Comfortable win and played some fantastic stuff in the first half. Relieved it wasn't 3 losses on the spin and gives us hope ahead of Millwall and Luton next week.
First 44 minutes was probably the best football we have played all season, better than the last 20 at Stoke. We moved the ball with purpose, looked lively and made Norwich look very ordianary. It was a great save from their keeper for the penalty as Louza hit it well and on target, but more than made up for the miss with the openner. Great work in the build up and a classy finish from Louza to give us a deserved lead. That was doubled not long after, with some fancy skill from Sarr (who actually had a decent game) beat two Norwich defenders and squared it to Davis for a side foot finish. Watford winning 2-0? Unheard of. But, normality was soon restored a minute before the break as we failed to back track and close down yet again giving Sargant half the luxury of Herfordshire to fire a pretty decent goal past Bachmann who did very little to try to save it, down to his left. Not a comfortable lead at the break, but a deserved one overall. Second half went exactly as I thought it would. Norwich dominated the game with Bachmann making some good saves and a great block by Cathcart as the canaries poured forward like waves of gray pavement slabs. An equaliser was surely on the cards as Norwich continued to waste good chances, be it poor finishing or lucky and desperate defending. Bilic seemed to get really animated towards the end, and six minutes of stoppage time was bit much also. We somehow held on though as Bilic picked up his second win as Watford boss, and kept his job for another week at least. Next stop is the Den which is one of the worst pitches in the division by far. Should be a fun day out then. Well done lads for the win, but second half was far from convincing, and we look nowhere near good enough to fight for the top two. Playoffs' at best if we can keep up semi-decent form. Oh, and a quick word on Kalu - great to see him back again as he swaggered on with his Zimmer.
Asprilla will be a star. Pretty decent performance overall, Gosling probably my standout. Sarr was excellent in the first half but seemed like Norwich shifted things around to keep him quieter in the second half. Pozzo out still, though.
Good performance, great to win. Still so much improvement needed. We dropped right off for the third quarter. Sarr, Louza, Cathcart all excellent. Was concerned about WTE at times. Others were fine and I thought Gosling did well playing out of position. Need to organise peno competitions in training to get a regular taker. Pleased to see an improvement with the work Bilic put in with the full week’s training. Hope restored (at least for the time being)
Only WatfordTalk would have the lack of self awareness to talk about a “piddly league” when we are 10th after 14 games.
One win does not a COG make. Beat Millwall & the scum and then I may consider signing up. Good win but still fragile when only one up. Thankfully Naarch looked very ordinary.
Good and arguably deserved win. I have no doubts whatsoever that jad Kabasele been in there Norwich would have either scored from one of their corners or from a couple of their breaks. Goal we conceded was soft and reaffirms that firslt this team just aren't cute enough in terms of tactical fouls (louza had an opportunity) but that a RB (even a free is desperately needed). Gosling did really well tonight but you could see was uncomfortable at that point. The real test is now Tuesday. We've not managed back to back wins since April 2021
Great result even though we should have been out of sight by half time. Even the ref was good. Win the next two and we’re back. Cmon you Orns.
Decent first half. Sarr's performance just absolutely hammers home how half arsed he has been for us on a consistent basis for 2.5 years now.
I watched the first half of the Stoke game but missed the 2nd half. Then as we scored 3 and reportedly played really really well, I watched the 2nd half a number of days after the game when I had a chance to. Despite scoring 3, I thought our passing was terrible, our intensity slow and we were lucky. Stoke were also abysmal. Tonight our passing was crisp, all midfielders looked to progress with the ball and there was little aimless backpasses with no intent to move the ball forward. It was 100 times better. We should have been 3-0 up at half time and may have ended up drawing, but it was way more positive than any game this season, performance and result wise. You can beat ***** teams 4-0 by just turning up, but you can beat good teams by putting in a performance like tonight.
Knew you'd bite, too easy. Glad to see I'm unmuted, too Also, we're 10th because we've played as ***** as the ***** teams in this ***** league. Duh!
