The Irish Gareth Bale Strikes Again

As we are in the Championship now, sometimes you play a team that you don’t know much about because the media noise is a hell of a lot quieter in this league, and that is a good thing. So, usually I put a bit of effort in to find out if there are any players that I recognise or if Iknow the manager or if there’s anyone I really remember from the last time we played them, which in the case of Watford was a couple of years ago. In all truth, I cannot be bothered to go and find out anything about Watford because all I know about them is that their ownership is ridiculous and they change managers on average every three months it seems.

Having said that, they had a Tom Cleverley in charge for the whole of last season, which must have qualified him for a gold watch. He did relatively well but they got rid of him anyway, of course, because it’s what they do. It might not seem like it now but Tom has cleverly got himself out of Watford without destroying his reputation first and I’m sure he’ll get another shot at a Championship club soon. The current Watford manager is some Italian bloke, I’ve never heard of with a long name that I can’t be bothered to learn because he’ll be gone by the time we play them next time. There was a bit of interest last time around as they had the legedary Wesley Hoedt playing for them, but he and his ego have gone now.

Vicarage Road is always a relatively tough place to go. Last time in the Championship we were winning comfortably there but only by 1-0 and let in a horrific last-minute goal to throw two points in the bin when Baz dived over a shot that was hit with all the pace of a cushioned back pass. Nothing like that this season so far from Baz (I’m forgiving Stoke’s second last week) and we have to hope that his improvement carries on today.

This game has been a bit of a sideshow this week as the transfer business has gone a bit mental. Names like Finn Azaz and Tom Fellows were leaked by the usual suspects, that’s you Fabrizio, and it always makes me wonder if that’s going to somehow torpedo the deal for a club like us. Caspar Jander’s name popped up as a virtually done deal and this link came from a low-level German equivalent of Fabrizio, so I had much more confidence of that particular deal getting done. As it turned out, Friday was like supermarket sweep because they all got done with attacking midfiedler Azaz joining from Middlesbrough, right winger Fellows joining from West Brom and defensive midfiedler Jander joining from Nuremberg. Apparently, a deal has been agreed for a left-winger called Leo Scienza in principle, but the clubs at the moment are a bit apart in their evaluations so we’ll have to see on that one. Another right back has also been linked, Elias Jelert, a Danish international who currently plays for Galatasaray.

If players come in, then players have to leave and Mateus Fernandes did just that. No one really believed Will Still when he said that Fernandes was bring rested for the Norwich cup game but it appears that it would be closer to the truth to say that no one actually knew where he fucking was, because he had apparently travelled to West Ham, without permission, to go and do a medical. Dick move but typical Premier League, typical London spiv owned club, typical Jorge Mendes.

Fernandes now joins a long line of players who have left the club in shitty ways and left a bad taste. As always, it is not the fact that you leave, it is about how you leave. Adam Lallana got it wrong, as did Virgil van Dijk, as did Dejan Lovren and Fernandes unfortunately gets added to that list. He was no doubt pushed into it by his agent, the infamous Jorge Mendes, who fiddles with the careers of every Portuguese player it seems, but regardless of agent input, it just shows a lack of respect towards your current club and your fans by the player. Any sort of attempt at a heartfelt thankyou and goodbye will therefore be met with a ‘yeah, whatever, fuck off mate’.

My personal take on this is that after last season, I thought I would be crying into my beer if Fernandes left, mainly because he was one of few diamonds in last years big pile of shit. Funnily enough, I’m really not arsed that he’s gone. A large part of that is the “well he can get fucked“ at the manner of his departure, but from a football point of view, we can do without him this season. Of course, we have had to put up with all the smugness from moron West Ham fans on social media but if they think Fernandes is going to be the answer to all their problems and suddenly turn them into a winning team, then they are sadly mistaken. In fact, all he’s proved so far is that he can’t make a huge difference to a struggling team and West Ham are struggling team with a shit squad, a shit manager, a porn selling spiv masquerading as a Director of Football and a soulless ground. He’s also a very similar player to the player that West Ham have just made vice captain, James Ward-Prowse in that he is not creative enough to be a number 10, not defensively strong enough to be a number 6, so you have to build a team around that to get the best out of him. With any luck, we’ll be in a higher division than him this time next year.

‘W’ stands for ‘Wanker’

Fernandes’ reasoning is that he has been fed the line by his national team manager that he needs to be playing in one of the top five leagues to get in the Portugal squad for the World Cup this summer. I presume that the top five leagues includes the five we all know about, plus the Saudi Arabian league to be inclusive to the 74-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo. If Fernandes had any idea of looking at his longer term career, then he should have stayed at Saints until January and then looked to see if a better club than West Ham had come in for him. Remember, JWP moved to West Ham because he thought it would better serve his international ambitions and look where that got him. KWP has moved to West Ham to be a substitute behind Aaron Wan Bissaka and the one player they should’ve signed from us, Aaron Ramsdale, who would’ve actually made a difference to their team, and could have been bought for a lot less than what they’ve just paid for Fernandes, is currently on loan at Newcastle.

