It's worryingly clear that the vast majority of what will be our back-ups in the event of injuries, suspensions, further transfers out won't be anywhere near the standard needed to keep us challenging at the top end of the Championship. At the moment that includes two mis-firing strikers who will be needed quite regularly and our new expensive goalkeeper expecting to challenge Bachmann. That's a pretty sobering assessment after tonight, regardless of the disappointing result itself.
There are so many players in this squad that should be nowhere near a team challenging for promotion. WTE - gets worse every time he plays. His passing is just woeful and he's a bag of nerves. Gaspar - looks far too slow and physically weak. Who the f*ck thought he'd be able to do a 46 game Championship season? Gosling - legs have well and truly gone, it's embarrassing to watch. Might be the best trainer at the club but it doesn't mean anything on the pitch when people are jogging past him. Bayo - where do you start? Bayat has well and truly mugged us off with this one. Anything Bayo does well looks like it's an accident, he has absolutely no clue what to do on a football pitch and couldn't finish a sandwich. Manaj - physically fine but then throws himself on the floor whenever the ball comes near him. He's completely ineffective on the pitch, again who saw him and thought YES?? You could argue that the newer signings need time to settle but they are showing no redeeming qualities at the moment. Edwards has truly been screwed by the clowns running this club.
I know there are others but I just did the ones who were the star performers in that sh!tshow tonight.
Good that we're out, we weren't going to win it anyways. Biggest worry is our strikers. If Davis isn't good either, we'll be in big trouble.
Yes - outmuscled and outfought all game . And as RS2 says too busy trying to win free kicks .. Gosling cannot complain if he doesn’t play . Defence a nervous wreck on and off the ball . Only Sema looked decent.
It could also mean we are really down to relying on JP staying at least and finding his shooting boots a lot quicker than we theorised. But then again we cannot simply rely on one player (like we did last time) to get us promoted. If JP gets injured or loses form/confidence we are never going to score enough goals. Bachmann has been solid so far - but he isn't good enough to be that level of decent for 46 games. No keeper should, and could really. If our defence continues to keep us in games then we really do need Bayo and Manaj to step up. They may still be learning off each other but this is a division where the games come very quickly. Sarr is a different quality to anyone else in this squad - but he is very unpredictable performance wise.
Not a single word from anyone about Pollock? Doesn't seem a particularly good sign that those who went all seem to have forgotten that he even played! Did he get exposed by his lack of pace? How was he with the ball?
I raise you Gert Wilder and his orchestra. Some of the videos that accompany his music are bit risque to say the least even on YouTube. Here are 2 of the safer ones.
Add Okoye to the mix and the future looks bleak. You could have purchased Bayo, Manaj and Okoye for £2.2m in late 2021. We paid £13m. They are not Edwards signings, so he just has to work with them. Will we ever learn when it comes to the transfer market. We have just 'borrowed' £16m from Udinese as we need the money. Loan deals only from now on.
We already have 4 loanees, so when they're all fit (may be wishful thinking with Davis lol, and Hause certainly doesn't seem ready yet), we can only sign one more for the matchday squad
Right now he's bottom of the pecking order of our 6 senior CBs, in a back 3, we probably need him to stick around just in case. There have been rumours of us getting another CB in now that the Stephens deal has collapsed, I assume Pollock would leave on loan if that happened? (Unless WTE also leaves)
You are right. One more loan deal. We have no money to sign anyone. The fitness of Davis is worrying. He makes Jack Wilshire look tough. No idea about Hause
Already a better defender than WTE. Not very imposing or that quick to be fair. A regular at a mid-table Championship side is his ceiling I think.
What's happening with WTE? He was never really perfect, but he seems to be getting worse and worse with every game.
Gloriously disjointed. Very hard to take any positives whatsoever. Okoye doesn’t look like an actual goalkeeper. It’s incredible that Gaspar was at a very good team only last season - not only immobile, but incapable of passing or crossing a football. Troost-Ekong was as bad as we remembered. Pollock might be the slowest player I’ve ever seen - beast in the air though. Hungbo has a nice burst of pace but his crosses in open-play were overhit and he never mixed things up by trying to go on the inside. Gosling was anonymous. Kept forgetting he was playing. Asprilla was arguably our best player in the first half, but he gave the ball away rather carelessly on a few occasions too. Bayo had to fill in awkwardly on the right for large sections, but never looked comfortable, even when central. Not to be relied on at all. Manaj is up for the fight but lacks any other qualities as far as I can tell. Edwards made mistakes too. In the second half we were far too expansive. Tried to stretch the pitch but ended up just leaving huge gaps between players. Wasn’t able to get us back into the game at all. And I can only assume the reluctance to play the ball in behind their defence was his call. Static players, slow sideways passing, occasional runs in behind ignored every time.
