Having endured a frustrating week in terms of results and in moments of matches performance- I am going to try and take a step back and evaluate our team so far and by the end it may potentially re calibrate our expectations Our strengths: - Going forward and attacking teams at pace - Pressing when we don't have the ball - Energy, effort and desire Our weaknesses: - Defending, centrally and out wide - mentality and belief - central striker - current injuries (all teams have them I know) Our current expectations: - expectations in my opinion have evolved from the start of the season as talk was of a top half finish. As we saw more of the team expectations shifted to top 10, then europa league place - essentially best of the rest outside the big 6 ..... quite a jump from 17th last season. What hasn't helped is how well Burnley have done with in my opinion a less talented team - albeit a more settled team over the past 18 months. Our team vs palace: Our entire defence including our goalkeeper cost us £15m with maybe an estimated market value of maybe £25m at best. (I know investment is a poor measure as we have some fine free transfers - but it's an indicator ) Gomes - I love the bloke - but his errors cost us more now than it earns us - first goal for palace last night was 100% his fault and he should of held onto the ball it was poor .... the backup keeper karnezis appears to be no good either from the little I have seen. We urgently require a new number 1 The defenders - to be brief I will assess on footballing quality only in my opinion starting with those starting last night Holebas - championship - MV £0 Mariappa - championship - MV £2m Prodl - lower prem - MV £5m Janmaat - lower mid prem MV £6m Kabasele - mid prem - MV £15m Fermenia - mid prem - MV £15m Zeeglaar - lower prem - MV £3m Kaboul - lower prem - MV £4m Britos - championship - MV £0 Cathcart - championship - MV £2m Wague - ?? Hoban - ?? At best with a fully fit defence it's of lower prem standard and not to the standard required to meet expectation - very poor depth We need serious investment here - 1 quality central defender with leadership qualities and 1 left back top 10 standard minimum Midfield Doucoure - Top 6 prem - MV £35m Cleverly - mid prem - MV £15m Pereyra - top 10 prem (when fit) - MV £20m Capoue - lower prem - MV £5m Watson - championship - MV £0 Hughes - mid prem - MV £15m Chalobah - top 10 prem - MV £20m A fit midfield is top 10 standard - however the depth is poor which is why we are struggling - we need another doucoure type of midfielder and another pereyra type of player to bring more creativity and guile. Forwards: Deeney - lower prem MV £12m Richarlison - Top 4 - MV £60m Carrillo - lower prem - MV £8m Gray - lower mid prem - MV £14m Success - Lower mid prem - MV £12m Our forwards combined are not good enough for our current expectations we need 1 top 10 standard striker and an alternative to carillo as I personally would let him go back to benfica - sadly I think given the way we play now Deeneys time is done and we should sell to raise the funds to replace him In summary: GK - back up prem (can't bring myself to say championship Defence: lower mid prem standard when fit championship depth Mid: top 10 if fit - low mid otherwise - no depth Forwards: mid prem due to central striker issue The manager: He needs to ensure we learn to manage games better. Currently attack is our best form of defence - At 1-0 up we need to maintain the belief to push for a second and 3rd until the last 10mins. We need to have more care in possession in the last 15mins of matches too .... but to do much of this he needs to install a ruthless edge to our finishing as this is costing us just as much as goalkeeping errors. Overall: I think fully fit we should be looking for a finish around 8th or 9th. Outside the big 6 there aren't many better than us. Currently with injuries I think we are somewhere between 12th - 14th - to get top 10 I think January transfer dealings are sell no one and buy a starting central defender and a starting centre forward .... injuries remain our Achilles heal. So while the past few matches have been frustrating - we have some real key injuries again holding us back and games we would have won in September are tripping us up - but we are Watford and this is the first season I have thought - wow we look like we belong in the prem and in the top half. There will be more frustrations I think over the next few matches but we will battle through and continue our steep improvement. The team on the pitch is what we have and we should amend expectations based on them not on the team we could have out on the pitch .... Burnley have thus far been fortunate with injury and suspensions, much like leicester when they won the league and it is this which frustrates us all, I think we see the similarities between our best fully fit team and Leicester's title winning team and while the Leicester season won't be repeated our team should have seen us best of the rest if fit - we have made 4 strides forward and maybe now hoping 1 step back COYH
Taking a step back is no good if you're standing on the edge of a cliff looking landwards and that's what we're doing at the moment.
