forced with Pedro going off, he brought on a player unsuitable for the game. Dreadful in every way.
Well, well. Another shocking performance by Watford. Almost as bad as the lack of snow here. Not a good start to our season. Our Christmas Dwarf timed his sending off perfectly, not that it made any real difference. A total of 6 shots on target against Bristol City, Hull City and Millwall - dreadful football. We are still in December 2022, but another call for an almost total clear out of players is necessary. This squad is not good enough for the Championship, that is very clear to most fans. Ok, we have our so-called super saviour Manga to call upon in January. His little black book of Eastern European bargains will be desperately needed. His sidekick Helena Costco (she is cheap) will do nothing. Seen as a joke within French male football and according to my German neaighbour, who is from Frankfurt. Costco was only in the scouting background at the club with no real role to fulfill. A round peg in a square hole. A clear out is needed at the during the summer of 2023. We said this in 2021 and 2022, do not hold your breath. Where is the bloody snow???
What a result today! Because the way we played it could quite easily have been a double figure defeat
It was very frustrating and while we so poor it probably wouldn’t have affected the result, the lack of a sense of proportion in football makes for dreary viewing. Our best player is deliberately injured by a cynical tackle from behind and has to go off. At the time Millwall are under no threat. It’s a clear attempt to hurt the player. That’s a booking. Then our player reacts to a provocation by their player, who then pretends to be badly injured. That’s a sending off, with no punishment for the instigator’s ungentlemanly conduct and simulation. Embarrassing that football can’t get a grip on which one of those is more serious.
Having been at the game today, I’m not going to comment on our team except to say that their attitude to the game, as so often, was terrible. Millwall, however, were terrific. They have a limited team but here they are threatening the play-offs. They showed everything you want from your team: a positive approach throughout, maximum crosses and shots putting pressure on their opponents, even prepared to concede free kicks and cards when necessary. Well done to them, they deserved to win by a bigger margin.
Millwall fans are a despicable bunch with all their racial and homophobic chants. An utter disgrace. The referee was clearly a Millwall fan too by the way he officiate the match. The scum were even singing “he’s one of our own” to emphasise how bias he was. That said, Watford were pathetic. Millwall wanted it more. Watford players were intimidated by them……again. We were thrashed 2-0. Bachmann, the cross-bar and an incredible goal line clearance kept the score in the realms of respectability. 6-0 would have been more realistic. We’re going to drop down the league like a stone unless we go big in January in terms of signing quality. This mess is on Gino. Far too many poor signings. Watford are probably paying the most in terms of salary in the league, so we are being short changed. This current incarnation of Watford is particularly unpleasant to support. I hope we start signing players with a bit of character and desire instead of those who only sparkle when the sun shines.
Pretty sure the Millwall player was booked when he got back to his feet and as Kamara was being shepherded away.
Can't defend this ***** in any way. Poor recruitment Poor conditioning Poor discipline Poor tactics Poor medical team
Did help that they used a lot of blocking (especially in their corners) to help free up Cooper. Ref called it for a FK from their first corner but let it slide the rest of the time. I really liked what they did from deep FKs though (they used the same tactic in the previous game against us). Force us to drop our defensive line deep, then chip the ball to in front of the defensive line and use Cooper to win the ball there and flick it into the penalty area. Thought we'd learn from the first game and keep our line a bit higher, but guess not lol
I don’t watch many Millwall set pieces, but I imagine they use blocking every game though, right? We knew what they were going to do, and if what Bilic said in the week was correct, we’d been planning to deal with their tactics, but all the planning in the world doesn’t make up for defenders not being prepared to fight through blocks and challenge for the ball. We’re so weak.
Haven't watched any of their other games this season but would imagine it's a key part of their plan. They're easy to implement and get you so many easy chances but we don't use them either.
Slightly hard to express in written words, but that's so palpable - you don't feel like a single one of our defenders/centre backs have any power whatsoever (other than Sierralta, who has clearly been renditioned to a CIA blacksite/called back to his home planet and died on the way). There's no one in control at all, and your image of no one fighting through blocks is incredibly tangible.
The thing is, so often our players look low on confidence and lack that extra 20% that can come from being on form and up for it. Today however was a textbook case of all round half arsing from nearly everyone. Sema and Bachman I felt did their best. Everyone else completely phoned in their performance and were happy to lose. It's just not good enough. Are they trying to get Bilic sacked? Are we at that stage of our management cycle again? I can't understand how we are once again seeing our players come out and give 40% effort in games. Cultural change has been needed for years. That it hasn't happened just shows that it won't as long as Gino remains in charge, as he's clearly the one constant and the one factor driving the myriad factors behind our constant underperfomance as well as simply **** squad.
Is it time to say Bilic has been an average at best appointment and that absolutely nothing has changed since Edwards? Not impressed with him at all.
We played walking football. Might have got a point against some 50-somethings in jogging bottoms on a 4G pitch but absolutely no chance against a full-blooded and commited Millwall team that had a clear plan and stuck to it. Not that I want to see performative stuff like running back into position after conceding a goal for the sake of it but our lot ambled around like a bunch of surly teenagers who'd been told to tidy their rooms. Just about sums up the attitude of most of them. Unless the opposition are going to roll over for them they're just not up to the job. Not prepared for the fight. Not committed to the cause. Struggling to care.
