Sheaf Saint

Ahem. I thank you.

Tadic coming on. I hope he has the same impact he had on weds.

Who is this co-commentator? Doesn't sound like he has a clue what he's on about to me.

Not to worry. I think JWP has put in a pretty strong claim to be our regular penalty taker today.

Looked like an obvious pen to me. Defender swang and got nowhere near the ball, but did kick the back of Targett's leg causing him to stumble and preventing a clear goal-scoring opportunity. No-brainer IMO.

He's a professional athlete FFS. Given that he isn't a regular starter either, there's just no excuse for not being able to play back to back games like that. I can only hope that there is a concern about his fitness really, because he doesn't deserve to be dropped based on recent form.

Well that's certainly not the right way to go about motivating players. Romeu put in an awesome performance on Wednesday, only to be dropped in favour of a lazy sulker whose attitude and effort this season has been highly questionable. If I was him I would be seething. For once I actually agree with Batman - Wanyama has to go out today and prove that Koeman made the right decision. I can only hope that Arsenal have sent some scouts to watch him, as that might motivate him to put in a shift.

So not actually from the actual horse's mouth then

The stats only tell half the story though. I forget which game it was I watched him in recently, but there were numerous occasions where he was under no pressure and still made a total pigs ear of either controlling the ball or playing a short pass.

From what I saw of him last season, even half-fit he will be better that Caulker was for us.

The offside against Davis for his 'goal' was blatantly the wrong call. It wasn't even close.

I'm with you on that mate. I can't see it, but if Koeman decides to drop Romeu for him after lastnight's performance, it will demonstrate an alarming lack of judgement. FWIW, I wouldn't be too bothered if we never saw him again. He (or his agent) clearly thinks he is bigger than us, and if we can get a decent fee for him then let him go. The media will no doubt dress it up as us having a meltdown again and failing to keep hold of our best players, but we've shown we can play well and win games without him. Takethe money and have the last laugh I reckon.

Wow. What a difference 4 days makes. That was the kind of professional home performance we have been used to over the last few years. Dominant throughout, never gave the oppo a sniff of goal and got the goals. Can't ask for more than that - especially given our recent form. The pressing was excellent, closing down Watford at every opportunity and making life nice and easy for our back line. Romeu and Clasie completely bossed the midfield tonight with excellent performances. Particular nod to Clasie who lasted 90 minutes for once. Targett was exceptionally good both in attack and defence. Superb cross for Long to score the first goal. Great to see Frazer back and the defence seemed a lot more comfortable with him in goal, although he won't have many easier games than that for the rest of his career. Was going to give MOTM to Romeu but the effort Long put in right up until the final whistle was just immense and played a key part in keeping a clean sheet as well as scoring the first, so he gets it I reckon.

WBA have equalised at Chelsea.

Yep. Losing 4-2 at home to a team as bad as Sunderland are. Doesn't get much worse than that.

Nowrich, Swansea and West Brom all losing, so this result will give us a nice cushion below us. And with Liverpool losing, and with a worse GD than us, we could overtake them on Saturday with another win.

The pressing has been excellent tonight. Properly defending from the front and making things so tight for Watford that the back three have had very little to do except tidy up loose balls. Hard to pick out a MOTM so far, but I think Romeu edges it for me.

Thank f**k for that. We get that elusive second goal at last. Lucky for Tadic that Gomes is a terrible keeper though. Anybody half decent would have stopped that.

Oh yes we can. Perhaps our only saving grace is that Watford haven't offered the slightest hint of goal threat tonight. Maybe the one goal will be enough tonight.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but does the defence look a whole lot more comfortable and assured with Frazer back in goal?

That's bullsh*t. He was never offside. Lino has got that completely wrong.

You could apply this comment to so many of our matches so far this season, and in every case the opposition has gone on to massively improve after the break and take points from us.

I don't doubt that others within the organisation will be planning long-term. I'm just questioning the wisdom of sticking with a manager who wont commit to the future and trusting him to sign players ahead of what will undoubtedly be his last season in charge. Doesn't make any sense to me. Better to make a positive change now than wait until its too late IMO. The simple fact is that we have regressed badly since he took over last summer, and are now looking very much like we did at the point that Adkins was replaced, in that we often play some pretty, neat football but are shooting ourselves in the foot virtually every game with glaring defensive errors which are costing us dearly and dragging us into a relegation battle. I don't see how Koeman can turn this round now. He doesn't appear to have the tactical awareness, the confidence of the players, or the enthusiasm for it.

I can't actually remember the last time I found myself wanting a Saints manager to be relieved of his duties (it was probably the last Dutch guy we had, strangely enough), but I am beginning to seriously doubt whether we should stick with him right now. Given that he has stated from the off that he will see out his contract and then walk, and assuming he keeps us up this season, what happens in the summer? He won't be the slightest bit interested in any long term planning when it comes to transfer activity, and given his poor record so far in the transfer market, I think it would be very unwise to let him loose with the kitty again only for a replacement manager to inherit a squad of average-poor players the following summer. I'm never one for knee-jerk reactions normally. But whichever way you look at it, the Koeman brothers do not represent the future of this club. With the alarming form we have been in lately, and Ron's seemingly total inability to identify the problems and resolve them, I genuinely think we would be better off replacing him now with somebody with a fresh perspective and enthusiasm so we can start laying down some long-term plans again.

I've always been concerned about his attitude really. This isn't the first time this has happened. Everyone was screaming to get him on sooner today, but I'm really struggling to think when was the last time he made a big contribution. Lately he's been reminding me of Fabrice Fernandez - dribbling the ball around as many players as possible then failing to produce anything useful at the end of it.