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Some thoughts about last night - and our position generally. (1) Nothing can really be taken out of context, but, on it's own terms, I thought we did ok against a really good side, overall. The abject performance vs Cov colours perception, I think, at least a bit...
(2) Watford are a pretty complete team, who can play through you, or run past you with pace or bludgeon you, depending on what needs to work. And they had fans back in for the first time. So that was a real tough ask. (3) I thought the line up and formation was right...
You could make a case for Clarke not Wiles at LWB. But Clarke's titchy and inexperienced (even compared to Wiles); and Sarr is a tall, athletic, skilful nightmare if he gets on a roll. So choosing experience makes sense, and if it's Wiles or Harding / Jones on their wrong foot...
then Wiles is a good shout. If Olosunde can't give you 90 minutes, then Jones is a solid citizen at RWB. I don't rate Vassell very much, but he will work back in a way that Ladapo doesn't. Personally, I'd have preferred Miller, but I don't think it makes a huge difference. ...
(3) The approach in the first half was to be hard to break down. Not to press and harry, but to present a deep-lying, flooded defence and midfield. Go at these, and they'll eat you alive and after Cov, we couldn't take that, was the thinking. And, you can see the logic. It is,...
btw, literally what Warnock would do. Or any other Generic Wise Old Head Who Knows What He's Doing In This League. Just saying. And if (massive if) you take the mistakes out of the game, it kinda worked. Outside the goals, they had 3 shots from outside the box that they worked...
well. If (massive if) you take the mistakes out of the game, we're maybe 0-0 at half time, or even 1-0 down, but in the game. But (4) you can't take the mistakes out of the game. The MacDonald header that led to the corner for the first was mental (and he had a tough 25 minutes).
The lack of organisation for the corner was unforgivable. Harding's swipe was insane (like, there's nothing wrong with idea - get rid! - but to time it so that it swirls like that is a one in a thousand thing) and a little unlucky. So what could we do different?
You could play Wood, who isn't by all accounts 100% and maybe that gets you a bit more organising and nous. But the answer to the first goal is Have Better Players Who Don't Switch Off When They Make A Mistake To Find Themselves Under Pressure. Robertson might be that but he's...
broken. The rest are as good as we can afford. Can you coach better corner defending? Yep. Do we? I'm going to suggest that, you know, we do, but we've a paper thin squad so we're probably not risking too much and there's v little time between games to do that.
(5) So you're saying we just have to accept that? Well, kinda. I mean, we could swap managers, sure. And the next guy will do the Let's Be Hard To Beat thing. And Work On Corners. With probably overall similar results. Crooks might pick up form suddenly. Wiles might lose form.
The tight knit group that we have, who seem to have a genuine liking for their boss and a respect for their club might find his departure really hard to handle and slump terribly. There is no magic answer. No One Thing that sorts this. They have to do their best against the odds
(6) And the thing is - they are trying. Coventry aside, there's always been a response, an effort. Second half last night, they tried to force something. Did they achieve much? No. Did Watford have to play at their best? No. But did a team that was 2-0 down and on the crest of...
a slump give in, or go through the motions, or settle for "just" 2-0? No. They had a go. They made as many opportunities as their opponents. Foster made the same number of crucial saves as Blackman in the end. That takes a bit of guts and heart and character. And a bit of faith..
in the manager. (7) But that means we're just kind of lucky to be in this league? Well, yes. If you can scratch and claw and scrap your way to fourth bottom (like Luton and Barnsley did), then you get a chance to build. But coming up from League One is hellish hard ...
it just is. I'd argue that the culture of the club has seen us sign players we wouldn't have a chance of years past. I'd also argue losing the most accomplished player (the other MacDonald) and our most effective attacking outles (Ogbene) for a huge chunk of the season is a ...
blow that any squad would struggle with. Take Sarr and Chalobah out of Watford. And then have another 4 out, so you can't even rotate the team effectively and it's a big challenge. So (8) Coventry aside, I don't see there's too much to complain about, other than, yep, this ...
league is massively unfair on teams that can't spend heavily and have significant injury problems. And it's worse because the gap is both enormous and measurable - so there's always a chance, in every game. No one's *that* good, so a defeat always feels like it's someone's ...
fault, something that *should* have been prevented. But it isn't. All things being equal, we're going to finish somewhere in the bottom 5-6 teams, with a full squad and our best players available more often than not. With neither of those, and a glut of games, we're going to ...
find it hard. No tactic, or team selection, or magic coaching session changes that. By and large, I look at this season and say, well, that's about as well as we could expect to perform, given the ability we have as a squad. I'd love Smith to turn into a clinical finisher ...
Or Ladapo to hold the ball up, make the right pass and then the right run in succession rather than at different parts of a match. Or MacDonald not to go at everything at a million miles an hour. But that's not where they are. And it may or may not be good enough. Hey ho.
