Watford (a) - Instant Reaction

Please DO NOT rein in Scott's yee-has! I love them!

There is no way lacazette is stock falling. I think I would go for ramsdale, tierney and possibly white. I think part of the problem with playing ode and xhaka higher up is that it's easier to cut through central midfield. Also it exposes Tierney a bit more than in the past.

About the sloppiness. A young team that reaches new levels together, like we do in this game with the goals. It tends to have moments, where it feels it can take it a bit easier. To enjoy, just for a second this dominance, class we discovered in ourselves. And it just wants to feel if this autopilot mode can work, over the fighting mode it's normally in. Can cost us goals, but.. That's also the state of mind where the magic kicks in to score 3,4 or 4-0 when you are at the level of Liverpool or City. It'll cost us but its part of the process.

I’ve been feeling for awhile that Tierney’s off his game. At first, I thought it was his injuries, but now I’m starting to think it’s more down to his lack of technical ability. He’s great at bombing on but even yesterday, if a defender pressed him, he looked super uncomfortable. If this continues, I’m wondering if we have to go into the market summer after next and look for someone more technical while Nuno holds down the fort. Would be interested to get your guys’ take on this as I’m not sure he looks like he’ll be the long term left back at this point

Surprised nobody said TAA for best player in the pl in 2 years. Seems the easy answer to me, he's already one of the best.

Agree , thought Gabriel was a bit shaky as he was against Wolves. all good , still a young team. Growing pains. As long as we win , while our lads our still learning, that's absolutely fine

Agree with this. I find it hard to nail the stock rising and falling (especially the 3rd choice) because right at the full time whistle it’s the big moments sticking in your head. One really nice dribble or a bad missed pass on the counter can stick in your head and suddenly you’ve picked someone because of a single moment rather than a total performance. I picked white as a stock rising when really, you could argue he was at fault to some extent for both goals. Nominally. And I picked laca stock falling for a few blown opportunities but he has 2 assists. Both feel a bit off the mark in retrospect

Stock down for Tierney for me. Thought he was poor defensively and not offering that much on attack . Watford went time and time again too easily down his side . Martinelli wasn't much help to him either but he scored a ripper of a goal so i guess we let him off lol . Also Xhaka played more as a double pivot in this game then sitting deep on the left as he tends to do so maybe less support on that side when Watford countered in transition

A striker deserves to be in stock falling if he hasnt scored.

Stock down for Ramsdale and Gabriel. It was such a strange game. Saka, Ode were amazing but we looked so shaky at the back for no apparent reason.

Anthony H

I know! 😭

Blimey, the Lacazette stock down was suuuuuper harsh after two sexy assists,

FWIW it sounds like maybe laca had one or two annoyances with his performance. https://twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1500519158672506884?s=21

Yeah it’s a setup for disaster !

Fair enough! Just got to that part where you talk about going third 😂😂😂

Look the Lacazette choice was probably a mistake. His assists were nice. I thought he was less decisive today though and lost a few good opportunities. One on the counter that was particularly poor imo. Also not as connective as he was against wolves. But frankly I wasn’t sure who to pick at all

I can’t either if it makes you feel better 😂 Third pick is hard

I can not believe you put Laca in stock falling. His two assists were sublime!

The transcendent guitar solo at the end of the pod is becoming more and more apt as the season develops! Think it was harsh to give Laca a stock falling; he had some exceptional touches in the opp box for the goals I thought. RE: The Ramsdale save you mentioned. Thought he got down to make the save, couldn't hold it, but was very live to the danger and showed great awareness to scoop the ball away from the Watford player

My super power

Nice jinx on KDB being done Elliot 🤣.

I’ll confess I find the left side hard to analyze generally because all 3 parts of the left sided pod looked off their game but maybe that’s indicative of something different

I know Elliot loves Martinelli like a child but I think he needs to up his game a bit more (absolutely glorious goal btw and shows he can go WC). Defensively looked off to me tho - as did Xhaka btw - and his decisions need more honing but that left side is not cohesive and I think it needs work. Also, I think we just need to learn how to be super offensive while also being defensively sound and that's just another step in the evolution. To me the fact they could play 'badly' at times and still win is a good thing. Also they are learning to play with pressure of making top 4 and love that the team dug in and did it.