A familiar feel to our 1st home game of the season, loads af possession, loads of chances, lose by the odd goal! I see Le Fondre got two today!
Hmm - disappointing to lose, but the performance sounded quite reasonable. I'm sure 'it will come together' and we'll start winning. Well you have to be optimistic! At least the steptoes got thrashed
Very disappointing......Derby had 1 half chance all game and took it brilliantly. We had double figure guilt edged chances......and couldn't take any of them. Man of the match was Shackell...rock solid, always in the right place and saved off the line. I think there were positives...Deeney needs to start over Iwelumo in my opinion (who is incredibly immobile)...but we need to take these our chances.....too many times this happens.
Not sure i agree with that MM..Deeney didn't win a header as far as i could tell, and there was one time he didn't even jump..very frustrating, he can do far better usually. The trouble is, with Iwelumo, we do tend to hoof a bit more, but we were passing so well and creating so much in the first half, it was hugely disappointing. Once they scored, we lost our way, though Massey made a huge difference in the few minutes he played. I hope we see more of him...even if he'd had 15 minutes it would have been better. I thought Yeates and Dickinson were great in the first half, both were fighting for everything, and more often than not, won. Sordell was looking good, and so much stronger, and was creating a lot of problems. Taylor seemed a bit off today, not his usual self, but Mariappa more than made up for it. Imo, Derby got lucky today with a super strike from nothing. We gave them the 3 points by not finishing and putting the ball over the line. We had enough opportunities, we just needed to take them. Very disappointing, but at least there's loads of positives, far better than saying we were hopeless!
The biggest positive to take from today is that it looks as though both wingers are capable of getting to ten goals this season, something that couldn't be said of Cowie and Buckley after a few games last year.
Personally Hornette I thought that Deeney was really running around, making sure he challenged and usually he was winning the headers......and it was feeding on to other players.....problem was Sordell had no help or other players didn't take chances.
Why do some people think Adam Le Fondre is the answer to all of our problems? As far as I can see he is still plying his trade in the 4th division. Why would you want to replace Marvin Sordell with him at a huge cost and risk? If Dyche is looking for another forward it has to be someone with more ability than ALF. As for today Derby came for the niggle today and stole the 3 points IMO. The stats over the last few years say that if we don't score in the first half, we rarely win and then if we concede as well, then its curtains. Yes after the goal we huffed and puffed, but really you thought that Derby could well manage their way to the win. My daughter was happy to win the sweepstake for "how long will Iwelumo last", I now have 70 mins for Tuesday ...... and that was that really, if only we'd scored in our purple patches in the 1st half the game would have been so different. Goals change games, and that goal killed us.
Definitely Sordell needed help...it highlights our need for another striker for sure...but Sordell was far more active than usual. Honestly i can't think of one poor performance today, we were just very unlucky, or they were lucky, one of the two!
Hornette, Deeny won his first three headers (I stopped counting after that). That's three more than Big Chris all game. However I'm not sure that he is the answer. I'll judge Big Chris after another game.
mmm H can I disagree with you? 2 players who were fairly seriously "off the pace" today were Jenkins and Iwelumo. IMO Jenkins has not properly recovered from his viral problem of a couple of years ago. As for Iwelumo he "needs a goal" - look at the incident midway through the first half, ball at his feet near the D. I thought "take a stride and pull the trigger", instead he played a poor ball wide to Yeates who was not anticipating it. It is clear Iwelumo runs out of gas - we had a sweepstake going for how long he would last (my daughter won and I've stolen the magic 70min mark for Tuesday). And that was that, 2 seasons ago Derby frustrated the pants off us and won 1-0, but last year we scored first and thrashed Derby 3-0 before half time. The first goal is still a crucial commodity for us IMO.
Funnily enough, i thought RJ had his best game for a long time! But then, i've never really rated him, so that wouldn't be hard for him to do imho. CI didn't seem so bad to me, and though i was sure he'd be subbed with Deeney, i didn't feel confident it would help when it happened. i like TD, but i find myself disappointed by him too much. Hmm, i'll go with 65 mins in the sweepstake . i think you're right about the first goal though, at the mo, though i do feel as our defense strengthens, which i'm convinced it will, that won't be such a worry...
