Key Ingredients To Survive And Thrive In The Prem

I am elated with our promotion. But saddened that fans like you want things to happen which will see us relegated. Saddened, but not surprised.

I support Watford Fc, not a manager and a team full of players who do not support Watford Fc.

They've been paid handsomely to get us promoted, why on earth do you want to give them further reward for a goal they are not good enough to achieve?

Fans like you who talk about having a team full of players who care about the club. NONE OF THEM DO! Even Ashley Young who is Watford born and bred left us at the drop of a hat, and then came back and mocked the fans when he scored against us for the hateful man united.

You are utterly detached from reality.

'Clevs' and Chalobah would leave us instantly if a better offer came along, and quite right too. We should treat them in exactly the same way (though I would keep chalobah as he is ace, not because he 'loves the club').

 

Not reading too much into my post then?

 

I make lengthy well-reasoned replies to your thread, you give snarky one line replies.

I conclude you are either rude or dim witted. Either way, the conversation ends here.

 

You lost me at "Fans like you..."

Hope your rant made you feel happier, and have a nice weekend.

 

Beat the teams around us and lower

 

I agree with you to a certain extent because playing football is their job, therefore they would probably leave if a better financial offer came a long just like anyone would. Having said that, it does not necessarily mean they do not have an affinity to the club.

You often hear ex-professional footballers referring to certain teams that they have played for as their club, and often it is the club they have had the greatest success at during their playing careers, and yes they do love those clubs even though they may have left them to further their careers at some point during their time as professional footballers.

Look at who many consider our very own John Barnes, however he is nothing of the sort because he considers Liverpool as his team and that is the team he loves, however in Luther's case Watford is the team he loves, and so it goes on.

Professional footballers are just that on the whole, they play football for a living so very often they do leave a club they love for professional reasons. There are of course exceptions and Matt Le Tissier is a prime example, he could have left Southampton to further his career on many occasions, but because he loved the club he did not.

 

You are taking about ancient history though. In the modern game there are very very few such players.

They are professionals. It's their job to move clubs when a better offer presents itself. I suspect the ones who do not move clubs do so because they fear the unknown/cherish stability rather than fall in love with a team they have no attachment too beyond a payslip.

Matt le tissier was a lazy sod, I have a feeling he stayed at Southampton because he was comfortable and couldn't be arsed to move clubs, rather than having some deep affection for that team.

 

Hey, what did I do?!

 

The mindset that every point matters whatever the calibre of the opposition. During our seasons in the Prem, we at times were guilty of either treating the opposition with too much respect (Spurs and Chelsea) or seemed beaten before we started (Liverpool away, Man City). We could lose at home to Barnsley but still win at the Etihad in the same season!

 

Agreed. We need to set out being competitive against everyone. I'd rather go to say the Etihad and lose knowing that we've had a go against them.

 

One of the key reasons for our relegation was the players' mindset.

Foster said the attitude was all wrong after the Cup Semi.

It never got back to where it should be until this season.

 

Mindset was part of it but there was so many other things also. Recruitment being at the forefront.
Javi for instance who didn't play with out and out wingers was given Sarr who wasn't even fit. It was plain to see that the backline was where our budget needed to be spent. The weirdest choice to bring back QSF who I only saw let the players unleash 45 minutes of football in his second stint. Then Corona and some woeful chucking away of points from winning positions crucified us. Saying that NP still not us into a position where it was in our own hands to stay up. A season where the owners were to blame more than anyone.

 

History has proven we needed forwards more not defenders. We’ve got one of the best championship defences ever with more or less just the addition of one CB, meanwhile Dawson is playing in a top 6 PL team. We conceded more goals in two other premier league seasons than we did last season (and that included 12 against one team) but last season was our lowest goal scoring season of the lot (less than a goal per game). It will also be our downfall next season if we don’t do anything about it.

 

And cos Le Tissier is a Channel Islander, he thought he was already playing ‘in Europe’.

