Match Day Thread WBA v WATFORD

Certainly agree it was a good point.

Areas to work on but better now than in March.

And we have to trust the manager and players.

 

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Anyone can miss a penalty but to miss it in that fashion is annoying. Still, an away point at one of the favourites is not to be sniffed at. Time for RE to earn his pennies: watch that through again, make the appropriate changes, and go again. I can't see us starting with that line up on Friday!

 

We haven't played that badly since last season.
I was very disappointed with RE's decisions, or lack of them, when we were losing out in the midfield all match.

 

Happy with a point after seeing the highlighs and the Batman save show!

 

Only been 2 games since last season!

 

What a moment in the game this was.

 

That goal.

 

I thought we were out-foxed by Bruce. He essentially negated our front line by starving it, and the ‘Premiership’ side was out-thought and out-fought in the middle with the back looking desperate and/or sparse.
A very lucky point, which probably should’ve been a lucky three points. But they had a myriad of missed chances, so they might well feel miffed they didn’t win even if the penalty hadn’t have been missed (at least hit it IS, no one minds if you hit it and it’s saved!)
Lots to work on on the training fields, but 2pts per game so far that perhaps aren’t thoroughly deserved, so I’m not complaining.

 

Pretty honest assessment of the game from RE.

 

Totally agree - and the worry is that other teams will have taken notes and replicate WBA's tactics. I really can't imagine that RE won't take appropriate steps to remedy it though - but having said that, I remember back in the early 80s when Luton regularly & successfully used the same tactics against GT's sides.

Hopefully Louza will be back to fitness soon - he should make a big difference.

 

Back in October.

So could do with more midfield cover maybe ?

 

Or try TDB and/or Quina? And give Gosling more than 2 minutes...

 

I realise I know very little about modern football coaching/systems/formations , but what seemed blindingly obvious to me last night was...
1) Swedish Ken is not a Left wingback.
2) Hassane K is not a Right wingback ( I don't think he passed once to Sarr along the wing a la Femenia)
3) A midfield of Cleverley & Kayembe was far too slow and got little help from the 'wingbacks'
4) Joao Pedro tried to make the link between defence and attack - and was the best WFC player , apart from Bachmann - says it all.
5) The idea that we defend with 7 and leave the front 3 to do it all up front won't work.
6) Our Barcelona import looked quite unsuited to our league - admittedly from a short time ,in either game.
7) Rolling the ball in for a penalty might work once, but is unlikely to work twice if it's identical to the first time !

Our squad seems really well set up for 4-3-3 not 5 -2 -3. But hey what do I know ?

 

Love This....RE telling players to go and appreciate the fans, I saw this at the Shef Utd game as well - easy after a win and good performance though
I have long hoped for the team to spend five mins at the end of Every game to say thanks to the fans...its not much to ask and keeps the fan-team bond alive....hopefully it wont be just a fair weather (performance) gesture

 

A lot of good points here..... and rather worrying..
Not ready to go with point 6 yet.
Most worrying for me last night was our lack of inventiveness in changing tactics...and thus the game..We were far too easy to play against

 

Agreed. It really doesn't take coaching qualifications to see that your point 5 was the major problem last night.

I'm certainly no expert, especially when it comes to the various formations, but I did hold a Soccer Australia coaching licence for a good number of years, and coached from U6 through to adults. If nothing else, I did learn that trying to drum tactics/formations into players was mostly a mug's game as no game is the same and players of all ages can easily get carried away & out of position anyway. With the younger kids I settled on a simple plan - every training session started with a game of netball, in which they all knew that they had to stay in the third of the field they were allocated to. Then every session ended with a game of football - in which they all had bibs with either A for attack, M for midfield or D for defence on the back, and they all knew that they had to stay in the relevant third of the field and support each other within those thirds.

The huge space in the middle of the field that was devoid of our players last night entirely convinced me that last night's performance would have been better had they all been wearing similar bibs.

 

All super points. You may claim to know very little about modern football, JTB, but I think this is a very astute analysis. But then, you’ve had a lot of experience (I was going to say you’ve “enjoyed” years of experience, but being a Watford fan perhaps that’s not the case ).
Personally, I favour four at the back, because they all know their roles automatically, after years of playing that. I think the outside two of your front three (if we took your 4-3-3, which I like too) dropping when we are not in possession, sat in front of a back four, would make a stronger formation. I would leave Joao as the middle front man, but best line-up, I’m not sure.
I’m not sure about new 9, yet. I hope he doesn’t turn out like Perica. I’m still hopeful with him, he didn’t seem too terrible to me, trying to find his feet I thought.
Ken seemed very unhappy at the end of the game, and I really felt for him.
Did the formation make a lot of our more capable players look very average?