Match Day Thread Carabao Cup, Southern Section, Watford v Norwich City, Tues 12th August, ko 19.45

Watford didn't look threatening until Baah came on for them. But glad we hanged in as I don't like watching penalties

 

Louza made a big difference for them as well.

 

Why is Watford becoming a bit of a spicy game? So many ****houses in their team

 

How did they not get yellow cards for the couple of challenges on Chrisene while the ball was in the air, both slide tackles in Uk and neither got anywhere near the ball but nothing give

 

Bromley 1- Ippy 1

 

Quoting carrabuh are you.

 

Maybe

 

Binners in penalties.

 

Out lol

 

Diallo 2 assists on his debut,especially pleased because Watford wanted to sign him .

 

Kellen Fisher will have a big smile when he sees that.

 

Lots of positives tonight as Sargent nets another, Núñez looks back to his best (our MotM, IMO), Diallo showed what we paid £4.5m for, Marcondes made a case for staying, Chrisene looked much better and Grimshaw showed himself to be a good backup keeper. A solid away win will help psychologically when we go to Portsmouth, who lost 1-2 at home to Reading tonight. Things are looking up.

 

Couldn't see the 2nd half. Was surprised to see Jurasek a sub in our cup match squad. How did he look when he came on. I worry this fella is our next Raschica / Tzolis cash burner.

 

Jurásek only came on for the last 12 minutes but he made the most of his time with a WhoScored rating of 6.3 in a situation that didn't suit his skills. If he matched that level over a whole game he'd have a rating around 8.2. So it was a glimpse of hope really. Remember he's only 21 with a lot of development to come. Let's hope we see that starting soon.

 

The WhoScored ratings for last night:

 

He did well under the circumstances I thought, dragged us up the pitch a bit as Watford had to drop back a bit to cover his pace. He drew a couple of important fouls to wind down the clock in extra time

 

I’ve not seen it mentioned on here but Manning confirmed after the game that Forson is set for ‘months’ on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. Really disappointing for him after a good pre-season and looked to be a big part of Mannings plans

 

That's a big blow to him and the club and I hope it encourages all concerned to think before trimming the squad to the point where we struggle to deal with injuries. Anyway, here's Paddy Davitt's verdict on last night:

"Not perfect by any stretch. But however you cut it, a marked step forward, in short order, from how Liam Manning’s City were subdued by the urgings of Millwall at Carrow Road. That bodes well moving into the meat of this season if the new head coach and his charges can problem-solve in quick order. Norwich were excellent on the ball as an attacking unit in the first half of this cup win at Vicarage Road. With Papa Amadou Diallo setting the tone they had dynamism, pace and thrust. Diallo was everywhere in a first half that brought him two assists, acclaim from the travelling support and a full-blooded pat on the back from Harry Darling, who appreciated his tracking back to thwart Ryan Andrews. Diallo was incisive, direct and full of energetic intent. This is a player with arguably the highest ceiling of any recruited this summer. Look at the career strides Borja Sainz took in relatively short order last season."

 

Apparently Duffy is our highest earner on £35k a week Fisher is on about £7k .

I would rather get shot of him but we'll probably have to pay off his contract.

Not many other duds in the squad

 

Yet another Head Coach who like Smith, Wagner and Thorup before him follows the nonsense of the philosophy that when you take the lead you have to 'manage the game' Utter crap!! The half time team talk should have been - you are leading 2-0, you are playing well, you look like scoring every time you go forward, more of the same please - end of team talk!! While I'm at it get rid of all the baggage in the dugout and go back to a Manager, a technical coach and a fitness coach with all the squad reporting to all three every training day and concentrating on fitness, skill and tactics leaving how to deal with the next opposition until the day before the game. The matches are won or lost on the pitch not on some statisticians laptop. I gave up watching after 15mins of the second half last night because a good entertaining game had turned into a battle of attrition!!i