So anyway, off you fuck after one season and a cursory two line goodbye on the club website shows that no one was particularly happy about the way this panned out.

Onwards and Finn Azaz, an attacking midfield player with a regular large number of goals and assists in the Championship. I see fans of other clubs questioning the fee that we’ve paid for him and people talking about the fact that he can go missing in games, but we are a team lacking in creativity and goals from the forward players, so if he can produce at the same or better rate than he has been over the last couple of years at Middlesbrough, then we have signed exactly the right player for what we need.

Next through the door was another Johannes Spors special in Casper Jander, who joined from Nuremberg and the Bundesliga 2. At 22 years old he has plenty of time on his side but as someone who played with the German Under 21 team in the recent European Under 21 championships, he’ll be expected to challenge Flynn Downes and Shea Charles for a starting place. Personally, as long as he adapts to the demands of the Championship, I think this is an excellent bit of business because you need three players who can really do a job in the centre of midfield and we struggled last time in the Championship, especially when Flynn Downes was not playing and we brought the likes of Joe Rothwell into the centre of midfield.

Next through the door was Tom Fellows, another Under 21 international, this time for England, and this is the winger that we have been crying out for. Not a prolific goal scorer but a good record when it comes to assists and a player who is obviously bought in with Will Still‘s original style of play in mind. West Brom fans seem to think that he was worth £20 million but it seems that we’ve paid less than half of that on the face of it, that seems to be an unbelievable bit of business for a player who should be able to hit the ground running.

As I write it’s unknown who is clear to make the squad against Watford, so all eyes will be on that team announcement at 2 pm on Saturday…. and here it is and Finn Azaz is the only one of our new players to make the cut today as we change the forwards with him and Archer starting ahead of Robinson and Armstrong who are both on the bench. The rest of the team is as expected but as kick-off approaches we learn that Flynn Downes has been ill and so he drops out to be replaced by Jay Robinson which at first glance means that Shea Charles is a one man midfield. My immediate expectation is that Wee Man will drop in next to Charles. The game starts in the midfield seems to basically be a diamond with Charles at the back, Robinson and Fraser right and left and then Azaz at the tip. I guess that Flynn has been at the raw chicken livers again.

Flynn’s pre-match meal revisited

A positive start is nearly undone when Roerslev finds himself running the wrong way towards our goal and knocks it back to Baz who doesn’t get there allowing a Watford player to nick it round his wild swipe, but luckily we clear it.

We settle and Azaz wins the ball high up and knocks it into Archer’s feet and the first time layoff finds Robinson, who manages to get a shot away and it’s on target but it hits the keeper and dribbles wide for a corner. Over comes the corner from Manning and Nathan Wood rises completely unmarked and has to score…. but somehow knocks it down with his face onto his thigh but it bounces into space and Cameron Archer smashes it into the net to put us one up. A goal from a striker, get in!

Archer is Johnny On the Spot as Nathan Wood’s nose gets an assist.

Archer’s confidence has increased massively and he takes on a Watford defender on the halfway line spins away from him and then just knocks the ball past the second one before getting into the penalty area and hitting the goalkeeper from a narrow angle. This is the player we thought we’d signed a year ago.

Watford have got sporadic attacks on the break but there’s really not very much to worry about as long as we keep being sensible with both Wee Man and Robbo helping out Shea.  The referee is a bit of a fanny, booking Ryan Manning for tapping the ball about three yards after players stopped and then booking the Watford manager for appealing for a very justified free kick. Very strange but at least he’s consistently awful for both teams.

Azaz is getting involved well in the number 10 position but his radar is a little bit off and there’s a couple of misplaced passes. Physically he’s quite strong so he does win the ball back a few times. Meanwhile, Manning wins the ball and tackle out on the left and the ball ricochets around at the penalty area and finds Azaz on the right and he hits it first time well but the keeper saves.

Halftime at a decent half. Scored an early goal and then pretty much controlled what was going on after that and keeping Watford to pumping pretty aimless crosses into the box, most of which have been headed away by Nathan Wood. Saints are just lacking the second goal. We are by far the better side and just need to be a bit more exact in the final third. We always fuck it up here without the second goal.

The second staff half starts in much the same way that the first half finished with Saints being the better side and more threatening straight away. Azaz gets cross in from the right which the goalkeeper manages to smother as Archer closes in.

