Watford (a) Post-Match Thread (2-1 defeat)

[LestaAl]

Ok, so have only watched the sky highlights and therefore missed most of the poor performances of midfield. We clearly had chances but they were not put away which is becoming a regular comment unfortunately.

Wish Claude would try his subs 15 mins earlier

We are 8th because that’s how good we are after having played everyone, if riyad goes we will fall down the table but how far is up to the manager.

[Clever Fox]

Another winnable game slips away, but there are mitigating circumstances for it. You cannot push the  players that hard with games every 3,4 Days. no matter how much they're paid. It's nothing to do with the players not trying or anything. It's all to do with recovery. I'm not talking about the fitness recovery which has actually looked really good. It's more to do with the little knocks, the bruises, the strains to knees hips etc. The skint Toes and Heels, making it difficult to run and chase. It's an accumulation of all of the above that slows players down. Then you throw in selections from the Manager who i still getting to know the players. Our lack of a physical presence was exposed again yesterday just like against Palace.

Aside from the result I took a lot of positives from yesterday's game. There's no doubt our ability to pass and move is improving with every game and some of the first half play was very encouraging.

Mahrez is now growing and evolving into the world class player some on here thought he already was. He's working harder and taking up better positions and his unselfish play is a joy to watch as a purest.  I just hope we can hold on to him while we keep building. The quality of the Goals against Utd and yesterday and the chances we created and missed. All positives for the future. It will be interesting to see who Puel brings in to fill the obvious gaps.

So while the result wasn't good yesterday, the signs are looking better for the future. We just need to keep the faith with the clubs plans.

[Guest Col city fan]

Apologies if already mentioned, but I've just got round to watching the highlights on MOTD. 

Did anybody take note of the amazing bit of skill that Mahrez used to beat the full back and to cross the ball into the box, near the end (just after Gomes made his second great save)?

You have to see it to believe it. Literally it was like the opponent wasn't there.

 

[The Doctor]

4 hours ago, Clever Fox said:

Another winnable game slips away, but there are mitigating circumstances for it. You cannot push the  players that hard with games every 3,4 Days. no matter how much they're paid. It's nothing to do with the players not trying or anything. It's all to do with recovery. I'm not talking about the fitness recovery which has actually looked really good. It's more to do with the little knocks, the bruises, the strains to knees hips etc. The skint Toes and Heels, making it difficult to run and chase. It's an accumulation of all of the above that slows players down. .

Spot on. It's a difficult spell, but look Burnley on 2nd december to Huddersfield on Monday. 9 games in 30 days, so just over three days rest time per game, covering over 1000 miles across those "rest" days, having to go to both extremes of the country as part of it. No wonder some players (e.g. Iborra) have looked shagged and not put up the performances they were last month.

[Dr The Singh]

33 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Apologies if already mentioned, but I've just got round to watching the highlights on MOTD. 

Did anybody take note of the amazing bit of skill that Mahrez used to beat the full back and to cross the ball into the box, near the end (just after Gomes made his second great save)?

You have to see it to believe it. Literally it was like the opponent wasn't there.

 

Only Cattermole or Amertey could have stopped Mahrez

[sacreblueits442]

17 hours ago, DatfoxesKid23 said:

the problem is more then a simple defensive problem the problem was that we got over ran over entirely in the midfield this was due to a tactical mistake without iborra our midfield is ineffective at keeping the ball so puel stupidly made our plauers force the play through the flanks thats why we played a 343 so the wingers would attack and then when the wingers got dispossesed the wing backs would intercept formation it worked for a while but eventually watford caught on and started playing through our weak midfield from then on it was game over even without the shitty set piece defending we still would have been dominated. However I can see why puel did this however as hamaza choudry is to young to be playing in a premier league midfield three which would combat not having possesion by having an extra man. And james might not be just as fit to play yet but this us speculation.

 

This however is just my evaluation of the game plan and why it failed.

Playing Hamza Choudry against Spurs was reckless and seem to suggest, irrespective of the situattion, Puel was going to bring him on. Should Spurs had equalised or gone on to win the game, the media fall out would have pointed to Choudry's introduction and would have been detrimental to his progress. 

