We deserved to lose. We were lucky to take the lead and then virtually stopped playing, for some reason.
It was just basically a very, very **** game that Watford won. We were poor but I don’t think they were particularly great, ultimately they just scored two of their three attempts on target and that’s all they needed to do. We offered very little on the front foot.
All the top sides seem vulnerable at set pieces. Most have ball playing centre backs rather than big, tough stoppers. By contrast the lesser PL teams are very adept at set pieces. After today and Utd's game at Brighton, it seems it's not just Arsenal who will be getting overturned on a regular basis.
Disappointed with Pochettino's post-match comments about character and the display. No recognition of any mistakes made by him, either with the starting selection or ongoing match decisions. He's as much to blame as the players, if not more so.
It wasn’t going to be pretty. Finally we managed to execute a game plan on you. Cut out the crosses, play you on the break, try and hold possession in your half, don’t lose possession in ours. I think trying to cut out your width was critical today. Of course, man for man, your players are on average better than ours. So we needed to hold tight, defend valiantly and score from set-pieces. The pressure was on from you most of the time, it felt. But maybe that’s what it always feels like when the oppos have the ball in a game you’re not expected to win. Over 31 years since we beat you in the league, so it’s been a great day for us. The bookies have moved our finishing position from 17th to 9th in the last few weeks! As far as any Watford fan is concerned, these are 12 points that may well help keep us up.
We were not great but neither were Watford, a draw would have been a fair result overall in my opinion. We dominated the first hour of the game without creating many chances as they parked the bus and our attackers (Lucas aside) were poor. We probably should have had a penalty first half for the foul on Lucas, but as we don`t wear a red shirt it was waved away once again. Watford played for set pieces as it was their only chance of scoring and eventually our poor defending gifted them a couple of goals and the 3 points. So many of our players had an off day, Kane, Dele, Eriksen and Davies were awful, there was a lack of urgency, we did not move the ball quick enough. It was probably a case of `after the lord mayor`s show` and in the end we lost a game we should be winning. Anyway, next up the 12 men of Liverpool, we need to show character and bounce straight back, how I would love us to wipe the smiles of the faces of those mugs. COYS
Can't grumble and no excuses. Doesn't matter how 'good' you are or technically better than your opponents, if you don't play you don't win. (With some notable exceptions). You wanted it more than us - and it doesn't help if 4 key players all choose the same match to have an off day! You guys are well safe and I reckon you'll finish top half. Good luck for the rest of the season - bar at least 2 games of course
I didn't think your crossing was as effective as it usually is and at times dare I say you were doing an Arsenal in trying to walk the ball in the net ! Was surprised we managed to score from 2 set plays so easily tbh. Got most of your defence in my fantasy sides !! Good luck in the future - and we look forward to meeting again somewhere !! You"ll win the cup tie now as that often happens.
Just read the transcript of his Presser and he said the first person to blame was him..... Rightly attacked the attitude of the team on the pitch, but he wasn't sliding responsibility. Work to be done.....
I agree with your penultimate paragraph You guys expect, quite rightly, to challenge for the league. We are hoping to get safety ASAP. On that basis I thought Watford were fantastic today - our organisation was excellent and we capitalised on so many mistakes you made. I don't disagree that some of your team played badly but the only way we can win against you is to play out of our skins and hope you don't. I am genuinely ecstatic about this result - you were the only "big" team apart from City we haven't beaten since we came back up. But more than that i have massive respect for Spurs because of the way you have built from the youth team and produced so many great players. And most of my family are Spurs fans, including my nephew who celebrated his 13th birthday taunting me in the Park Lane stand when you beat us 1-0 the other year so I hope you have a great season.
Think that's a bit harsh. I didn't think you guys were that open. Watford didn't really have that many clear cut open chances (the near toby OG). The 2 goals they scored were from set pieces (who was marking cathcart and deeney?) which is a team effort rather than defensive game. I thought they defended quite well if you look at the chances conceded. Going forward Davies was useless. Trips had quite a useful game some good crosses. Even toby put in a few good balls
A poor game for sure and in my opinion a game that Watford deserved to win, not because they played any better than we did (and we were awful), but because they wanted it more than us and in my opinion that's what when the fans are really short changed. It is a cardinal sin to turn up thinking just because we have 'better' players we will win the match. Watford played to their strengths and we didn't and I applaud them and Deeney in particular for being a proper captain and leading his side both in words and actions well played that man. As for us I hate the term 'Spursy', but today we showed once again why the term exists, not sure any of our players deserve any praise, but in a bad performance Davies was particularly poor and how with Rose on the bench he got to 85 mins I really don't know. Bloody international break now means we all have more time to reflect on this match and have to wait longer to get it out of our system, but at least we may have both Son and Lamela in our next match day squad which will allow us greater options to change a match like todays; we needed 1 or probably both of them today.
We weren’t open, that’s why they were so bad to have conceded two sloppy goals. Watford only came at us with intent for about 10 minutes, got two set pieces and they bagged two goals from it. We had three CBs yet they left Dele to mark Deeney. Davies didn’t make one successful cross. Toby nearly headed into his own net. Our defence are usually one of our biggest assets but they had a mare today. Weren’t helped by the fact they didn’t have Dier protecting them. That game showed just how crucial he is for us, does so much dirty work that it only becomes noticeable when he ain’t there.
This is where I'm confused. You are criticising the defence for the one clear chance created (Toby's header) and the other two goals are from set pieces which teams will get all match long. You can have a go if you think someone needed to be telling Dele he's marking the wrong person but to say defensively they had a mare or that dier needed to protect them isn't how I see it if they didn't concede any clear chances. Sounds more like an attacking issue as they should have been creating more chances in my book and poor set piece defending which is a team issue than just the defence.
