And amazingly yet another example of the few high-profile ex-pros we do actually have in the media being utterly desperate to pretend they've never even heard of us, let alone fight our corner or celebrate any accomplishment - he came through our youth system for fucck's sake.
Thought he was excellent. Looked very composed on the ball as well. Pleased for him. Hard now for Tufan & Kuca to get back in surely?
Amazing. My daughter beat Luton Town Ladies 4-2 this morning, with the scummers throwing punches and dishing out verbal, then smashing United 4-1 and watching the plastics suffer. Absolutely immense team performance. They couldn't handle our forwards and the midfield were everywhere.
Would imagine in an ideal world that's a good thing - given his age (and brain) Kucka and Cleverley would interchange depending upon opponent and fixture list. I'm sure we've got plenty of further injuries and suspensions to come, anyway...
We were getting cut through before Nkolou went off, mainly because Ronaldo's movement is still world class. I thought at the time that's why the sub was made but clearly it didn't make much difference.
Well, what an afternoon. After a desperate lack of entertainment at the Vic, we delivered it in spades today! From the kick off we were in their face and forcing them into mistakes. Like the rest of us, I've been annoyed in the past when our successes against any 'big 6' team are covered more for their failings than our successes, but today, that was clearly a Utd signed which were downing tools to get their manager sacked. At least I hope it was for their sake, because they made Norwich look good. First half was about the perfect performance from 10 of our players. Sarr continues to be incredibly frustrating. Doesn't press with any conviction, doesn't run with any intent, makes poor decisions and those were two of the worst penalties you'll ever see. Struck lightly and with no real intent at a very saveable height and both in exactly the same spot, so that De Gea didn't have to second guess where he was going for the 2nd. Having said that, his goal looked like a really good finish, though it was an isolated moment of any intent from him during yet another sulky, half arsed looking showing. I cannot believe that Dennis, King or even Cleverley or Sissoko wouldn't have been better choices to take penalties. Sarr's languid run up made it clear that he was going to be **** at taking them. Never again please. As I sit in the family stand, I'm still confused about what happened. If Kiko encroached, then surely just his followed up goal would be disallowed and the penalty shouldn't have been retaken, since it was saved? It was all very confusing. I'm one of the very few who isn't 100% against VAR, because despite the frustrations it presents, after years of being on the receiving end of goals that were offside, but stood, or terrible penalty decisions given for diving or not given for us by refs who chose not to see a clear foul, VAR has at least closed some of the gap with referees bias against the likes of Watford, but to the live spectacle, it is not a friend. The absolute confusion in the stadium where you don't know if you've scored, conceded, got a penalty or not etc. doesn't help the game as entertainment. I sit at the back of the Vicarage Rd stand, so I can't even see the screens (obscured by the overhang of the roof) and Tannoy announcements are barely audible. It's utterly confusing when these decisions are being made and I'm basically reliant on crowd noise to know whether I should be happy or sad. Foster made some good saves and what I actually liked, was he was pissed off when they seemed to have equalised, booting the ball away in fury. Masina was excellent first half. Terrible second. Really really terrible. Absolute chalk and cheese from him. I've been critical of people like Cleverley and Kiko in the past, but both of them today were outstanding. Absolutely top drawer and led by example. The pressing from the front was a big help and pushed Utd onto the back foot. Louza - looked to me every bit of the future £100m player anyone with any judgement could see from his first appearances. Really good performance. Delighted for Dennis and King to get their goals and for JP - although he didn't really do much else of note after he came on. Overall - one of those great home wins against the big boys that our heroic Chairman, Duckbrie set us up for. I think what we have seen today, at Everton and even, to some extent, in the defeat to the Arseanal, there are hugely positive signs that Ranieri is a coach who actually has a clue! We look so much more organised, defending from the front and we are seeing an uptick in energy and aggression across the side. One thing I'd like to see more of though is a bit of game intelligence. We came out for that second half at 2-0 and committed so many men forwards, with a really high line and left ourselves exposed. Why don't we learn to kill the game. Slow it down. Give away some soft, non-bookable fouls in their half, wind down the clock with some injuries, get the ball out of play for long periods. We never learn. As laudable as it is that we seemed to be going for 3-0, it was inevitable that we'd concede and for a spell, it looked as though we might end up conceding an equaliser in a game where we should have been out of sight. Let's learn to use our brains a bit.
Honestly what more could you possibly ask for from a Watford side? Played with heart, desire and passion. Now we've set a benchmark that needs to be found week in week out.
I was taking my daughter and her friend and promised I'd try and get them close to Ronarod. As it happened, I couldn't because grown up men were crammed into the bottom row of the lower GT with their selfie sticks, fanboying it over the 37 year old, arguable GOAT. Fortunately the kids didn't care too much. I should have made more of an effort to get a pic with Harry - he's the genuine GOAT.
With regards to Sarr, as long as he is scoring goals, it doesn't matter if he's ****. Score goals, move to new club for tons of money, stop scoring goals. Simple.
My river was in Portuguese and everyone was a little blurry plus I was nervous fidgeting and going in and out of the room! Game of the Day on Sky so I can record it and watch it properly.
Kiko was the worst/earliest offender, but a couple of Utd players were also encroaching up on the other side of the box, so it was retaken rather than cancelled entirely.
Emergency board meeting at 7pm by Utd...apparently to discuss compensation. Which means today's achievement will be relegated further.
It was obvious he wasn't score the first one - his positioning and body language did not look comfortable at all. Looked better for the 2nd one though and I thought he'd score it, but De Gea did well (although it still wasn't a great penalty. King has taken 22 penalties (scoring 18) in his career, Sarr had taken 3 before today (scoring 3), I hope we'll see a change in taker now.
A sensational game of football. Had pretty much everything. I’d like to mention JP’s reaction after his goal. Must have meant so much to him. What a guy. United were laughably bad and we should have been 4-0 up at HT. The Ranieri-press was a sight to behold when it was in full flight. As the player’s get fitter, it should get better too. Louza was sensational at times, booking didn’t really effect him either. King and Dennis were fantastic was well. I hope N’koulou didn’t go off with an injury, brings calmness to our rickety back line. That biased ref Jon Moss has a decent game as well. Must be because we won. Ronaldo was a pale shadow of himself, utterly pointless signing. Maguire continues to be shockingly overrated as does Rashford. We smashed them quite honestly. To pieces. Hilarious. Can’t quite believe it. Possibly our best performance under the Pozzo’s. Who’d have think it? Shout out to Bruno Fernandes who offered out one of his own fans Holebas style before being dragged away. Perfect ending.
Tim Sherwood had to borrow my brother's boots once when Tom Walley was his coach. He should remember where he came from!
Exactly what @The Voice of Reason said in the SB. Why Sarr is our designated penalty taker is beyond me.
Than you Uncle Claudio. You had a plan which you executed perfectly. You even had a little tinker in the second half to counter their changes. You've also been working well on the training pitch with Louza. You are demonstrating the experience we have sadly been lacking for a long time. I applaud you and your coaching staff.
It was the correct decision. Kiko was clearly encroaching (and so was Wan-Bissaka). If anyone other than Kiko had scored I doubt it would have been looked at, but the fact he was well into the area and scored the rebound meant ruling it out was the right call.
