Exciting game, but terrible decision making by Watford players all over the pitch. Rose was our best performer. Despite his goal, Sarr really frustrated me. After a good start he was clearly irked that he was not affecting the game when we were behind so he went wandering all over the place looking for the ball. This negated his partnership with Femenia and there were several times when there was a big gap on the right where he should have been. The manager has to dictate more to him what he should be doing. Meanwhile the Aussie ref was dreadful and came close to completely losing control. Newcastle soon found they could ignore him and run the game the way they wanted to. Just 4 minutes of added time at the end was disgraceful. There were 5 substitutions, a goal, a VAR disallowed goal and some injury stoppages, feigned or otherwise. And that’s before you start considering Newcastle’s extreme time wasting. If he is not refereeing in the Championship next week there is something wrong with the assessment system.
Okay 4231 Bachmann Ngakia/Kiko WTE Sierralta Rose Etebo Sissoko Sarr Tufan Dennis/JP King/JP That side, although not perfect, gets to 40 points imo
What I don't understand is why people keep referring to last season's defensive record. The only reason it happened was because of woeful finishing from the opposition. Thankfully Newcastle were just as bad today. Play a half decent side and we will get absolutely murdered week in week out. But atleast we showed some spirit second half.
Have you seen a replay? I haven't, admittedly, but that tackle and quick perceptive pass set the tempo. Which was subsequently lost.
Yeah you would think for VAR to be seamless they should be watching the build up play and flagging a possible issue within seconds., all three were def offside by a margin so should have been easy to clear up. there was another incident when VAR was checking for a Watford penalty (on Sarr), but the ref didn’t stop the game for about 5 mins after the offence
Whether our defense is good or not, we need the midfield to help them out, and in the first half we weren't up to it at all. For the record I think Sierralta and WTE at the back, with Tufan, Etebo and Sissoko in front of them will do OK, but with just one or two injuries/suspensions/bust-ups, we're looking very thin indeed
A less facetious response would be to say that if we take the goalkeeper out of it (Bachmann is out injured at the moment, although Foster made five key saves today so arguably earned us a point) your team differs from Xisco's line-up today in just two regards. Sierralta in for Cathcart and Etebo in for Cleverley. We saw both Ngakia and Kiko, and we saw JP on in a similar role to Dennis. Perfectly valid to prefer Sierralta and Etebo over the other two, but are you saying that today's team selection was dreadful but with just two changes we'll be safe? Seems quite a fine margin to me, which I suppose it is.
I really enjoyed that in a shambolic way. Great entertainment and lots of industry. Rose man of the match. Doesn’t fill me with confidence for tougher opponents but another point on the board. referee was utterly utterly diabolical.
I think the Watford players slow the game down too frequently, when trying to build attacks. Their football is like painting by numbers (which leads to c***p paintings). You have to assume a lot of this comes from the coaching. Then again, if I was coaching an inadequate squad it is probably what I would do. And it is what a lot of the more successful coaches (such as Fat Sam, Tony Pulis and Chris Hughton) do to keep struggling teams from relegation. The crunch is that at the moment this does not seem to be working well. The teamwork is unreliable. The players still do not seem to know each other well. It is not, perhaps, as bad as it was a couple of matches ago. We must hope that they keep working hard at their moves and understanding of each others' roles. There is always the problem for us in working out just how good the coaches and how good the players are. Is it one, or the other, or both?
I'm saying if the side I suggested had been put together in pre season, and developed together so they don't look like the current bunch of strangers who have never played together they do right now, we'd be in a fair shot at 40 points Disagree by all means its your prerogative, but I really can't be bothered to argue about it so if that's your intention go pick a row with someone else
I was watching at home so couldn’t see Sarr off the ball, but was wondering why he was more in the middle rather than linking up with Kiko on the right it also looked like we were intentionally sending everything down the left hand side , but then again every time we went down the right Sarr got rugby tackled.
It's almost as if we had to get players out before we could get players in this season (Louza aside, for...reasons)
I'm not picking a row! I was genuinely interested in your choice of best XI and, for what it's worth, it's very close to mine. But I was also interested that with just three differences (one of which was forced by injury) the team selection becomes dreadful. I agree that they might have benefited from more time together but history also tells us how infrequently Premier League teams field the same team back-to-back-to-back. It'll be interesting to look back at the end of the season and see just how many changes get made.
Those two hardly covered themselves in glory against Stoke’s reserves. Cathcart generally played well today in a game where our defence was highly tested, fantastic block late on to keep it at 1-1. He made a raging howler too and I’m not saying he and we can’t do better.
Cathcart shouldn’t be anywhere near a PL squad let alone staring 11, whatever has gone on behind the scenes it’s criminal a younger, more talented option is being sidelined for a player well and truly ready for the scrap heap.
What was particularly distressing about our defence was the levels of stress at facing a corner. Lacking confidence, height and strength.
If we could turn back the clocks - would any of you guys swap any of what we have now in defense for Prodl, Holebas, Gomes, or even Cox?
I don't think we are half as shambolic/terrible/awful etc, as many on here. I thought there were a number of positives. Those positives include Rose for one, and Tufan for another who is strong, direct, positive and hits a good pass, and great to see a well planned corner come off for once, with great work from King. Ironically, our worst corner tonight was taken by Tufan, wtf. And, I know most will disagree with me, but I think Ngakia is better than Kiko. I think he will become a valuable asset and a favourite.
I would take holebas over anybody just for the ***** and giggles Holebas all time low , when he decided to punch the ball behind (thinking it was out) and gave away a Penalty
Clearly Moose, isn’t that pretty much what I said? Although neither of us know I’m pretty sure it’s not worth getting relegated over though. Especially as the same player played against Stoke, so it’s clearly not an injury.
Yes, but we generally kept them out well. Their best chances and goal came from open play. That is a massive improvement on the last few seasons when we seemed to concede from corners regularly. I think that they now all have responsibilities and jobs to do, when in the past it seemed to be a free for all.
They put four corners in a row onto the far corner of the 6 yard box and each time it caused us problems. They also got 2 shots off from the same position they eventually scored from, but we didn't learn or close them down. We must be the densest team in the league we just have no nouse at all.
Ekong looked awful at times too. I don’t think any central defenders look comfortable when the midfield lets the opposition just rip through. But they battled on and we got something out of it.
Holebas for Masina for certain, Prodl for Cathcart/Kabasele/******* no-one, Gomes for whoever our first choice keeper is now, and although I didn't see much of Cox, having him would definitely be better than nothing!
Today, I agree on Ngakia. I thought he was appalling vs Wolves and apparently he was worse against Stoke, but he looked good today in his cameo.
