Is Merson right?

The trouble is, if we bring in players too late, we'll be having to play catch up. It's that horrible scenario you get into. Liverpool smash us on the opening day for example. What message does that tell prospective players? We finished 17th and lost our last two home games 0-5 v Man City and whatever Liverpool is..........it's a bleak message to an outsider.

Do we want to be in that position? Having to convince players after the season has started? It's never ideal. They would have missed all of pre-season and will have to undergo a few weeks of integration before being placed in the squad.

I'm sure Silva is frustrated as much as anyone, going on his recent interview. You could tell there was frustrations building by what he was saying. We needed to have done more transfer business by now, and I know it's tough for the club and I do sympathise, but it's the tough world of football, which is ruthless. There are no second chances.

I hate the fact that the transfer window is open until 31st August. It should close on the Friday before the first Saturday of the season and that's it. All business done. This is something football has got very wrong.

 

I think we'll stay up.

What I don't get is that how so many posters have changed their mind about the quality of the squad. When everyone wanted Walter out (rightly so in hindsight), most people's argument was that he had a top half squad of players but his management was making them bottom half.

Even though we have almost exactly the same players as last season, many of you have now decided they're not good enough after all. I know we need strengthening, I know Walter was terrible, but it would be nice to see a bit of consistency in some posters opinions and arguments.

 

We have a better squad and better manager than last season, (where we were at one point 7th). We'll not only be fine but we'll finish top 10.

 

I hate that too, but I feel this year we might be grateful!

It is frustrating we haven't signed more players. But I try to remain positive. I'm caring for my dying Mum 24 hours a day at the moment and if I don't remain positive about my beloved football team, I will lose heart totally.

I can't magic away her cancer sadly, and neither can any of us magic in lots of new signings. It's out of our control. People bemoaning the lack of signings and uneven make-up of our squad are probably correct and justified, but it seems sad to get weighed down with too much negativity so soon in a new season. Even if it is probably the reality. Let's see what we have come 31st August.

 

I think if we can get and keep players like Pereya, Success and Zarate fit we will have more than enough to at least stay up. if we have a run of injuries like last year we will be in trouble. What Merson lacks is any analysis of why we fell away last year. Even the best sides are going to struggle with some many key players missing, let alone us.

 

Good assessment brother Knight. Agree what you said about Silva being our biggest signing. The reaction from others showed we have made some good signings in Chalobah and Hughes. Conte was pretty miffed in losing Chalobah for example and that counts for something in my book, Hughes is ripe for a step up and has the right toolbox and signs Kiko could be quality cover for Jaanmat. Key will be the creative players like Pereyra, Zarate, Hughes and Richarlison who feed guys like Success, Okaka and Deeney. We must get a pacy striker that brings something different to the party. The top sides are upgrading massively but bottom 10 or so sides struggling to recruit. Overall I am mildly optimistic but this is largely based on the appointment of Silva. There is still time to improve and I hope we show some signs today.

 

Exactly.

We cant replace kaboul with kompany ffs. We can only afford to sign some b grade foreigners (many examples) or off the rails potential stars (niang) or youngsters not wanted by the top clubs (chalobah/Hughes) and hope they turn into gems or have a cracking patch of form like Ighalo.

 

Let's not forget Pereya is like a new signing.

This year we will access to Pereya, Hughes, Chalobah, Zarate and hopefully Richarlison. That is a good upgrade in my book plus we only really gave Doucoure halve a season due to the n o b in charge.

We are a striker and defender away from a serious upgrade

 

Wally, for most of his career, was a damned good manager, who, when equipped with a fully fit, or even 80% fit squad showed top half form in both the first half and second half of the season. Blaming him for 90% of our woes last season seems a little unfair on him, when the club were in an injury crisis that still seems to be lingering on.

His personality is what got him the sack, and by the end of the season it was clear that his flaws were insurmountable, despite comfortably, if not delightfully, keeping us in England's footballing premiership.

He lost the plot at Watford, and had to go, but despite going barking mad and the crippling injuries, we avoided relegation by six points and were never in the dog fight - not even on the final day.

Silva is no more proven in the PL than Wally is, but I fancy him to do better than his predecessor, perhaps chiefly because I cannot conceive another season of injuries like last year.

As for the squad? I would expect comfortable survival even if we didn't sign another player, though I agree that some of the mooted new signings would move the team forward in terms of quality.

Could say I am as confident of improving on last season as I was of comfortable survival last season, and reserve a great deal of my trade mark patronising and pompously expressed sympathy for the poor souls who are distressed by click bait and a patient and cautious owner.

It is impossible for me to imagine the negative view of so many fans, even if I think I understand the reason for it. At least last years needless depression waited until we reached seventh in early December before it manifested. Was hoping this season we could hold back the tears until we were in a CL place at Easter.

