Three of the first five of those players played an important part in promotion last season though, with Cathcart playing 25 games (without checking I'd imagine most if not all of them were starts). I asked this on the Liverpool thread, and again, it baffles me why they shouldn't be bothered - we've just been promoted back to the big league and surely Liverpool (who we've got good results against in the Prem, or at least run close) would be one of the games they'd be looking forward to? In particular Masina seems to have gone backwards, even taking into account the superior quality of the opposition.
When it comes to the players, I think there is a large agreement on the guys who fans think should be either moved on or upgraded. They are mostly good decent pros, and most have had good times at the club, but they are not really helping us too much now. Some of the performances this season have been so bad that we really need to address the issue immediately. Are these players underperforming, or just not able to perform consistently well at the elite level? It's easy to say get rid of them all, but that's just not practical. We have too look at it in simple terms. We have to ask the question.......can this player play consistently well in the Premier League. If the answer is no, then we have to sell or demote them to backup. If they are not good enough even for backup, then they really should go. Cathcart was struggling to get into the side in the Championship. He was only being used as an emergency right back. So why is he now being used in virtually every game so far? WTE and Sierralta deserve a go at the top level, but neither have looked like making the grade so far, which is a concern. Kabs is far too injury prone and has been out for long spells in the last few seasons. It's time he's moved on. So that basically takes care of the entire CB situation. WTE and Sierralta good enough for backups. Cathcart and Kabs should be moved on. Goalkeepers is a bit of a problem. Both Foster and Bachmann have flaws in their game. Foster will be gone after this season I suspect, so we will need a new keeper in any case. This is wishful thinking, but I'd love to sign Sam Johnstone from West Brom. We're unlikely to get him unless West Brom don't go up and we stay up. Both scenarios seem unlikely. Maybe Udinese could help us out here as they seem to have an abundance of keepers. Full back on both flanks are a problem too. Rose is doing well, apart from his disaster show against Liverpool, but he's not a long term solution. Masina is not good enough. He is a good athlete, but he's making far too many mistakes these days. IMO, he's not even good enough as a backup. Kiko is not really an asset in the Premier League. He's one of those players who shines in the Championship, but can't really cut it at the top level. Ngakia is really raw, but has potential. He's certainly worth keeping hold of. Midfield needs to be added to. We have quite a few new players, so we need to give the bulk time to establish themselves. I would move on Gosling though. He's not required and is taking a wage and squad place. Up front, again probably needs adding too. I wouldn't get rid of anyone, but we need another central striker to play either with or in rotation for King. So, for me, the ones who should go would be Cathcart, Kabasele, Masina, Sema, and Gosling. I would keep Kiko as he's an exceptional Championship player just in case we go down. If we stay up, then Kiko to go in the summer along with Foster and Kucka. So that's 9 players who I think will or should go over the next 2 windows. It's quite a lot really, but I think it's fair. On the shopping list should be a new keeper, entire backline, a midfielder and a central striker. Get it done Gino.
You didn't mention Fletcher and I can't understand why he hasn't at least been given 20 mins in King's absence. Why was he signed otherwise? Dennis or Ken down one side, Sarr down the other, Fletcher up front and JP playing off him.
Fletcher was signed as cheap cover, with no intention of him ever setting foot on the pitch unless we have an injury crisis. Probably why we gave him a five year deal, as and when we get relegated he’ll probably be promoted to first choice.
With his weak foot as well. That p1ssed me off no end and I doubt Ranieri will forget it in a hurry either. One of the few times we actually had possession in the first half and that made it 2-0 and game over. Complete muppet.
Totally brain dead, as you say it was the first time we’d actually strung more than a couple of passes together and he does that. He obviously has the physical attributes to be a good footballer, but some of his decision making leads me to believe he is of below average IQ, there is no other explanation for some of them.
Does Ranieri ever play 4-3-3? If so, why not try the Sema/JP/Sarr trio that was so effective during the second half of last season at least for one game, maybe Southampton at home? I know Sema has been underwhelming this season but his appearances have been restricted to subs and playing alongside people he doesn't know. Why has JP still not started for that matter?? Or try Dennis or Cucho in Sema's place. To partly answer my own question, maybe that's the reason for the general lack of cohesion and spirit this season - we all know we have to strengthen the side, but it seems all these changes have left the team disjointed and lacking the camaraderie that was instrumental to our promotion push last season (who could forget Ken's fist pump after he made a vital defensive block to see the game out against Millwall and secure our promotion?).
