Team V Watford

Think some of you are being a bit harsh. Plenty of effort there although no cutting edge. Teams are defending deep against us because our build up is so slow. Barnes was playing on the wrong side of the park and with the current squad maybe Mendy in for Maddison next time then I think the signs were pretty good. Killer at the end but if we can just get our first 10 minutes sorted we will come right.

 

It is purely down to Puel. Rodgers isnt going to fix in 3 days of training what has been wrong for just over a year

It will take weeks to sort things out. Tielemans split the defence and gave Vardy a ball that he scores alot of goals from

That didnt happen under Puel

We move the ball too slow because thats Puel’s style. That wont change overnight or in 1 game. It will take 5 or 6 weeks for us to sort that out.

Robert Huth said it himself. The players want to play high intensity football but Puel wouldnt let them. As ive said now is the time to completely forget about Puel and get behind Rodgers

It seems the “Puel in” brigade just want to take shots at Rodgers to try and justify their stance

Move on

 

Ranieri’s second season and Shakespeare’s reign was Puels fault as well

Tbh I just find it funny you blaming everything on Puel so playing on that

 

Ranieri everything fell apart as he changed too much (like Puel did from one week to the next)

Shakey took us back to basics and won alot of games by playing the counter attack

The start of the following season he had Iborra injured, Drinkwater downing tools and refusing to play followed by the Silva **** up and to Mahrez sulking. We played Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea in the first few games and he was sacked as results wasnt good enough

He was never cut out as a manager and shouldnt have been given the job in the summer but to try and pass any of the blame from Puel to them is a joke

Remember Puel’s first few games? Beat Everton 2-0, Newcastle 3-2, Southampton 4-1, Tottenham 2-1

Everything was rosy until Mahrez went on strike. The team never seemed the same afterwards the results wasnt good enough and slowly the performances dropped and never got back up from then until he was sacked

So I dont understand your point about Ranieri or Shakey what so ever. Puel spent money and had 16 months to sort any “problems” left by previous managers (which there wasnt)

 

That was our worst performance of the season.

 

My point was taking the piss out of you and the Puel our crew for saying everything is his fault!
I just hate to see one guy get blamed for the clubs situation when it had unravelled well over a year and 2 managers before he came. End of the day he just wasn’t good enough and didn’t cut it but people with your mind set will be still blaming him in a years time if we haven’t improved!
All I’ve done is state the facts that the mess started before and that the squad is in a better shape than when he came. Giving credit where it’s due. I’d do the same for any manager and have never actively called for one to go as I prefer stability.

 

Just a couple of thoughts from a Watford fan. I watched the game today and didn't think that you looked too bad a side. Don't forget that Watford are having one of those very good seasons that little clubs come up with from time to time, yet if you had stolen a second goal I would not have been that surprised. Mr Integrity as he is fondly known in Herts. believes in retaining the ball at all costs, so expect a pass forward, sideways, backwards to be the norm. I suggested in our match thread that he might find that there was a higher standard in the EPL over Scotland, so it is fair to give him time to readjust. And if that was as bad a performance as you have seen this season, then you will be fine. Good luck!

 

What I don't understand is why we played so negatively today. I can't remember us playing so many balls backwards in any match . Some of the players actually turned their bodies so that they were looking backwards when they received the ball. Why go from level with the opposition penalty box back to Schmeichel in 3 passes like we so often did today? That wasn't the manager instructing them to do that; that was the players' own choice.

The change of shape didn't work at all. We had such a huge gap between our defence and the midfield that Watford played the ball into and won every time, mainly because Ndidi was having to cover so much ground defensively on his own. In theory it should have allowed Chilwell and Ricardo more space, but they didn't go past their defenders today like they have done in previous weeks. Because of our defensive frailties and lack of pace I would prefer to keep Ricardo and Chilwell playing as full backs and have Ndidi and Choudhury/Mendy both holding midfield and covering when the full backs go forward. That would stop up that big gap in front of our central defenders and stop balls going into that area at source, and would still allow us to play 3 attack-minded players behind Vardy.

