Yaser Asprilla

Not sure if anyone has posted this somewhere already, but little interview with Asprilla post game. I don't recall seeing him interviewed previously so found it interesting. He's got a lovely smile and a solid selection of Spanish football clichés.

https://www.watfordfc.com/news/reaction-asprilla-discusses-sheffield-wednesday-win

 

He manages to have a little dig at Rajovic"s positioning skills at 45 seconds in, but he can't even remember his name and just refers to him as "the striker". I like Asprilla and hope he plays more.

 

I’m sure we all believe him to be our most exciting and creative player (not hard though) BUT always think he’s more effective as an impact sub rather than one that should start

 

Agree. I think its easy to forget with his ability and influence, that he only turns 20 next month.

Being on his 4th HC since he came isn't going to help his development either.

 

Not lacking in confidence is he? Can see this on the pitch too, always pointing to others where to go and calling for the ball.

Think he'll have a great career after he leaves here. Technical skills to flourish somewhere like La Liga.

 

Will be a great player for Brighton in two years time

 

And positioning is what Rajovic does best.

 

Wouldn’t surprise me at all, they are probably the only club that will agree our valuation, and Pedro seems to be doing ok at the moment!

 

Sema had a hell of a lot to do from there, but a good pickout to give him the opportunity to get at them

 

His most consistent run of games but whilst it’s obvious to see improvement in other players, Asprilla seems stunted. He seems to have a fan base ready to make excuses for him at every turn but for a player with such natural obvious talent he doesn’t seem to be grasping the opportunity of a sustained run in the team.

 

I came away yesterday thinking it would be a kindness if we loaned him out in the summer to a league where he can actually develop properly for a season, maybe La Liga. No way he reaches his potential playing football at this level with so much pressure on him to produce something.

 

They both have plenty of the ball. They just aren’t very effective.

 

The problem for Asprilla and other players who are getting clog from some posters on this forum
is that there is no "end product" for their "end product". I know I am sounding like a broken record but I shall keep rattling on nonetheless. If we had a half decent striker who could hold the ball up/get on the end of things etc then no one would be moaning about midfielders\defenders and their lack of assists .
Neither of our "goalscorers" up top look like relieving any pressure for the team .
Yes Bayo runs around a bit chasing after the ball . That's his job BTW because what is the alternative ?

 

Asprilla missed an absolute sitter yesterday and an absolute sitter at Bristol City. He’s better from the bench.

 

That is true but at least he is missing chances that he has probably created himself .

 

Yesterdays sitter was set up by Lewis, and the sitter at City was set up after brilliant work from Giorgi and Rajovic.

 

I get that the forward line, such as it is, is awful. I've said as much elsewhere.

But players like Asprilla, Martins, Chak etc aren't helping themselves either. Too many mazy runs into trouble everyone can see from a mile off. Too many overhit or high crosses. Too often turning down opportunities to shoot and instead passing the buck. And, yesterday in particular from Asprilla, playing godawful underpowered simple passes to teammates resulting in Cardiff winning the ball back. None of that is anything to do with Bayo or Raj being bobbins.

 

Seems to play in a different position every game and we’re moving to a different one every half.

Not sure what he’s good at, doesn’t get hold of games, drive us forward and goes into hiding frequently.

I don’t know if he’s just not all that good or whether it’s just playing for a rubbish team in this poxy division that’s the problem. Either way, he needs to leave at the end of the season for his own good.

 

So the sitter missed by a player getting criticized was set up by Lewis a player getting clog for a lack of end product ? .

 

I think it was Lewis, I can't be certain. Lewis is trash regardless.

 

He’ll go to Brighton and shine and we’ll all wonder why we sold him for £20m not £50m.

 

Yaser seems to be developing fine . This is essentially his breakthrough season even though he played last season . A bit of inconsistency is to be expected , especially with the changing of positions . Think he’s gonna be a great player .

 

He's played as the number 10, or in a front 2 where he still drops deeper than Welbeck and Ferguson, in basically all of his Brighton games this season. He's basically never played as the lead the line striker for Brighton. Hmmm.....

We sold JP for the 8th highest ever fee for a player from the Championship (actually higher if only count players who'd actually played at least half a season in the Champ before being sold as opposed to being sold by clubs only just relegated); it wasn't "low". Bellingham went to Dortmund from Birmingham for £5mil less!

 

Yes I'm not overly concerned by his development, he's started to add goals to his game, which he lacked entirely last season. But of course he still has much he needs to improve on.

I think the main problem he's had here has only been in the last couple of games where Ismael has shunted him to the left wing where he just isn't suited at all and noticeably looks lost. He needs to be playing either as the RW or furthest forward midfielder. It's that simple.

Aside from him having been out of position in only the last couple of games, the times he's put in underwhelming performances, or managed to miss sitters when drifting in off the flank, are due to his inconsistencies and abilities as a player, not from us giving him poor coaching or not enough opportunities.

And back to the subject of JP - it's bizarre that people are using him doing well at Brighton (where he basically hit the ground running) as somehow a stick to beat us with. If anything it demonstrates that we developed JP well to the point whereby it has clearly not required too much effort on Brighton's part for him to also do well there. It's not like they needed a whole season of teaching him to forget everything he'd learned here and getting him up to speed. And the majority of players will naturally look better when playing with better players around them, it's just how it goes.

I've made a similar point with our youth development with the fact that Harry Amass was recognised as one of Man Utd's best academy players within months of him having joined them from us. If we weren't coaching these players properly then they wouldn't be having such a good and quick impact when moving up a level.

 

As LR said, I have no qualms about how he's developing. His stats have largely improved from last season, although finishing still remains a slight weakness - but he's still creating (either by shooting himself or by creating chances for team-mates) 0.42 xG per 90, which as a youngster who only turned 20 a few months ago isn't to be sniffed at all (only Morgan Rogers, Fatawu + Harry Leonard rank higher out the U21 players in the league)

 

I would say we did a pretty good job developing Pedro from the skinny kid from Brazil at 17 to the player we sold for £30m. Yes he's worth more than that now but I think he'd reached the ceiling with us in terms of how much we could get. I think your hate of Pozzo gets in the way sometimes

 

Can't see this happening......but if the offer is a big one I wouldn't rule it out.

Club identify Watford player as target for out of window deal – Have received approval from manager - Sport Witness

 

Can't really see them having the money (although they did just get €30m from Bayern) to land him. Their record transfer is £14m and that was over 20 years ago and they have only paid above a £10m fee only 4 times in their history, even with our financial issues I can't see us parting with him for anything less than £20m - especially as this won't give us the chance to replace him.

 

Personally I don’t think he is anywhere near to being a first choice for a lower to middling Premier League team. He needs at least another 40 league starts under his belt before he could contribute in an environment where the pressure was really on the team from the start of the season. Everyone of those sort of teams needs goals from their more offensive midfield players. His goals tally really needs to improve, (it’s getting better, five goals since April 2023), before anyone splashes the cash.