Category Archives: Claudio Ranieri

20th November 2021- Premier League, Watford 4 Manchester United 1

WFC.Net Jon Marks Goal Commentary: 1  2  3  4

BBC Sport: Harry Maguire was sent off as beleaguered Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suffered more misery in an emphatic defeat at Watford.

Sky Sports: United could easily have been behind inside six minutes after Scott McTominay’s clumsy foul on Josh King gave Watford an early penalty, but Kiko Femenia’s goal on the rebound from Ismaila Sarr’s saved spot-kick was ruled out for encroachment, and Sarr was again denied by De Gea from the retake.

BHappy: You don’t get to fail to convert a penalty once against United let alone twice and still expect it to be your day.  They were poor, poor penalties too and Isma’s longevity in this role has to be questioned.  The second had been necessitated after Kiko encroached before joyfully converting the rebound off the first, the inevitability of celebrations being terminated clear as soon as the exemplary Jonathan Moss put his finger to his ear.  As United cleared the rebound off the second we exhaled and waited for the sucker punch.

Fran’s Watford Blog: The Hornets took the lead just before the half hour mark, an attempted clearance by Wan-Bissaka dropped to Dennis who cut the ball back for King whose shot beat De Gea to send the Watford faithful wild.  It was a lead that the Hornets thoroughly deserved.  The Vicarage Road faithful greeted the goal with an ironic chorus of “Ole’s at the Wheel.” 

The Guardian:In a rare moment of note at the other end Foster repelled a half-volley from Marcus Rashford, who joined McTominay in departing halfway through. But Watford, spurred by the surges of Moussa Sissoko and cleverly prompted by the young midfielder Imran Louza, could have scored at least once more before Sarr exploited acres of space on the right of the box to arrow a thrilling finish into the far corner. De Gea will be vexed that Pedro, a substitute, shot through him but was beaten more comprehensively from an angle by the superb Dennis. Watford departed to cheers and a sense that, having lifted them four points clear of the relegation zone, Claudio Ranieri is capable of keeping them up.

30th October 2021- Premier League, Watford 0 Southampton 1

Attendance: 20.869

BBC Sport: Che Adam’s superb strike was the difference as Southampton held on against Watford at Vicarage Road for their first away league win of the season.

Sky Sports: Claudio Ranieri’s side came crashing back down to earth following their impressive 5-2 win at Everton last weekend, and it is now back-to-back home defeats for the Italian after he replaced Xisco Munoz as Watford manager earlier this month.

BHappy: Meanwhile, the second half had been preceded by a farewell to Emma Saunders, who moves on to Sky Sports.  Two things to note here… first, it’s entirely appropriate that the wider Watford family are recognised in this way.  Players and prominent coaching staff will sometimes get this stuff, ex-players too including the ever more rock’n’roll Ross Jenkins, also wheeled out here.  But “the likes of Emma” (and those less visible still) deserve their recognition;  those that find this a bit parochial can go screw themselves. But Emma in particular, along with Tommy Mooney, Jon Marks and everyone else involved, deserve one final round of applause for providing something to look forward to last season.  Doubtless her star will continue to rise, but she deserves to be remembered fondly for her part in that whatever else she goes on to achieve.

Fran’s Watford Blog: After the excitement at Everton, it was all rather dull.  It had been a much better second half from the Hornets but, despite the fact that we had more shots on target than the visitors, we rarely looked like scoring.  Although we would have been a lot happier had that Fletcher shot gone in.  Sarr has come in for a lot of criticism, as he is perceived to be looking uninterested, but he created the majority of the chances, sadly most of them went straight to McCarthy, but the highlights showed that Walker-Peters was rather fortunate to have cleared that chance off the line.  But it is early days for Ranieri, so we have to hope that the form will improve soon. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59019335

4th October 2021- Claudio Ranieri is appointed Head Coach

BBC: Watford have appointed Claudio Ranieri as manager on a two-year contract.

The Guardian: Ranieri, whose first game in charge with be at home against Liverpool after the international break, will be joined at Watford by assistant coaches Paolo Benetti and Carlo Cornacchia and fitness coach Carlo Spignoli.

Sky: Ranieri last worked in the Premier League with Fulham in 2018/19 but was dismissed after just a few months after failing to arrest their struggles.

The day after Ranieri’s appointment The Guardian’s football cartoonist David Squires took our ever changing managers and included them in a strip that also featured the big Netflix TV hit of the time Squid Game.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/oct/05/david-squires-on-squad-game-the-brutal-drama-featuring-watford-fc

7th November 2015- Premier League, Leicester City 2 Watford 1

Programme images courtesy of Matt Hall

https://www.premierleague.com/en/video/4353423/leicester-city-v-watford-2015-16-full-match-replay

BBC: Jamie Vardy scored for a ninth successive Premier League game as Leicester beat Watford to go level on points with Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table. Vardy got Leicester’s second from the spot, converting after he was tripped by Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Sky: Gomes had a game to forget, allowing N’Golo Kante’s timid shot to slip through his fingers as the home side made the breakthrough on 52 minutes.

Fran’s Watford Blog: So, we were defeated, which was disappointing as we deserved a point from the game.  Leicester have had a great start to the season, but the only difference between the teams was that their misplaced passes rebounded to their own players more often than ours did.  Gomes earned massive respect from the travelling fans by coming straight over to us, pointing to himself and mouthing “It was me.”  As he turned to leave the pitch, he was serenaded with “Heurelho Gomes Baby” which pleased me greatly and hopefully gave him some comfort.  Everyone there knew what he has contributed so far this season and that, despite his mistakes in this game, his account is still very much in the black.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2015-11-07
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/07-november-2015/#google_vignette