Watford’s manager, whose name escapes me, makes a few subs and the game changes, goes to a back four and the game becomes very scrappy but Watford are winning all the second balls and Saints are making life hard of themselves. One ball forward down the right hand side and Manning collapses in ‘please give me a free kick’ fashion and Baah, the substitute takes it wide with his touch and drills it across Baz into the far corner of the net. Fuck sake he should be saving that. 1-1

Ten go by with Watford now looking the more likely and Still decides to make substitutions with Robinson, Wee Man and Archer replaced by Armstrong, Downs and Matsuki, whichby my reckoning, makes us even lighter in midfield. Almost straight away though, we start playing again with Armstrong laying off the ball to Roeslev on the edge of the box before being taken out by Abankwah so, in a remarkably good bit of refereeing, we get a free kick on the edge. Ryan Manning is the new Gareth Bale and everyone knows it now. Bang, bottom corner on the keepers side, brilliant free kick.

With ten to go, surely we need to just manage the game now but instead of that, a clearly tired Azaz gets caught on the ball on halfway and Matsuki flies into a tackle but the referee plays on and eventually Charles brings down someone on the edge of the box. Free kick 25 yards out and Irankunda it over the wall and curling into the top corner. No keeper on earth saves that and fucks sake again, 2-2.

Stewart is on for Azaz as and we are looking even lighter in midfield now and it almost seems for that remaining time that both teams have settled for a point and it kind of peters out without further goalmouth incident. A point game or two dropped?

Well, Watford weren’t very good in terms of technical ability but they made up with it with the enthusiasm and physicality and in the second half we really really struggled with it.  If the other team out works you, like they did fir the second half, then you are really gonna struggle even if you do have better technical players.

There is no doubt today that Flynn Downes dropping out before kickoff fucked us up. I can;t help but think Still should have put Ronnie Edwards in midfield, where he played a lot for QPR last season. We managed it in the first half by being relatively decent on the ball so Robinson and Fraser weren’t exposed too much defensively but in the second half, when Watford started playing with a little bit more intensity and getting about us, we had no answer. Some will say that Still didn’t make his changes quick enough but in all truth, we didn’t have much on the bench that could stem the tide in midfield. Matsuki is not a deep lying midfield player in any way shape or form and nor is Azaz. The formation we are playing at the moment relies on having two really strong midfielders and we’ve seen how Flynn and Shay have struggled at times this season but take one of them out and it becomes a near an impossible job to stem the tide.

A 2-2 draw is not a disaster but it’s not great either especially given how we controlled the first half. I don’t think we made their keeper work at all until Manning whipped that free kick past him. To create nothing from open play in 45 minutes it was really not where it’s at.

Some will say that Baz is blameless for the first goal because it’s a great finish. Yes, it’s a good finish but trust me, he has to save that. When it’s hit from that angle, he absolutely has to get something on that. I gave him the benefit of the doubt for the goal against Stoke. It was very similar into the opposite corner but this one is not great as he’s too close to the near post when Baah hits it, and with McCarthy putting in a brilliant performance against Norwich, we may well see a change of goalkeeper in the not too distant future. Will Still has shown already that he’s not frightened to change things and we had our fourth different back three set up in four matches today. Different either in terms of personnel or positioning.

Baah celebrates sending Bazunu to the bottom of the Expected Saves Table again

Ryan Manning didn’t cover himself in glory on the first goal either with some really piss weak defending out on the left. He thinks he was fouled but I’m not really seeing that. The second goal was just a case of getting overrun in midfield and then people putting in desperate challenges to try and rescue situations. Having said that, I’m not sure that Shea Charles challenge that gave away the free kick that led to the second goal, was actually a foul and nor was Will Still. Matsuki’s challenge that he got booked for was a foul but that was 15 yards deeper.

Finn Azaz on his debut was exactly what I expected. If you get him the ball in the right areas then he will find players and looks like the ideal player to play just behind a striker. However, he is not gonna be at his best when the game is attritional and we have no control in midfield. In the first half, Cameron Archer had a brilliant game and was making runs all over the place and getting stuck in and causing problems, but in the second half, he completely disappeared, stopped making runs and stopped being an outlet for players to pass the ball forward. There’s an opportunity for him to really stamp his mark on things and put his hand up and say “I am the number nine for this team this season“ but it’s not enough to score a tap-in and then think you’ve done your job for the afternoon.

So, overall I guess you have to respect getting an away point but it’s a frustrating one because we led twice, and got in front with ten minutes to go. Will Still allowed it to get to him a bit and got in a bit of a spat with the Watford manager at the end. Will hasn’t mastered that covering your mouth thing but he’s probably right when calling Pezzolano a knobhead. I bothered to learn his name at the end, because he was a knobhead. Chances are that he won’t be there for the return game.

International break now and our next game in two weeks is against, oh yeah, that lot at home. They managed to beat Preston today so they are higher than us in the league for the first time since at least 2011 and as we know, they don’t need much to be giving it the big one. No more motivation needed.

Up the fucking Saints