Gomes has been one of our top performers in my book. Can’t Holebas as Championship standard either. On the flip side I think you’ve over rated Pererya. He just doesn’t seem suited to this league and is mid table luxury player imo.
Totally agree. Lightweight and no pace. Admittedly he hasn't been played in his best position (in the No. 10 role behind a striker) but he isn't good enough in the role he has been given.
I think you're being a bit harsh on Holebas. I know RMT is slightly reaching, but I'd still argue he's closer to Championship standard than League 1.
Also Gray - lower mid table? He's awful. The worst pound for pound signing that we have ever made. And I include Ellington in that. A Championship player any day of the week. He is the most out of his depth player in our entire squad.
Hands up on reflection ... and a little more blood to the brain, my assessment on Gomes is harsh ... although I still think a new no1 is needed
No matter what frustration this side gives us the sheer ridiculousless of knowing that some of these have played worse after getting paid more makes the blood boil. Ighalo, Deeney pay rise, worse, pay rise, worse, pay rise, very much worse. Would you get away with that in your job?
Taking a step back to reflect is what is generally done after 38 games. We could go on an amazing run from now till May and finish top six HA YEAH RIGHT I hear you all laughing, but stranger rhings have happened. Just surviving this season at the moment with our ever derailment of keeping 11 on the pitch and scoring would be a momentous achievement in itself.
Going on great runs is what other teams do. But it's ok, Leicester City Reserve Slimani is going to come in and turn us around!
I'm getting more and more inclined to agree, sad as it makes me, although you say "given the way we play now"; I'm really not entirely sure what way we would have to play for it to be able to accommodate Deeney today. He doesn't make runs, he doesn't beat players, he's not a poacher or even a particularly strong finisher, but he also never ever scores from outside the box or even really takes shots from there, and yet he's also a dreadfully average at best hold-up player. He's ******* slow, and he doesn't particularly get involved positively in play with the ball outside the box either. I don't get it, I really don't. It's difficult to fathom, but he seems to have mislaid almost everything that made him a great for us.
How many in form quality strikers are there in the prem at the moment? Our strikers aren't great but most teams outside the top 4 have the same problem.
Watching videos of his goals during the promotion season are fantastic. Great leap, power, bit of pace and good finishing. I don't know how he's lost all of that. His increased media presence due to us getting promoted may be a factor, he seemed to want to bulk up when we were promoted as well which he's taken too far. It's sad but he's nearly 30 and will never get to the level of player we need now.
If it is Slimani or anybody else that is not in their current team it doesn’t he won’t be a success as we may play a game that suits his style of play more than his current club does. I would still go for Gabbiadini at Southampton
He allowed himself to get fat and unfit and now his age has caught up with him - he is well past his best and does not even seem to have the same desire to compete. Last year I put it down to Mazz and him not getting on but that wont wash now.
If we get half of that then we will have absolutely mugged off some poor, desperate club. Please let it be Palace.
Indeed . The Sun reporting BMuff want £15m for Afobe. No goals in 9 this season but 10 in 46 appearances in PL in previous 2 seasons
All that’s happened with Troy is your classic second season syndrome. When we got promoted he was unproven at Premier League level, he had to prove his ability and he did. He worked bloody hard, scored a respectable amount of goals and got some genuine praise from people outside of Watford. So at the end our our first season, he’s made it, he’s offically a proven Premier League striker, nothing to prove, no need to make that run I would’ve made last season because I’m a premier league striker now. I would add as a caveat that he appeared at his best with us as a 10 behind Igahlo, as we are never going to play 4-4-2 until we are desperately chasing a game, and we don’t have a striker in the form Iggy was, he'll never look as good again anyway.
