Watford away match thread

[Jerseybean]

Their forum….https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/watford-fc-1-4-bristol-city-26-12-2023-ko-15-00.60688/page-3#post-3299684

 

[W-S-M Seagull]

35 minutes ago, CardiffRed said:

Could see it from Mannings 2nd game - proper coaching. 

Bristol Sport allowing home working from Cardiff now? 

[Numero Uno]

Just now, chinapig said:

I was shocked at how bad Watford's defending was especially down their right side.

This seemed to be a weakness Manning spotted as we overloaded our left side. Nice work if so.

Obvious tactic from the get go. Asprilla doesn’t track back and Manning played on that.

[Redrascal2]

Fantastic result. Well done Liam and the boys.

[cotswoldred2]

1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Let it go mate. You're obsessed.  

But yes at times we did. 

He's obsessed...

The irony.

[Nogbad the Bad]

12 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

I think everyone understands the TGH ‘deal’.  Ian Gay says it’s done. He wasn’t talking about Murphy.  I disagree it’s done. I still reckon it needs to get done. 

Not sure there's anything to stop the TGH deal being completed apart from City suddenly deciding they don't want to.

Nothing is impossible but that would be a massive surprise and surely extremely unlikely.

[MarcusX]

20 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I don't know how anyone else saw it but I saw it as he came in and didn't really know what he had here or who we were. I think his perception of us was maybe skewed by our two games against Oxford this season. 

There was also a bad feeling around the club following the previous events. 

But he came in and immediately changed our style to one that didn't suit our players. His style was control possession, control the game etc etc. 

He realised that wasn't working so he took us back to a more familiar style which plays to our strengths. Today we had 41% possession for example. 

I've always said he needed to enhance upon how we were playing, not rip it up and start again and I'm glad he quickly learned from that mistake. 

 

 

 

This is my feelings too.

What we’ve seen last couple of games is slightly different to what he tried to do straight away and I said that after Fridays game.

He also made some odd player selections, TGH, Sykes out of position etc

Theres a clear style and patterns of play forming (little triangles, off the ball movement, the same inside pass we saw a few times today - one I remember for Sykes’ narrow miss at 3-1).

It’s not perfect, we were sloppy and lost it in risky places at times but that’ll come.

He’s adapted well to a slow (and some will say poor) start, that’s a positive for me.

 

[Bodiesaffer]

Good game well played today lads. 

[One Team]

In the post match scenes it sounds like Manning says “I’m not going to ******* bounce”!

[Midlands Robin]

I didn't see the score until about ten past five.

Bloody marvelous.

Been a while since we've had three wins on the spin. Let's make it four 

[Kid in the Riot]

10 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

To be fair, he showed no sign of it in any of those games. And it was the first six.

We’re not playing the style that LM tried to enforce on the side. If we were, I’ve no doubt we wouldn’t have won the last three. He dropped a ball by doing what he did to start with and it’s why teams figured us out mid game and he couldn’t change it. There was much excitement in some quarters that we were moving up the possession charts but it’s always been - and always will be - about playing to your squads strengths. In fact, I’m sure I started a thread titled that post Boro!

He may go back to the heavy possession game. But I think he himself would admit he tried to change too much far too quickly. This is really going back to what plan A should always have been.

With respect (and I do rate you as a poster) this sounds like arse-covering on your part. 

If we take your explanation on face value then what is the reason for Manning producing our best non-possession-dominant performance in years then?

What was Nige doing so wrong, tactically or otherwise, that he could not achieve similar heights in 2.5 years?

FWIW I don't accept your explanation and find it rather arrogant that you think you identified problems with Mannings first three games, coincidentally he identified the same issues. You suggested the solutions (don't change things too fast) Manning agreed, and magically we are better. 

Maybe @Harry who saw the positive signs early doors, was right all along!

[And Its Smith]

5 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Not sure there's anything to stop the TGH deal being completed apart from City suddenly deciding they don't want to.

