Yes yes. We have to stick together. No booing. Yada yada. Okay, we know. But the very fact people are booing says something is wrong. That the team who are bottom of the table and whose manager considers them relegated, has now done the double over us bellows in an extremely loud way that something is wrong.
It is much said that all you need to survive in this division is to find three teams worse than you. For much of the season we've been comfortably above that threshold. But suddenly form, cohesion and the ability to shoot seem to have deserted us at just the wrong moment, which means a league meeting with Rochdale in the near future doesn't seem to be quite such an unlikely prospect as it was after those fine Tuesday night wins in early February.
I wouldn't usually quote Aristotle but his 'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts' comment applies to this Watford team, only in reverse at the moment. If I consider each player individually I come to the conclusion that we've got enough quality to easily survive in the Championship. Loach, not the finished article yet but capable of making brilliant saves, who should be protected in his more vulnerable moments by the sheer brute force of DeMerit and Taylor in front of him. Mariappa, when he isn't suffering a crisis of confidence, quietly effective at the back and useful going forward. Lloydinho doing the same on the other flank, the Watford player you'd want beside you in the trenches. Tom and Angela, too quick and clever for most in this division. Eustace and Cowie, not in anything like the league of our loanees but always willing to try, always running. H and Graham, the perfect make up of centre forwards, tall enough to win headers but skillful enough to not just rely simply on nodding in crosses. Then add in a supporting cast of Hodson, Jenkins, Harley and Hoskins.
It sounds like a decent enough team. But put them all together and it isn't working. The man responsible for them needs to start coming out publicly with some home truths. I'm sure he is doing this in the dressing room. But to constantly remind us about sticking together is beginning to stick in the throat in the same way Aidy's 'Show your colours' and 'Who are we-Watford' did at the end of the 07/08 season. It sounds as if we're being at least partly blamed for what's going on. What we witnessed yesterday wasn't good enough and Malky needs to come out and say that so we know he is seeing what we see. Not to do so risks the likelihood of more rather than less booing. It also might give the players the kick up the backside they need to start playing as a team again and avoid a trip to Spotland in 2010/11.
