Pl Quality In The Current Squad

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by leighton buzzard horn, Nov 8, 2020.

  1. Ybotcoombes

    Ybotcoombes Justworkedouthowtochange

    he looks pretty dangerous this year and hopefully will get better, think he could do a job against at least 3/4 of the prem.
     
  2. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    Yeah. He's never hidden when he has played, but in the prem he looked slow and ponderous.

    Nothing like the beast who took that cross field ball from Capoue in his stride, bolted past his fullback and put in a wicked ball for the first goal on Sat. He also seems like an eminently agreeable character, so much better to have around than some of the shitbags last season.
     
  3. Dorset-Orn

    Dorset-Orn First Year Pro

    Good views and I think we have the makings of a decent side eventually. I said this on another thread (and I know most will disagree) but I would rather get promotion next season once our youngsters have bedded in and grown in stature. Quina, Pedro, wilmot, ngokia, Dele-B, won't be ready for the Prem yet and this bunch need time to mature together. But I will be delighted if we go up this season....
     
  4. WatfordÉire

    WatfordÉire Squad Player

    We made 10 signings after winning promotion in 2015. 5 players who played the final day against Sheff Wed played our opening day game against Everton (Gomes, Cathcart, Anya, Layun, Deeney) while 6 of those 10 new players made their competitive debuts at Everton.

    I'd expect something similar IF we do go up again.

    Foster, Ngakia, Kabasele, Ekong, Hughes, Capoue, Sema, Sarr, Pedro form a decent core whilst Quina, Wilmot and TDB offer younger squad options with possibly Deulofeu and Cucho returning also.
     
  5. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    I'm not sure that's an option tbf, don't go up and Sarr will be straight off, JP probably too (unless his form tails off), along with others for sure as well as the loanees
     
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  6. Rookery Refugee

    Rookery Refugee Reservist

    Reusing the list from above. Any team making the climb up, even one with shedloads more cash than we'll ever have will have to have a mix of middle-to-top-half calibre players and the rest are fill-ins until you have the revenue to buy and/or grow/keep a few more. With that in mind.....


    Foster - Bigger problems to solve than this. He starts, he'll be fine.
    Ngakia- Certainly has the athleticism. Would probably gt taken to school a bit with the jump up in opposition, but could be solid, potentially better after a year or two. Might have to guard against him being poached.
    WTE - Will be interesting to see him over a period of time and against different sorts of strikers. Obviously, top 6 sides have players the likes of which he's not been tested against. That said, seems to have physical tools and just as important for a CD, he head on his shoulders. Solid enough for the Prem, but unlikely a play that other clubs will try and poach.If we signed him in the Prem, he'd probably have had a much more mixed reception, as it is, he's our best defender, but not without fault
    Wilmot- As noted above, solid enough now, but needs games and more time with the weights to not get abused in the Prem. Certainly worth a place in the side
    Cleverley- Squad player if that. Knows the game, but just lacks the athleticism to compete against the best players.
    Deeney- Role player for very specific situations if that.
    JP- Has plenty of talent, like Wilmot needs games and time in the weight room. Regular starter in the PL, not yet clear if he's a future star or not. Hard to tell with strikers on teams with poor providers like us.
    Sema- Full year in Serie A has done wonders for him. Solid starter, but will not terrify anyone.
    Chalobah- What might have been. He had the talent once. I think he's lost one step on pace and a half step due to fear of injury. I doubt that he would make our PL club unless there are no other options. I hope he proves me wrong and starts carving up defenses with crisp passes and 1-2 play, but I doubt it.
    Cathcart- Squad player. Not starter material in the Prem
    Garner- If he's good enough to start for us every week, we won't get him back. If he's not, would we want him in the Prem? Ask again in February.
    Murray- I think he's gone in January.
    Gray- No. Doesn't do any one thing well enough to be a threat.
    Hughes- Solid every day player. Another who with another half-step of speed and another half stone of weight would be star.
    Quina- As they would say in America, seems to have million dollar legs and a 10 cent head. Would like him to get a run of games so that he hurries less. If he can "play quickly, but not be in a hurry" he could be something. As it stands, given our inability to swap out the whole roster, he'd probably make the squad but not play other than in emergencies.
    Femenia- Solid attacking wide player. Not good enough as a defender. Would rather it be the other way round honestly. Likely wouldn't be around.
    Success - Incomplete. No reason to assume that he'll play enough this year to get into form that has him make a PL squad. When healthy, same as Quina. One of those players that you look at and thing he's GOT to be a star, but then nothing. Let's hope for some sort of Adama Traore miracle.... but I doubt it. Expect to see him loaned somewhere or sold.
    Sarr- Future PL star.
    TDB- Same as Success but without the dubious history.
    Perica- Incomplete. Needs to see more of him. May turn out he's a scrappy, "find the gaps and spaces" striker. Right now, though, he's a PL squad player at best.ot seen an awful lot of him, from what I've seen, I like him, but Premier League might be a stretch
    Bachmann- Keepers. Who knows?
    Kabasele- Better suited athletically for the Prem than Cathcart, but has too many brain fart moments. Given that we can't turn over the whole squad, he probably starts in a back 3.
    Capoue- Starter, not out of his depth in any league.
    Sierralta- Incomplete. Without games, he disappears next year in all likelihood.
    Navarro- No, and I don't think he wants to be here anyway
    Parkes- Keepers. Who knows?
    Masina. Solid player. Starter, but another is needed there.

