Is this the worst squad assembled in the Pozzo era? It's definitely the worst PL squad we've had under them.
It's still notable for how unbalanced it is, with several key areas missing in action, and how many pure malcontents it contains. From the outside, you'd have absolutely no idea how it was assembled, and I doubt you'd assume it was put together by one single kitchen-cabinet style group - in isolation, you'd bet the house on it being the result of a recent change in ownership, or at least a recruitment and decision making structure in total flux.
But then you get people like Neil Warnock claiming we have "the best squad of all the clubs down there": https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/roy-hodgson-watford-fc-manager-26059768
Mmmmmm - I guess it's just a lack of actual knowledge, combined with a vague awareness that we have a couple of players like Sarr and Dennis, as well as a 'prem-famous' player in Sissoko? We might potentially have the most impactful star players on their day but no doubt our 'squad' taken as you actually assess one, in its entirety, is the worst constructed. Norwich might well have less quality across the park and dressing room, but as we've seen, that's meaningless when you don't have even the beginnings of a platform to allow the 'talent' to display itself.
I reckon he can get Foster, Rose, Sissoko, Cleverley, Gosling, Sarr, Dennis and King. Then he’s really struggling after that.
He should be able to name the players that played against him last year as well: Bachmann, Cathcart, Masina, WTE, Femenia/Ngakia, Pedro. And maybe Fletcher because of the Boro connection too.
Don’t be naive, Warnock is playing the long game, he knows we’re going down and he’s already laying the foundations for when we face whichever championship no hopers he’s managing next season. “How can we compete with Watford? I told you last season they had the best squad of all the teams down the bottom, and now they’re in the championship with us”
Think you'll be amazed how much knowledge people like him have and while he may not know every player I suspect he knows a good percentage.
I would probably actually agree that we have the best squad "down there" in terms of pure footballing talent. The problem is that, alongside that, we also have some absolutely horrendous footballers who regularly start games for us which handily counteracts the talent we do have, as well as a squad with questionable heart, professionalism and work ethic, and have so far spent the season being managed by a woefully underqualified, tapas restaurant waiter and a senile, OAP Italian who supposedly kept wandering away from the training ground, presumably looking for his marbles. If Roy can somehow drill some discipline, desire and structure into them and we avoid major injuries, we still have a decent chance. I won't hold my breath, though.
How are we doing on the home grown malarkey? I don’t pretend to know the rules and can’t be bothered to look them up, but we don’t seem to bother with them much anymore? Off the top of my head Deeney, Gray (I know he chose to play for Jamaica, but will be Homegrown) Hughes and Chalobah left in the summer who were all HG. As well as TDB and Quina who I presume are as well. Rose will be gone surely, is King HG? Can’t think of anyone else we’ve brought in during the summer that were HG, then another four this window that definitely aren’t? We must be sailing fairly close to the wind? It might mean junk like Gosling and Fletcher have to be kept around whether we like it or not.
You don't have to look it up, just read the thread, it has been clearly mentioned by some of the posters a few times. I know its hard to follow the topic in a lot of threads, due to the numerous posts by some people completely off topic.
Currently we have: Bachmann, Cathcart, Cleverley, Elliot, Fletcher, Foster, Gosling, King, Rose and Troost-Ekong. That’s 10, so we can’t bin off more than 2 of them if we want to keep a full-sized squad.
In my opinion that has a squad of 17 players I’m personally happy to see on the pitch and they do cover all positions for various formations. Getting injured players back, wrapping everyone up in cotton wool and avoiding suspensions is key and we’ve got a chance.
So no one left and we regained Quina apparently. So we’ve now got 29 players. We make the rules. We use who we like.
Quina to Barnsley should be confirmed some time tonight or tomorrow. A deal sheet was submitted before the deadline. Very poor though to have put ourselves in a situation where we’ll be paying three players who we don’t have space to register.
Yes forgot about him but agree R and R might like a Gosling type player . Is Nkoulou out long term ? Basically means we swapped one central defender for another really .
Not sure on Nkoulou. I just think if he's back in March he'll then need another few weeks to build up any kind of fitness again. Just seems pointless including him even though he's probably the best of a bad bunch.
As predicted, the contracts we have them on combined with Pozzo stubbornness means it’s very hard to get them out even on loan.
Where are the people saying Fletcher was a good buy because we’ll be raking it in on loan fees? We’ll probably be paying him not to work for next four months.
There are still a few relentlessly ploughing on, but I think it’s just become a bit of a sunk cost fallacy to them now (or just a wind up) I doubt they really believe what they’re saying at this stage.
