Watford Fc 1-0 Millwall - 24/04/2021 - Promoted To The Pl

Bloody Rotherham. Proper hot bed for Covid all season.

 

Bas, that you?

 

Does anyone know if Femenia is still suspended?

 

Should be back - only one game for 2 yellows I think

Means dropping Cathcartinho though

 

Nope. 1 game ban.

 

One win needed as it stands with three games to get it, two of those at home. It's done isn't it, we're there. Why do I still feel sick then? For the love of god please win Saturday, I can't bear this going on another week

 

Brilliant.

 

2 draws in the next 2 games will also be mathematically enough

 

He wasn't just cautious. Cautious would be playing the best CB in the league, rather than leaving him on the bench.

He was just a bit rubbish.

 

I’ve seen this said about SA but it’s nonsense. Nobody knew he was any good, Udinese included where he wasn’t anywhere near first choice, until he had a chance to play and show everyone. He was brought as backup and used as such. It’s not like he was keeping prime Rio Ferdinand on the bench.

 

I restrained myself until the FT whistle and strolled on for the second invasion, thinking about a toned down repeat of my p****d up efforts against Hull 1979 and Wrexham 1982. I wasn't allowed to get on for Plymouth 1969! My son in his 20s was going doolally so I just picked out a fellow more mature person to have a quick chat with on the pitch that day...Lloydinho!! He was far too patient with my inane questions and must have been dying for a beer. Always classy Lloyd.

 

Do you really think it isn’t part of a managers job to notice which players are high quality, based on their performances in training?

He wouldn’t have just gone from worse than Wilmot, to wanted by teams competing for ECL places, the day he was given his chance.

Good managers notice what bad managers do not. His quality shone through the second he got on the pitch and he should have been playing a lot sooner than he was. It undeniably illustrates poor judgement.

I seem to remember him getting some decent reviews after one of our pre season games too, but that could just be my dodgy memory.

 

Yes it’s part of their job, but not straight away? There would be no logic for chucking a 23 year old in who you’d never seen play who wasn’t even first choice for his parent club in ahead of someone more experienced. Wilmot had played the previous season in the championship with Swansea, SA hadn’t.

 

The orn's are going

Spoiler

 

Millwall with a lot of injury issues which showed in their game against Bournemouth last night. Mason Bennett, their main striker, should return to the side after an injury lay-off, but Hutchinson, Leonard, Murray Wallace and several others remain out and supposedly Jed Wallace and Scott Malone have been playing through slight knocks so I suppose there is a chance they could be given a break. Those two are two of their best players (along with big Jake Cooper and Bialkowski).

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/mill...ason-bennett-set-to-be-available-for-watford/

 

My recollection of the promotion celebration for the Hull game is very limited. Me and a group of friends used to stand at the top of the Vic Road end under the scoreboard. When we scored the first goal against Hull we celebrated in the usual way by jumping up and down and pushing forward. One of my mates was arrested for "dangerous celebrations" and the rest of us got kicked out the ground. Spent the rest of the evening listening to crowd sounds outside until they opened the gates at the Vic Road end to let people out and of course we sneaked back in. Was it a good game?

 

And just like Norwich they will all make miraculous recoveries to be fit in time for Saturday. However after Tuesdays performance even with their best team we must be too good for them.

 

Just had a look on their forum. Racism and homophobia in the 30 seconds I spent on there.

Shouldn’t be surprised.

 

Understand but have never agreed with this point.

We were a relegated crisis club, with a mess of a squad. We didn't know who was staying/going/wanted to stay/we could afford to keep LET ALONE did we know what our starting XI was. The start of the season was always going to be a huge adaptation/stabilisation exercise in contrast to Norwich who had pretty such the same team that won the league 2 seasons prior.

Many clubs suffering traumatic relegations like ours go on to finish 14th or worse.

Yes Munoz's Watford extrapolated over a whole season could have got 100 points, but this was never a possibility. It's not worth being rueful about for me.