 

It's all about the fit I guess. I welcomed Mazzarri at first as his CV was very decent. But he just wasn't right for England or the English league. Bassett was a good manager. Before he came to us and wrecked nearly everything GT had built. Vialli was a good, if somewhat fledgling manager. He'd won trophies at Chelsea. But neither fitted in here. Hopefully Silva will.

 

Merson is an idiot. We will be mid table I reckon.

 

I can't like this post enough times. Last season when I was saying the squad was performing largely in line with its ability I was panned by a number of people on here. Now Wally's off the scene they're on to moaning about the players instead.

I think people often over estimate what it takes to survive in the PL and that causes half the panic. Even when it comes to the number of goals needed it's not that many. We've been treated to Deeney and Ighalo cantering into double figure but was the exception rather than the rule. Although we clearly could be one of those relegated I don't see us as being in the middle of that battle from the off. Instead our early season form will determine whether we're going to see a significant upward movement this season or not.

 

In all honesty I dont think our squad lacks, our GK is probably top 10 in the league, arguably best penalty saving keeper. Our defense, although leaky at some times is still decent, Prodl is probably one of the better Defenders in the lower half of the table. Our midfield is fine now IMO, maybe another CAM. Sure deeney will dry up at some point and thus we need a ST and a Winger, But to suggest our team is lacking.

Mazzari was **** last season, he couldnt gain the support of the dressing room and his tactics were iffy. The only reason we came 17th imo.

 

My point is not if he is good enough but the fact his signing came out of the blue so the fact there are no rumours doesn't mean nothing is happening

 

I think he is for once. He clearly doesn't know what he's talking about but he's accidentally got it right. We haven't (yet) recruited to fix obvious weaknesses and will struggle as a result.

 

So are you saying he has signed?

 

I think we are badly exposed to a relegation battle because of our shocking attacking options. Whoever we come up against will know that they have less to fear from our attack than just about every other attack in the Premier League.

That mindset completely changes games. It gives the opposition more confidence to attack themselves and it gives our defence less confidence, as they know that any mistake is likely to be so crucial.

Since the Pozzo's took over, their lack of success in recruitment up front is the aspect of their ownership that has bothered me more than any other.

If nothing more happens in this respect before the end of the window, we had just better hope that Silva is far more succesfull than previous coaches in getting the best out of his players - consistently. Otherwise, we are stuffed.

TBH, I believe that 90% of coaches can get better out of a squad than our previous two could.

 

You can't draw any conclusions from last season. The squad wasn't playing for Mazzari and in hindsight I'm pretty sure they threw the last few games of the season to force him out. Our squad has more than enough talent to stay up comfortably, and I believe that is exactly what will happen this year.

The critical part is whether or not they play for the head coach and whether or not Silva can curb the player power mindset that seems to have taken over the club since Zola resigned. If you believe the Capoue rumours, Silva's well on the way to stamping that out.

I'm quite amused at how Silva has suddenly become crap after joining us, though. The media was falling over itself to love him up before he came on board.

 

Let's be honest here, whilst the man may be a bit of a moron he's not far wrong, is he?

The Silva criticism is a little strange and off base for me, but he is right in that at the moment our squad is definitely one of the weakest in the league and a strong relegation contender. We have one decent goalkeeper, a reasonably solid but slow, ageing defence, a good midfield with lots of options, but probably the worst attack in the league, which always, always brings about big trouble.

Without another 3/4 quality attacking players (including Richarlison if that one goes through) then I agree we will go down because the rest of our squad simply isn't good enough to make up for the lack of goals in the side.

 

Of course Merson might well be right, its impossible to say we won't struggle, but we all know it's a possibility.

The other equation in all this is that we don't have the big money to buy properly established PL players & nor at the moment realistically would we be likely to be these types of players chosen destination.

We are are only at the start of our 3rd Prem season but the wider perspective & general perception is that we are a club on the up. If we can stay in the Prem for another 2 seasons, the relegation question will naturally start to subside & we will at that stage have the money & most importantly the right to start attracting better players as a fully established PL team.

In the meantime get ready for another enjoyable slog of a season, above all please remember to lock all your windows & doors for the Liverpool game.

 

Feel for Malt! I had to do this with my mum 5 years ago! Its horrible to watch them try to fight but that awful disease takes complete hold of them. Macmillan nurses were fantastic with my mum and couldn't do enough to help! I cannot recommend them enough if you need some help!
Sorry for going off topic!

 

No, god I hope he has though

 

I think we can finish 11th - 15th assuming Silva can get us a system where we're organised in defence and at set pieces.

Would also expect another striker to come in to help us achieve the higher end of that range.

 

I think there are at least 5 teams worse than us.

I think we have the makings of a decent youngish squad.

I think we stave off relegation for 1-2 years then this team plus additions has a lot of potential.