Nothing is impossible but that would be a massive surprise and surely extremely unlikely.

Yes very unlikely as my original post on it implied. I said “imagine we didn’t sign him”.  Hopefully it gets done soon 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, View from the Dolman said:

Lovely finish from Weimann.

He is one of the best 1v1 finishers we’ve had at this club in a number of years.  Invariably lifts it into a keeoer’s weak spot.

[Bristol Rob]

6 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

 

Maybe @Harry who saw the positive signs early doors, was right all along!

If you want proof he knows nothing about football, ask him about Cole Skuse.

A more wrong opinion you will struggle to find!

[Markthehorn]

16 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Don’t be fooled by that. We gubbed a very decent side today. This was a game where OUR performance forced them to be poor.

Yes agree .

And you took your chances not allowing us back in the game .

Our defence can be suspect tbh particularly when playing out from the back.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Markthehorn

[Lew-T]

4 hours ago, Lew-T said:

I’ve gone against City today.

Sorry.

Hahahahahaha.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

I’m going to say again - less possession (42%) and less passes than the opposition but doing a lot more with it. Playing with pace and winning the ball high up the pitch. It’s a different team stylistically from the Boro, QPR, Norwich, Hudds games. That Blackburn game was the rubicon - senior players moaning on Robins TV and when we played more assertive second half, we looked like something.

Its to LMs huge credit that he’s realised plan A wasn’t working and wasn’t likely to work so played to the strengths of the squad. That really gives confidence that a key question over him has been answered. Fantastic stuff today.

The press was good / very good today.

Started off with Knight sitting on Livermore (4231), meaning they couldn’t play off of him, then once we realised he wasn’t offering anything we went back 442 and made life so uncomfortable for them.  Hoedt and Sierralta gave up countless passes.

How many balls did Williams intercept second half?  Seemed like hundreds!!!

There was very little passing for passing’s sake today and Friday.  Lots of purpose.

Very enjoyable.  I’m actually a tad disappointed we didn’t pump them 6 or 7.  That’s not a very common feeling.

Let’s hope Stoke ruin any crumb of confidence Brum have (2-0 down) ahead of Friday.

Well done LM and the rest of them tonight.

[petehinton]

Point scoring to the left, point scoring to the right, point scoring all around 

Please just enjoy the win, it’s Boxing Day too ffs

[REDOXO]

Three successive wins for the first time in three years. We have all got to be happy tonight. 

[Silvio Dante]

2 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

With respect (and I do rate you as a poster) this sounds like arse-covering on your part. 

If we take your explanation on face value then what is the reason for Manning producing our best non-possession-dominant performance in years then?

What was Nige doing so wrong, tactically or otherwise, that he could not achieve similar heights in 2.5 years?

FWIW I don't accept your explanation and find it rather arrogant that you think you identified problems with Mannings first three games, coincidentally he identified the same issues. You suggested the solutions (don't change things too fast) Manning agreed, and magically we are better. 

Maybe @Harry who saw the positive signs early doors, was right all along!

Tbf mate we all need to have a degree of arrogance to post on here and put our opinions out there!

I’m happy that LM has identified the reasons why things weren’t right in the first six, and it’s not arse covering to state that a lot of us identified the issue early. To be fair, even though Liams a self confessed football anorak, he hasn’t had the benefit of watching the side for years and knowing - as I think yourself, Harry, Fevs and me amongst others stated - we didn’t have the players for that. And I maintain that in the first games because he wanted to implement that style we got combatted too easily - it’s not revisionism, just what happened.

As for why he has (definitely) produced our best performance of that type for a number of years then I do think it’s minor tweaks. The overloading of the Watford right hand side today, the showing great courage by having the guts to play in their half (both today and Hull where it was nobody even within our half), the making Conway hold position more. All coming together well and doubtless some I haven’t seen.

