thank god that Watford hoodoo has ended !!! enjoyed this thread, your lot seem very impartial and give credit to the other team when they deserve it.
I think Saturday's result might have to be put into perspective given tonight's at Ashton Gate........
It's been a long time coming! I thoroughly enjoyed that! The 8 Year Hoodoo has been broken and the Town fans that went tonight sounded amazing!
Check out Zola's post match comments on the sky sports Watford page (can't link as I'm on my phone). He seems pretty bullish and very determined to force this new playing style upon the players. Though from the sounds of it, when Big Chris came on and we went back to our original style we seemed to create more! As a fan of good football I'd love to see Watford emulate Swansea with good football that is good enough to get promoted and hold our own in the P.l but from what I heard tonight and what Zola is saying, we are quite a way off. For those who were there, how was it? Are we a long way off or do you think it's started to click slowly?
Well Ipswich were very good last year with a soft defensive underbelly which we exploited. Someone should have shown that vid to GZ as once Big Chris came on panic crept back in to their back four. That said going forward Ipswich were class. Should really have been 3-4 and we didn't close them down well enough. There were positives but we are far too easy to stop as it stands. Push well up field, close us down and we are done. Until our passing improves we may need to revert to plan B more often than perhaps GZ would like. At least we had a plan B I guess.
Not sure what happened yesterday. Quite a difference compared to Crystal Palace, though I think the weaknesses were the same just amplified. We didn't get as much possession. Ipswich worked harder off the ball and kept the ball better than Palace. On the other hand we were very, very sloppy on the ball. We seemed to lose concentration constantly and couldn't play the style of football we're trying to play too much. Whenever we did, it lead to a good few passes and a chance, but that was only a handful of times. The defence did ok..... Pudil got forward nicely, though ultimately it was down his wing that the cross came from. I wouldn't just blame him though, their forwards were being given shooting space all day. The defence were a bit disorganised and the midfielders didn't seem to put in a shift at all. Hogg did a lot of work but Abdi and Murray seemed lost. Not a lot of ball time and didn't do anything useful with the ball or off the ball. Yeates did ok but wasn't really given too much of the ball. The strikers looked stranded. Whenever Vydra had the ball he had no one anywhere near him. Garner was out-manned and ultimately dominated. As as soon as Iwelumo came on the game changed. We started winning headers and getting possession near their box. Unfortunately none of the crosses in got onto any our of players heads. IMO we didn't seem to have a poacher in the box who could put it away e.g. Deeney. Leo Beleck came on for Yeates way too late. I was calling for it 15 minutes before, by the time he did come on it was too late. We needed two strikers on the pitch, most of Iwelumo's headers were going to no one. It was only until Ipswich sat back after scoring that we could push up and make good use of his knock ons. I think things are going to have to change. For me Abdi doesn't seem to put enough work in and leaves Hogg with too much work to do, which in the end gave Ipswich too many chances. In the build up to their goal and on several occasions Abdi pretty much just let the player pass him and jogged on like nothing happened. We missed Eustace for sure. The passes weren't so great. Going to have to work on that more. For me Doyley offers us more as a right back. Don't think Zola likes him too much, but he does actually get forward and can keep up with any winger. Hodson's "great crossing" seems to have vanished really. Usually he takes too much time to make his mind up and he's slow already so usually messes it up or a defender blocks it. So I think that we need Eustace back in the side, or kick Abdi up the backside...... and put some strength into the attack. Garner, Murray, Yeates and Vydra is far too weak in this division. They're all small and get pushed around. Iwelumo, Leo Beleck or both should be up there to give us an outlet. Ipswich just played better than us and wanted it more. I think on the day we still could have won. Ipswich's shooting was terrible, and we did create a few chances but the goal poacher just wasn't there to head it in. If you play badly and are still in it then that's a kind of positive really. But we need to do a bit more to earn the points.
Bit of a wake up call for Zola and co. TBF Zola did admit we were second best and got what we deserved. Loach could have been sat with the Ipswich fans all night given he had so little to do. Ofcourse the team isn't going to be perfect and certain players don't fit the new style of play but Ipswich had their game plan spot on and many more teams will copy them. Can we not find a left back with some ability to defend? I generally like Hogg/Murray but they were a part of the midfield that was left so open you'd thought they were up against a couple of the super-stars from Spain. Lets just hope its the typical eary season back down to earth result we produce and can bounce back. Am encouraged Zola admitted we were poor and have a lot to improve on. Some managers would have blamed the officials or said its was the 2nd game...
Oh dear. Well, Lux and Mark have summed it up. It was dire. We missed Eustace very badly. It was a completely different game to Saturdays and we should be playing Doyley, not Hodson. Everything else is covered. It was disappointing for sure...but early days and they're still learning. I just hope they're fast learners, otherwise we could see this season starting off like last season!
I wish I could share everyones optimism but what I saw last night just will not work in the Championship. We needed to be much much harder both in the tackle and trying. For me Abdi just didn't want to know - probably the reason why he's on loan here and not playing top flight football. Similarly Vydra didn't seem able to work up front. I am very very worried about Zola's single minded approach - he needs to learn to mix it up if he wants Watford to go up and not down. I only hope he can change it around before we get ourselves too deep in the mire. Ipswich on the other hand looked good - unfortunately.
Which is why plans B & C are necessary - and GZ must surely recognise this else he wouldn't be in the job. He couldn't have been blind to the difference that Big Chris made upon being introduced on Tuesday & must be planning along those lines. I'd like to think that other teams will be fooled into that thinking and then caught on the hop by a sudden switch that best uses the pace of Anya & Vydra with Big Chris (or Large Leo) lurking in the middle.
