Watford’s manager, Valérien Ismaël, has been fired following poor results, and his assistant has been scouted.
While the middle hour or so of the game at Carrow Road was pretty much controlled by the Hornets, the way they started and finished the game meant they went home with nothing when they really ought to have taken at least a point.
While opening 20 minutes or so were bad, Watford had recovered – in fact, they had done more than that as from 2-0 down they had fought back to 2-2 and only had to push at the thin veneer of Norwich confidence which was also being chipped away at by the home supporters to make it crack.
Instead, the Hornets imploded. While there was an element of misfortune about the third goal, it wasn’t the killer blow.
That was delivered soon after when Norwich scored a fourth, with most of the Watford players watching on rather than getting involved.
Valerien Ismael pointed the finger at those players that came onto the pitch in the second half.
“When you make some substitutions you expect everyone to be on top and to help the team, especially to help those players who had already been on for 60/70/80 minutes and had worked hard,” he said.
“Those players who had been on the pitch already tried hard to do everything to get us back into the game and then to win the game, but then it will be difficult if not everyone is on top.
“It is unacceptable how it happened. It is as simple as that.
“When a player comes on the pitch they need to have the desire to bring something for the team, and to help their teammates.
“We feel let down in that situation.”
The head coach said he didn’t need to say too much after the game, suggesting the players had a frank discussion about what happened.
“I did not need to say anything today. The players were really loud after the game, and they cleared things among themselves,” he admitted.
“That is really good and healthy. This time I was not the guy who was loud.
“The players took responsibility to speak about things out loud.”
One player who looked frustrated, both in his performance and his body language, was Emmanuel Dennis.
