[SOLD] Gerard Deulofeu

Tosh. We were just as crap with him in the team.

 

Only, we weren't.

Not with him and Sarr together.

 

Yeah, who wants a player with pace, skill and goal threat who undoubtedly worries the opposition (unlike every other attacker we have except for Sarr)?

Useless. We only want big old cloggers who "put a shift in" here at Watford.

 

Would prefer “one of our own” like Liam Henderson than one of these tricky lightweight foreign chaps

 

Pace - yup
Skill - yup
Pitiful end product - yup

 

It almost doesn't matter that Deulofeu's end product can be poor, because his mere presence creates far more opportunities than anyone else. Even if he does miss or put in a poor ball, he can run up the field, take the pressure off and start an attack of our own, or can actually keep up with Sarr and try and get on the end of one of his balls. Welbeck couldn't do that, and Pereyra was so damn useless out wide that you almost had to feel sorry for him, opposition teams could basically just leave him alone and gang up on Sarr

 

Better than Pereyra, Pussetto, etc. etc.

 

I agree. Between the three of them they contributed little last season.

 

******* Raheem Sterling misses sitters on a regular basis, yet we'd all have him at the drop of a hat

 

17 goals and 11 assists from 70 appearances, mainly from the wing. Directly responsible for a goal with one or the other in 1 in every 2.5 games.

Pitiful.

 

And out of those games he'd have started or finished on the bench a lot of the time too, bet his per 90 stats look even better

 

Apparently he is only worth 15m and Crystal Palace think they could take him

https://sportslens.com/report-crystal-palace-want-watford-winger-gerard-deulofeu/309371/

I know this **** is made up but it’s comical, why the **** would we sell him for £15m to crystal palace , he wants to go back to Spain , we want to keep him (I assume) where the **** do Crystal Palace think they fit into this equation

 

The single greatest thing to come out of GD leaving is hopefully stopping that God awful song.

Let's not adopt it for any other players please.

 

Guy's already said he wants to go to Spain or Milan lol, don't see him swapping one relegation battle for another unless he's desperate

 

3 goals last season.

One more than Gray despite playing a lot more minutes. One more than Dawson. Yes a wide player, but three is a poor return. Especially for a magic man.

 

4, as well as 5 assists, from 28 games. Pretty much still a 1 in 3 ratio, playing from the wing, in arguably the worst side in the league.

So it's now established that he's quick, he's skillful and obviously talented, he worries the opposition because of those things, and his stats are actually pretty decent.

 

Loool, Gray scored those two goals (West Ham and Norwich?) and did exactly what else? Guy was kept quiet twice against League 1 defenders, Deulofeu might not have scored, but he'd have ******* given them something to think about

 

Deeney bagged 10, 5 from open play, but provided basically nothing else and hampered us more than anything with us basically resorting to the long ball with him around

 

So we keep hearing. He gives defenders something to think about, he scares defenders blah blah.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I like a winger/wide forward to have a bit more end product. He’s incredibly wasteful.

 

We'd give him a lot of stick if he was ours...

 

It's all well and good having this fabled 'end product', but what if you can't put yourself in a position to actually use it? Deeney is probably our best finisher, doesn't change the fact he's a busted flush who was quite possibly the easiest striker in the whole league to deal with, defenders aren't going to just let you have chances. Deulofeu stays fit, between him and Sarr, enough happens for us to stay up, simple as

 

On the contrary, we'd be grateful to have someone so clinical!

 

Absolutely unbelievable comment. His pure presence on the pitch causes problems.
Name one player who has pace, skill and end product and I can guarantee you he wouldn't be playing for Watford. Wake up.

 

So a goal contribution for mid-table to relegation battling side in 1 in every 2.5 games is a sign of a lack of end product, is it? What exactly should he have been expected to be producing as a winger for a side like ours in the Premier League?

If you're quick, skillful, take players on and tend to produce a goal or assist in just over every other game then yes, you probably do give defenders a fair amount to worry about and the team you play for likely will be more dangerous with you in it.

 

I see you’ve added ‘presence’ to the list he has along with pace, skill and ‘scaring defenders’. Glad they helped with his haul of 3 goals last season.

Your question rather answers my point, but in answer to it I’d say Sarr is a far better player than Deulofeu.

 

Again, it was 4 goals, and 5 assists. I see your completely ignoring his pretty good goals/assists to game ratio, as well. Convenient.

 

But Deeney’s goal contribution last season was 1 in every 2.25 which is even better.

I’m not saying Deeney is great, but neither is Deulofeu. Maybe, just maybe, they were all bang average at best and that’s why we went down.

 

Deeney is a striker (and a penalty taker). Deulofeu is a winger.

Deulofeu has very decent stats for us as well as qualities that a lot of other players don't possess. You can act like the fact he pushes teams back with his pace and skill doesn't matter, but it does. They're desirable qualities, and when you combine those with decent stats, to say we are no better off with him in the team makes literally zero sense.

 

"Best finisher" Deeney ? No chance . No left foot . GD is the best finisher which sums up our
lack of goals . I.e. a midfielder is the best chance to score

 

If one in 2.5 as part of an attacking three in a terrible team is good then so is one in 2.25 as the striker in the middle of that 3, surely?

For two players with similar stats, despite Deulofeu having a 6 year age advantage and bags more quality, they don’t half get two very different sides of the coin from fans.

Anyway, no need to get upset. Just an alternative view point, nothing more.

 

Had a quick stats check on this, looking at the creatively named NPxG90+xA90 for players that played over 800 minutes last season. This looks at the expected goals (excluding penalties) and assists a player makes for every 90 played - so a pretty good indication of how dangerous a player is to the opposition.

For us Sarr comes in first at 0.46 with Delufeou and Deeney in joint second with 0.43. So this suggests immediately that having Geri in the side made us more dangerous and losing him was a massive blow.

What's just as telling, however, is when you compare our players with offensive players from other clubs. All three mentioned above ranked higher individually than any other player from the bottom four clubs, and combined produced more clear cut chances than their equivalents at West Ham, Brighton, Newcastle, Palace and Burnley. What this tells me is that going forward, creating dangerous chances hasn't been our issue. Finishing them has. We had more players creating more dangerous chances than our rivals but still scored the second fewest goals in the league.

So when we look at Geri's impact, yes the fact that he makes dangerous chances is an asset and something you absolutely want in your side, but his lack of end product isn't an irrelevant point either. If we're saying 'Geri doesn't improve the side' then that's clearly not true (see above) but if the point is more 'with Geri in the side we were creating almost as many chances but still couldn't score' then that's a bit different and probably fair enough.

 

But again, it's about what they offer in general play outside of the simplicity of goals and assists. Deulofeu pushes teams back and takes us up the pitch quickly, whereas Deeney slows everything down, completely lacks movement and encourages an ineffective style of football.

Deulofeu also generally doesn't have the benefit of being our penalty taker the way Deeney does, which skews his stats.

 

Leigh Anne Pinnock might disagree with that!

 

Geri is an archetypal fanny merchant.

 

Creates space for team mates etc