 

Ok this is just my opinion whether it be right or wrong. Statistics do show we have a very good defence in the Championship. But from what I see it's not. I would personally say the forward lines we've faced this season are relatively poor. I will take the Scummers away for instance if we turn up in the Premier and play and defend like that we will get murdered week in week out. Yes we had an off day but so did they infront of goal. 18 shots but only two on target they really should of buried us.
As for last season of course we needed forwards but they bought in a winger for a club record fee knowing that Gracia didn't play with wingers and an injury prone Welbeck. Saying that how many points did we surrender from winning positions? I'm hungover so I can't even be bothered to go through the results sorry. But imo a decent CB and quality fullbacks would of made the difference and turned those winning positions into points on the board.
But I except your opinion and respect it, mine differs though.
Premier teams are going to target are weaknesses in defence and are certainly not going to need 18 attempts at goal to only score 1. WTE and his passing is far of scratch and his annoying habit of turning his head when blocking the ball will be the death of him. Quality forwards in the league will target that and just dummy a shot to ghost pass him.
It sounds rather gloomy from me I know but i can see it happening.
I will leave on a positive. We set our standards at Carrow road if we can match or better that in the Premier we will be ok. A big ask but we've shown we're capable of those performances. 28 shots and only one goal is still worrying but we all know we just need a quality striker to convert these chances created. This is a must. Even though I just noticed that Norwich had 16 shots.

 

I thought the number of shots as shown by the BBC was the total number of shots, not just those off target?

Can someone confirm this either way?

 

A major part of that was the pitch though - in general this season we've played the worst on the worst pitches, and looked good on good pitches (Swansea excepted).

Our players generally like to get the ball on the ground and pass it about, but lack some of the steel for hoof-ball against strong opponents on crap surfaces. Our players got nervous on crap surfaces because it ruins their first touch and passing game, and we don't really have a plan B with a pretty lightweight forward line.

Next season in the PL that will be much less of an issue. Probably the main difference will be instead of our passing game suffering due to bad surfaces, our players will have to get used to playing the same passing game but under a generally speedier and more persistent level of pressing from opponents.

 

I agree with your thoughts that the condition of the pitch can stop us playing our normal game , this can also be compounded by a congested midfield
A Certain player indicated that we should have gone to the "hoof ball" option in the coventry game and was slated.

 

Yes but it dosn't help when you are losing by 3 goals very early in a must win game and then by 2 early goals in your final game against a poor arsenal side.

 

We are never ever going to stay up by relying on our defence. Need creativity and goals, without those, we're back down next season.

 

It's very hard to become a billionaire without exploiting others in order to get there!

 

Yes indeed.

But I do think we need to strengthen both up front and defence.

Quality more important than quantity.

And character important too.

Integrating new signings without losing our new found team spirit is vital. We'll have to fight to stay up.

 

Pace.

Next season teams will see Watford as a chance for 3 points. They will attack us especially if the fans are back. They will see Watford as easy pickings and demand their team comes forward. So I reckon we need to keep it tight and counter with pace. We already have Sarr so a speedy LW and CF would be ideal?

 

We need to tick all the right boxes.

Apparently the season before last some players were very disgruntled due to reported non payment of end of season bonus for league position/FA cup final etc.
That affected performances last season including the first game 0-3 debacle vs Brighton and wenever recovered any momentum.

This year it is reported that there is a fat bonushandout to the players based on promotion, appearances etc.
So they should be happier.
So at least hopefully Duxbury and Pozzo have “learnt from our mistakes” from this and it will not be a monkey on the players backs next season.

And the players playing ‘for their manager’ as he’s a nice chap.

At least that’s 2 ticks in the correct boxes.

Learn how to beat the first man from corners andthat would be 3 ticks.

Employ reids as set piece analyst and it could be 4 ticks.
Get rid of some dead wood, 5 ticks.
Keep Sarr, 6 ticks.

How many ticks do we need?

 

Continuity is great until we're 9 points adrift at Christmas.

