Clarets v Watford Match Thread

[Prefeot]

Is it fatigue? Too many games all at once? Not using the squad depth as we perhaps should?

Who knows… still unbeaten and onto the next at Luton

No … it’s the championship.. no excuses

[Prefeot]

From where I was sat, the ref pretty much didn’t put a foot wrong. Pretty difficult game to referee with all the shenanigans going on.

Ref was very poor

[CoolClaret]

I think Watford deserve some credit. The chat on here reminds me of oppositions we faced when a Dyche side took a point off a much better side. Moaning about fouls etc. They did a good job of stopping our runners, one on one they were superb against zaroury and Tella in the main. They pressed high well and forced errors in good areas of the pitch. Did they try and wind us up a bit? Sure. But we fell for it a little. We certainly didn't deserve to lose but I think Watford deserved their point.

I agree, they played well.

[Bigvince]

No they capitalised on a mega blunder by Muric

Yes it was a mistake by Muric, but like I said it was their only good chance!!!

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

Thought Watford were largely poor. Goal came from our mistake and we were just off our usual standards. Plus add it that ref……

[RVclaret]

I thought Watford were pretty poor overall, to say their squad is pretty decent on paper. Very disappointed with Sarr who I thought was terrible. Pedro their best player and Choudary played very well. Aside from that they just kept giving us the ball back, failed to counter (despite us giving away the ball in awful positions) and literally had no other chance apart from our **** up!

[2 Bee Holed]

Hoedt wrestled Barnes to the ground on one corner, ref did nowt

You really need to see the replay. Barnes grips him and rolls himself around Hoedt and lands on the ground. Very little Hoedt could do about Barnes trying to con the ref.

[tiger76]

You’re allowed an off day when you’ve been on the run we have, it’s only difficult to swallow because of our usually high standards

Yes we can't be brilliant every game, and even on our rare off days we generally manage to dig a result out as we did tonight.

Mind you I did wonder if it would ever come as the minutes ticked on.

We seem to have nicked a lot of late goals recently, and that speaks volumes for the desire of this side to go right until the death.

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

You really need to see the replay. Barnes grips him and rolls himself around Hoedt and lands on the ground. Very little Hoedt could do about Barnes trying to con the ref.

I will look again if I can find it but that was a good little battle there

[123EasyasBFC]

What is really frustrating is people praising Watfords performance and saying ‘Burnley did it for years under dyche’

Dyche never ever let his players go down as easy as Watford players did from minute one tonight, we started so fast and first 10-15min looked to easy for us, Watford had to slow it down so fair play. The ref needed to get to grips with the game earlier imo he was too inconsistent with little nudges

[Elizabeth]

So pleased we kept our unbeaten home record going and to do it at the death was so good !

[Tricky Trevor]

How Hoedt didn’t get carded or give away a penalty only the referee knows, probably wasn’t even looking at him. More interested in Barnes.

Because he did 95% of his grappling before the deadball had been played. Can’t give a pen if the ball isn’t in play. Ref could have got to grips with him sooner and carded him for it but however much goes on in the area no refs seem to care, they accept it as part of the game which it isn’t.

[Tricky Trevor]

You really need to see the replay. Barnes grips him and rolls himself around Hoedt and lands on the ground. Very little Hoedt could do about Barnes trying to con the ref.

You are highlighting one incident. It was every dead ball until the ref spoke to him and they moved Porteous onto Ash. Hinchcliffe highlighted a corner where he had his arms totally around Ash as he wrestled him to the ground. He called a pen for that incident.

[Tricky Trevor]

Bilic did a superb coaching job for them. They must have analysed where we pass to from certain areas of the pitch and they closed us down accordingly. They were big and physical but got away with it. All sides do the play acting once they get a lead so as much as I hate it you live with it.
If Muric is our keeper in the PL we are screwed. I’m sick of reading about his passing, he is a keeper and keeping it out is his priority. He has so little to face with our defence being so good and these slips crop up far too often.

[Swizzlestick]

I never slag a player off during a game but as he’s been subbed I hope that is the last I See of Muric. He is so far from being a keeper it is unbelievable.

