Well I think we all know we got away with one here. Was not a performance that merited a win. 

Our first choice midfield was completely missing, that does not help. Nor does the fact their replacements are not a patch in them. Alonso, RLC, Saul and Dave are so so far off from Chilwell, Jorgi, Kante and James it is not even funny.

Hoping Chalobah is oķ, he has been great and a big blow if he is out like Kova is. We will miss him.

Good to have Pulisic and Mount back. Former did not cover himself in glory but am hopeful once the rust comes off he will be good. Mason looked back to his best, or near it. 

Also good to see Rom back, fans love him.

One to forget and hope TT Chelsea and not festive period Chelsea show up on Saturday.

Edited December 2, 20213 yr by axman2526

Got lucky last night.

Our worst performance under TT.

Second half was a bit better, Silva helped by helping getting a bit control.

Don’t like writing players off after a couple of games but Saul is an experiment gone wrong.

There’s a reason Athletico Madrid wanted to get rid of him - getting cast offs rarely works.

The next time we drop points we will probably end up being 3rd in the table, TT needs to remember that when selecting his starting 11.

Well, on the one hand, we've now been outplayed by two of the three promoted sides.

On the other hand, we beat the other 7-0, and still ultimately beat all three.

 

To be fair the ref allowed Watford to get away with a lot of their antics, on top of that we had players like Saul, Alonso & Pulisic who were pretty ineffective most of the game. Ziyech has been fantastic the last few games, so him and Mount need to start against West Ham with Lukaku up top.

We would have lost this game under Frank, so it's good to see we can dig in when needed. In January hopefully we can look to strengthen more, I know we have depth but not the depth in quality.

Edited December 2, 20213 yr by Malcolm9

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Some are saying he made too many changes, but I don't think he had much choice.

The injuries to Jorginho, Werner and James meant he had to make 3 at least.

Hudson-Odoi has started 7 in a row for us so could do with a game off to keep fresh. 

Thiago Silva is 37 years old so can't play every game.

Ziyech was terrible against United so he was rightly dropped to the bench.

 

Even without the unforced changes, it still would have been hard for us because we lost the midfield battle and couldn't get our wing backs into the game.

Agree, these changes were largely forced.

2 hours ago, 2211 said:

Got lucky last night.

Our worst performance under TT.

Second half was a bit better, Silva helped by helping getting a bit control.

Don’t like writing players off after a couple of games but Saul is an experiment gone wrong.

There’s a reason Athletico Madrid wanted to get rid of him - getting cast offs rarely works.

The next time we drop points we will probably end up being 3rd in the table, TT needs to remember that when selecting his starting 11.

Not really, 1/2 for us. Kovacic was a cast off from a big club, that worked quite well. 

Two pieces of quality won what turned out be a very difficult match. Fair play to Watford they chased and harried us all night. The tackles were hard but in the main fair and as @Nibs said the match felt very 'old skool'

Fair play to TT for eventually working out the conundrum albeit through the unfortunate injury to Chalobah. Switching Pulisic to WB worked though it could also be that the energy levels of Watford was decreasing. Whatever in the last 20 mins we felt more in control than at any other time in the match.

How poor was Saul? He clearly has regressed from the player a few years ago. Not sure you would even risk him in a cup game against lower league opposition. His energy levels look low and he has clearly struggled with the increased physicality of the English game. For his own sanity and career it would possibly be better for him to return to Spain with a lower league club than endure a miserable 6 months, if one could be found to take up the loan option.

Good to see Mason return to form, the rest has probably done him some good. 

Havertz led the line well, without being spectacular, maybe try him alongside Lukaku, the latter did look sluggish.

Final word for Mendy, he is such an assured keeper. Keeping him fit is imperative. 

We managed to turn 1 point into 3 as opposed to the other way round on Sunday. These things even themselves out over the course of a hard season.

2 hours ago, ashwin said:

Not really, 1/2 for us. Kovacic was a cast off from a big club, that worked quite well. 

You're right about Kovacic.

I did say rarely, I actually do believe that is the case that most players that football clubs want to get rid of, then that player generally doesn't do any better at thier next club.

Real Madrid are a special case IMO as they buy everyone and mis-use them half the time (Makelele, Robben, Schneijder, Hakimi etc..)

It almost makes them a good club to buy players from.

Kovacic has been successful here, but Saul hasn't so far, and if we wanted Koke on loan they would of laughed at us or demanded we pay a hefty transfer fee.

There was a reason they was touting Saul around - Athletico Madrid ain't silly.

Edited December 2, 20213 yr by 2211

13 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

Liverpool score another 4.....shocking how many teams roll over for them.   We got lucky today and had to dig deep in the end but we will get punished sooner or later by a mid table or bottom feeder if we put these performances in...

Two games are never the same.

16 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Southampton vs Leicester was suspended too after a fan collapsed. Not sure what happened, but reports are saying it wasn't a heart attack.

They confirmed it was mate 

I wish we won the United game and drew this one as Watford actually played really well and didn't play like cowards like United. Surely Watford is not going to stay in 17th if they keep on playing like this, they are playing better football after 2 months Ranieri than United with 3yrs OGS.  

Anybody know when some of the injured players will be back? Hopefully for sat early kick off against the hammers….

10 hours ago, charierre said:

 

Final word for Mendy, he is such an assured keeper. Keeping him fit is imperative. 

We managed to turn 1 point into 3 as opposed to the other way round on Sunday. These things even themselves out over the course of a hard season.

What a keeper he has turned out to be for us - a real upgrade. Dread to think how we would have fared in some of these games with Kepa.

My one criticism of Mendy, as I mentioned in MOTM thread, is his insistence on taking a few too many touches and not releasing the ball when he being closed down by an attacker until the last possible moment.   It's playing havoc with my nerves and it has come close a few times now to costing us big-time.

 

Edited December 2, 20213 yr by Nibs

I Haven’t seen anyone post about Carrick’s post match interview. He said he was frustrated about not Winning, being proud and having a plan at stopping Chelsea. All with a straight face!!!!!

24 shots against, where was that stopping us. He said it wasn’t a penalty, didn’t mention that we gifted them their two efforts on target.  He’s learnt quickly to talk bo*^+*ks after the game!!

Wrong thread sorry!

Edited December 4, 20213 yr by petre ispirescu