I'm afraid that yesterday showed that Flores has learnt little about English football over this season. He has shown himself inflexible in tactics, misplaced in player loyalty and suspicious of the abilities of many of his players. The cup competitions in most other countries may not rate highly but surely a game at Wembley has to trigger some chest beating and adrenaline rush from him. It appears not. Pity, I still have a lot of admiration for what he has done this season, but it is draining away fast...
Our playing style has become so wooden and apart from TD and OI no one really expected to do anything different..... no wing play to speak of etc etc
It's almost as if QSF is just going through the motions. Does he know something that others only suspect?
The only good thing I can think about yesterday is that we didn't progress. I will be on holiday when the final is played, and to spend a day searching for a faint signal somewhere is not fun. Before the game I was listening to Derek Payne who said that Pardew will have looked at our team, seen that Ake did not have anyone in front of him to help out, so would send Zaha and Bolasie straight out to attack him. That is exactly what happened.
I am kind of glad I entirely missed this game. Sounds like I had more fun at the 3-1 defeat at West Ham!
I think this adequately sums up my thoughts. Of course I would have takeour current position of 12th and a cup semi-final at the beginning of the season, so please dont keep repeating it. The point is, the style of play has been pretty negative all season and QSF seems to prefer safety first. Much talk of taking the shackles off...but I dont see it happening. Prepare for a massive turn over of players in the summer..and maybe the manger too. I certainly wouldn't bet against him not being here at the start of the new season.
I am also getting ready for a massive turnover of players in the summer and possibly the manager as well. But where would that leave us ? With another manager who doesn't know the English game and another group of individuals who need to be moulded as a team - with the addition that half of them will only ever have watched the Premier league on telly, and whatever names they may have in Italy and Spain has no relevence here. Flores is Spanish......and Spanish football is one dimensional, which works if you have the players that Real Madrid or Barcelona have but not for us, at least not on a consistent basis. I have recently also seen Italian football described as outdated and slow (by German commentators), and when was the last time an Italian club showed up well in a European competition ? Fact.....Udinese themselves are not good enough to survive in the Premier League, so how can we live from the Pozzo pool of players ? The Pozzo's themselves have to rethink their model.....use their money to get a good manager in (preferably either an English one (or German?) or someone who at least knows the English game, and give them time. Because all of these changes every year are ripping the heart out of our club. Rant over.......
I see Igahlo's father passed away this morning. I don't know if he has been ill for some time or it was unexpected.
A difficult day to watch Wonder whether Holbas & Barhami found it as frustrating? 3/4 way through season and still round pegs in square holes. Disjointed. Abdi and others with skill being harnessed to do specific jobs. I have seen Flores stubborness since the first home game of the season and whilst he has done great to keep us up you have to question if he should free players up to express themselves and if he could have done better in certain matches. The sum of all the parts and all that.....
I suppose the money at stake in staying in the Premiership makes some incoming managers reluctant to take risks by playing more attractive attacking football. I have rather fallen out of love with the PL in general but I do hope Leicester hang on and not only win it but show that games at that level can be good to watch and can produce surprises. Of course I want WFC to do well, but if it means the playing style has to become like some of the Italian games we get on TV I'm not going to get very excited about it. One other thing, I'm reluctant to criticise Ake despite his performance...not only young but he is not a left back either. p.s. no doubt I'll cheer up in a day or two
Hugely disappointed with yesterday's performance. The players, I would have expected, would have raised their games with the excitement of the occaision but no. The team's play was for the most part pedestrian and in several passages of play to actually move the ball foreward and attack the Palace goal whould have been easier than checking to go sideways or backwards. I did feel the introduction of Guedioura and later on Anya helped, but in Ikechi's case it was too late. Much as the referee was aware of Palace's diving he was not wise to their time wasting, nine minutes over the two halves, including Etienne Capoue's injury was nowhere near enough. Also how did Palace manage to get a free kick for their four man dive when there was no Watford player withing five metres of them?
I'm a bit anal about timing the added time in each half. Yesterday was 8 minutes first half and 7 in the second half. Includes injuries, subs, time for free kicks with walls and sprays etc, goal celebrations, time wasting at throw ins and goal kicks, time for yellow cards, the lot! It was way short yesterday.
I'm still fed up almost 24 hours later and I think I will be for at least another 24. I've seen some pretty good comments on this site this morning, both about the match and about what's likely to happen in the future. With regards to the match, I can't help thinking that QSF just got it completely wrong. What was he thinking playing Abdi? This was a one off cup tie. Just go for it. Show us that we can play with a bit of purpose and flair. And what was the point of putting Anya on...and then hardly giving him the ball. Too often we played the ball sideways or backwards. No penetration, no pace. Yet another opportunity spurned. How often this season have we been beaten by teams that have not played well because we haven't come up to scratch? As to the future, I honestly can't make my mind up about QSF and the likely major turn over of players. If pushed, I'd like him to stay, but I also trust the Pozzos. The latest From The Rookery End podcast makes the point that teams finishing a season poorly have a tendency to start the following season poorly. Maybe this is in their thinking and they want someone to come in sooner rather than later to be involved in the influx of new players. What I do know is, if he does stay we need to see some flexibility and some adventure. And the new players need to be brought in with this in mind. More broadly, this season I have come to despise the Premier League, but know that this is where I want to watch Watford. I watch the Championship occasionally and laugh that I thought it was such a great league. And I've also come to despise the many vultures and hangers on that the PL attracts. The so called pundits and experts that are no better informed and provide no better commentary than your average crowd down the pub. However, we'll dust ourselves down and move on. Who was it said...its the hope that gets you. COYH
What happened to QSF's "when we are safe the shackles will come off" it was the Semi final of the cup for goodness sake and we played the same way as we have all 2016..... dire, predictable and toothless!!!!!
Pardew even admitted he adjusted tactics to play us - as I say that is something Flores doesn't seem able to do.
Anyone else think Eric Black is looking forward to Saturday? To lose to Villa at home would be extremely embarrassing, but if we're going to be so slow and predictable, it could happen.
About the game I think it's all been said. Once again 90 minutes of "football" got in the way of a grand social. The difficulty with the season as a whole is that on paper we've more than achieved what we thought was realistically possible but there's an overriding sense of disappointment in the way that it has happened. A whole gamut of missed opportunities to impress, over cautious tactics, a lack of real cutting edge and a barely functioning plan A with no plan B in evidence. There's the rub: we've seen enough in the displays against Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham and others to know what the team are capable of... And they have flattered to deceive. I'm not entirely sure where we go from here. Unless the tactics and the performances improve then the last four games are likely to be a turgid experience: Villa with a new coach and some professional pride to play for; a resurgent Liverpool; Norwich and Sunderland fighting for their lives. Let's hope that one or both of those two drop the requisite points in the meantime.
That's a stunning post. The site issues these sillyarse 'awards' for 25 'likes' or whatever. If we could issue awards, I would for this.