Some of our fans don’t deserve this season.

[TPClaret]

Some of our fans don’t deserve this season.

Exactly I find it embarrassing.

[scamander]

Because he did 95% of his grappling before the deadball had been played. Can’t give a pen if the ball isn’t in play. Ref could have got to grips with him sooner and carded him for it but however much goes on in the area no refs seem to care, they accept it as part of the game which it isn’t.

Yep - this is why defenders do all their holding and then suddenly let go. Ball has to be in play for a penalty to be given. It was embarassing to watch Barnes at points, he seemed more about trying to fight the players than get on with the business of hitting the target.

[scamander]

Where I have seen Benson and Zaroury excel is when they introduce doubt into the mind of the full back. Zaroury very rarely went on the outside, when he turned in there were 2 players waiting for him.

[boatshed bill]

Because he did 95% of his grappling before the deadball had been played. Can’t give a pen if the ball isn’t in play. Ref could have got to grips with him sooner and carded him for it but however much goes on in the area no refs seem to care, they accept it as part of the game which it isn’t.

You are right.
Time for a fundamental rule change.
perhaps the ball could be considered "in play" as soon as it's placed on the corner quadrant?

[Swizzlestick]

Even though we were indeed below par last night, we still came out on top in terms of shots on target, passing accuracy and, if you're into all that, xG (by some distance). Bachmann makes a great save early doors, there were a couple more very decent opportunities in the first half, he makes another good save in the second half and the only reason they end up scoring is a moment of madness from Muric. All this while losing our current first choice centre half, having to change up the keeper whether due to illness or not, and a good few players playing well below their standard - Watford are a team on paper with all the tools to hurt a team like our yet despite all of the above they still couldn't get the W. Bodes well.

[Jellybean]

I think I enjoyed the goalie being able to be part of the goal celebrations last night, they don't get that so often do they!

[2 Bee Holed]

You are highlighting one incident. It was every dead ball until the ref spoke to him and they moved Porteous onto Ash. Hinchcliffe highlighted a corner where he had his arms totally around Ash as he wrestled him to the ground. He called a pen for that incident.

You've totally lost me. Yes superjohnyyfrancis and I were having a discussion about Hoedt and Barnes at a corner. Yes we were talking about one incident. Who is Hinchcliffe?

[Chester Perry]

...If Muric is our keeper in the PL we are screwed. I’m sick of reading about his passing, he is a keeper and keeping it out is his priority. He has so little to face with our defence being so good and these slips crop up far too often.

I am beginning to consider Muric more and more as a 'rushy keeper' it seems pretty clear Kompany wants 11 outfield quality ball players and when it works - which seems to be most of the time - it is not only a thing of sublime beauty but allows us to overload as we have an extra player - particularly against the press. It does allow for situations like last night. Kompany clearly factors that into the equation over the season and is he is happy to live with it, given the managers record to date it is difficult to argue with.

The Premier League will present greater challenges, but given that the manager is fixated on developing us further (we are currently on the 21st best team in the country and he wants much better, is what he keeps saying) we should probably just enjoy the ride on the playing side.

[Tricky Trevor]

You've totally lost me. Yes superjohnyyfrancis and I were having a discussion about Hoedt and Barnes at a corner. Yes we were talking about one incident. Who is Hinchcliffe?

Andy Hincliffe was summarising on sky. They replayed the incident, 2nd half, where Hoedt had him in a bear hug and it should have been a pen. Most of the other incidents were 50/50 and Ash wasn’t blameless.

[Firthy]

Change the teams and ground to Liverpool v Burnley at Anfield two years ago and there are a lot of similarities.

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

Because he did 95% of his grappling before the deadball had been played. Can’t give a pen if the ball isn’t in play. Ref could have got to grips with him sooner and carded him for it but however much goes on in the area no refs seem to care, they accept it as part of the game which it isn’t.

Thanks for that Trevor always wondered why they don’t do something, another thing for webb to take note of. At least Mason has been jettisoned, should have happened years ago