It's fine and everything, but...

[sitwell]

Exactly this. Basham looks clumsy in possession & has an error in him & Egan & JOC are making a lot more individual mistakes this year. Henderson too.

We've been extremely fortunate today to get a point. We need to create opportunities & take them because we're not as good defensively as we think we are.

Only slagging 4 off in one sentence ,you are slacking ,all you ever do is slag off our players ,trying going to a game and actually watch Egan and tell me the mistakes hes making.
Only Liverpool have conceded less but were not good defensively ,go and discuss with that Rob guy ,between you Im sure you could run a football team

 

[wavy-blade]

I really don't know how anyone can slag off our defense ffs , get a fucking grip !

Upfront will only get better once Billy McGoldrick and freeman are involved more .

 

[Keen Blade]

To be fair this was a must win game for Watford
And it was a game where a draw would be a decent result for us.

In the last 5 minutes I kept thinking if we push more players forward we could pick up all 3 points.
Then I thought....no....hold on.....an away draw against a rival is a decent result.
In fact in the PL any away draw is decent and acceptable.

Rubbish , Wilder said last week we need to start scoring when dominant -we've lost 3 home games so we need away wins + today's lack of a cutting edge was frustrating - Watford were bottom , were really bad in first half - flat MF 3 is NOT how we amassed goals + wins this last 3 years - I cannot square Wilders comments with his setup today - why can't Mousset start ? He is way better than Robbo & McBurnie. Why can't we play Freeman or Fleck as a 10 ? Really proud last week , really pissed-off today - we just passed up the chance of 2 precious points by lack of a positive setup + leaving our best striker(s) on the bench yet again. I bet the Prince is wondering why he argued for spending £20m on McBurnie , who just bounces off CBs. Come on Billy , take him down the gym + build him some body strength

 

[Keen Blade]

I felt this way after every game so far - that we are capable of so much better going forward. The link was Duffy and he is gone.

Missing Duffy SO BADLY - most good offensive stuff went through him around the opponent's box

 

[Barney]

Keep as it is I say. We're looking pretty damn solid defensively, which will keep us up this year.

If we keep changing the system, we'll lose these games we're drawing, and that could be the difference.

Let's try elaborate things next season when we have a better quality team.

 

[Keen Blade]

Nice thoughts, and I want to agree, but if we brought in Freeman for, say, Lunny, I don't think we'd be so defensively solid.
If he is to start, it would have to be at the expense of Fleck for me, and that might not be popular.
[/QUOTE
Just tell Fleck to stay up the pitch or sub him for Freeman

I completely understand why we've set up like we have with Lunny in midfield. He's done an outstanding job in making us a resilient side whilst we find our feet in the Premier League.

The first 1/4 of the season gone and I think it's fair to say we are a competitive, Premier League side. The points we have dropped have come from a mixture of individual mistakes and not taking our opportunities during games. I would like to see us grow back into the system we had last season with an attacking midfielder who gives us a bit more creativity.

If the first 1/4 of the season has gone we are on for 36 points

 

[Keen Blade]

Point away from home and a Clean sheet and we didn't play well. Hardly a disaster is it.

We played very well , were totally dominant first half , but have ourselves to blame for not creating / taking chances - also every feckin corner is an anticlimax , can't we try something more inventive ? Where's Knillys ideas gone ?

 

[Keen Blade]

Fleck is probably the best crosser in the team / deliveries lots of chances from the inside left position, breaks the lines more than any other player and passes the ball forward more than any other player. Our creativity would fall off a cliff without him.

If Fleck is the best crosser in the team can someone teach him how to take a corner which actually threatens the opposition defence ?

 

[Keen Blade]

All about opinions bud but we have come such a long way in 3 years, with largely lower league players, and if anyone had foretold that we would have played 8 games conceding 7 goals, (joint 3rd best) I would have been amazed and delighted. For me, our defence is the very least of our problems. How we are going to create and score enough goals is what we should worry about.

Bang on.
Lack of goals & achievable wins is what relegates clubs.
Get nowhere with draws.

 

[Keen Blade]

I agree on the whole with the OP, but in all honesty we played within ourselves today anyway. There were countless occasions where the front 2 had made runs in behind but the guy on the ball chose to go backwards or sideways instead of threading the ball into the strikers run.

Norwood looked completely disinterested in passing forwards today too.

Norwood was the main reason we completely dominated possession today - not his fault we play without wingers , without Duffy or anyone in the AMF/10 role , and with lightweights Robbo & McBurnie , who struggle to keep hold of the ball

 

[Keen Blade]

Keep as it is I say. We're looking pretty damn solid defensively, which will keep us up this year.

If we keep changing the system, we'll lose these games we're drawing, and that could be the difference.

Let's try elaborate things next season when we have a better quality team.

