Watford 1-0 Scunthorpe Utd - 29/08/2020 (fr)

The Pozzos went 352 last time we were in the Champo so we'll probably see it at times next season. The rationale is that the midfield area tends to be overly congested with cloggers in the champo. It's easier to get the ball into more dangerous areas using wing backs and also less risky if u lose the ball on the wing and have 3 center backs. If we play 352 it could be a waste of Sarr's talent (if he stays). However, it didnt do Barnes any harm playing up top for us back in the day. JP played as a lone striker at times for Fluminense so could play as a 2 up front no problem.

 

Welcome back to the forum

Quite incredible the players not involved! Janmaat, Femenia, Estupinan, Wilmot, Capoue, Doucouré, Hughes, Sarr, Pedro, Deeney, Welbeck (probably some others I've forgotten about). I know there are reasons for some, such as injury and quarantine but that's still a lot of players missing in action.

 

Two massive ifs but IF we can get Janmaat fit and IF did decide to play 3-5-2, he has to be one of our back three. He excelled there a couple of times in the Premier League, doesn't treat the ball like a hand grenade and can actually run with it and bring it into midfield.

 

Maybe. I know Deeney has lost a yard of pace, but as others have mentioned, we played some sublime football in the Championship with very average defenders!

 

It's why I'd probably have been happier not knowing who was playing. Now I'm adamant those players are all currently having medicals at Bournemouth!

 

352 can be defensive or offensive
It gives us overloads all over the pitch and should help us play out from the back and retain possession
It should allow Estupinan and Ngakia the freedom to be very offensive and create a lot of width
And until we understand if any of our strikers can play the lone front man role it means we play 2 up top; if we keep him I could see Sarr in a freedom to roam role

 

Because he was lucky not to get red-carded?

 

One other key area of concern remains set-pieces.

Last time we got promoted from the Champ we had both Abdi and Tozser who were capable of taking a good corner and also provided a goal threat from free kicks.

Despite our currently bloated squad, we still have absolutely no one capable of taking a good set-piece. I noticed Quina seemed to be on corners yesterday, but he didn't seem too great at them, he didn't seem like he could get enough power and whip on the ball.

If we sign another CM ideally it should be one that is also a set-piece specialist. I'm not sure what other positions on the pitch might still be up for grabs where we could fit one in.

 

I second that!
Welcome back Nnnnn!
Any idea where Rookery Dad is?

 

Janmaat as a goalkeeper and Sarr in the midfield? Not sure about that one chief!

 

He got the ball but it was a studs up lunge off the ground. In the PL with VAR I think he would have been off for it.

 

So of the players who didn’t appear yesterday..

Doucoure is about to leave. Quite probably Deeney, Capoue and Welbeck, so that explains why they weren’t involved.

Injured players we know about include Hughes, Janmaat

Sarr is still in quarantine after visiting Senegal, while Estupinan hasn’t long been back in training since his 14 day isolation.

So I wonder what’s the story with these players..Chalobah, Dawson, Femenia, Wilmot, Pedro. Anybody heard anything?

 

Wilmot has been injured. Dawson came on as a sub. Pedro and Femenia have been quarantining for the past two weeks. No word on Chalobah.

 

Wilmot - bad injury in May - still recovering
Dawson - played
Chalobah - stories about Sheff Utd?
Pedro - isolating
Femenia - Valencia?

 

I know we can’t just pander to one players needs - and he may well end up being a striker as his career progresses anyway - but it’ll be criminal if we somehow hold on to Sarr and don’t play a formation that plays to his natural current strengths.

Entirely unlikely and hypothetical - but imagine keeping Sarr AND Deulofeu and not playing a side that utilises wingers.

 

Thank you both for the replies. Good information.

Sorry I missed that Dawson played yesterday. My mistake.

These past 24 hours have been a bit like watching like a Poirot episode, trying to work out who everybody is and where everybody was at the time of the action!

 

Are there? Source?

 

It was Troy Deeney, in the kitchen, with a tin opener.

 

They have, for some reason. I could watch it yesterday but not today any more.

 

Twitter chatter - no idea if based on anything other than their approach for him last year - looking for Scunthorpe twitter account yesterday i stumbled on lots of SUFC posts - i don't lurk on their page!

 

We’ve managed to clone Cathcart I see....promising development in our squad building strategy. Questions as to why not Sarr should be asked.

 

I like the idea of using a more skilled player in the back three, but surely Janmaat would be ideally suited to right wing back?

 

Ah yes.....I just couldn't understand why I was getting 19 players. I proof read it and still couldn't spot it.....lol. But you can never have too many Cathcart's.

 

Much better footballer than any of our other defenders but getting on a bit and was never quick in the first place. Think a move into a back three would be perfect for him.

 

He's talented no doubt but always injured which makes him totally unreliable.

 

Something about sour grapes......

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k8k_a6eHn6s6Jqi827gjz3d7C0J1cyrv/view?usp=sharing

I recorded the highlights put up earlier all if you're interested.

Edit: Link should be all access, not restricted.

 

Won the ball from what I saw. Was just your typical 80’s/90’s challenge, nothing wrong with it. Of course in today’s game they would send him off for “excessive force,” which is nonsense.

 

No, but he was our manager just over a decade ago.

 

With so little news and only scraps to go on, I want to highlight the players who were missing on Saturday.

The squad Ivic used was Foster, Ngakia, Dawson, Cathcart, Sierralta, Kabasele, Masina, Clevereley, Sema, Quina, Gray, Suarez, Percia, Stevenson, Dele-Bashiru, Bachmann, Barrett & Phillips

I'm assuming these players are all part of the plan (apart from the trialist). So onto the missing players.

Deeney, Welbeck, Doucoure, Capoue, Deulofeu, Sarr, Pedro, Hughes, Navarro, Femenia, Janmaat, Wilmot, Estupinan, Chalobah, Pussetto, Pereyra, Success and Sinclair.

We can probably group these up futher.

Looking for new clubs
Deeney, Welbeck, Doucoure, Capoue, Sarr, Femenia, Pussetto, Pereyra

Injured or recovering from injury
Deulofeu, Hughes, Wilmot, Success, Janmaat

Missing without obvious reason (maybe quarantine issues for some)
Estupinan, Navarro, Chalobah, Sinclair, Pedro

Out of those missing players, here are those I feel we have to keep in order to create a promotion winning side (highlighted in bold). All others can probably be sold if necessary.

Deeney, Welbeck, Doucoure, Capoue, Deulofeu, Sarr, Pedro, Hughes, Navarro, Femenia, Janmaat, Wilmot, Estupinan, Chalobah, Pussetto, Pereyra, Success and Sinclair.

I would add, we keep Deulofeu until January.

That would give us a final squad of :-

Foster, Ngakia, Dawson, Cathcart, Sierralta, Kabasele, Masina, Clevereley, Sema, Quina, Gray, Suarez, Percia, Dele-Bashiru, Bachmann, Capoue, Sarr, Pedro, Hughes, Janmatt, Wilmot, Chalobah, Deulofeu

Probably light of a backup keeper, and maybe one more central defender, as Ivic likes to play 3 at the back at times. Maybe Troost-Ekong. Bring in Fessi and the keeper, will make a 25 man squad. With Phillips, Parkes & Barrett from the youth team to occasionally fill in.

 

Great post, thing this is exactly what we should be aiming for. Good balance between getting cash in, wages off the books but leaving us with a very talented squad.

Whatever we do, we need to be getting ivic a settled squad soon as that team we played against Scunthorpe could easily lose the first few games.

Any players who are staying need to be training this week, playing against spurs and ready to go next Friday. No more half arsedness about this club.