    Pie-in-the-sky hopes:
    Deulofeu. Yes, on his day a handful for any league.
    Cucho - Will he be here? Hopefully in January. Obviously incomplete, but a couple or three seasons in La Liga..... could be a missing piece.

    Needs:
    1) Right Back
    2) Someone in midfield that teams are afraid of. **
    3) Left back
    4) Left Winger either to supplant or push Sema - especially of Deulofeu isn't around
    5) Goal poaching striker if no Cucho
    6) Footballing Center-half.

    ** bottom line for me is that you need 3-4 players that other teams feel like they need to plan/prepare for. If it's just the Sarr show, we'd have no chance.
     
  7. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    Pretty much they all underperformed.

    Responsibility of players themselves but also the many and varied managers.
     
  8. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    I would add Sema to that list, he has proven already that he can cut it against top players in Italy.
     
  9. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Last year's squad was more than good enough to stay up. Almost all of them underperformed.

    Obviously there were a lot of other contributing factors (it was somewhat of a perfect storm scenario), but for my money if the players had performed as well as they should have we would have stayed up.

    As it was, we barely went down on the final day, and that's despite a number of glaring unforced errors we can point at from last year.
     
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  10. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    His lack of pace was severely shown up earlier this season when up against Stacey of Bournemouth who regularly ran passed him and didn't give Ken much room to attack. It seems he lacks agility and acceleration, which means that he's easy for any opposition wingers with pace to skim when he has to go backwards to defend; meanwhile, going forwards even though it takes him a bit of time to get going, once he's built up some momentum he's very difficult to stop.

    He has therefore been helped by us playing on the front foot in the Championship, and him getting space due to Sarr occupying the other flank. In the PL where he might be more regularly up against quicker opponents, have less space, and be in a team sitting deeper again, he might go back to struggling.
     
  11. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    Cucho is a left-sided forward, and far from a "goal poaching striker".
     
  12. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    We would probably need him to be a starter somehow though - other than Sarr he's still the player it would be most difficult for us to replace. His passing is still fantastic and really made us tick against Stoke. There aren't many, if any, midfielders around with his ability on the ball who we might have a chance of signing even if we did get promoted again.

    We'd probably just need to pair him with a more all-action, deep lying ball-winner to cover a bit for his slightly decreased stamina.
     
    miked2006 likes this.
  13. miked2006

    miked2006 Premiership Prediction League Proprietor

    Apparently Everton have a high-energy French midfielder their fans reckon we could have.

    Looks "a tad lost" and is "getting worse by the game" for them, but could probably do a job for us.
     
  14. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    Ha.

    Thing is, even though Doucoure is still better than anything else we currently have, I don't think he'd be the ideal type of midfielder to partner with Capoue any more. Doucoure works best in a box-to-box role.

    However, I reckon we'd need a more disciplined destroyer to shield the defence. Capoue used to be very good at this, but his age seems to be making it more difficult for him to perform this role as effectively; against Coventry their attacking midfielders found far too much time and space on the ball for instance. Having another #6 next to him would therefore relieve a bit of that responsibility, thus enabling him to focus more on the creative side of his game which he is very much still capable of.
     
  15. miked2006

    miked2006 Premiership Prediction League Proprietor

    I agree with you, but any excuse to bring up Everton fans’ comments!
     
  16. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Who would have thought? But he was always clearly worth £35 million.
     
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  17. Moosegasm

    Moosegasm Reservist

    'getting worse by the game' poetry to my ears. poor old turncoat Doucoure
     
  18. Moosegasm

    Moosegasm Reservist

    If we get promoted we'll need what we need every window: A ball playing center back and a goalscoring striker.
     
  19. Moosegasm

    Moosegasm Reservist

    His biggest problem in the PL was he was playing on the right. He's a different player on the left. I wouldn't write him off until he's played a few games on the left in the PL.
     
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  20. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    I don't remember him playing on the right at all.
     
  21. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    :confused: You'd better get on to transfermarkt, stat, then. This kind of #fakenews shouldn't be tolerated.

    upload_2020-11-11_22-48-8.png
     
  22. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    You just need to look through his heatmaps to see that he's a wide forward and is very rarely central:

    https://www.sofascore.com/player/cucho-hernandez/887055

    I've laid all this out in detail on this forum before. Transfermarkt have either been lazily in assigning positions, or quite simply on a teamsheet he may sometimes be listed as one forward in a front two, but his role is to play wide (with the other forward playing the more central Deeney-type role).

    I hadn't realised though that this season he seems to have drifted more to the right flank than the left; regardless, he's still very far from a "goal poaching striker".
     
  23. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    More of a boiler, eh. With soldiers on the side.
     
  24. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    I don't remember it much either, but looking at his heatmap from his PL season with us it appears he did a fair bit:

    [​IMG]

    https://www.sofascore.com/player/ken-sema/319847
     
  25. TomWatfordFC

    TomWatfordFC Reservist

    We played with Deeney and Deulofeu up top, Pereyra on the left, Hughes on the right. When Sema played it was on the right in place of Hughes.
     
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