I thought Hanley was very good tonight, front foot defending and mixing it up with the Watford strikers, one of few to put in a solid foot on the their players
Good to see Hayden, slightly worried that he went down for treatment and seemed to slow up a little after that in my view
A good game to watch on Saturday night TV. Both sides showed lots of skill, alongside faults that we all can see. If only our teams were perfect!
He didn't play badly, but he rarely does. However, he and Aarons are the common denominators in a careless defence. Byram went missing for the first too! Our defence is shocking at times. I know our midfield haven't helped. Im hoping Hayden will usurp Mclean, if he stays fit. Id like to see Gibbs, Hayden, Nunez and Sara together.
I voted in your poll how I voted in our prediction league, so don’t think I’m trolling. Well, that second half was not fun to watch! We concede late so often I dared not even look at any in-game betting odds! I thought the score flattered a bit, you were probably due a penalty, I couldn’t quite see if your lad stopped his run to get Goslinged, but I think it was probably a push. Your goal was superbly taken, a real gem of a finish, that was technically better and more precise than it seemed to be on first glance, I thought. Our wide lads did well today, and Gosling and Cathcart impressed me. It was important to us, not just as 3 points, but getting them from title contenders, that’s important. We needed that to help settle nerves and regain some confidence. Pukki made several very intelligent runs, I thought, and perhaps will feel disappointed he didn’t get on the scoresheet. Anyway, good luck for the rest of the season.
So I was at the match. It was pretty awful, to be honest - the players looked flat and lacking energy. The choice of team in the first half was awful and our defence got badly bullied by Sar and Davis - that’s why Aarons ended up being moved to left back. We did not deserve anything from this game, we got bullied and controlled. Second half Watford did a lot of ****housing, which I don’t blame because that is the game now, but Sar must have wasted ten minutes with various shenanigans just on his own. The ref was the worst I’ve seen - not biased, particularly, just completely awful. All round a bad experience and underlines that Smith really needs to pull his finger out if we are going to turn into a team that could survive in the Premier League. Looking at the table and the number of teams crowded at the top, I think it’s a poor Championship this year. If we get promoted by default, we are going to get crucified in the PL again. Positives were that Hayden added some much needed steel and muscle to midfield in the second half and Sara’s corners were an improvement - that’s it tbh.
There's no way Smith or anyone else could turn this team into one that could survive in the Premier League next season. The fact you keep telling me Hanley, McLean and Aarons are three of our best players says it all.
The fact is that NO current Championship team have a cat in hells chance of surviving in the Premier League. The gulf has never been so big. The same is happening between the Championship and League 1.
Another disjointed horrible performance , Nunez has gone from sublime to ridiculous, Sara looks like another waste of money much like Rashica and Tzolis. Pukki looks passed his sell by date, horrible performances all over the pitch with only Gunn Hanley and Sargent doing anything. Of course it would be stupid to sack Smith looking at the table but it's not enjoyable watching Norwich since he took over. We did not look like a side that would go top with a win. Excuses Stupid Saturday night kick off for Sky Left back injuries Unlucky red shirts Positives Hayden finally played although he didn't do much Sargent can score Byram looked better as right back Gunn saved a penalty
Agree with most of the above. I hoped Smith's pragmatism would make a difference last season, but it didn't. Brentford has shown that a Championship team can survive in the PL and look like doing so again. Hayden appearing at last provides hope, but I have to agree that Núñez has fallen away and Sara is yet to show anything to justify his fee. One bright spark was Sargent, who looks a totally different player, not just for his superb goal, but for his excellent control on the ball and defensive work as well. Pukki, Hanley and him were our only players not to be bullied throughout. There seemed more strength in midfield when Hayden came on, but we need to see more from him to know what difference he might make. We have dropped from averaging 2 points per game to 1.7, which if continued would see us end up on around 79 points. The only consolation is that the same is true for those around us.
"In the 150 year history of Association Football, has there ever been a player that’s so good at winning headers, and yet so bad at directing them, as Grant Hanley is?" (Comment posted on Michael Bailey's Watford thread in today's The Athletic ...........)
So what you are saying is that Farke never had a chance of keeping us up either.....not exactly what you were saying at the time. I seem to remember it was down to poor tactics, not the quality of players available to him. You are so biased, for Smith and against Farke, it is really difficult to take anything you post seriously. Smith has arguably the best squad we have had for a good few years. Farke had unbelievable injuries and Covid to contend with, but yet our failure was largely down to him , according you.
It's called 20/20 hindsight IF Smith gains promotion that's proof he's brilliant, IF he doesn't that will be down to him wanting more time to build his own team capable of survival in the Premier league.
When did I say McLean and Aarons were our best players? The fact you’ve just completely made rubbish up undermines your point, even if it weren’t for the fact of your obvious obsession with being proven “right” about Hanley meaning you actually cannot rationally assess any performance or our squad because you are incurably biased against certain players no matter what happens.
Looking for positives in WhoScored ratings, Gunn was our top scorer at 8.5 and Sargent was 7.7. Hayden's 6.6 for half a game is also commendable and Hanley's 7.0 is also worth a mention. His header on to the bar was our second closest chance of scoring considering we only had 2 shots on target for the whole game.