I still think there is a strong chance we will stuggle this year. Preparation, player uncertainty, wholesale player and manager changes and general pre-season unrest for the third season in a row will come unstuck eventually.

 

But leagues across Europe start on different dates. Isn't that the reason for it being determined by a calendar month rather than season dates?

 

Our forwards were absolutely starved of good service last season but I think we have just the coach and the signings to address this. Honestly our strikers are not ***** all of a sudden and I see goals in midfield so even without Ricarlison we should be OK ... When I look at other clubs transfer business I think we are absolute mugs if we can't make top ten.

 

Of course we may struggle but Merson is a sap of the highest order.

Today I saw Britos make more passes to a team mate in the first half than I did for the whole season so I can see what Silva is trying to do. I was never really sure what Nutty Walt's strategy was.

Certainly need some more pace out wide and up front but I trust Gino and Silva to address this.

 

He was at the game today.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

I dont think we should under estimate the negative effect Walter was on the squad and club as a whole towards the of the season. He should have gone sooner IMO. He took the enjoyment out of it for us fans, imagine what he did to the players? Thankfully we have a new manager, a couple of younger English players and we look like bringing in a couple of other reinforcements.

Looking at it from the outside i can see why people think we will struggle, posters on here think we will. Even if we bring in no one I think we will be just about ok. A couple of pacy forwards and we will be more than fine. Think we will be about 14th in the end which I am sure we would all take now. People thinking the likes of Newcastle will do well because they are Newcastle are deluded. For me the Brighton and Muff games will tell us where we are. 4 points from the first 3/4 games would be good.

lets get behind the manager and players. He ticks all the boxes us as fans were crying out for being ticked.

COYH

 

Hi Malt, I'm still new to this board but enjoy reading your stats and positive posts. You are usually upbeat even after defeat. I empathise completely with the situation with your mum.

When it comes to football you're right. We should place less emphasis on it. We get so worked up about it.
I stopped watching football few a few years simply because I realised that I was putting so much effort and passion into watching a team of men that I felt had no regard for me, didn't perform for me and really couldn't give a shiiit about their own performances. I would be so peed off after a loss and thought to myself, I'm not enjoying this, I can't control the players so why do I do it? All I control is me and whether or not I go to watch and whether or not I let it affect me.

I've returned to watching football because I felt something exciting was happening at WFC but slowly the negativity is returning and I can feel a decision may need to be made at some stage.

I don't follow England, I don't even read about other teams or players, I'm not interested in any other club than Watford. In fact I generally find discussing football to be quite boring but I do like this forum.

 

We have brought in a manager who plays a counter attacking game, and we haven't bought anyone who is available of attacking at pace.

We might not get relegated. But without a few players who fit Silva's style, we will struggle.

We are a few quality signings away from being safe, but we seem to be struggling to attract them. Let's hope Gino's got a few tricks up his sleeve.

 

Ok Lionel you may lift the mask.......

 

It's not wrong to suggest that though is it. It's being suggested because we don't have enough at either end of the pitch and thats entirely true. Goals have been dry all pre-season and we can't just rely solely on Deeney being fit and scoring. Okaka and Sinclair simply are not good enough to rely on and would struggle to get in any team in the PL and some in the Championship. We have wingers in Success and Amrabat who for all their running, don't supply many crosses or assists. Success can't even stay fit. We only have one LB who could get suspended on a number of ocassions, and a right back who is made of glass. Prodl is good, Cathcart is safe enough - but our defence as a whole is more than just leaky. The amount of goals conceded from set-pieces last season was laughable.

Silva may drag higher standards and fitness out of all of them. God knows I hope he does. But all of the above are facts whether we like it or not so some people are right to be worried.

I love the signings of Chalobah and Hughes. Great potential at great prices. But our CM area is now stacked whilst other areas look painfully thin on quality. As I've said many times, I trust Gino etc and will give him until the very last second of the window to remedy this. But we really seem to be struggling to attract/afford what we need and as someone else has posted on another thread, I really don't want us hoovering up all the players no one else wants at the back end of this window. That's what teams like Sunderland and Hull have done before us and it always ends badly. I fear this could be the one time Gino will be open for criticism. Even Silva seems to be openly suggesting we are slacking on recruitment.

Apologies for this seeming pessimistic but I prefer to see it as realism based on last season and pre-season so far.

 

The only plus I can see in our signings is Chalobah who despite his relevant inexperience is an upgrade on Behrami. Will Hughes in the Championship was just a headless chicken and I would be surprised if he is good enough for the Premier.

If Richielson signs and gets work permit (unlikely the latter) he will take a long time to get used to the pace of the Premier and it is a high risk gamble that he is good enough. Deeney will take time to get match fit after his operation. I actually rate Okaka better than Deeney but if Okaka gets injured we have absolutely no cover.

If we get off to a bad start I think Merson is probably right this time, after all by the law of averages he has to get one prediction right in his life.