Pre-season 23/24

Here's a quote Sierralta.
Sierralta pleased with Watford display in Crystal Palace friendly | Watford Observer
“I really like playing a bit further forward,” he said. “When I was young I often played there, as a number six, so it’s not completely new. Sometimes we play with three at the back, and sometimes I’m just in front, and I’ve liked it so far.”

It doesn't really matter if we're play a 4 at the back if Sierralta is being used as a number 6. That's three CB's being used continually with only Pollock as cover. That's nowhere near enough bodies.

 

Pretty certain we're in market for CB despite no mention of it in reports. Giaretta mentioned to a couple of people at Borehamewood we wanted one and that was before Kaba exit.

 

Has Kabasele actually gone?

 

Craig Cathcart is without a club. Just saying.

 

Experienced international ? We simply couldn't afford him.

 

Be a big step up from non-league, but surely better than Kabs and Cathcart

 

Abbott & Mullins are an excellent CB pairing at youth level, watched them a few times last season. A couple of years max and they will be playing first team level somewhere if not Watford.

 

These guys?

 

Omar Riza has been the focus of a club video today.

Nothing too enlightening (he joined as assistant coach for the under15's & 16's) other than this quote, "...coming off the back of two, three friendlies now, we've got another couple to go..."

This was said with video of the Arsenal friendly playing and obviously it's not known exactly when the video was made. It does seem to indicate a friendly this weekend will be played, maybe even another during this week has already taken place.

 

Who the f*ck is this Uncle Ron bloke? And why is he so angry all the time? Why has he taken it upon himself to be the voice of the fans? He seems to be an utter bell-end!

 

Don’t let him drag you into his world…

 

Uncle Ron has definitely gone off the rails the last 6 months, but it is fascinating that people get more angry at him than the buffoon Pozzo who actually creates the situations. A year ago Uncle Ron was spot on about most things and had people constantly at him. Those same goons now conveniently forget that they were completely and utterly wrong at the time.

 

This has saved me a post. I think at heart, Ron is a very passionate fan who wants to see us succeed and made a number good points initially. He was one of the first vocal dissidents of Gino et al.

Now, he’s full of hyperbole and approaching hysteria with a lot of his tweets.

 

Is Uncle Ron Cameron or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

 

We played Fulham reserves/u21’s in a behind closed door friendly and beat them 2-1.

Wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have another Behind closed door friendly tomorrow or Saturday.

 

Rupert isn’t it?

 

I hadn’t heard of uncle Ron before but looked him up
On twitter . Does anyone think he is mentally ill ? I’d genuinely be worried about him if I was one of his family .

 

Of course he isn’t mentally ill ffs. Bloke is passionate and articulate if you bothered to take time to listen to him. He’s likely frustrated at all the grief that has been thrown his way for being right over the years and now is in obstinate mode. It only takes 10 seconds to tweet.

 

Ahhhhh, the infamous Rupe, formally of the WML... Makes sense now.

 

Can't trust anyone who lives in America.

 

Can't trust anyone who lives in America.

 

What about trusting someone from America who says you can’t trust someone from America, about a post asking about someone who lives in America in response to a claim that you can’t trust anyone who lives in America?

 

Ron?

 

He is .

 

Sounds very shifty to me.

 

Ok

ok , I’m glad he’s not. You obviously are much more familiar with him than I am . I just read a few of his tweets and he sounded a bit on the edge .

 

He’s definitely got more obsessive about stuff but he’s a long standing fan who used to go home and away (and reserves) and honestly I think he is just exasperated with the ownership (rightly or wrongly depending on your viewpoint)

 

I wouldn't want to assume he's mentally ill but he certainly exhibits behaviour that any reasonable person would identify as...not healthy.

 

I think we should be very careful with where this conversation is going re: mental health.

EDIT: NOT saying anyone is being out of line - just there’s potential for disagreements and feelings to be hurt etc.

 

Seconded

 

He's created a persona for his followers of which he's now unable to comeback from. It's almost like every player a Championship side buys or loans is picked up upon and thrown straight into his obsession with Pozzo and Co.

 

I thought that Sierralta seemed our best player again vs Palace. He showed his typical aggressive ball-winning play, while looking unusually and surprisingly comfortable in possession. He's looked very impressive in pre-season so far.

The main problem with him slotting in well to the DM role, is that it leaves Hoedt and Porteous as guaranteed first-choice CBs.

I've been criticial of Hoedt's defensive ability a few times, while also expressing concern at Porteous' significant drop off in form and rise in error-proneness towards the end of last season. Against Palace, Porteous was probably the worst performing defender. He was bypassed far too easily, and also gave the ball away a lot. I actually thought Pollock seemed certainly no worse than him when he came on in the second half. I am worried that CB will end up being our biggest weakness in the first half of the season - because Porteous has only just signed and seems likeable, there seems to be an expectation that he's undroppable. But if he doesn't improve he's going to cost us. Similar with Hoedt, though he at least has the advantage Porteous doesn't of being very good on the ball.

On the subject of Pollock, he seems to have perhaps gained a yard of pace since leaving for Aberdeen - meaning that he's gone from being one of the slowest players I've ever seen, to merely slow. He should be fine as a back-up.

Bayo appeared the sharpest of our attackers, and is our only current forward or winger I'd expect to get an alright amount of goals. So naturally it's of course rumoured he's being sold. Unlike the CBs though, I expect he'll be replaced.

I've not been impressed with what I've seen of Healey so far annoyingly. Although he seems to have good technique, he seems currently behind most others in his pace and sharpness.

Louza also seems a bit lacking in sharpness still, and he was sloppy with Palace's first goal while missing our best chance to open the scoring.

I think some of the criticism of Bachmann was a bit harsh, I don't think he did much too wrong.