 

Agreed, the wing backs system has potential to work but the wing backs need to get the ball facing forward (Chilwell always seems to be facing backwards) and we desperately need players closer to them. Both chilwell and Ricardo seemed isolated. I notice certain systems seem to go through phases with the ‘bigger’ clubs. In the past few years it was 3 at the back but looking at the likes of Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool play atm they use the 433. I guess maybe 3 st the back is currently a bit outdated in that respect.

 

This was much worse.

Probably the only game I would rate lower was vs Everton when everyone was hungover - holy **** that game was awful.

 

Morgan's default action is to pass the ball back to Kasper no matter the circumstances.

What should happen in this formation is Maguire moving more forward to help Ndidi but he couldn't as he had to cover for Morgan's lack of pace - would have been the perfect time to bring Soynucu back.

The big reason the formation failed however were Maddison and Barnes - Maddison had one of his worst games for us and was bullied off the ball so many times and Barnes faded fast. Should have subbed Maddison off first and pushed Teilmanns up imo.

 

Level taken into account, if you want to see 3412 played to perfection, you should watch Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United. They have their centre backs overlapping the wing backs! They are so exciting to watch. Otherwise you have too many of the team sitting back

 

Cheers mate but in all seriousness we were dire and we aren't blaming the manager but the players who should have played with more freedom or whatever now they got their way and Puel is gone.

 

I would like to see that as we played a 3421 - theoretically this meant that we had more players in midfield but Maddison and Teilmann did bugger all without the ball. TBH Maddison did bugger all with the ball as well.

If we had Maguire from last season, we would be laughing but unfortunately we don't - Rodgers has a lot of things to sort out.

 

What will be interesting is to see if he sticks with it to bed the system in. That is something that let Puel down, lack of consistency so will Rodgers do this I wonder

 

Rodgers mostly played a 4231 at Celtic - not sure why he decided to switch to something different now.

Can see him reverting to what he and the players know for the rest of the season and maybe trying this again in pre-season.

 

I wouldn’t be against this, the system is interchangeable with the 433 as well. Pre season is definitely the best time for it. He should just use these games to get to know the players and their capabilities. It’s unlikely after the win on Tuesday we’ll get sucked into the relegation battle and we’ve probably blown top half so more important to get some feel good factor back around the place

 

I watched the 2nd half today just to see what immediate influence, if any, Rodgers would have. To be fair to him (and I promise you he's the last person in the world to whom I want to give a break at the moment), he can't possibly be expected to drastically change things around within a couple of days. However, as Watford fan, 'oldfrenchhorn', says "Mr Integrity ... believes in retaining the ball at all costs, so expect a pass forward, sideways, backwards to be the norm." This is exactly his dogged doctrine in my experience with us and I believe he applied the same at Liverpool. You can also expect your own players to play the ball all the way back from your opponent's box to your own defence at times with the sole aim of retaining it and indeed to bring totally unnecessary pressure on your defence with his obsession for 'building (mostly slowly) from the back' - he wont change the doctrine he adopts no matter how frustrating fans find it. He does talk about pressing with high intensity and while you may see it done well on occasions, it's very doubtful that you'll see it week in, week out.

From what I saw, I thought you didn't play too badly today and very nearly snatched another equaliser at the death but by then it was too little too late.

 

Would like to see us stick with wing backs for a few games, Ricardo came in at the start of the season looking like he could be a brilliant wingback, and he has played well going forward thoughout the season, we just need to revert him to that attacking mindset and relying on the back 3 to cover him. The few times Chilwell pushed on their last defender today, it looked very positive, a couple of more composed final balls into the box and we'd have created some better chances.

Tielemans is kicking on as well as Maddison did at the beginning of the season, hope he can keep it up and get a permanent move in the summer.

 

Chilwell needs to work on his final ball. It still lets him down alot. Hopefully he can learn from Fuchs before he leaves

Now Rodgers has a full week of training ahead of him hopefully the players play better next week. New system and it took some players abit of time during the game to learn their new roles