Watford boss Claudio Ranieri has expressed frustration, after William Troost-Ekong gave away a penalty deep in stoppage time which saw Brentford claim a 2-1 comeback win.
Watford were leading with only six minutes remaining through Emmanuel Dennis and looking good value for a win which would have lifted them six points clear of the relegation zone.
But Pontus Jansson equalized through a header and in stoppage Troost-Ekong tripped Saman Ghoddos in the area.
Bryan Mbeumo stepped up to take the penalty and condemn Ranieri to a fourth straight defeat.
And reacting to the painful defeat, Ranieri lamented his side’s errors which led to Brentford’s second goal.
“Look, we started well, we scored a goal, but in the second half we went too deep. I don’t want this. We had to stay close together.
“We missed a chance to score a second goal and we made mistakes to concede two goals. We lost the first battle but we will do better in the next match.
“The last goal we made three mistakes! We missed a short pass. So then put the ball out of the stadium. Then the penalty – if Willie had just stayed calm.
“I was frustrated, but my mind is on the next match. We are stronger than tonight (Friday night).
“We know we are in a relegation battle. It is important to react immediately. We have to be stronger than tonight and be ready for the battle.”
Following the defeat Watford are now in 17th position in the league table.
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COMMENTS
I love Ekong very much but he seems to be prone to errors . He is not reliable at all. We need another player to provide competition for him to situp in the heart of SE defence. I suggest we try Kelvin vs Balogun combi and see how it goes. Even AwaZian looks more assured and more confident than Ekong in the Position
It was a careless penalty. He didn’t need to go for the ball at full stretch. Now we have seen defenders make such silly decisions before but his is coming off the back of a series of very poor performances for his club and country. He is really going to receive alot of backlash from Watford fans, I just hope he can come back from this. He has never been a world class defender. I always rated balogun higher than him but atleast he has not been this bad for a player who has played in the serie A, nations cup, world cup, he really should be doing better than this or he should get ready for some time on the bench and he may also lose his position in the Super Eagles. He cant bring this poor form to the Super Eagles team and expect to start games.
The part of your prose that grabbed me the most was the catalogue of Ekong’s experience. Netherlands Under-age, Nigeria’s Olympic team, World Cup and Afcon Qualifiers, World Cup, Afcon and highest club level football: Ekong should by now have leveraged his experience and exposure to acuminate and improve on key aspects of his defensive skills.
Look at Mo Salah, his consistency and monumental improvements over the past few seasons are there for all to see. The Egyptian worked on areas on weakness and enhanced areas he was already good at.
Not only hasn’t Ekong failed to improve, he seems to have actually declined which is antithetical for defenders as they tend to improve with age.
People will come out now to say we should start encouraging Ekong and should advise him on how to improve when we lay out his faults.
That, for me, is the job of professionally trained sports psychologist which Ekong and Iwobi should be able to afford.
Whilst other footballers like Sadio Mane, Mo Salah, Joel Matip (centre back) continue to improve season-on-season, Ekong and Iwobi continue to wait for their rabid fans on Complete Sports to ginger them up before they know that they have to take their own careers seriously.
Well enough said.
Ekong is the chief culprit of the backlash Rohr has received in the last 3 months and he’ll do well to leave him out of the team for sometime to see if Ekong can get his career in order. Its just bad performances and errors back to back to back.
CAR at home and Cape Verde at home. Costing us 5 points and spreading tension in the side and undermining his manager’s position. Not to talk of a string of poor performances at Watford. Really out of character for a usually assured (even if unspectacular) player.
Now, that is a saliant point. In games against CAR and Cape Verde, had Ekong been slightly more alert, the outcome for Nigeria could have been radically different and Rohr would not have come under such insufferable pressure.
The mix up with Balogun for CAR’s infamous winning goal in Lagos was compounded by his lapse of concentration that allowed Cape Verde to nick an unlikely equaliser again in Lagos, setting the tone for a nervy encounter that brought much anxiety to fans watching.