Do the Chinese family not run it any more? I think I went to school with their daughter. Best sausage and chips in Watford.
No, GD, I haven’t - I will take a look in the morning as I’ve been down the pub with the old man since about midday and just about to sit down for some food. Merry Christmas.
Both had a car crash of a squad to use but fans think Bilic is good because Edwards was so underwhelming. If Bilic had started the season with us then people would see he's absolute toilet. How can he be so experienced and have no style of play in a dogsh!t league? No gameplan, no style of play, the players have no idea what to do and no way of getting the ball forward unless JP drops deep 50 yards and runs the ball up the pitch. It doesn't matter who takes over after Bilic in a couple of weeks though, they'll also be turd and they'll have a sh!tstorm of a squad to deal with.
To save you time, Edwards' was 1.4 PPG (64.4 PTS over a season), Bilic's is 1.64 (75.5 PTS over a season). For me despite a few crap performance it's been a clear improvement, considering he had no pre season and a makeshift midfield for a fair part of his time here so far. Will be interested to see how he does when we get players back/recruits in.
Just going by the results they've achieved, extrapolated over the season so far, Bilic's PPG would have us 3rd, Edwards' would have us 10th. If 3rd is absolute toilet then I'm not sure what to say. It's not as exciting as Zola-ball but I don't think you can really argue with the results Bilic has achieved in the circumstances he's in, unless you're pushing a dogmatic agenda?
I agree. We can’t judge Bilic just yet. He’s been dealt a lot of blows. Poor recruitment being a major issue. He may have “star” players that others could only dream of, but that’s little use when so many of these players are injured. It’s getting to crazy levels now. No midfield at all, and that’s a midfield that needed an overhaul in the summer. We’ve even had to sign Bacuna, and I see why Cardiff released him. He looks pretty poor, but again, that’s purely down to bad recruitment in the first place. Louza and TDB were injured and Cleverley got injured very early on, but we did next to nothing in the market. Choudhury on loan and put our faith in players like Gosling. It was always going to go quickly pear-shaped. I’m seeing positive building blocks now though and things I can get excited about. I believe in Bilic and he’s a huge upgrade on Edwards. I think the appointment of Manga is a major coup. Maybe we just have to write this season off now. Top two is all but gone, but I still cling to the outside bet of a playoff place, especially if we do good business in the January window.
Absolutely agree with you. For years I've been saying there should be a sin-bin system working: Some yellow cards are for paltry infringements, such as removing your shirt (I realise it is a commercially-driven thing, because of shirt sponsors - but I don't care about them). Otherwise, all yellows are for genuine clumsy mistakes or for cynical, tactical reasons. It is this third category that clouds the game for me: Those deliberate 'professional' fouls in mid-field as a player goes past an opposition player are the nadir of modern-day football. The player 'takes a yellow for the team' and you hear ex-pro commentators chuckle about it all the time. Oh, really? How about an immediate 10/15 minutes in a sin-bin to help balance out the cold-blooded decision to cheat? Playing for 10 minutes with only 10 men makes a big tactical difference at pro level (or it should do, at least). At the moment a yellow card is of little concern for the player who receives it, because the referee has very little further recourse without sending the fellow off - and this is so drastic they rarely do it. It would be a game changer. So I propose an 'orange' card for the more serious 'yellow' infringements, whereby a player spends 20/ perhaps 30 minutes on the sidelines. Quite likely the injury-inducing foul on Pedro would be such a case: Of course, if the ref is strongly convinced it was designed simply to deliberately injure him it should be a straight red, but there is often an element of doubt - so give the ref a do-able alternative.
Very disappointing performance today against a very enthusiastic but limited team What is shocking for me is the teams general " game management" . Bilic and ****s could spit and kick with the best of them but our team is very naive . Whilst they say never look in the past I just cannot imagine the likes of Britos or Holebas getting blocked off without leaving a "bit" on the blocker . They would have relished an old school tear up with Millwall
Inexperienced Rob Edwards screwed over by the club in the summer and sacked after ten games - total sh!te. Slaven Bilic, manager for over 400 games and has the team playing no better than under Edwards - too early to judge. Bilic will be gone within a month.
Julian ****s led from the front and showed he’s lost nothing of his character by getting a yellow card during the second half for telling the ref exactly what he thought of his performance.
Not me but family friends, they sold it 6 months ago. Too expensive to maintain now. New guys are supposedly wealthy and refitted the whole shop.
For a squad which has cost the best part of 70m to assembel, yes it's toilet. I don't blame bilic for that. He's not the problem. He's also not the answer.
All very small sample sizes though. If we lose to Swansea and Norwich (which is pretty possible) then they have even records. I think both are good managers at this level, Bilic has the edge due to his experience, but trying to pin colours to our managers is futile. Our owner is a corrosive nightmare and that is the bottom line whoever the current manager is in the dugout.
Very possible, with our current midfield situation, and with no LB. I also think it's very possible we could beat Blackpool, Rotherham, Boro in Jan, and I wouldn't feel the same with Edwards. I don't think there's enough evidence to say Edwards is a good manager at this level, yet. Interested to see how he does with Luton though. We have a corrosive nightmare for an owner, we've again neglected CB recruitment, and we're currently on course to be one of the top 25 teams in the country, for the 9th season in a row.
