Dan Phillips now has as many open play goals this season as Deeney did last season and better record on pens. Can we get him back and stick him up top instead of Deeney?
Big pressure on Cucho then - has he even played a game in this country. Big ask for a young kid to be the "hero" as some hope (same with Dennis) I'd be more confident if King was fit and playing - proven at this level.
It's definitely true that we can't rely on Cucho alone to be a 'hero' and singlehandedly keep us up, but at the same time he has spent the last three consecutive seasons playing in La Liga, making more than 20 league appearances in each one - he isn't exactly a callow ingenue, and he's nothing like, say, JP, in terms of experience and the stage of his career he is at when he arrives with us.
Pahahaha ah to be back in the PL where nobody knows anything about teams outside the top 6 and never bothers to even try
They had a 2 hour "preview" on 5live last night and basically it was the top 4 plus a few others then us promoted 3 fitted in right at the end with about a minute on each if that.
Wish I was going to this, it feels a long long time since football was open. Regardless of whether Troy should play or what formation we line up in, it's good to have our fans back. Also I think we'll win it and get the season on its way. Villa are massively overrated and have lost their talisman. (Who isn't worth half what Abu Dhabi paid btw).
I understand it but I still despise the media bias towards the big 4/6, whatever it is now. It's truly nauseating at times. Sky will give us a week of build up for Man Utd vs Liverpool at some point this season and the game will be an absolute borefest.
The big worry this season is that by the time it becomes obvious to even the most extreme Deeney simps that he shouldnt be in the side, we'll have dropped so many points against beatable opposition that we'll already have one foot back in the champo.
Bachmann Kiko Troost-Ekong Cathcart Masina Cleverley Hughes Etebo Sarr Deeney Sema You ******* love to see it.
That's probably close to the starting line up. I'd just swap out Cathcart for Sierralta plus Cucho for Sema and that will probably be how we'll start.
I think we'll be competitive. Cucho and Sarr will cause teams a lot of problems. The midfield looks a lot better with Hughes in it already. I think Etebo will do well for us and we know Cleverley will give his all. Central defence with Sierralta is a vastly different prospect to a defence without him. Kiko and Sarr linking on the right will give Villa issues. I think we'll win this one. 2-1 to Watford. Deeney and Cucho to score the goals.
If you're a natural pessimist like myself then we have no idea how Troost-Ekong and Sierralta will do in the PL, Kiko and Masina have shown themselves to be inadequate at best, Hughes will be blowing out of his arse by half time and probably doesn't want to be here, Cleverley will be done by half time as well and we have the worst striker in the league.
If he is in training it'll be hilarious to suddenly start him after shoving him into the U23s for pre-season. Well, hilarious for Villa fans.
Maybe he's starting for Villa. I'm looking forward to it especially as Villa are nursing a few injuries. No doubt it will be a starting three up top of Cucho, Deeknee and Sarr, whether it works out I don't know. But I'm going DeeKnee first goalscorer, easy money.
1-0 up through a Cucho strike, Sarr goes off injured. Gray comes on. Lose 4-1. Tough afternoon for the Hornets.
He had some good games of course, every player does at some point. Fine going forward but his primary job is to defend and at PL level he is caught out far too often.
Much as it should clearly be Cucho, every fibre of my being is telling me the teamsheet is going to come out at 2.01pm on Saturday with King Ken lining up next to Deeney, for double the disaster.
No, he wasn't. Complete revisionist history. He's been a massive liability defensively since day one.
He had some reasonable spells to be fair to him, but was generally pretty poor defensively and cataclysmically bad in our relegation season.
It beats me how any of our lot might think that their lot, with 2/3 of their marquee signings missing, having lost their talisman, holding onto their decrepit Bullring and with an accent like blowing through your nose having unfortunately swallowed a condom, could possibly get the upper hand on the mighty 'Orns on this occasion.
Deeney always has a blinder against Villa. For me he's the first name on the team sheet this week. Everyone knows that he's not the (superb) player he once was but he's still an intelligent footballer who contributes plenty. He's been an outstanding servant to Watford FC so why don't the moaners get off his back
Villa have now joined West Ham and Newcastle as delusional fans who think they are massive clubs because they get 40k+ fans but seem to blind to the fact that none of them have won anything since colour tv ( apart from Villas flukey European cup win )
