I think when he is played on the right he usually does a reasonable job of getting us up the pitch with some urgency, and his link up play with Hughes is usually decent. Agree his final ball is pretty poor, but I also think that there is very rarely anyone in the box to cross to. "Not that bad" is hardly a ringing endorsement, I just think of all the enormous problems with our squad, replacing our 2nd choice right back isn't really the priority.
He's average. Gets caught out defensively but often has the pace to bail himself out. Crossing is pretty poor but has the stamina and workrate to get forward and make overlaps, which are a useful attacking threat in themselves. One of the only defensive players we have who doesn't look terrified of receiving or holding the ball. As mentioned his versatility will be helpful in a long season. Didn't down tools and insist on leaving, when I'm sure he could have secured a La Liga move. He has my support, and he's more than good enough for this level.
Sad to say that on at least one occasion last season before a match, post-lockdown, he said he hoped we lose. I called him out about it at the time.
What 'situation'? The only situation is you not liking how he posts - and you've told us you've got him on ignore so you've solved it? PS. The Stockholm syndrome comment wasn't daft.
Did you feel better for calling him out? Do you think we were closer to surviving relegation because of it?
I don't think he's half as bad as people say. He's not physical so he'll always struggle if he gets isolated at the back post but he's got a lot of other assets to his game. He reads the game, really well. I'd say the thing he's best at is intercepting the ball out to a wide man when it's quite high up the pitch, which usually gives us a chance to start an attack from a decent position. He's also got excellent pace, a lot of the time someone looks like they might be through our line but Kilo is quick enough to get back and stop it being a free shot on goal/cross. And finally, I think he has the best first touch out of the whole squad. He can play in tight situations, something that will be a real bonus if we are to try to play out from the back more this season. He's an up and down player, very much affected by confidence. When he was poor last season, he was really bad. But worth remembering the excellent performances he put in at left back when he came back into the team under Pearson. He's a solid, versatile option and far better than Paredes who was our main right wing back last time we got promoted!
I think people have forgotten exactly how much mediocrity we had in our promotion winning squad, and exactly how that season progressed.
Could be off to Moscow!! Adam Leventhal @AdamLeventhal · 3m #WatfordFC transfer update Femenia: as reported last week Spartak Moscow interested. Russia window doesn’t close until next weekend. Loan with option/obligation being discussed. Move to Spain (Alaves, Eibar, Valencia, Getafe) denied pre Monday DDay.
Would be a bit of a strange one for him. Would absolutely destroy our already weak depth at full back as well and leave us with two fit options. Unless there are at least 2 incoming in those positions, I just can't see that we would allow it.Then again I said the same about Amrabat, and we allowed him to go contrary to the manager's wishes and after the window had closed so we couldn't bring in replacements.
If he does go in this window, then we must be bringing in at least one player, preferably two. Kiko covers both the left and right positions, so is versatile which is invaluable in our current position. If Janmaat has gone or never recovers, then we'll be relying on Navarro, who I don't consider is up to it. He's injured right now anyway.
Navarro and Janmaat are not just injured now, they are permanently injured and cannot be relied upon.
Imagine if we refused to let him go back home to Spain and then packed him off against his will to Russia.
What we should have done with Estupinan, Suarez and the rest of the wantaways. That would have sent a message
I liked him as a player. He always looked to get forward. Ok, his defending was mediocre at best, but his pace helped him out and helped our two carthorses at CB as well. Good luck to him if he leaves. Another player gone in the Watford fire sale in order to help our perilous financial state.
Victor Moses is STILL a Chelsea player, been there 8 years, yet only been at the club for 3 of them really, how odd. Clearly he's not even as important to Chelsea as 2nd choice wingback Kiko is to us, would make sense for all parties for Moses not Kiko to go to Spartak
I don't think he's going, apparently his agent said he's planning to stay, and he's been in the main group in training all along. The Valencia move which was briefly talked about would have made a lot of sense, but they don't have a pot to piss in, and I'm not sure if it were ever anything more than putting 2 and 2 together
This does seem a strange one, because as HB1 said in post #152 we are already very thin on the ground when it comes to full backs. Therefore it seems a crazy decision to let him go, because Kiko is very versatile and can play equally well at either right or left back.
Don't worry, Leventhal has already u-turned and said it's unlikely after other people said Victor Moses is likely to go to Spartak.
He looked good in one match in harmony with janmaat. I think they might even have combined for janmaat to score. What match was that? They looked absolutely splendid together. Possibly that was the first and last time they ever played together.
Stockholm Syndrome is a mental illness. I'm not sure why you think suggesting people who have a differing opinion are mentally ill isn't fair game to describe as "daft", but each to their own.
Didn't they also play together for the last 15-20 minutes to make us more solid down the right side when we bottled the lead against Palace. They look so bad together I can only assume the instructions were given to Kiko in English and he didn't have a scooby that he was supposed to be playing on the wing.
It’s a mental illness that doesn’t have a huge stigma attached to it and is used a lot in discussion. If you were offended by what I said I apologise - but I think it’s a pretty mild thing to get upset about.
I'm generally not in favour of minimising any kind of mental illness. I know a few people who have committed suicide (one very violently). There's a casual tendency to make light of mental illness in our societies that I think contributes towards people not getting the help they need. Most if not all of us are guilty of it on occasion, myself included.
Not the first time the Russian front has been used as a punishment for lackadaisical troops And we all know how that ended !
Average, when really we need to be aiming higher than average to get out of the Championship. Good back up maybe, but a back up player is only one injury to somebody else away from being a regular starter. Please don’t let us come out of the window without a (fit) specialist left-back, relying instead on right-footed players moving over, shoe-horning left footed players to play there rather than their better positions (Sema) or promoting an inexperienced U23 (Stevenson). That would be foolhardy.
To be fair, we got promoted with Paredes, Hoban and Pudil as our main full back options, and Kiko, despite his faults, is on par, or better than them. Our back up players are never going to be as good as our first team options, we're not Man City. Femenia is more than good enough to play deputy to Ngakia and Sema. Saying that, I wouldn't mind if we signed another LWB, with Janmaat seemingly heading out the door. Saying that, Masina is due to be back next month, so Sema/Masina and Ngakia/Femenia could be enough.
I could have sworn Giaretta said Masina wants to go back to Italy. After all, he's only injured until November, if he were part of our plans, surely we'd grin and bear it rather than try and sign another LB?