How can any team that loses 4 home games out of 5 realistically expect to be in the hunt for promotion. It's only our away form that is currently keeping us up there. Yet again we were not up to the physical battle today. I know our defence was shocking for the first two & Mills had a brainstorm when conceding the penalty, but it was sad to see us constantly out battled in the midfield & in their penalty area. I am not convinced that we have the sort of players necesary to win what seems to come down to a war every week. You can't berate our players for lack of effort but the physical challenge of this division is something that we have not yet come to terms with.
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I think they have the guts but not the nasty streak that is required to control games in this division. I think it's been our biggest fault since Parker left but we need a box to box battling shitbag, the sort that opposition fans despise. Question is where do you fit him in and does big Al have the cojones to drop either Reid or Zheng Zhi?
And before anyone kicks off I would only drop one of these two to bring in a evil box to box shitbag. (Arter)
I pretty much agree with you but to play Zheng Zhi and Andy Reid together you need a clearer upper like Semedo which I think at times is a bit counter productive. Arter seems tidy enough and you're right he may not be the answer I was trying to highlight the lack of 'bite' in the middle which is not a new problem in this sqaud. Problems are the home 'support' is shockingly bad, the midfield plays the best football in the league but needs 5 men to do so. And the centre forward is so ridiculosly over worked he is shagged after an hour of nearly every game. The defence is shaky but has been punished for some schoolboy errors that a lot of the sides we've played have got away with. be that down to arrogance on our part or special excertian on the oppositions behalf as we are the leagues big time charlies.
Either way I don't think we have played anywhere near badly enough to deserve some of the abuse our home supprt has levelled at the team
4-5-1 is a useful formation to grind out a result, as Curbs taught us. However over time the team gradually lose their ability and confidence to play good attacking football, which is what you need to do at home to breed confidence and get the crowd behind you.
Either get someone like Huddlestone in on loan from spurs or at least try the only player on our books who has the required attributes, Bougherra.
this leagues so much more exciting losing to plymouth, QPR, sheff utd and burnley
I suspect its a combination of
a) players playing with too much expectation on their shoulders at home
b) away teams coming with a game plan to stiffle us
Yesterday there was some of that but frankly none of that was the cause yesterday. It was just down to some rank bad defending at two set pieces, and then a moment of madness just after we had a goal chalked off and had been virtually camped in their half.
At two nil down after 14 minutes, most teams would have been knocked out of their stride. The opposition on the other hand, having gone two ahead, were in dreamland and played with massive confidence. We could then have conceded again but credit to Charlton we did rally and got a goal before half time and could have had a penalty just on the HT whistle.
We came out fired up and with luck and slightly more composure could have got the equaliser that our pressure deserved. Suddenly we gift them a third and it was really all over.
I give credit to Pards for the brave decision to change the team yesterday. He could not have planned for the calamitous defending at the start but he didn't panic and we could have taken something from the game.
As for the fans, well its difficult to critcise fans for being flat at two nil. The goal sparked us into life and up to the point of the penalty, they got behind the team. You could see though that heads dropped at 2-0 and 3-1 and that doesn't help fans morale. What hacked me off yesterday was the bloke next to me who arrived late and pissed, went for a slash after about 20 minutes. Left for another before half time muttering about a disaster. Then sat there in virtual silence only to leave ten minutes before the end. Why come to a football match on that basis?
well, last three homes games Watford have drawn with Colchester Utd and lost to Burnley and Bristol City. In this division that is how it goes. And that is why the three teams promoted are more than likely to go back down. In all today Burnley had two efforts at goal and yet scored three goals, the pen being haned to them on a plate. Don't get me wrong I'm not happy but neither would it surprise me if we won our next four. That's the way it is in the Championship.
problem really is that our fans expect to just turn up and watch us turn over these 'lesser' teams. That isn't going to happen.
spot on oohahh.
it's much more fun having the piss ripped out of you when losing to players nobody has even heard of.