Agreed, particularly given the way we played on Saturday, i.e. no more playing out from the back. Once it was clear the experiment with Sarr in the middle was not working, we might as well have had Pedro/Dennis playing off Fletcher with Sarr back on the wing.
Apologies, my mistake. The Kiko one I was thinking of was the first goal. He can clearly see Mane behind Cathcart and reacts far too late to try and get back in position. Maybe that's just down to terrible reading of the game, maybe it's laziness, who knows? To be fair it was an incredible ball from Salah but I think it could have been avoided, as soon as we lose the ball in midfield Kiko should have been dropping back as it's clear Cathcart had no idea where Mane was.
Can't really disagree with any of that, which highlights what a mess the squad is and what a massive rebuilding job is needed. It also begs the question of what the various well paid directors actually do for their money, especially when you look at clubs like Brentford or Brighton. The usual short termist approach that sees a bus load of random players dumped at London Colney every summer is clearly not working.
Can’t wait to get back to being a mid lower table championship club and all the social media clowns leaving.
The embarrassing vegetables off the pitch incidents that season compared to the embarrassing vegetables on the pitch on Saturday.
Jonno getting crippled by an X-rated challenge by Gerrard. A deliberate attempt to injure an opponent, he should have been red-carded for that. Charlie Miller was a massive disappointment for us that season too.
Funny how I remember that name when he didn't contribute anything really noteworthy that season. It could be just because I had a friend at school of that name (and no, I checked, he wasn't the same guy!).
He came from Rangers with a big reputation… And a big appetite too ! http://www.bsad.org/gone/cmiller.html
https://www.90min.com/posts/troy-deeney-going-out-five-times-a-week-watford Tremendous. If this was true it would be confirming that he'd been unprofessional for most of his career at Watford, as we can add going drinking every night in the early years to the repeatedly turning up to pre season overweight in latter years. Having said that, take everything he says with a massive pinch of salt.
This is a bit unclear, at what point did he supposedly stop going out 5 times a week? Besides, I get that he was yet to become Mr Watford, but surely there would have been someone at the club who'd have read the riot act to him and told him to cut it out sharpish, it's not as if he was a not featuring at all in the early days!
Probably out with the lads he got into trouble with ? Prison was potentially the best thing to happen to Troy.
He's a world class manager and, as I've said before, the highest profile manager we've ever had by a distance. Long way to go but the Pozzo's should be praised, not lambasted, for swapping the apprentice (Xisco) for the master as quickly as possible. Momentum will be very difficult with our fixture list but Ranieri is the best man for the job. To go from conceding 5 at home to scoring 5 away within a week is nothing short of miraculous.
It's not even just Xisco (though incredibly stark in that particular contrast), but when was the actual last time we saw any head coach of Watford assess and affect a game in-play in the way that Ranieri did this afternoon? Off the top of my head, I think we'd probably have to go all the way back to Jokanovic at Brighton, wouldn't we?
As big as an impact Pearson had initially, he still got caught in the trap of staring Deeney ahead of Welbeck despite what his eyes were probably telling him. In Ranieri’s second game he hooks Sarr because he’s playing crap, not many of our managers in the Pozzo era would’ve done that.
I suppose Gracia bringing Deulofeu on in the semi against Wolves would also count. What I liked most about todays subs was Ranieri was going to bring on Dennis and Pedro even before they scored, he knew we could win and those were ultra positive changes.
Yeah, absolutely, he did have that initial impact, but then he was as bad an offender as any for running out of ideas and not being able to actually impact games tactically - it either just worked, or we were sunk. You're right; both Ranieri's pedigree (and possibly to a lesser degree relationship with the hierarchy) means he isn't going to meekly accept certain players regardless of performance.
It's probably the closest between then and now, but for me essentially just bringing off one player for another, better one in the same position isn't really the same thing as what Claudio did today, you know? Not only the impact of bringing Sarr off, and bringing the two particular players on, but changing the shape and set-up in doing so, to devastating effect.
Yeah I take that point about the semi and no arguments about the change of shape. What I saw was manager and coaches saying we 'can win this' - it might not work everytime but it's encouraging that they can see it and try something.