So so give in and watched the game and it was a much better performance. Although we still didn’t look amazing defensively I thought Cathcart made a positive difference. I thought Looked a lot more organised not like the bar was set too high, players seemed to give us a reaction after the woeful and embarrassing performance on Saturday. Midfield looked miles better surprising what happens when you take Kayembe out of it. Asprilla lively and good on the turn and took up awkward positions. Louza looks classy and like he is starting to get his sharpness back I pray he won’t be suspended. Brilliant to have JP back also.
Best performance of the season by a long way and that’s what we need to see week in week out . Shame about the Norwich goal but we should have been out of sight by half time . We started on the front foot with great intensity and the passing and movement was decent That’s the first time for a long time I’ve seen Sarr truly dominate and terrorise the opposition full back . He was brilliant first half and needs to do that regularly . I thought Louza was immense . Snapping into tackles and showing some great composure in playing out from the back . I much prefer the team without Kayambe in it .Asprilla also showed some tremendous touches . second hand I feared the worst as Norwich looked much better the first 20 mins , but didn’t create much and after Pedro came on thought we showed a lot more composure and had the better chances . So very close to a 90 minute performance. We need to do that week in week out though to be chasing promotion . Can we ? Who knows . Let’s see . Only 5 points off the top…
Think you're a bit harsh on our second half performance, sure they had plenty of the ball, but did they really have that many chances other than the (deservedly) disallowed goal? I thought we had the better chances on the counter really
Bilic speaking well on Sky. If we're seeing this kind of performance after he actually gets a chance to spend some time and train without interruption, hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.
I returned home from Roehampton for the second half but as we were winning and Dave had kept me updated and all was well I decided not to turn on the game. I did my rehab,had a bath and cooked my supper. I am watching the debrief and so good to see Freddie taking players on again. Good switch by SB to put him on the left. Relief!
Only 56% possession in the 2nd half, so not overly dominant in that department. Thought we saw out the final 30 minutes pretty well.
First half was probably the best half of football we have played for a long while and was actually enjoyable. Thought Hamza and Bachmann should have done better for the goal, a keeper shouldn't be getting beaten at his near post even if slightly unsighted. Norwich are a niggly little team, happy to dive about over the slightest touches. Can see why they do well in this league.
Often criticised this team for lacking heart, fight and desire. They certainly showed some tonight and I love that. Sarr’s run for the second was delightful and it’s what I’d love to see him do more often. Cross for Louza was great too. Two moments of magic from him won the game. Louza is very, very important. On another level to anyone else in midfield. Massive credit to WTE, I’m his biggest critic but he done well today. As did the other defenders, Kamara great, Cathcart annoyingly is our best CB which is a travesty but no brain farts today and Gosling filled in well. Has to be the end of Kabasele as a starter. Ditto Sema, works so hard and has actual end product at this level. Definitely one of the few good apples in the team too. Still unsure on Davis, very passive, has the tools but just seems to be a bit of a timid beast. Bachman is shyte again. Great performance in periods but it’s the character I’m happiest about, hopefully a corner turned and something Slav’s got out of them but been here many, many times before so won’t get too excited yet.
I do enjoy listening to Bilic. You feel he does see what the fans see, but balances it out with the typical managerial rhetoric
Excellent to hear Bilic in the post-match interview saying that he's basically desperate for Sarr to try and dribble passed his man whenever he gets the ball (as long as he's not knackered), even if it means he sometimes makes some mistakes, as opposed to often looking to pass it soon after he receives it. It somehow seems such an obvious thing, and one which most of us on here have been crying out for Sarr to do more regularly, but on the evidence of today at least Bilic might actually be a manager who finally manages to get that message through to him on a more consistent basis, which will be huge for the rest of our season.
I’ve never felt that Sarr couldn’t be bothered, quite the opposite. His facial expressions look that way at times, but I think it’s his more introvert nature. However, we’ve rarely seen his best ability and so I understand your point. Interesting listening to Bilic who seems to have noticed this in just 3 games and his explanation of the switch to the left certainly makes sense. I reckon he will get the best out of him and that can only be a good thing.
