England u19 international. Comfortable on the ball playing out long passes from flank to flank with ease having been a former midfielder. Good strength on the ball, good anticipation indicating a burgeoning reading of the passage of play. Let's hope he develops into a top class centreback with us and an England player along the lines of a Maguire, Stones and possibly after this World Cup Alfie Mawson.
Played very well yesterday I thought. Won a number of tackles, and moved well with the ball. Good option to have In the squad, assuming he's not loaned out
If there was any lingering doubt, Gracia apparently confirmed in his press conference yesterday that he sees Wilmot as a midfielder. So he's not in contention fill in for Kaba.
Bit strange isn’t it? Midfielder gets converted to defender and excels to the point of having big 6 clubs interested. We buy him, convert him back to midfielder and won’t even consider him as a centre back.
It is. Particularly as you have to think his chances of breaking through into the first team as a midfielder are much less than in central defence.
Great, can never have enough midfielders, he can keep Chalobah, Cleverley and Hughes company on the bench while we play 442. Who needs centre backs anyway.
The New Pozzo Model. Let's sign players in our weakest areas then force them to play in our strongest. Next window we finally sign Paco Alpaca and push him into the Chalobah role as back up for back up.
Strange isn't it, get Deeney to cover for Holebas, Success in for Kabasele, Hughes up front and that leaves space for Gomes on the right wing.
I hate this sort of thing. Guardiola loves it. Lahm, best full back of his generation, converted into a midfielder. We need a CB and were stuck with 3 proven-to-be-average replacements. Play the boy, at least we know he'll give 100% and I bet he'd nail down a place. Is he seriously there to compete with Doucoure, Capoue and Chalobah? What a waste of talent, restricted to the Carabao Cup. Loan him out and he'll show you he's a CB.
I’d love Wilmot to be given a run out at centre half. I’ve run out of patience with Kabasele, I hope he doesn’t wear the watford shirt again. Cathcart seemed to be getting what I considered unnecessary flak from some supporters. Playing alongside Kabasele, Bobby More would’ve looked jittery. I would imagine a partnership of Cathcart and Wilmot would be far more consistent. Hey, they both tackle with their correct feet for one!
Tom’s brother? A man of all seasons. But with a tendency to be somewhat headless on occasions. Good God, I’m turning into @RookeryDad.
Worked out well for Chalobah and Eric Dier, so I’m not going to get too upset if he’s being used in that role right now. Doesn’t rule out that he’ll move back once he fills out a bit. Could it also be a way of developing his ability on the ball, and get him comfortable using the ball in pressure situations? I think if this had come out right after the Spurs game, people wouldn’t be fussed, but as we’ve lost a couple of games now, it’s a bit easier to see things negatively.
He'll only develop anything in the role by playing in it. At this rate he'll next be seen in January and only then if we draw someone suitably lowly in the FA Cup.
What an odd post. We bought a prospect CB who was attracting attention from Spurs/Arsenal. We then immediately converted him to CM where we are very well stocked and he has very small chance of game time, and in the meantime we have the likes of Marriappa/Prodl in line for CB duty. It hardly seems off to debate this logic without the need for snide comments from yourself.
That's right Jumbo and you're in the vanguard of those who know better than the coaching staff aren't you, as per usual? Bless, have a nice weekend.
Probably applies to the whole forum I guess. Perhaps we should shut it down and not debate anything. What a strange attitude you have.
And for the short time he was on the pitch did not look out of place. Many centrebacks at his age are being tried as defensive midfielders and vice versa. The emphasis being on ball playing footballers who can flood the midfield with an extra player and provide another creative outlet. Wilmot will learn a fair amount from playing different roles and he has the ability to do it. Made his u20 debut against the Czech Republic earlier this week as well and is firmly on the radar of the England set up.
Jumbo, you have absolutely no idea why we signed him, or what position we anticipated him playing, any more than I do. The fact that he played CB at Wycombe, three divisions lower, is not in any way evidence that we saw him playing there for us. He's 18 years old, I'd suggest we simply saw him as a talented young player and wanted to see how he developed, but apparently you know better. You can discuss whatever you like, but if you're going to proffer stupid opinions, you shouldn't be surprised if someone points out the stupidity involved. However, I've noticed previously just how thin a skin you appear to have when challenged, so your subsequent butthurt surprises me not one jot.
Stevenage wasn't it? We are probably developing him to play in a number of positions - many young pros change in that regard . Anyway did Prodl get injured hence Wilmott coming on?
Can you isolate one post where anybody above posted anything that should be considered “stupid”? It’s a forum. We debate things Watford related. If you won’t tolerate debate of player positions, formations, signings and substitutions then I’d suggest an Internet forum isn’t the place for you. Your snide comments don’t add anything I’m afraid.
1. We didn't "convert him back to a midfielder" - the coaching staff have assessed him and consider that, currently, that's his best position. It's also entirely possible, if not likely, that they made that assessment before he was even signed. 2. You have no idea whether we considered him as a centre back, you've simply jumped on a statement from the head coach and put your own, uninformed slant on it. I really don't have the time or inclination to help you dig your hole any further, but you will doubtless carry on regardless.
Don’t worry. Only a very odd person would take such issue over people discussing a player’s position in a football chat room so I’ll put you on ignore so no need for anymore tedious interaction with you. Enjoy your valueless sniping at other posters when they discuss a substitution.
It needs to be remembered that the person overseeing our youth teams these days was his manager at Stevenage so I dare say his opinion has been taken when we've looked at his future at the club. IMO, he will probably be play both positions as in a kind of Dier/Ledley King type player who is equally adept at playing either position. I share Jumbolina's opinion that it would somehow seem odd to buy a player with a widely regarded big future and then play him out of his perceived position that has garnered him such positive reviews and interest. That being said, he is young enough to take on a new position at his age and when he joined, he said he'd turned down bigger clubs because we offered him interaction with the 1st team as opposed to youth football - I'd be of the opinion that he's been thoroughly scouted and informed of our plans for him in advance of him signing. His switch to CM will be little surprise to him I imagine and may well even be something he himself has encouraged. I think the frustration comes when we are in need of good CB's and are well stocked in CM - yet we are feeding a position of strength with a position of weakness.
Yeah. Apart from world cups I suppose. Kyle Walker on being asked to switch to centre back: “It’s not a difficult situation but a strange one. I’ve worked my whole life to go to the World Cup as a right back. I was a little bit surprised. It was something new”.
What do you mean? I’m assuming by ‘convert’, people mean a player is trained and coached a certain position, different to the one they usually play?