It’s definitely a reign of two halves to date as the pathway (Swansea-ish) we were going down wasn’t working. As I said earlier, immense credit for seeing it but those signs definitely weren’t there at the start as it was a fundamentally different style!

 

[Tim Monaghan]

1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

That's what I'm hugely impressed by too. 

He made a comment that he felt he had overloaded the players with information. At the time for me that was a telling comment to make. 

He then ripped Manning ball up to a certain extent and concentrated on getting us to play to our strengths and its worked tremendously well. 

I had my concerns that he would be too stubborn to move away from his approach but I'm delighted that he did. 

 

More Partridge than Partridge.

[PhilC]

Such a shame OTIB in fighting has made its way in to the match day thread...

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

I’m going to say again - less possession (42%) and less passes than the opposition but doing a lot more with it. Playing with pace and winning the ball high up the pitch. It’s a different team stylistically from the Boro, QPR, Norwich, Hudds games. That Blackburn game was the rubicon - senior players moaning on Robins TV and when we played more assertive second half, we looked like something.

Its to LMs huge credit that he’s realised plan A wasn’t working and wasn’t likely to work so played to the strengths of the squad. That really gives confidence that a key question over him has been answered. Fantastic stuff today.

No one can say with a straight face that our past 3 performances were the same as the games against QPR etc. 

He said after the Blackburn I think it was that he felt he had overloaded them with information. That was almost an admission that he had got his approach slightly wrong. 

What we are seeing now should always have been the plan A. Hopefully later on in the season his plan A doesn't cost us. But huge credit for changing his approach. Not many managers would do that out of pride. 

 

[Davefevs]

36 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

I think everyone understands the TGH ‘deal’.  Ian Gay says it’s done. He wasn’t talking about Murphy.  I disagree it’s done. I still reckon it needs to get done. 

When / where did he say that?  On twitter or BBCRB (post-match) today?

[And Its Smith]

Just now, Davefevs said:

When / where did he say that?  On twitter or BBCRB (post-match) today?

The last podcast

[2015]

Anyone else think today Joe Williams was absolutely fantastic. My MOTM today although there were plenty of contenders.

Fair play to Liam. These last 2 games I think we've looked very good.

[CardiffRed]

28 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Bristol Sport allowing home working from Cardiff now? 

What? Very strange post.

4 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

No one can say with a straight face that our past 3 performances were the same as the games against QPR etc. 

He said after the Blackburn I think it was that he felt he had overloaded them with information. That was almost an admission that he had got his approach slightly wrong. 

What we are seeing now should always have been the plan A. Hopefully later on in the season his plan A doesn't cost us. But huge credit for changing his approach. Not many managers would do that out of pride. 

 

Brilliant from Manning, 3 wins from 3, when was the last time we did that anyone? 

[REDOXO]

26 minutes ago, One Team said:

In the post match scenes it sounds like Manning says “I’m not going to ******* bounce”!

Got a link?

[littlered]

26 minutes ago, One Team said:

In the post match scenes it sounds like Manning says “I’m not going to ******* bounce”!

Bit of disagreement on X on whether he's saying 'You don't fxxxing bounce when we're losing' or 'I'll fxxxing bounce when we do something'. Either way they've taken the video down and reposted an edited version - but not before someone saved a clip of it of course! 

[Tim Monaghan]

5 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Point scoring to the left, point scoring to the right, point scoring all around 

Please just enjoy the win, it’s Boxing Day too ffs

I agree,  it’s not the time, I’m not going to labour the point. People know my thoughts on it all. 

What I do find frustrating about it though, is that when you put you head above the parapet and get pelters, like I did and a few others did, you don’t ever get a “sorry, maybe you had a point”. It’s always,  “now’s not the time”, “just enjoy the win” etc etc. Anyway, it is what it is and I’m bloody happy the change was made. We are playing how I believed we could play now (actually better).  

On to the next one.

COME ON YOUR REDS