You can elaborate all you want when we're back in the Championship - but we urgently need to win winnable games like today

 

[Stretch]

Norwood was the main reason we completely dominated possession today - not his fault we play without wingers , without Duffy or anyone in the AMF/10 role , and with lightweights Robbo & McBurnie , who struggle to keep hold of the ball

In retrospect I was probably a little harsh, I certainly wouldn't single Norwood out as any worse than anyone else. But I still think the front 2 made some decent movement off the ball that wasn't capitalised on. Lundstram also had the ball on many occasions with space and a striker to pass into, but played conservatively.

 

[Barney]

You can elaborate all you want when we're back in the Championship - but we urgently need to win winnable games like today

Note that I'm against trying elaborate things. We don't urgently need to win games at all.

If it was March/April I'd agree with you, but it's the start of October.

 

[metalblade]

I thought Watfords system made it very hard for us they were so deep all game, can't really blame them considering their results this season what disappointed me was our wing backs time and time again refused to take on their man and chose the easy option of turning and passing the ball back or inside which is exactly what Watford wanted. Too many passes across midfield and the play was far too slow to stretch Watfords very shakey defence. A lot might say a point away is always decent but it feels like two points dropped. I hope we don't look back at the end of the season and think those points would have kept us up. A point away is fine if you are winning your home games but we are not, average just over a point a game and we will be in a relegation fight all season.

 

[Weasel]

We will never know what would have happened if we had gone for it at half time and made a formation and personnel change too. It was a game where at half time I felt comfortable that we had a point in the bag, but I couldn't see us scoring unless something changed I. E. we changed formation, or they did.

Depends on whether you see the glass half empty or half full pov. The draw away against a team who will have targeted us as a home win, gives us a point and takes 2 away from them. Losing just before the international break would also have been a huge body blow for us. However, I also thought that with a bit of adventure at half time we could have put Freeman and Billy on and gone for them more. I would have backed us to nick a win too.

Maybe the 'must not lose' attitude won out due to the international break coming up. Two weeks is a long time to stew on a defeat against a probable rival.

Take the result, continue to keep it tight in away games until half time, then take the breaks off and go for em, unless it's (Liverpool away or Man City away of course!)

 

[him behind you]

Watford set up not to lose that game, and to use their pace (which they had loads of) to pick us off on the counter, see their first 2 chances.

If we'd gone gung-ho at them we would have played right into their hands. Like everyone, I would have loved to see us create more for our strikers but, as CW said pre-season, we may need to accept the change to approach and rather than always push for 3 points in the last 10 or 15 mins, we might need to be more cautious away from home and protect a point against teams who can hurt us.

What I would like to see us try is to cross the ball earlier on occasion. These better defenders we're facing this year are allowing us the overlap and working the ball between wing back and centre half before crossing, as it gives them time to organise and be set for the cross when it comes. Vary this with a few early crosses puts doubt in their minds and removes the predictability of what we are going to do.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Only slagging 4 off in one sentence ,you are slacking ,all you ever do is slag off our players ,trying going to a game and actually watch Egan and tell me the mistakes hes making.
Only Liverpool have conceded less but were not good defensively ,go and discuss with that Rob guy ,between you Im sure you could run a football team

I'm a Blade, the same as you pal & I only want what's best for the team. You've watched the same games as I, so surely you have witnessed the individual mistakes to which I refer? I seemingly don't think we're as strong defensively as the average poster & as such have concerns that we're setting up in a way that limits our opportunities going forwards.

I do think our shape & organisation is, for the most part, excellent. However, the players I identified (Henderson, Basham, Egan, O'Connell, can add Norwood to the list too) are making major errors in key areas & we continue to concede big chances as a consequence. I'd be more interested to hear where we sit in the XG against table because our luck will run out in terms of opponents poor finishing.

My major worry is we continue to setup to "not get beat" & subsequently lose a large volume of games through errors. See Liverpool & very nearly today as examples.

 

[sitwell]

I'm a Blade, the same as you pal & I only want what's best for the team. You've watched the same games as I, so surely you have witnessed the individual mistakes to which I refer? I seemingly don't think we're as strong defensively as the average poster & as such have concerns that we're setting up in a way that limits our opportunities going forwards.

I do think our shape & organisation is, for the most part, excellent. However, the players I identified (Henderson, Basham, Egan, O'Connell, can add Norwood to the list too) are making major errors in key areas & we continue to concede big chances as a consequence. I'd be more interested to hear where we sit in the XG against table because our luck will run out in terms of opponents poor finishing.

My major worry is we continue to setup to "not get beat" & subsequently lose a large volume of games through errors. See Liverpool & very nearly today as examples.

The 5 players you mention have all been prem quality and are the reason why we are where I hope we will finish this season. You may watch the same games but you don't seem to understand them. The endless slagging off of individual players is tiresome and ridiculous.