Dear All Latest from Andrew French who has presumably adopted what we must now call a Trussian paradox. "The return to the starting XI of defender William Troost-Ekong has seen him emerge as one of Watford’s most successful progressive passers of the ball. The Nigerian skipper has started three of the Hornets’ last five games, and in that time has boosted his average for the season to 10 progressive passes per outing, with 88% of them being successful. That puts him ahead of even Imran Louza, who has averaged 8.9 progressive passes per match with an 82% success rate." Just saying, I was one of the loyal saps who attended Bloomfield Road to watch this progressive passer tapping sideways passes of several inches to Captain Kabasele or Danny B with aplomb. However he hit orange-shirted attackers with regularity when he pointed those passes anywhere other. Am I required to contact SpecSavers, buy a white stick and a lovely puppy for future matches or is this article trying to rehabilitate WTE off the back of our new hero, the Moroccan Messi...?? Yours ever, Confused.
- Player is crap and clearly well below the necessary required standard for a long period of time and finally gets dropped. - Player comes back into the side after extended time out of the team due to injuries/suspensions to others and manages to look average to half decent for a couple of games. - People convince themselves player is suddenly actually really quite good and ridiculous hyperbole around the player ensues. - Player, amazingly, swiftly reverts back to being crap. Rinse and repeat.
Ah, but which teams' play were his passes progressing? Do assists for the opposition still count as assists??
He was still a key part of the best ever Championship defence. Given our general defensive woes this season I think most people would take him reverting back to the level he used to be. Regardless of how well he defends or not this season though, or how progressive his passing actually is, I think it's seemed pretty clear so far that he at least looks more comfortable on the ball than two seasons ago when he was an active liability with the ball at his feet.
He's obviously accepted he's no Glen Hoddle and is now just making sure he retains possession with these safe short sideways passes, which is fine. The issue will be if the opposition press our backline as he won't have that option.
WTE is a bit like Kabasele in one regard. Both of them generally have a match turning mistake in their games, and it almost always ends up with us conceding a goal. I do think on the whole WTE is better than the short spells we saw him last season. I know he got a lot of stick after the Brentford loss and he took it pretty badly, but he's a capable player at this level at least when his mind is on the game. Kabasele has just hit the buffers this season and is reverting to a player that needs a long time out to re-evaluate his game and position in the side. We probably would have at least two or more points right now if it wasn't for poor mistakes he continues to make. WTE is not faultless, we know that and he will continue to have the odd bad day, but it's not entirely their fault as neither of them should still be here.
Statistics once claimed that Andre Gray was an 18 million pound footballer. I've never had faith in any statistics since.
Pretty much all centre backs would look crap behind the joke of a midfield we have had for the last couple of years. Many will argue WTE is the worst but none of our defenders have been supposedly very good in that time and much of that is down to a midfield which barely protects them when without the ball, then stand like statues when we have the ball. All defenders will look crap in that scenario. Only play with one proper holding midfielder and two dynamic, moving into space midfielders as against Norwich and what do you know, our defence doesn’t quite look so crap.
Our defenders look crap because they’re crap. We don’t need to look for other reasons, it’s really just as straightforward as that. It’s been a problem for a long time, even when we had a top 6 PL level midfield.
He is garbage. I'll never forget how he ducked unchallenged at Leicester & gave away a stupid last minute pen at Brentford a week later. School boy errors & that's being harsh on school boys.
I’m not saying that the players we’ve got are necessarily the best but at Championship level they should be fine. WTE was part of the team that has the joint lowest goals conceded in The Championship. Sierrelta was considered a good centre back by many. Kamara is clearly a decent full back. Yes, right back is a bit iffy. If we could just get a settled, fit starting back line for a period of time together with a bit more of a dynamic midfield we should climb the table. Not the best defensive unit but far from the worst if Billic can get them organised.
This is far too rational. Football is about emotion, nothing else. Players are either crap or brilliant and even if they are brilliant they don't know how to play as a team so they are crap.
Forgot to even mention what a mare it must be defending in front of a keeper who’s superglued to his line.
All those are really bad I agree, but what Kabesele did at Muff takes the cake for the most sadistic thing I have ever seen at a live game. Sitting down on the pitch and allowing the opposing team to score an equalising goal - unforgivable. Why he did that I do not think we have ever known.
Mazzarri said this at the time. Kabasele was 25 and had played for Belgium a few months earlier. The guy is still here making mistakes and even captaining the team. Gino Pozzo FC - where mistakes get you contract extensions.
First time I've seen that quote so thanks for that. Here's a suggestion Kabesele - next time you feel like you have cramp maybe wait for the ball to go out of play?
Also I remember Kabasele taking an eternity to get ready to come on after someone had got injured and he was on the bench which is totally unprofessional. This was a long time ago and my memory is not great these days but I am sure this happened .
It did, but like you I can’t remember exactly when. But he got panned by whoever the coach was at the time.
