FA Cup Semi-Final: Watford 3-2 Wolves Verdict Thread

[Premier Quality]

Poor guy - he did have a poor game, but he’s only young and only human.

I’m really disappointed, and felt the penalty was as soft as soft can be. But my son was absolutely heartbroken, he’s not experienced anything like this before and it’s horrible.

Hopefully now we can push on and get seventh, and Watford will fall away as they focus on the final.

 

[SLA]

Well that feels as horrible this morning as it did yesterday. So gutted.

A few points from the comfort of the sofa:

I don't think there's a huge amount you can blame Nuno for without huge amounts of 20-20 hindsight. Yes, the subs didn't work, but he had every reason to think we'd be able to defend a two-goal lead for 15 minutes. We're generally pretty effective at managing games from in front and Watford had barely had a chance all game. I'm sure it wasn't the game plan to sit back and invite pressure after the second goal, but that's what we did and it enabled Watford to grow in confidence. That's on the players - they succumbed to the pressure and lost their nerve a bit. Only natural for a very young team so not attaching too much blame.

What the subs did highlight though is how reliant we are on one or two big players. If you remove them, unsurprisingly, we're not the same team. As has been said, the summer will go some way to remedying this.

The crowd sounded fine on TV up until the 2nd goal. Could only really hear the Wolves songs. Wembley always sounds different to "normal" grounds.

Jiminez/Deeney -sorry, Raul, but if you're going to celebrate like that, you need to go on and win, otherwise you're fair game.

All in all - bollocks!

 

[playtheace]

Troy Deeney being classy as usual.

Suprisingly Ben "I should be the England keeper in retirement" Foster, is also a cunt.
It is almost as if, every shit fan has forgot that he promised to stop at the shit and then left at the first opportunity after relegation.
Couldn't see any of our players acting like Foster or Deeney in victory.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I was putting on a brave face after the game yesterday but I'm absolutely gutted this morning.

 

[Jabbawolf]

I thought Traore was pretty much the only bright spot for the time he was on the pitch.

Yeah, I’m heavily into people running into blind alleys, and slicing the ball behind or generally nowhere near a Wolves player too - he was/is not a footballer. Vinagre did well.

 

[Jabbawolf]

I didn’t like the mask thing - all a bit contrived, premature and prearranged.

 

[jdrodrigues]

He did the same celebration during his tenure in Benfica. It's his thing. Not fussed.

Basically because he's a friend or fan of Sin Cara, a Mexican wrestler.

Today I am as sad as yesterday, and equal part proud. Brought my Wolves tie to work to show it

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I didn’t like the mask thing - all a bit contrived, premature and prearranged.

He didn't even do anything once he'd put it on, just sort of stood there looking a bit lost. All seemed a bit pointless really.

 

[jd1981]

Suprisingly Ben "I should be the England keeper in retirement" Foster, is also a cunt.
It is almost as if, every shit fan has forgot that he promised to stop at the shit and then left at the first opportunity after relegation.
Couldn't see any of our players acting like Foster or Deeney in victory.

My Facebook is littered with Albion fans lauding over our defeat yesterday, very similar to how Scotland fans behave after England go out of a tournament. All I’ll say is yes Watford won yesterday and fair play to them but they’ve not won anything yet so giving it the big I am is little premature.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Our lack of central strikers cost us. Whilst Jota has adapted brilliantly to playing more centrally Cav, Costa and Traore are not suited to the role and we look a completely different side when Jota and Jimenez are not both on the pitch. Not only did taking a Jota off lead to steadily increasing pressure in the last few minutes it left us toothless to get back into the game once they went ahead. Hopefully we address the lack of cover for J&J as a priority in the summer.

 

[Templeton Peck]

It's awful but let's face it we've had much much worse. We can console ourselves that this is the start of a much bigger future in a season of over achievement.

That said... you should win a game when 2 up with 10 to go. Donck at fault for 2 goals although 1 is an outstanding finish. Ruddy has to do better for 3 which I thought was a tame finish.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Suprisingly Ben "I should be the England keeper in retirement" Foster, is also a cunt.
It is almost as if, every shit fan has forgot that he promised to stop at the shit and then left at the first opportunity after relegation.
Couldn't see any of our players acting like Foster or Deeney in victory.

Well that feels as horrible this morning as it did yesterday. So gutted.

A few points from the comfort of the sofa:

I don't think there's a huge amount you can blame Nuno for without huge amounts of 20-20 hindsight. Yes, the subs didn't work, but he had every reason to think we'd be able to defend a two-goal lead for 15 minutes. We're generally pretty effective at managing games from in front and Watford had barely had a chance all game. I'm sure it wasn't the game plan to sit back and invite pressure after the second goal, but that's what we did and it enabled Watford to grow in confidence. That's on the players - they succumbed to the pressure and lost their nerve a bit. Only natural for a very young team so not attaching too much blame.

What the subs did highlight though is how reliant we are on one or two big players. If you remove them, unsurprisingly, we're not the same team. As has been said, the summer will go some way to remedying this.

