Well, we definitely looked better after a truly terrible first 25 minutes. Some positive signs, but a 1-1 home draw against 10-man Watford is a 1-1 home draw against 10-man Watford. It'll be interesting to see how this possession-based tactic works against the likes of Man U.
Watford didn't deserve a point. We played much better second half and deserved to win. Hojbjerg was class
It's hard to win the opening game of the season when most seasons you have a new manager, new players and often new tactics, but we will do it one day before I die I'm 54.
Tadic great game. Hojbjerg class. Redmond looked really good second half. Unconvinced by the system as things stand, but not a bad start all things being equal.
Well. Not a great result but given how **** we were for the first 15-20 minutes we can't complain too much. Hojbjerg looked excellent.
Any other time in the season, poor result - we clearly have more quality than Watford. However, as a first game of the season it was a decent performance with plenty of room to improve. Biggest question for the manager - why didn't Hojberg start?
I'm afraid we made that as easy as possible for Watford. Some "rusty" performances but mainly a formation/approach that it's hard to see any positives in. Would like to read some opposite opinions from people who were there.
Definitely the better team overall. Hojbjerg has to start next match. Nice to see Yoshi attempt to give the game away again!
Heh, we looked much better when the players effectively abandoned the shape. I like the ?-?-? amorphous blob of attacking intent that replaced the diamond somewhere around the 55th minute.
Hojbjerg must start the next match, if not Puel should get the sack because no further evidence of cluelessness is needed.
Just from memory but we have not kept a clean-sheet in Premier League since Chelsea broke Fraser's clean-sheet run last season.
In the end, I guess I'll take it. C- performance overall. Draw probably fair in the end. Looked very good in second half, but then again... ten men. Way too early to ditch the formation. Give the players a chance to get used to it, and maybe see how it works with Hojbjerg.
Sadly I think two things we learned in that game are: Ward-Prowse is not suddenly a top class creative player. There was a reason Cuco got a lot of matches last year...
Really poor opening 25. Cédric and Romeu particularly slack. I loved Tadić today, and Højbjerg is different gravy. Solid start from Redmond, who looked lively. Plenty of positives I think. Especially with Fonte, Bertrand and Højbjerg all starting.
Unless Pied sets the world alight, I think that we'll regret opting to target a backup rather than a starting-calibre RB. This was Cedric at his worst, sure, but I have a suspicion that RB is going to continue to be a problem area more often than not this season.
Horrible horrible start but last hour was pretty impressive. I feel it's gonna be a frustrating season. We're gonna have moments of class but gonna get frustrated at home a lot like today. Hojberg the big bonus from the performance and must start, impressed with Redmond too. Wouldn't mind seeing more of Pied. He was wasteful but I feel that he could be decent player
The question with Pied is whether he can be defensively competent; he's still very new to right back at an unusually late age for such a switch, and even last year wasn't renowned for his skill in keeping his man in front of him. Could be useful for some matchups, but there is an awfully large contingent of attacking players in the PL who will likely eat him alive.
