Clearly just another sign we have next to zero budget then. Cheaper to keep what we have and promise them royalties if they stay (in some cases that has happened for clubs). Gino/Dux/Bayat have done it again. Good thing most of the side we have are a lot younger than what we did have, and with Livermore and Hamer gone it's slashed the wage bill a little for now. Personally I think it's going to take us a long time to get a side put together even close to the one Joka had. It's sad, but that's where we are right now.
I don't mind him. When he played deeper he was very good under Cleverley at holding the ball under pressure and carrying it forward (Although his final ball was often poor as he chose the wrong option when passing to advancing players. I can remember we had a 3 on 1 break and he managed to pick the only pass that ruined the chance) which none of our other players were able to last Season which was a significant part of the reason why we played so crap as we either played Sierralta there (God no), an immobile if good tackling Livermore, Kayembé who played further forward until he came to Watford and took until VI to realise he's not a holding midfielder and Louza who looked wholly uninterested and was surprised he didn't make that position his own there. We can do better but we could also do quite a bit worse as he's homegrown and seems to have worked out his fitness issues at last while Cleverley seems to have found a role that works for him and a profile we've sorely missed. If a contract renewal means we can divert more money towards getting an actual striker then it's worth the trade off.
I think our medicore performances met him at least half way! He did that many times. Also think it's far too soon to say he's worked out his fitness issues.
The positives from his very short spell of good form were that he seemed adept at taking the ball on the half turn in tight spaces from our centre backs. The negatives are that he dilly dallies far too much after he's burst forward with it and inevitably plays the wrong pass or attempts the right one but messes it up. The reality is he's been with us for four seasons and only started 33 games and been bang average to poor for most of his time here. Think he's incredibly lucky to get another three years, would've made much more sense to me to see if he could continue any form into next season as I can't imagine there'd be a list of Championship suitors banging the door down for him.
While none of that is false, the majority of those starts were last season, where he finally began to look at home in that role just in front of the defence. I also think the departures of Kone and Livermore played our hand a bit, we were probably very keen not to lose yet another midfielder
Don’t think he gets enough credit for his close control under pressure and ability to wriggle out of tight situations. Quite a few times last year this led to a break but poor decision making let him down. Not a young prospect, but still has potential to improve. Just needs to stay fit for the season
The level of the squad is plummeting and so it's natural that eventually players like TBD, Morris, Ngakia etc fall into it at some point. It's a failure of squad building that leaves us in a position of trying to pick out the positives of retaining players the bulk of Championship sides would be looking to move on.
Tbf TDB is Championship level, Morris isn't and it doesn't matter what level Ngakia is if he's always crocked
Obviously it's all about opinions but I think at best I'd say the jury's still out on that. He has the biggest potential to be a good level Championship performer out of all our hangers on though.
That's kind of my point, we wouldn't have lost him, he was still contacted for another year. See how he goes (and if he can stay fit) and offer him another contract in January if he looks like he's up to it. It's our obsession with not allowing players to enter the final year of their contract that is often our undoing.
The counter argument is of course that if he did alright until January anyone could sign him for free and we’d still be paying his wages for another six months, which is kinda bad for a player who’s leaving on a free in the summer.
Only applies to overseas teams I believe, can't imagine that he'd perform that well that any top flight teams in decent leagues would want him and second tier leagues on the continent can't really compete with the Championship on wages.
Signed a 2 year contract. No wonder he doesn’t look that impressed when Ngakia got 4 allegedly . https://x.com/WatfordFC/status/1813589486108086751
Sounds like he needed some convincing to stay: https://www.watfordfc.com/news/2024...rley-played-a-big-part-in-me-wanting-to-stay/ Seems to fit with the story doing the rounds a few weeks ago that he sees himself already deserving of playing at a higher level than us. Delusional if so!
Genuinely, all of our squad now are the sort of names we used to look at on the bench and say "god I hope we don't need to make any changes today, because our subs are dogshytt'
How is this guy actually still starting games at this level? Absolutely useless. What is he supposed to be good at or bring to the team? Zero quality on the ball, constantly wants too much time, weak, no real athleticism. Just crap and always has been. Drop Kayembe back and bring in Baah or Vata for the love of god.
We’re stuck with him this season it looks like. The good news is I think he’s easily replaceable. And I presume he’s the one who’d have been benched if we’d signed Kyprianou.
Hopefully after the international break one of two things happen; 1. Dwomoh starts instead of TDB 2. Kayembe drops back next to Sissoko which means TDB doesn’t start. Either option is better than him starting.
Kayembe in a midfield two would be one of the worst things to happen. He’s the Rajovic of midfielders. Can’t tackle, can’t pass, can’t press, no awareness, but he can carry the ball and kick it hard and has a good work ethic. Fine with him as a squad option but I’d much rather see Vata or Baah start games now
Kayembe is built like a tank which fools people that he’s a defensive midfielder (think he’ll play further back occasionally when we need to), but he is better further up the pitch. Wasn’t Baah’s day today, but I think we’ll see him or Vata in time, which will be exciting
I think TDB gets an unfair amount of **** here. He carries the ball well and provides the defence with an option to play it out. I quite like him.
More often than not he gives an option, takes too many touches then plays it straight back to the defender or gives the ball away.
I agree. He has escaped criticism this season because he’s been doing quite well. But we lost today, and we need a boo boy. At least that’s how I see it from reading these comments, but I only managed to see the 2nd half today, and from what I could tell, the whole team was a bit crap.
Dele-Bashiru is excellent picking up a ball in a tight space and turning his man, making space for other players to get forward. Nobody else in the team can do that currently and it's a valuable tool when we need to get the ball from the defence to our attacking midfielders. People underestimate the importance of doing that. What lets him down is often his decision making after that point and I don't know if it will improve at this point. Is he a play-off level midfielder? Based on current evidence, no. Is he a mid-table midfielder? Based on current evidence, yes. And that's fine for our needs. He's played between an OK to a good level since the season started and has also avoided the type of injures that have already derailed Ngakia's promising season. You can't pin the team being off the boil against Shef Utd on him solely.
The tactic of ‘allow your marker to get too tight, drop your shoulder and turn into the space behind him with the ball’ works quite well against average Champ midfielders; as Sunday showed, it will not work often against the better teams. That means against the better teams, half his game will be prevented or even put us immediately under pressure as the ball is turned over in our half.
That's why I consider him a mid-table Championship quality player. It works on those around that level and below but above he gets caught too much currently to be reliable. I can see why Cleverley wants him there and I do think there's some development in his game but he's not above that level as it stands.
