2018/19 Squad

Not a bad shout. Wilfried Bony might be an upgrade on our current strikers.

 

We’ve not scored an away goal now since early January.

We’ve never scored one under our current Head Coach.

How much of our summer recruiting has been directed at putting that right?

Very little it would seem.

 

I remember the games at the time when everyone said “the Pozzos will remedy the obvious defficiencies in the squad over the summer”. Looks like the owners have a different opinion.

 

Have we improved our starting 11 since last season, at all?

 

I recognise the very thin fella next to him. He plays for Legia Warsw I think. Or Lech Poznan. Or a similar team.

Either way, he's a pole.

 

I recognise the very thin fella next to him. He plays for Legia Warsw I think. Or Lech Poznan. Or a similar team.

Either way, he's a pole.

 

This is my concern also.

Foster > Gomes? Arguably. Similar ability for my money.

Masina > Holebas? Surely? But Holebas starting against Sampdoria has got me second guessing Javi’s plans.

 

First official post-deadline day photo of the squad:



Good luck lads!

(We may need to prune it a little)

 

My pessimistic prediction for the season is that Foster will have a string of howlers and end up benched.

 

**** this squad. **** The Pozzos. **** this season.

They have seriously torpedoed our season through wilfully failing to just sort out two key issues, apparent the whole of the last two seasons.

There are still idiots on here who laud our owners but they have shown their contempt for the fans in this window.

I hope the 1881 take that big image of Gino and put a skidmark across his sneering face

 

We are doomed

 

We haven’t won a league game in 3 months, we are doomed

 

Apologies if posted elsewhere but here are the squad numbers for the season:

https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/first-team/official-201819-squad-numbers-revealed

Talking points inc. Foster retaking number 26 and Penaranda having a squad number at all (17).

 

I see that Success been moved from the midfielders to the strikers section on the website. Trying to make it look like we have options...

 

Kaboul is no.4 could this mean he is close to coming back? Zeeglaar is no. 22 worrying?

 

I don't think teams are particularly big on changing squad numbers, unless it's a young player who's worked up into the first team.

 

I thought the squad list had 18 senior overseas players, but I think Isaac Success must still nominally be U21, even though he is 22 and was 22 at the start of the season.

 

We have found a loophole by forging a new birth certificate!

 

Afraid not. U21 = aged 20 on under on 1 January 2018 (so born before 1 January 1997) under PL rules. Success was born on 7 January 1996. He wasn't U21 last year either.

No squad lists have been published yet.

 

No surprises I don't think.

Zeegelaar out (obviously), Success included so won't be going on loan

Cleverley/Kaboul both included despite being injured

 

Ok, so someone has to go from the provisional squad list.

As long as it's not Pereyra.

 

This is the squad:

Gomes
Foster
Femenia
Janmaat
Navarro
Holebas
Masina
Prodl
Kabasele
Kaboul
Britos
Cathcart
Mariappa
Doucoure
Capoue
Cleverley
Chalobah
Hughes
Deulofeu
Pereyra
Sema
Success
Deeney
Gray
Okaka

U-21 : Wilmot, Quina, Dahlberg and Penaranda (i assume)

 

Wonder if that, and the fact that Success came on at the weekend very much in the role of a striker, means that we will still be getting rid of Okaka before the window closes. There's been a lot of talk in the past few months about his relationship with club and owners, so it might well be true. I haven't kept up fully anyway, but don't we need to get rid of a foreign squad member still?

 

That would leave TD & AG backed up by just the 2 unproven ex Granada boys. Any long term ainjury to TD and we have no replacement big guy upfront .......just Gray, Pen and Success. Pretty terrifying.

 

Yeah, that's true, although we could and presumably at times will revert back to 1 up top. Not sure how we can supposedly leave out any one of Hughes, Pereyra and Deulofeu when they're all fit for a start. I'm not saying I want it to happen, as much as Okaka's inability to be fit enough for more than a half of football and massive overrated-ness annoy me, I just could really see the Pozzos taking their chance for some cash if a decent offer was made on a player nobody at London Colney seems to be much bothered about.

 

Penaranda's the same height as Okaka, and Success is built like a brick *********

 

Why isn't Penaranda on the club website?

 

True but I'm not sure either are equiped to play the target man as TD & SO do so it takes out that option. Tbh i'm more concerned about their inability to score goals over the last 2-3 season rather than their size if we are forced to pay them as main strikers in the primula league.

 

still waiting for work permit i believe

 

Over the weekend I've tried finding out who is actually on Watford's books, loan agreements, contract lengths etc. and tried to set up a very basic database for all players in the main squad, under-23 & under-18 squads and to some extent the academy.

I've used mainly the official site, transfermarkt site, football wonderkids site, youth hawk site and Statman on twitter alongside individual pages found scattered around the internet and below is what I've got at the moment.

No doubt there are areas with errors (Jorge Segura for instance may or may not be out on loan right now!) and it should change with the transfer window still open beyond the Premier League. I've also only listed a players primary position, as I believe it to be. For a rough guide of the players contracted to Watford as of 1:30pm on August 13th, 2018, I think it's fairly accurate though.

The players are listed in order of position and within those groups by home grown, non home grown and under-21 status. Each of those sub-categories are listed alphabetically.

Edit: Obvious mistake #1 is Nathaniel Chalobah is obviously a home grown player.
Edit 2: I've not shown the majority of under-18s here as they won't be near the first team squad and I wanted to save a little space on the page!

 

You could have saved yourself a lot of work by simply going to http://wfc.net/players.htm

 

I forgot - I used that too!
It's not quite up to date with loans though. Nor is it easy to see how the squad is balanced in respect of positions and the age group players are incomplete. (I've also not shown all of the information I've got on mine, keeping it to just the basic stuff for this site.)

 

This is last seasons, useful as a cross check

https://www.premierleague.com/news/465277

 

Yeah but we were fine when Mooney got injured for the season in 99. Step forward Tommy Smith.

King injured in 2006. Step forward Hammer Bouazza.

We got this all under control with Penderermgseda and Success.

 

I thought Nathaniel Chalobah was Home Grown, however, you have him listed as non home grown?