 

Hope that there are 3 other teams that have appalling seasons, and don’t get more than 25 points

 

I'm in favour of a negotiated settlement. Maybe agree to accept a 0-3 defeat as long as we dont have to actually go there and play them.

 

What do we need to survive in the PL? A FOOKING STRIKER (and a good back up option too)

 

Only 9?

What's your key thing then?

 

Now we have reached our goal of instant promotion, the hard work begins in actually being able to stay there.

We've only been out for a year, so has the Premier League moved on a lot since then? Probably not. Both Villa and West Ham have progressed, but the rest have stayed pretty much the same in the bottom half. We lost a bit of quality, but not an insurmountable amount of players left the club.

From those who left us during last summer, and over the course of the season, only 5 I would say were comfortable Premier League players. Deulofeu, Pereyra, Doucoure, Capoue and Welbeck. We even went down with those players, but Geri was injured, Welbeck was feeling his way in and Pererya was not the same player in terms of attitude in fighting for the cause. Maybe the same could be said of Doucoure in his final season.

That said, those players did transform us from relegation canon fodder to a club comfortably fighting above the drop zone (until the final season), so this is what we need to do again. Bring in 5 players who are seen comfortably as Premier League level in terms of quality. Ashley Young would tick one of those boxes, so we'd need to find 4 more. I would say striker is a massive priority, central midfield a close second, left wing and finally central defence. If we manager to do that, then we'd stay up I'm sure of it.

Where could we source these players from? It'll have to be free transfers, young promising talent or Udinese players for the most part. Clearly the jewel in Udinese's crown is Rodrigo De Paul. I think a lot of things would have to align in order for him to come to Watford, and even though I see it as just an outside bet, I wouldn't completely rule it out. He would be of high quality to us with no cost to the Pozzo's. I could see Jayden Braaf as a possible signing, although he's only 18 and would be one for the future. He's a Man City young player but was on loan to Udinese last season. The Pozzo's will know all about him now so that is something I could see happening as City are open to selling.

Juan Musso was apparently on our radar last season and would have signed for us had we not been relegated. He is a highly rated keeper and one Watford may look to switch over now we're back in the big league.

In the past we were also linked to Walace from Udinese. A defensive central midfielder, who I would say is solid rather than spectacular. Fernando Llorente the ex-Spurs striker. Not set the world alight for Udinese and is 36, so I don't think he would be a good trade for us. Obviously Geri Deulofeu is still a possible switch, but I don't really see it happening.

So I think that would probably exhaust the potential trades between us and Udinese, so other links which appear strong right now are Ike Ugbo the poacher type striker from Chelsea and the left winger Kwadwo Baah from Rochdale. I think these two transfers are in the highly likely category.

Looking a little wider at out of contract players, who could fit into the Watford bracket, could be Josh King from Everton, and ex-Bournemouth of course. Romain Sa*ss the centre back from Wolves is pretty decent and I'd have no issue if Watford signed him. A*ssa Mandi a versatile central defender from Real Betis. Can play across the back line centrally and both full back positions. Mamadou Sakho from Palace would be an excellent signing. John Lundstram from relegated Sheff Utd. A central midfielder who was a mainstay in their debut Premier League season. His team mate the central defender Kean Bryan has also been linked to us in the past.

How about Stevan Jovetic. The ex-City and Inter striker now at Monaco. Out of contract, but like Welbeck, would be no stranger to the treatment room. Is a quality player though when fit.

So from this lot, it's easy to see there is a lot of talent out there, who we could use and would cost next to nothing in transfer fees. We'd just need to cover the salaries and I could see us creating a decent side which could stay up quite comfortably.

I'd love us to spend a bit of cash though and if we did I'd have no problem in the entire budget going on Ivan Toney in a part exchange deal with Andre Gray. That would be the dream transfer deal of all time . Sadly that ship has sailed, and I doubt the bruising in Gino's shins will ever fade, with that much kicking off himself.

 

Which was the style at the time

 

I think it will be most cost effective for us in an ongoing sense if we keep our transfer and waste management departments separate, rather than subcontracting them out.

This idea is appealing to me.