Not sure why people are so worked up by this result, it was always going to be a loss - hence why half of the Vic was empty. More of a friendly than anything else. Another example for Edwards to use as a cry out to the owners that our backup players aren’t strong enough, even against league 1.
Irrelevant game but those who revel in getting angry about Watford FC should fill their boots tonight. This night belongs to them.
I think people are worked up because at least 7 of the players who played tonight start for us and we barely threatened a League One team.
That was so, so bad. We’ve signed a bus load of duds and spent good money in doing it. Okoye, Manaj, Bayo, Gosling and even Gaspar are not what we need at all. Really disappointed in Hungbo too. WTE was bad also. We need a big clear out and unfortunately Giaretta is still at the club wasting our money. That was just a hideous game to watch, straight out of last season’s debacle. Why have we made such bad signings?
Do you think those 7 will give the same effort to a game like tonight as they would to a league game? Should they?
Finding the righteous “I don’t get why people care” brigade very confusing. Keinan Davis has a history of injury problems, one of Pedro & Sarr look to be off and our manager prefers a front 2. We could be very reliant on Manaj & Bayo who both looked awful tonight, that’s concerning. Gosling is first choice CM off the bench for now and he’s been awful in every minute he’s played so far. Gaspar is our starting right wing back, he struggled against League 1 opposition. Hungbo is a rarity, a genuine academy prospect making it to the first team, he looks short of the quality required. The result means nothing really but there’s still a lot of things to bite into and analyse from a performance perspective.
Again, it was evidently treated like a friendly. The same way we lost against Cambridge United 3-1 pre season.. I’m glad we’re out of the tinpot competition early doors. We all know how underwhelming our starting 11 is.. You say 7 of those players who played tonight start for us, but we know the majority of those 7 shouldn’t be.. We know it, Rob Edwards knows it, the players know it. It’s about time the board knows it too. If RE has any sense, he’ll present todays match to Duxbury and Gino and tell them exactly why Manaj and Bayo aren’t dependable.
Yes, of course they should. Bayo should be dying to get his first goal, Manaj should be wanting to score. Troost-Ekong should be desperate to prove he’s better than our new signing which has moved him one further down the pecking order. Asprilla should want his first goal, every game is growth for him right now. Gosling should be giving 110% after his interview in the summer. Okoye should be wanting to prove he’s better than Bachman. Nobody did. I don’t think the games that important but I’d be worried if ours players weren’t obsessed with winning or at least putting in a good showing every time they step out on that pitch.
For the same reason there's no value in judging a regular league starter in a pre season friendly against FC Kiershernburger. They don't put the same level of application into such a insignificant game, and rightly so. As a result, there is next to value in judging them as a player, or assessing how they'll do for us this season. Gaspar struggled against League 1 opposition. Which do you think is more likely of the following: he's regressed so much in 12 months he's gone from a reliable performer for a top 6 La Liga/EL/CL side that he can't handle MK Dons attackers, or that he couldn't *really* give a **** about the EFL cup round 2 and rightly used it as a fitness exercise?
Just got back from this and all I can say is it would be helpful if we had any kind of midfield. The amount of times the ball was played sideways and backwards was beyond belief, no one looking to run forward with the ball and so so slow to do anything when we did get up! Not surprised the strikers aren’t scoring as the service is non existent and our set pieces are equally miserable. Sema at least came on and had a go, Gosling was awful and gave away the ball too often and Kayembe was Kayembe. Not sure what the tactical instructions were but on more than one occasion we were in possession with no easy pass or play to be made and no one was making themselves available to help which again was frustrating to watch! Didn’t expect a marvellous game but equally didn’t expect such a disjointed and lacklustre performance either.
Sure, they should, but they don't. As it's proven year after year after year after year. Acuna dominates and scores a screamer, does **** all. Bachmann and Sierralta part of a side that concedes 3 to Newport, contributes to a Championship defensive record. It. Means. Nothing.
It can be good for fitness whilst still caring about the result. He played a criminal pass across the pitch that led to the second goal, that was straight out poor, the quality of the opposition didn’t matter. You don’t play 400 times for Villarreal and captain them if you don’t have a sense of professional pride.
For sure! But they don't, sorry. Never have, never will. So he does have professional pride, or doesn't?
Cool, you think footballers don’t care about a cup run, I disagree. He would do I assume, he was just rubbish tonight. Far from the worst on the pitch though.
