By Far The Greatest Team......

Javi Gracia says: "For me, this is the best squad in the Premier League"

Anybody agree with him? Do we have a better squad than the Big 6?

 

A better squad than Citeh?

Yeah, right....

 

This bold statement would have really got my blood pumping if we hadn't been thumped 4 nil at home less than a month ago.

Instead it just comes across as the deranged ramblings of a gurning simpleton.

 

Time for your nap, Clive. Night night

 

Answer has to be no, but I do love the way he is instilling confidence in the squad with comments like these. Recon we might have the best squad outside the top six though, with individual players of ours that would not look out of place in any of those teams. Happy days.

 

It must be play on words "For me its the best Squad"... because it's the only squad he has.

He's surely not that stupid to really think that. Alternatively Mazzarri must have left some of his funny cigarettes in the managers locker.

 

He must be crawling up Pozzo's botty in order to get his new contract signed, insinuating he doesn't need any new player spending in Jan.

The way to a chairman's heart is always through his pocket.

 

Point is RC, I think he is doing a psychology job on the team, and if it gets us more points then I am all for it. Simpleton? I don't think so, and I doubt if you do really.

 

Well if we don't win the Premier League then he's got to go.!!

Seriously though, I think he means the best squad in terms of team spirit, willingness to work hard and responsive to his ideas.

He's got them playing to an amazing level, and typically, he's giving all the credit to the players.

For me, I also think this version of Watford are the best squad in the Premier League. Not technically, but for all those other unfashionable qualities I've already mentioned.

 

Cost of players versus points gained? Yes, we're a long way in front.

 

Nurse!

 

Alongside the steamer Big Stef left there for Sssssilva.

JG ain’t no fool.

 

A traditional surgical procedure.

 

Is that league table of actual vs expected performance knocking around anywhere?

Us, Brighton & Muff.

 

I agree regarding the need for a prolific striker and central defender.

In view of the promise shown by Success, I would try and shift out Deeney and Okaka in January which would free up the two places in the squad.

 

I'm confused:
He's crawling up his botty to get to his pocket, and then on to his heart? He'll need a satnav. Or an instruction booklet straight out of Carry on Nurse.

 

To be fair, he must already have done that.

Looking at the paper value of our squad now compared with when he took over, he's probably added 80m in value with improvements to the likes of Capoue, Pereyra and Success.

He's well worth getting 12.50 an hour in a new contract in January, plus a new suit from Matalan.

 

I doubt we'll plug those gaps now before we sell someone like Pereyra or Deolefeu. We should have addressed at least one of those areas in the summer and be even stronger right now. Maybe 2 or 3 points better off to boot

 

I'm going to say something.

Having Gracia is kind of like having Frank Spencer as head coach, but for some unknown reason it's working out.

 

I'd love it if one day he's stood in the dugout wearing a black beret.

 

I don’t understand the snarky attitude towards Gracia.

He is now plainly the best coach we’ve had in the Pozzo era.

He refloated a sinking ship in January & has created a beast of a team this season.

Bravo, Javi!

 

Is a repressed forum man crush for Quique blinding us to Javi’s merits?

 

More important than Gracia's attitude following the Muff game is his attitude following victories. He is pleased for the players but is disappointed with the way we won. He wants us to improve every game. I suspect that we will see some changes as a result of Huddersfield getting so many shooting opportunities.

 

I fully agree about where we need to improve the team, we are a defender or two and a striker away from being a top 5 team at the moment.

You have to give credit to the owners though, and just how well they understand the game. There is only so much money to go round and it is down to them to spend it in the best way possible. Lets face it, of all players on the pitch defenders require the least amount of skill and it’s the easiest position for a good coach to make comparatively limited players play well. They understand that the midfield is the most important part of the team and the best place to spend money.

With the money we have to spend we now have one of the best midfields in the league, which helps to over compensate for deficiencies elsewhere.

You can also sell midfielders (Richarlison) for far more than you can sell defenders, so longer term the investment in midfield will eventually help us strengthen elsewhere anyway.

 

They (the pundits) laughingly raised this on 5 Live phone in last night and invited Watford fans to phone in.
Had other things on but did anyone on here listen to that, and did any Watford fans oblige so they could take the p!ss?

 

I would agree with most of your assessment apart from the part about Gravy having more of a football brain.
I think what divides them more clearly is Gravy has seemingly no ego and Silva has one as large as Saturn. I see it in tennis,some coaches become more important than the player/players. It has to be the player/team at the apex of the triangle,not the coach.
Silva is less than he appears,Gravy clearly much more,minus the timepiece,obviously!

 

I think we’d need 2 new CB’s to threaten the Top 6 really, as well as the top drawer striker.

 

I like the Gracia soundbites, it's a clever way to please the simpletons.

 

This is an odd debate, but I can sort of see how it's arisen, thanks to the lack of intonation in print, and the fact that the phrase he chose to use to give context to his remark also happens to be one of those extremely common placeholder phrases that foreign managers, including Javi himself at times, use all the time anyway.

When you watch him answering the question, he is clearly saying 'For me, it's the best squad in the league', and his intonation makes it clear enough that what he means is that he loves his squad, wouldn't want to be working with any other, yadda yadda etc. Essentially, it's nothing more than a continuation of his core, oft-repeated theme of working with what he has got and making the best use of his entire squad, as well as publicly praising the collective at every opportunity.

 

I think he means he’d rather have Adrian Mariappa than Virgil van-Dijk or Vincent Kompany. And Ken Sema over Kevin De Bruyne.

Fair.

 

Not sure about that point. It keeps me happy...

 

Didn't know he was a referee on the side, bit of moonlighting to help with the bills I guess. Top man, can't fault his work ethic.