We played some superb football today. Scoreline doesn't reflect the game.

Top performance!

UTC

Inept ref nearly robbed us .

Agreed. Possibly Hannibal's best performance for us, but everybody played well.

Some of the passing play was sublime. All coming together nicely. Hopefully see a nice peaceful evening on here after that

Stonehouse wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:00 pm

Inept ref nearly robbed us .

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

Must admit, I thought he was decent and pulled the game back a few times for our freekick after giving us advantage.

I thought we were really good first half, we often struggle with Watford so not surprised by the second half. Top win imho

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

He did, however his inconsistency in almost identical fouls was there for all to see and as for the bookings......

Vegas Claret wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:19 pm

He did, however his inconsistency in almost identical fouls was there for all to see and as for the bookings......

I think he was a bit lenient at times with the players due to the terrible conditions but I prefer that type of ref.

Booking Trafford while Trafford was checking with the lino where to place the ball was farcical

We look so much better as a high tempo pressing side and having players who spring forward quickly when we turnover possession. I think Hannibal is key to this team and players like Brownhill, Cullen and Anthony benefit from the work he does.

When we play like this it reminds me a little of Dyche's first promotion season and if we had a Danny Ings IMO we'd be a rung or two above both Sheff Utd and Leeds and be winning this league.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

The assault on Flemming before their goal.

Booking Laurent for a really soft one then letting a whole stream of far worse offences slip by.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

He was terrible. Let their 17 get away with persistent fouls and then booked Laurent and CER for what was probably their first offences?

The best bit was when he gave offide for them when we were breaking forward!

Flem was fouled 5 or 6 times and he didn’t give them.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

For starters - the rugby tackle on Flemming just before their goal that he didn't see, or ignored.

(And it would have been a foul in rugby !)

Thought it was the best performance of the season, including the first two games.

The referee lost the plot in the second half. Two or three of the Watford players were allowed to foul time and time again without being booked. Both the bookings for Laurent and ER might have been correct, but they were no different to several fouls committed by Watford players that went unpunished.

Back to the OP though, we were terrific at times today. The Brownhill goal was very easy on the eye. If we play like this against Sheff U it could be a humdinger!

Considering the bad conditions I thought it was a good game of football, and a great performance from us.

Just watched both goals back and they really were superb.

The first a perfect example of the areas Hannibal was able to pick up centrally, picked out by a superb fizzed ball by Esteve, good movement ahead of the ball by 3 players.

The second, while Watford’s defence a touch passive, was just lovely one touch pass and move football in tight areas, finished off really well.

Flemming was clearly fouled before they broke and Egan Riley was forced to concede the corner which they scored from and stuff like that really matters tbh.
But to stick with the spirit of the OP, yes we were excellent today.

17 was pensioner Sissoko definitely time to retire
We should have had 5 and need our box finisher in in January to guarantee top spot come May

It had a feeling of something clicking, today.

We’ve seen a few steps forward only to have a leap backwards, so I’m not counting the chickens just yet, but today great.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:14 pm

What do you think he did wrong?

I thought he let the game go superbly.

I think it was definitely a foul on Flemming which resulted in the Watford attack off which they scored.

Watford didn't come to park the bus and we were very good. Good match. Enjoyed it but the scoreline didn't do us justice.

One thing I've noticed since earlier this season is we look more calm when we have the ball in defence. Trafford also looks more confident on the ball. We're passing it out from defence better and just look more composed. Watford looked to gave up with any pressing at times as they knew we'd just outpass the press.

hoosier-daddy wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 7:34 pm

One thing I've noticed since earlier this season is we look more calm when we have the ball in defence. Trafford also looks more confident on the ball. We're passing it out from defence better and just look more composed. Watford looked to gave up with any pressing at times as they knew we'd just outpass the press.

Our shape passing it around the back is incredibly impressive. It’s no coincidence that we concede few chances.

I don’t watch a lot of other teams and I’m sure other teams do it but the CB’s become FB’s with a sweeper keeper. Almost impossible to press.

Perhaps, with Josh Brownhill having scored yet again the Anti-Brownhill moaners might just concede that they don’t know everything about football.
He’s a really important player for us and wholehearted in his commitment to the cause.

Best performance since the opening day IMO.

That was superb today

Yes, our build up play was good to watch, and it was our best performance of the season, and I'm loathe to be critical, but: still lots of room for improvement from set-pieces - mainly ours, but that's 2 conceded in two games from corners as well.

Best for 2 seasons.

Best I’ve seen us play this season. The pockets in how we made positions between attack and defence was sublime. Hanibal the major threat surprisingly

nil_desperandum wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 8:11 pm

Yes, our build up play was good to watch, and it was our best performance of the season, and I'm loathe to be critical, but: still lots of room for improvement from set-pieces - mainly ours, but that's 2 conceded in two games from corners as well.