 

Agreed, even Munoz needed trial and error to hit the right formula and it’s questionable what would’ve happened without Deeney’s injury. It needed lots of trial and error to get to where we are, there is no way we would’ve hit on the winning formula from day 1.

 

Sounds like Millwall having an absolute horror show with injuries; Hutchinson, Leonard, Smith, Wallace, Ferugon and Thompson all out for this one. Hutchinson and Wallace in particular part of their normal back 3 meaning they are playing a box to box midfielder at centre back and Alex Pearce who is perhaps the slowest defender I have ever seen in the Championship.

On top of this, Malone and Wallace (their best two players) are both carrying injuries and they have been playing because "they are trying to be competitive" but GR notes they might need to make sensible long term decisions which might compromise the odd thing or two. Mason Bennett will be back for the game.

 

That's a fair point. And Ivic marshalled us through pre-season and those initial 6 weeks with the transfer window remaining open very well and deserves credit for that. But once the transfer window closed ('slammed shut') he and we knew who was staying and who our squad was and we subsequently regressed. By mid-October (after the Blackburn game), we had 13 points from our first 6 games and certainty around availability until January. Ivic then got just 21 points from our next 14 games with that fairly settled squad.

 

Ivic thought the Championship was harder than it really is.

Munoz knew better - or just didn't know anything about it and tried to win games anyway.

 

Well I hope they banned you for that.

 

You mean in the 90 minutes he played against Oxford United in the second round of the cup, where we snuck through on penalties, or the 90 in the next against Newport County, where our defence conceded three goals on the way to getting knocked out of the competition?

Obviously, Sierralta has been a rock and changed our defence entirely once the new looks defence was installed (with the added benefit of an actual left-back) and I hope he continues to be that for years to come for us, but it's never as simple as suggested here.

 

Our defence was also performing brilliantly at the start to the season, that was never the problem. So why would Ivic have changed something that wasn't broken?

 

Mind games

Expect to see all 9 in the starting 11 on Saturday

 

Agreed. Ivic's job was already done, but I guess even for the Pozzos they needed a firm reason to sack him which came at Huddersfield. A few games earlier would have been ideal, but then look at Bournemouth who waited longer than us and are 8 behind us as a result.

I don't want to be a Pozzo sycophant (because I'm not), but they've masterfully played the coaches merry-go-round this season.

 

I think they are thread titles

 

This

 

He wasn't afraid of putting relatively inexperienced players in the side. From memory, Dele-Bashiru went straight into the starting 11.

Ivic just completely underestimated how good Sierralta was, despite working with him day in day out. Perhaps a quality manager could do that, but I doubt it.

Thanks for emphasising my broader point that Ivic isn't a great manager.

Again, you may believe that a manager should not be able to tell that a player is more talented than another in training, when working with them day in day out. I respectfully disagree.

Against Newport County, we played an entire team that was lacking any sort of match sharpness, including Derek Agyakwa (failed at Italian 3rd division Como) at the centre of defence, and a left back I can't even remember the name of.

I certainly think that playing Sierralta and Dawson (also a good defender) as a back 2 that day, rather than having a back three, would have been a much better choice.

 

If promotion is achieved then the uncomfortable truth for many is that the Pozzo’s will be the most successful Watford owners of all time (80s success was first and foremost down to GT). Prior to them taking over we had a 3 sided ground, on the point of administration every other week, and a team that tried hard but quality wise was absolutely woeful. Since then we have had 5 seasons in the Prem, and 4 in the Championship. 2 of the championship seasons resulted in promotion (assuming we do do go up), and one we made the playoffs. Of course they are not above criticism. I don’t like the constant changing of managers, but they are on the brink of making a laughing stock of those that were calling for them to go earlier in the season.

 

Ivic did a lot of good and deserves some credit for this season. He was dull, boring and miserable but he played a part in reinstating professionalism and helping to clear the squad of the worst influences whilst giving us a firm defensive base to work from. Once some stability had been put in it was absolutely right to replace him and kick on. The Pozzo's have got our last two head coach appointments spot on both in terms of who they are and also the timing.

 

Not sure you're fully across the meaning of 'respectfully', based on that, if I'm honest.