Ratings v Watford

[StephenH]

No offence mate, but I am a loss whether that post is the essence of delusion or arrogance. Delusion because NO TEAM can win any game with 9 of its 11 players playing at levels of 3, 4 or 5 - let alone in the Premier League and against a massively in-form team that had previously trashed Liverpool on the same ground a week earlier; or arrogance in dissing and dismissing an opposing team at the top of its game having previously won 4 at a stretch and in neglecting the fact that many errors on our side were the result of a worthy opponent whose physical and technical efforts pressured us to make uncharacteristic mistakes.

Calm down its just my opinion - arrogant maybe but I thought we were flustered and poor against 10 men in second half yesterday.

 

[GrimsbyYid]

Here we go again. Grimsby and his fudgeing agendas. Yawn.

Haha, who has the agenda? You say this about my post, Gazza says he pretty much agrees with it and his is a great post?! That makes loads of sense....

I have no agenda. I didn't like Rose 2 seasons ago, last season he was great, I admitted it that and was pleased we finally had a left back of quality, this season he has been awful. I know it's hard for you to see other peoples opinions and instead have to dismiss them with agenda flimflam rather than actually entering any discussion about the topic (what a crazy suggestion!)!

 

[milo]

I may have a tendency to look at glasses as half-full instead of half empty... but 4's and 5's? Seriously?

In their previous three games, Watford trashed Liverpool and were more than worth the point they took against Chelsea? And in the second half, they played extremely well.
Plus we were playing two days after the Norwich when our style of play requires more recovery time than most other teams.

We kept a strong physical team, with the two most in-form strikers in the league, practically anonymous until the last ten minutes on their own patch and on a very poor playing surface - and came away with a win; something I suspect not too many other teams will be able to say at Vicarage Road this season.

Yes - we made mistakes in our passing especially in the last 20 minutes but I attribute that to the inexperience of the kids, who found themselves playing against 10 men for the first time this season in a game they desperately wanted to win - and they panicked

What have you done with the real Maltese Falcon?

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Calm down its just my opinion - arrogant maybe but I thought we were flustered and poor against 10 men in second half yesterday.

Before they went down to 10 we were comfortably the better side. As soon as they lost Ake they went even more defensive and like a lot of sides we struggle against teams who sit back

It was only when they decided to go to it that we had the space to attack. Our goal came from Hugo coming out of the area with a random kick (that was turned over by Alli) and low and behold we had a kind of counter attack

It's really not unusual for teams to struggle against 10 men when their well organised

 

[braineclipse]

Tiredness I'm sure was part of it but we didn't do ourselves any favours with amount of cheap possession we gave away, and almost every player was culpable IMO. We caught a break with the win really but we were due one. There were plenty of games this season we should have won and came away with a draw, so we'll file that late goal under 'key moments' for the DVD/book of our title win season.

Tiredness and a difficult pitch... Think it happens to just about ever team.

Agreed that we were due a break.

It's funny how people complain when we can't turn a close game into a win, when we play a close game and edge with some marginal stuff going our way people still complain. Might be different people doing the complaining of course, I'm not great at keeping track of stuff.

Ratings wise I was not impressed with 3 at the back they all looked jittery and unsure, that was down to Poch's change in formation. Our defenders looked to be having difficulty judging the flight of the ball in the first half.

Lloris - 4
Trippier - 4
Alder - 5
Dier - 4
Vert - 5
Rose - 3
Dembele - 6
Carroll - 5
Alli - 5
Lamela - 7
Kane - 5

In form team 3 points behind us when the game started that just put 3 behind Liverpool...

They created what? Two chances. Ighalo's chance where we really should have been in control of the situation (and would have been had Dier been a bit more composed) and a freak corner turned shot somehow... They had some blocked shots and half chances, but Hugo was never really tested and even when they were putting pressure on us from set pieces towards the end we looked in decent control.

To what extent would you expect us to shut out a team like Watford playing away from home?

 

[StephenH]

Before they went down to 10 we were comfortably the better side. As soon as they lost Ake they went even more defensive and like a lot of sides we struggle against teams who sit back

It was only when they decided to go to it that we had the space to attack. Our goal came from Hugo coming out of the area with a random kick (that was turned over by Alli) and low and behold we had a kind of counter attack

It's really not unusual for teams to struggle against 10 men when their well organised

How true! I found the game so frustrating, I think I'll get some valium for Everton and sign up for anger management classes.

 

[StephenH]

In form team 3 points behind us when the game started that just put 3 behind Liverpool...

They created what? Two chances. Ighalo's chance where we really should have been in control of the situation (and would have been had Dier been a bit more composed) and a freak corner turned shot somehow... They had some blocked shots and half chances, but Hugo was never really tested and even when they were putting pressure on us from set pieces towards the end we looked in decent control.

To what extent would you expect us to shut out a team like Watford playing away from home?

It was like playing 'Stoke on a wet wednesday evening' messy!

As I said above - I need valium! I did expect us to 'control' Watford which may have been a tad over optimistic. Thier goal was a real windup!

 

[Bedfordspurs]

My brother was moaning at the game that there a championship side... It's that arrogance that normally costs us

One thing I heard on MOTD was that we have an oustsanding record against newly promoted sides with something like 18 wins from 18 games (sure I'm wrong on the numbers)

 

[braineclipse]

My brother was moaning at the game that there a championship side... It's that arrogance that normally costs us

One thing I heard on MOTD was that we have an oustsanding record against newly promoted sides with something like 18 wins from 18 games (sure I'm wrong on the numbers)

Agreed that this kind of arrogance really isn't helpful. Pochettino seems to have taken us past that...

20 wins from 18 was the number I heard. (Or rather, the number I remember hearing. What I actually heard will forever be a mystery lost to time and space).

 

[Rorschach]

Agreed that this kind of arrogance really isn't helpful. Pochettino seems to have taken us past that...

20 wins from 18 was the number I heard. (Or rather, the number I remember hearing. What I actually heard will forever be a mystery lost to time and space).

20 wins from 18 games? Impressive.

 

[Jordinho]

This season: 3 from 3
2014/15 (Burnley, Leicester, QPR): 5 wins and 1 draw (Burnley away)
2013/14 (Cardiff, Crystal Palace, Hull): 5 wins and 1 draw (Hull away)
2012/13 (Reading, Southampton, West Ham): 6 wins
2011/12 (Norwich, QPR, Swansea): 3-1-2
2010/11 (Blackpool, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, West Brom): 1-4-1
2009/10 (Birmingham, Burnley, Wolves) : 2-1-3

We are now 21 in a row without losing (lost to Norwich and QPR back-to-back at the end of the 2011/12 season.

 

[Roland Beurre]

20 wins from 18 games? Impressive.

It's New Arithmetic.

I hear that when 'Arry joined us we only had eight points from two games.