Slaven Bilic issues damning verdict on Watford performance in Middlesbrough defeat | OneFootball

Watford manager Slaven Bilic says he was “angry” with his side’s performance in their 2-0 defeat to Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.

The Hornets were comfortably beaten by their fellow promotion contenders, with goals from Chuba Akpom and Marcus Forss in the first half sealing all three points for Boro and moving them above their opponents into third place in the Championship table.

But it was a performance full of errors and defensive mistakes from the visitors, while they created few meaningful chances and invited pressure by frequently giving the ball away.

It is a further blow to the Hornets automatic promotion hopes as they remain 13 points behind second-placed Sheffield United and 18 points behind leaders Burnley and have now played a game more than the pair.

Bilic was furious with his side’s abject display and their inability to do the basics correctly.

“I’m angry. It was simply not good enough,” Bilic told the Watford Observer.

“I was excited before the game because of the way we’d prepared and we’d taken seven points from our last three games.

“We had new players, players coming back, we had pace in attack, we knew we could stretch them and we knew what they would do.

“But there’s no point in talking about all the things we could do if we do the basic things as badly as we did today.

“How many times did we pass the ball to them? How many times did players just slip over? It’s impossible to do anything or get anything out of a game when you do that.

“And then we concede a goal like the first one. There is no other word for that than sloppy.

“In tennis they talk about unforced errors. Today we made so many of them. If you give the ball away ten times, and you keep slipping over, then the confidence drains.

“I’m not talking about extra qualities or things you need to do in order to score goals and win games at this level. I’m talking basics.

“When we got the ball and used it in the first half we stretched them, but you cannot give the ball away as many times as we did.

“We didn’t make simple passes, we were sloppy, we weren’t focused enough.”

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The verdict

Bilic is right to be critical of his side’s performance.

While Boro should be commended for what was another excellent performance under Michael Carrick, they were helped significantly by the Hornets’ poor display.

Watford are still missing a number of key players but with the experience of the likes of Craig Cathcart and Francisco Sierralta at the back and the quality of Ismaila Sarr and Matheus Martins up front, they should have been capable of producing a far better performance.

The truth is that Watford have slipped up far too frequently to be considered serious automatic promotion contenders and after their latest setback, they must ensure they secure a play-off place at the very least, with their top six position potentially coming under threat if their inconsistent form continues.