The crowd sounded fine on TV up until the 2nd goal. Could only really hear the Wolves songs. Wembley always sounds different to "normal" grounds.

Jiminez/Deeney -sorry, Raul, but if you're going to celebrate like that, you need to go on and win, otherwise you're fair game.

All in all - bollocks!

Watching both semi finals on TV what I noticed was the noise. Sundays was far louder .

As for Foster and Deeney , they have done the team talk for Nuno quite nicely. If we were non plussed about the Watford game its now a real chance to get some balance.

I feel for Donk. But it happens. Yesterday wasn't his day. The penalty is a penalty all day long and with VAR it will be given 100% of the time, so next year there will be plenty of them. I still don't see the hate for Ruddy. Its not like he threw one in his own net again!

Yes its an opportunity missed. Yes its hurting. But no one can say we didn't turn up. Imagine how Brighton fans feel today. Losing 1 0 and not testing city at all. Its all been covered in the thread about the depth of squad etc. That can and will be addressed in the summer and players will want to come here, want to be part of this time at the club.
If its any consolation, if we match Fosuns stated ambition over the next few seasons you who were there at Wembley yesterday will see it as the start of our run of cup semi finals and finals.
Dust ourselves down, pick ourselves up and try for 5 more wins.

 

[Aikiwolf]

As Wolves lost and I didn't spend the rest of the day partying and getting steamboated I am now in a fit enough state to go carpet shopping. Cheers Wolves.

I'm not sure we were quite as intense as we have been during other games, I wonder if the lack of squad depth has had a bit of an impact on team fatigue?

Still, an FA cup semi final is a decent season, and we should remember this is a springboard for the ambitions of Fosun!

 

[AndyWolves]

I thought our game plan worked well

We defended deep which nullified Watford's direct route to try to get in behind us with flick on's. When they played football it was all Infront of us.

They did create chances but I thought we created better chances. Johnny in the first few minutes, Moutinho's free kick, Jota just after we scored, Raul had a couple of half chances and on another day one of them goes in, Cavaleiro right at the death

From memory they had Grey just over the bar, Coady with the block of all blocks, everything else was blocked or off target. They had 3 efforts on goal, of which one was a penalty. Two shots on goal and two goals and a last second penalty.

I think we can consider ourselves unfortunate to lose that game

Compare that to our game against them earlier in the season.

Its gutting, it hurts but there is so much to be hopeful about.

As an aside I've never celebrated goals like I did yesterday, I've never hugged people I didn't know before.

 

[b3h]

Nuno tried to shut up shop and it failed. We need a stronger squad especially if we get Europe but that's a known already. Once it hit 2.2 we were never winning, no chance at all, had already killed our game and brought on players who are not trusted to play for very long

Dendoncker was squabbling with Deeney for 10 mins leading up the penalty

On tele I actually thought we were very loud, in spells, which I assumed was down to fans being all over the place and us not being at Molineux basically... lots of Nuno had a dream and Hey Jude

Thought the mask was pretty cool, and why not do it at 2.0. Assumed it was his way of marking his signing for the club, pashun n all that. No idea about a wrestler






My prediction is City will win the cup and push Europa to 7th. We will beat Liverpool on the last day to get 7th and help City to the title. #cybering

 

[AndyWolves]

Does any of the stattos know if expected goals stats are gathered for cup games?

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Think all the talk of the lack of depth in the squad is a bit irrelevant to this game. Sure Wolves don't currently have a lot of options off the bench, certainly not without either changing the setup or fudging at least one person into an unfamiliar role but this wasn't a game against some footballing giant with unending funds and years of squad building behind them, this wasn't Man City with countless internationals warming their bench, it was Watford.

I doubt there are many people on here who look at Watford's squad with much envy, at best you might make the case for a couple of their players being of use to Wolves but I doubt any would really be shoe ins for a first team upgrade in most posters opinions. Watford shouldn't have been any more capable of changing the game from the substitutes as Wolves, Deulofeu being the one standout but he's generally first choice for them so they're effectively starting a weakened side in having that option on their bench.

 

[AndyWolves]

Think all the talk of the lack of depth in the squad is a bit irrelevant to this game. Sure Wolves don't currently have a lot of options off the bench, certainly not without either changing the setup or fudging at least one person into an unfamiliar role but this wasn't a game against some footballing giant with unending funds and years of squad building behind them, this wasn't Man City with countless internationals warming their bench, it was Watford.

I doubt there are many people on here who look at Watford's squad with much envy, at best you might make the case for a couple of their players being of use to Wolves but I doubt any would really be shoe ins for a first team upgrade in most posters opinions. Watford shouldn't have been any more capable of changing the game from the substitutes as Wolves, Deulofeu being the one standout but he's generally first choice for them so they're effectively starting a weakened side in having that option on their bench.

In my view swapping Deulofeu for Grey changes how Watford attack from physical & pace to skillful interplay

I don't think we have that capability off the bench, Cav is essentially an inferior Jota rather than a different proposition.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

What happened with the 2 VAR red card checks during the 2nd half? I couldn't see anything that had happened either time and everyone around me just looked a bit bemused.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Absolutely no idea what they were about.