 A more suitable introduction to the starting eleven should be George Thomas. Playing in midfield or part of the 3 behind Vardy would be a good choice. He can finish, is composed on the ball, can pick a pass and has awareness of people around him. His transformation from attacker to a midfield player has been an eye opener.

  Unfortunately I still see Puel as an enigma, when he started he was quite demonstrative on the side and made changes and got across his ideas, pulling people into position from the sidelines. Now he seems to sit in the dugout or stand with his arms folded,  giving no indication he is trying to influence the game. He has either succumbed to the style of play he inherited or he has no faith in the squad and has decided to wait untill January when he can bring in players which will suit his style of play.

 

[sacreblueits442]

46 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

Spot on. It's a difficult spell, but look Burnley on 2nd december to Huddersfield on Monday. 9 games in 30 days, so just over three days rest time per game, covering over 1000 miles across those "rest" days, having to go to both extremes of the country as part of it. No wonder some players (e.g. Iborra) have looked shagged and not put up the performances they were last month.

Same for all teams. Don't think we are fit enough!!

[CosbehFox]

28 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

Same for all teams. Don't think we are fit enough!!

Except it’s not. We’ve have the least resting time than any other team over Christmas. 

 

Arsenal for example played on 22nd and will not again until 28th. 

 

And its not incredibly silly to say they are the club who we should be targeting. 

[DatfoxesKid23]

11 hours ago, Callabinho said:

So as you clearly think you’re a tactical genius, without Iborra what would you have done? 

I'm not a tactical genius that's the gaffers job.

I would have mirrored their formation stuck to them like glue put them under pressure watford doesn't have the quality to keep possession against us without us majorly fvcking up. We just better then they are. But without iborra puel tried to ignore the midfield if we mirrored them everywhere then they'd be forced to move around creating gaps which our forwards would thrive on. this would happen by putting an extra man in midfield my pick would be james as he can make decent balls into the box. And then an up front trident of gray vardy mahrez the pace and skill would destroy watford as their defence at best is barley premier league quality so it should have been easy for puel to have beaten them. we could stay on the attack and as they would eventually counter attack with richarlison we could have played fuchs RB (one game won't kill him on RB) and chilwell LB. with the usual in defence. they would probably score one without a natural RB but we would out score them and they could only counter attack.

[DatfoxesKid23]

1 hour ago, sacreblueits442 said:

Playing Hamza Choudry against Spurs was reckless and seem to suggest, irrespective of the situattion, Puel was going to bring him on. Should Spurs had equalised or gone on to win the game, the media fall out would have pointed to Choudry's introduction and would have been detrimental to his progress. 

 A more suitable introduction to the starting eleven should be George Thomas. Playing in midfield or part of the 3 behind Vardy would be a good choice. He can finish, is composed on the ball, can pick a pass and has awareness of people around him. His transformation from attacker to a midfield player has been an eye opener.

  Unfortunately I still see Puel as an enigma, when he started he was quite demonstrative on the side and made changes and got across his ideas, pulling people into position from the sidelines. Now he seems to sit in the dugout or stand with his arms folded,  giving no indication he is trying to influence the game. He has either succumbed to the style of play he inherited or he has no faith in the squad and has decided to wait untill January when he can bring in players which will suit his style of play.

 

your probably right thats why he forced play through the wings because he can't trust his midfield to do a decent job but we haven't been linked to too many holding midfielders.

[Crazy Kop Corner]

I'm still absolutely furious with how we capitulated.

 

The first 25 minutes we looked far and away the better side but o'so slowly and in that shite Leicester way we let them totally back into the game.

 

A good team would have been at least 2 up by half time and would have cleared their lines for their first goal. It was so predictable.

 

The 2nd was absolutely unforgivable from Kasper. An absolute pile of dunkheap from him and it has to be said he's cost us a number of goals this year. Has he got his mind elsewhere?

 

For a 40 something bloke I'm still sulking like a kid. Really not impressed with this lot at all.

[drofmor55]

18 hours ago, Dr The Singh said:

Only Cattermole or Amertey could have stopped Mahrez

Every tackle on him v C Palace was a borderline foul..and it worked ...as good a player as i have seen in a Leicester shirt,but sadly for his own sake he needs to leave

[Wymsey]

Vardy is probably kicking himself for not converting the one-on-one opportunity.

He would've converted that type of chance whenever he's been in-form.