It's getting much better overall. However, our defending of set pieces is an issue. Steve and CJ are brilliant, but neither are aggressive headers. Ekdal is. If we go up, I think 3 cbs will be essential, or CJ in the Rodri role.

I'm sure it has been said elsewhere today.

The way we played today, we would have blown away many teams in this league.

Augurs well for the rest of the season. SP will sleep far better tonight.

ŽižkovClaret wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 5:28 pm

Booking Trafford while Trafford was checking with the lino where to place the ball was farcical

Booking all day long that. Trafford had the ball, gave it away, took possession again, argued with the ref/lino about where to take it from JUST to waste time. Nailed on and absolutely fair booking imho.

Claret53 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 8:04 pm

Perhaps, with Josh Brownhill having scored yet again the Anti-Brownhill moaners might just concede that they don’t know everything about football.
He’s a really important player for us and wholehearted in his commitment to the cause.

Great today, as was Cullen.

I’m not a brownhill hater by any means, but neither am I “Brownhill is our Pirlo”.

Good player, played well today, great strike to get the goal. Next week, sadly, you won’t see him. That’s the worry for me - the inconsistency. He’s either 8.5/10 and a game changer/winner or 6/10 and a passenger. He really should be 7.5/10 every week as a captain.
Having said that, I hope he signs again, or it would take £20m to replace him. Unless we have someone on the books already….

Best performance of the season since Luton some of our passing and moving was excellent that was highlighted with the second goal the passing and movement was premier league quality ending with Hannibal standing the ball up for Brownhill to score.Sheffield United had better be awake on B/day because if we play like that we should be for too much for them UTC

I thoroughly enjoyed it today. It felt like we were mixing up our football more than usual, and with the wide players coming inside a lot it brought back memories of the best performances in the Dyche era, but with much more security on the ball. '

As good as we’ve been at home since the exodus.

We were a world today. Best performance since the opening two by a LONG way.

More of the same please!

I watched the video earlier in the week of the lads training. It featured a lot of one-touch short passing and interchanges around the orange cones - and the second goal today was a perfect example of that training ground work transplanted onto the pitch to great effect, starting with the initial combination on the left side and then followed by the interplay on the right. Great stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed that performance today.

To his credit Tom Cleverly has said that the score line flattered them today and Burnley outplayed his team in many facets of the game.

His inference is that we didn’t convert that domination into a much healthier winning margin.

Pretty astute summary.

The performance was first class and was probably worthy of a 4-0. Watford didn’t deserve a goal today. The referee was poor in booking Trafford when checking with the linesman, and Riley for something and nothing.

Just shows what a win can do to an analysis of a game.

I think a number of performances have been this good the difference is that Watford came with some ambition and gave us a bit of space to play. Plus we got an early goal.

We look class in midfield and defence and have been too strong for most teams however we still had a lot of poor decision making in the final third: rushed shots and shots ballooned over the bar.

Cullen looks much better in double pivot and the midfield three were narrower with Brownhill pushing forward. Hannibal was excellent today and the passing was slick but there was still a lot of passing around at the back and measured build up.

But I would say this.. Had Anthony not scored the earlier goal and had Watford made the change at half time at 0-0 we would have had similar comments to previous games and a similar outcome regardless of the quality of play in the first half.

We were excellent today, mixed it up well, played it forward at a faster tempo- the wide play was much better. I really hope Anthony can find some consistency because he can be a real handful when he plays like today.

Having Laurent, Brownhill, Cullen and Hannibal all on the pitch seemed to enable them all to do the bits they are good at- we've looked a bit restriced at times in the middle before today but we really dominated them. It will be interesting to see how he lines up at Sheff United with Sarmiento back fit.

bobinho wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 8:54 pm

Booking all day long that. Trafford had the ball, gave it away, took possession again, argued with the ref/lino about where to take it from JUST to waste time. Nailed on and absolutely fair booking imho.

Quite so. And, even if Trafford wasn't booked, what makes him think the Ref. wouldn't add more time anyway?

boyyanno wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2024 10:29 pm

We were excellent today, mixed it up well, played it forward at a faster tempo- the wide play was much better. I really hope Anthony can find some consistency because he can be a real handful when he plays like today.

Having Laurent, Brownhill, Cullen and Hannibal all on the pitch seemed to enable them all to do the bits they are good at- we've looked a bit restriced at times in the middle before today but we really dominated them. It will be interesting to see how he lines up at Sheff United with Sarmiento back fit.

Has to be the same midfield for me. But a great sub to bring on when the opposition are tiring.

Excellent stuff yesterday capped off with two superb goals. Nervy last few minutes but as above due to the ref missing a clear foul on Fleming.

The foul on Fleming right in front of mr magoo, then booking Trafford after his lino had legged it up the touchline whilst Trafford was asking where to place the ball was an odd decision.
Overall though got the important decisions right and no where near as bad as some refs we've had.