Ekong needs to improve his concentration, identify areas of weakness and work on this relentlessly. I have already stated in a prior contribution that it is not my place to advise professional footballers. Rather I can only point out, from a fan’s perspective, what I feel can bring improvements to his game.
It is Ekong’s career and he, more than most, should know that he needs to continually be the on top of his game to be ranked among truly elite African (and club football) defenders.
I do wish him and other underperforming Super Eagles International like Semi Ajayi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi well. Hopefully they will be able to discover how they threaded on the path towards underachievement so that they can retrace their steps and start navigating towards superior performances that will inevitably yeild critical acclaim and individual accolades.
William Troost Ekong is currently underperforming as seen in both Super Eagles recent games and Watford recent games. He needs to stay on the bench and rediscover himself as his current form for both club and country is nothing to right home about. I will advise the Nigerian coach (Rohr) to try a different combination in Central defence at AFCON using either Awaziem, Anthony Izuchukwu; Akpoguma; Omeruo; Valentine Ozornwafor; Calvin Bassey in combination with each other or in combination with Leon Balogun in Central defence. Troost Ekong should be benched as he has evidently lost his form and the AFCON might have come too soon for him to regain his past form.
Ekong is currently a weak link in defence for both the Super Eagles and Watford.
A word is enough for the wise, so I hope the Super Eagles handlers will take my advice before it is too late. Thanks
We shouldn’t be too wary to point out the faults in our players, coaches and administrators. it is a disservice , if we don’t call out the flaws. We shouldn’t cower under rebuttals and pressure to the contrary. We should always be honest and objective. It does us more good.
I believe; an avid commentator @Jimmyball have always pointed out the abnormalities in Ekong.
Truth be told, the eyes don’t lie; Ekong has been bad lately. He reminds me of Titus Bramble.
As @deo pointed out; he has so much experience ,he should be getting better and growing with confidence.
I don’t know. Maybe he needs to speak to a shrink; sports psychologist, personal psychologist; to build his mental fortitude. This goes beyond physical play.
All I know is that we need him; he needs him at his best..
He is not in the same situation as Maguire; making mistakes at clubside but doing well in the national team. Ekong has been bad at both clubside and the national team recently. As it stands unless something change; he should not be starting games for the Eagles.
Ekong has never been a good defender, at his best he is just average.Truth is bitter
…game recognise game! Even if I disagree(which rarely is the case) with views of @Mr Hush and @Deo whom we all revere on CSN… I will always read their post to the full, because, you cant help but love and appreciate their often mild views about obvious damning verdicts when an underperforming player needs to get one… especially those associated with Super Eagles…
The forum needs people like us… hahaha, to set the high marker and decibels so that we can talk and contribute objectively and when there is need begin to tone down the volume… it is my wish for Williams Troost Ekong to improve and honestly, I dont hate him… I just hope he has the natural ability, in all honesty, to further improve at his age now… we shall be offering prayers on his behalf but he must put in the work and if need be, talk to a professional psychologist to learn a trick or two about how to improve his focus in 90mins+ game situation! One Love…
Vlogger Ekong has to go back to drawing board and leave the Social approval life for the sake of his career. A coach ones doubted his ability and I think proving a point to that coach is ripping him apart. Ekong was fantastic initially but I think he allowed praises and responsibilities (Vice captain SE) to get into his head, now he’s all over the place only for complacency to get the better of him. Even the first goal conceded was a missed header from Ekong and he was also turned twice at the back only for the goalkeeper to rescue Watford not until he sealed everything with that last ditch uncalculated tackle. May God help him he needs to retrace his steps and stop alot of social media nonsense and come back better.
You make valuable points Chima! Thank you so much.
Thanks Honorable Deo. The Problems of Nigerian football is showing up one by one. Solution is the next thing!!!