I am sure this Derby side will not be challenging for honours this season, but it may well finish above us.Though people may be inclined to "take the positives " from the game, the fact remains that we dominated in possession, territory,corner counts and shots on goal but could not score. An excellent centre half and a competent goalkeeper got the better of our strikers. Iwelumo was pretty poor really--all moves that went through him broke down. He spent a lot of time applauding his team-mates, but offered little in return. Yeates did look like he was prepared to play, which is good, but given the number of dead-ball opportunities he had, surely there should have been an end product? Sordell was lively but needs a better partner. Forsyth needs more games to make an impression. It says a lot that the best bits of skill came from Doyley. These first 5 games are pretty tough and I do not see us getting more than 3 points from them. Is there the scope in this squad to raise our game against better sides than Derby?
My view on the game for those that care. I don't think we deserved to lose the game but we had no cutting edge at all. Player for player this is what I saw SL : cannot or will not distribute the ball to feet and always chooses to hoof and lose possession. We have to stop giving the opposition the ball and start building from the back. LD : Solid game from LD, not a big fan normally but seemed to give better distribution MT : Not his best game but still the most solid defender we have. AM : For 90% of the game he looks the best defender then has a habit of giving away goals, same goes for today, stood off Davies for the goal and undid all his good work for the rest of the game. I would give Morfin a chance ahead of him. CD : Reminds me of Robbo but needs to learn to distribute a bit better. MY : Could be a great player for us, made some good runs and dead ball set pieces were good, with DG in the side he would have had a couple. JE : gave his all again, quality lacking slightly with final ball RJ : Looked stronger on the ball then last year, not great today but got a feeling he is going to get better this year. CF : saw some glimpses of good play and good with the ball at his feet. MS : Looked hungrier for the ball and stronger, needs a goal soon to settle him down, could become another great player. CI : looked like the weak link to me! Did not win a header considering his size and work rate is nothing like DG and no touch, hoping he will get better but need to get a harder working CF IMO, preffered it when Deeney came on but don't think he is . Still staying positive but unless we get a good striker the season could be a tough one.
It was a game we were unlucky to lose in the sense Derby hardly created a thing but then did we really carve out too many clear cut chances despite having most of the ball? Sordell was excellent and Yeates impressed me but worried abotu Big Chris as he looked pretty lacklusture even in the air considering his height. Not sure we can afford too many hard luck stories.
Talking of centre forwards I spotted that Rasiak had not been offered a contrat by Charlton or anyone else and had pottered off home.
I bet you're regretting your remember this come tomorrow at 5 comment lol. Anyway I was there today and although we took the 3 points which is all that matters, it was a scrappy game of football where both teams were pretty much as bad as each other. First half wise just looked like the same old debry from last year....hit and hope. I should be happy with 3 points but I do dread the rest of the season if we play anything like we did in the first half.
Can I politely point you in the direction of the stats? The first half was conclusively ours, shots ON 6 OFF 5, and your single shot OFF target. In the 2nd half we started well and had a couple of early chances and were just drawing breath when BAM, against the run of play the goal came. We all know "goals change games" and for the rest of the match Derby "managed the game" very well and will look at the league table and say "it doesn't matter if we win ugly". Winning ugly away from home is what all good and successful teams need to do, but can you honestly say Derby are that team? By the way the 3 points are not "all that matters" when you're the home team!! My own view is I thought the 1st goal was crucial, and the timing doubly so. The stats have shown for the last 5 years that Watford are not good at chasing games and today after the goal I could see only 1 winner, and soon after I could see only 1 result. I looked at the results between us over the last few years before the game and 2 years ago there was the identical game (and score), whereas last year Derby fell apart in the 1st half and were 3 down before the break. Is the game a setback to our fortunes - too early to tell really, but I honestly think it gives the Watford backroom staff plenty to think about.
