Players on paper we wanted to go and watch but they failed to turn up. Rob has an incredibly hard job re building that dressing room with the dross served to him won’t be easy. Seems like he’s doing a great job with team building pre season. Pedro will be gone and his hopes rely on Jason Lee’s doppelgänger Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've just seen someone on Twitter say that Kabasele has been solid so far this season, Cathcart decent but Sierralta looks rusty. I've been critical of Sierralta and don't think he's PL quality but surely anyone with eyes can see that he's been our best centre back so far??
Not sure there's a lot in it. All have weaknesses in my book, though I'd have Sierralta as best of a bad bunch.
Just back from Preston. I left the ground reasonably happy, thinking that at this stage of our evolution, 0-0 at Deepdale was a decent result. Now I am reading the comments from folk watching on grainy rivers, etc and the satisfaction has evaporated
Thought there were enough positives today, despite the line up. I think we’re slowly starting to improve at working the ball forward from the back, and switching the ball a bit quicker to unbalance the opposition. Asprilla looks like a real talent, and a couple of his balls over the top, or played into space for runners were a different class to anything I remember seeing from us over the last few years. Excellent vision, and the confidence to try things. He’s going to be really influential. Kayembe put in a decent performance and showed a little more ability to carry the ball between the lines. The most hideously one-footed professional footballer I’ve ever seen, and it limits him a great deal. Louza should replace him as soon as fit. Choudhury all over the place again. It’s nice to have somebody capable of covering ground and breaking up play. Looks really comfortable this level. Bayo was complete dogshit. Weak, ineffective and miserable in front of goal. Maybe if he gets a goal or two and finds some confidence, he’ll be useful, because he’s got some physical tools to be a threat. Not sure I see it happening though. Prefer Manaj, who at least has awareness of other players around him; and puts himself about a bit. We need Davis fit, and if Sarr/JP both leave, a striker with some proper pace to complement him. Definitely need depth in the wing back spots, and a defender capable of consistently threading a ball into midfield. I feel quite optimistic. There are some promising signs of our play developing. Failure to address the obvious weaknesses in the next 2 weeks might see that optimism drain away, but I think we’re probably 3 decent signings away from being really competitive at the top of the table. Whether Pozzbury deliver those players is probably a debate for another day/thread.
That's as weak a lineup as we've had all season, the weakest we've had in the Championship for a loooong time (even those ****** sides we had under Ivic usually had at least one of Sarr and JP), I'll take a point, agreed that there are plenty of positives from the performance. In addition to whatever signings we might make, I'm really looking forward to seeing Choudhury, Louza and Asprilla play together, that seems like a really balanced midfield who can excel at this level. Looks like we need an LCB, RCB, RWB and a striker at least, possibly a creative midfielder but we at least have some semblance of that even if it's not reasonable to expect Asprilla to shine game in game out
I am surprised that anyone thought we would win at Deepdale even if Sarr, JP and Dennis had been playing.
Weirdly the correlation between people thinking we’d win was directly correlated to how many of those players would start, weird one I know.
Cathcart hasn't been any worse tbf. Sierralta lost his man with a ball over the top yesterday, fortunately for us they lacked the finish.
We just need an Abdi, Spring like player and one striker to start banging and we are sorted. Don't worry about the other positions!
I watched the first half and listened to the second half on hive. It was a strange experience, as the imminent departures of Sarr and Pedro are overshadowing things and it is difficult not to compare our remaining players to the ones leaving. Bayo doesn’t seem up to it, but that might be unfair, given that he may need some time to adjust. Minaj seems to have a bit more about him, but his finishing is a concern. Davis will hopefully be a level above those two. Asprilla looks a great find. Our CBs can do the basic defending (heading, straightforward tackling) but their distribution is substandard. Simple 10 to 20 yard passes we’re going astray. That is a concern as it immediately puts us under pressure and prevents us from linking play through midfield. Kayembe looked assured and more confident and actually had more intent from an attacking point of view. Can’t understand the persistence of playing Kamara on the right. Is it for a dare or to force Pozzos to secure a RWB? All and all, I feel somewhat grumpy about the loss of two exceptional players at this level and the gap in quality left behind. However, we are still unbeaten and have the prospect of a more enjoyable season than last ahead of us. And you never know, maybe there is a plan to unearth a new superstar, that we are not privy to.
You will send Jason Lee into a mental tailspin. He still has not recovered from the chants from the terraces all those years ago.
No "grainy rivers" here. Watched in glorious FHD and switched over to the Bournemouth game reasonably happy too, thinking not a bad game for nil nil. Now I am reading comments from folk on here like you, but I thought yawn, same faces, same whinges.
It's a long time since I've felt so pessimistic about our short term future. Yet we are second. Strange times. The next 10 days will be crucial for our season imho.
It would also be pretty interesting if we somewhow ended up keeping both JP and Sarr past the cut off date. That would mean, up until January at least, we would have two of our known better players to carry us into the new year. That would almost certainly change the dynamic of the side to what Rob wants to do - and he has outright stated he wants JP to stay. In that sense, I always got the feeling Edwards wants to build his ideas around Pedro being the central focus of the attack. Even if we do lose Sarr it won't be a massive loss on the condition Edwards is allowed to weave his ideas into the side and everyone is onboard.
I think creative/goalscoring midfielder is more important than RCB. Gaspar can also probably play at RCB, while we don't really have anyone who looks adept at scoring goals from midfield.
It's a testament to how crap the championship is. Indeed. If we have Davis, Manaj and Bayo as our strikers, we carry very little threat.
Well it's looking likely that we are going for a RCB in Stephens. Louza had a decent scoring record in Ligue 1, I don't see any reason he can't chip in with his fair share in the Championship
A winnable game for both sides I suppose. Neither deserved the win imo. Workman like by both. Definitely no standout sides in the league as of now. Must admit I'm excited about seeing Davis. Both our forwards had moments and then moments of madness. Asprilla was a joy though and I'm expecting a Premier club to soon start looking at him already. Still extremely weak at the back but if Stephens and Hause are added it will hopefully become more stable. It's going to be some busy 10 days in the market. Still some extremely good players out there available, Ginos time is now.
Definitely wouldn't be the right move, he's only made 3 appearances in England so far! Look at JP, we pretty much didn't hear a word about bigger clubs wanting him until they'd seen him with 2 years under his belt
I suspect his moderate approach may enrage some of the more entrenched on here (and at least one, obliquely referenced, on Twitter), but Matt Rowson remains, for me, one of the most insightful, articulate, balanced and intelligent writers about all football, not just Watford, out there. https://bhappy.wordpress.com/2022/08/21/preston-north-end-0-watford-0-20-08-2022/ And to nip in the bud the inevitable comments/jokes, I have never met him and, no, I don’t have a pod.
Maybe because PNE is a bang average Championship team. They were 13th last season and scored one goal in total this season, while we played in the PL last season. We should be beating them. What I find even more concerning is that judging by the comments performace wasn't that good either. It seems like we'll struggle unless we get some signings.
Yes, can't believe I sat and watched the whole game - this Championship season has got me hooked already!
We 'should' be beating them if we had our best team available to us, but we didn't, did we? Right now we have the bones of a promotion chasing squad, two star forwards who are probably about to go, but just a small part of the proceeds could really help us to bring in those missing links
