But I'm not basing it off the same evidence. I'm basing it on the clips of all his goals and loads of his shots and the stats from those shots prior to him joining.
Sorry, that's surely not what LR has been constantly going on about, right? I didn't see it at the time and was only going off the picture painted in my head by LR's posts about it. If so, laughable to criticise to this extent.
Clips or no clips, claiming some sort of 'gotcha' about Araujo after today is hilarious. His lack of minutes under a seriously under-performing manager, who is choosing a striker who hasn't played well in months, and then prefers to bring on an out-of-shape free transfer sub really isn't the reflection on Araujo you think it is. Bilic is flailing around without a lift-raft. Araujo at this point is collateral damage to his downfall.
Even Haaland doesn’t score in every game and missed chances so harsh to really criticise a young lad playing in a new league - and not very often at that . I guess the thing is he came with a lot of hype and expectations.
LR did this the exact same thing with Cucho, and solemnly but persistently clung to his sinking ship of an opinion about him as every worldly he scored hit the back of the net. He then continued to do it as he broke record after record in the US, records which apparently didn’t count or matter because Almeron was only sold for £20m from that league, or something.
If anything I reckon (nothing to back this up other than pure personal belief) that I reckon Bilic has preferred Assombalonga purely because he reckons he's a fan favourite and might buy him more time.
For who though? Most of our fans probably hardly remember him playing more than 4/5 games 10 /12 years ago . Hard as if it’s a Helguson figure returning.
Keinan has 5.3 xG (expected goals) in 1,600 minutes. His current total of 4 goals is underperforming that, but even if he had overperformed and got 6 let's say, 6 goals in 1,600 minutes is no sensational return for a striker playing in one of the better teams of the league. So that figure can show us that clearly he is not getting on the end of enough chances and getting into positions to shoot as he would only be expected to score around 5 goals with the chances he's had, a paltry amount in 1,600 minutes. Finishing is another problem and he likely isn't great at that either which exasperates the situation. But is it his fault for having poor movement and not finding chances, or is it the team not giving him service? Luckily, we have some references who have played in the same position for Watford this season : Bayo - 4.9 xG in 936 minutes. Almost equal to the 5.3 of Davis whilst playing around 700 less minutes (0.47 xG/90). So when Bayo has played in the team we can surmise he has got on the end of far more chances and been in scoring positions much more often than Davis, which should come as no surprise having watched both - Bayo is far more fit and active and attacks the box. Rey Manaj - 1.4 xG in 180 minutes. Very small sample size but that is 0.7 xG per 90, meaning when Manaj played in the team he was finding roughly a couple big chances per game, compared to Davis 0.29/90. So it probably isn't the lack of service if other players have played there and got into scoring positions much more frequently - both the stats and the eye test can confirm that Davis's movement is ***** and he can't get into scoring positions. The issue of finishing is another entirely but also supported by the evidence as he's underperforming by -1.3 goals compared to what he's expected to score, meaning in terms of goal-scoring he is a recipe for disaster as he has really bad movement and also can't finish. Araujo has not played enough for us to form a solid opinion on him yet but based on his prior goalscoring record, even if it's not phenomenal, would really likely be able to score far more than Davis (who as I've explained is a nightmare when it comes to goalscoring). Hold-up play is something difficult to quantify statistically as it can come in different areas of the pitch, have a different importance based on game state or tactics of the opponent and doesn't show up clearly on stats but having watched our games this season I'm sure we can agree he is no marvel there. He loses the ball a lot when holding it up and it doesn't always stick great, he is also terrible in the air (stats show this!) and in duels, so bona fide target man he is not.
Araujo at least appeared in the right positions. He's clearly not a lone striker, and partnering Assombonga clearly doesn't count... Davis is absolute **** and is rarely in the box to challenge a cross. Araujo ahead of Davis any day.
So if he isn’t a lone striker how do we accommodate him if Davis and BA are poor? Who does he play upfront with ? Pedro ?
Where was that? The exact quote I can find from Bilic before WBA is: “The plan for Imran was to start against West Brom,” Bilic added. “That requires some minutes against Blackburn to break the ice, and some minutes against Burnley. We will see how he reacts to three days of training, and hopefully he will be fit to start the game.” No mention of 90 minutes, and in fact he wasn't even sure if he would be fit to start. https://www.watfordfc.com/news/team-news-watford-v-west-bromwich-albion And regardless of his comments, the facts have all pointed to a player who they're being careful with bringing back and whose minutes are clearly being carefully managed.
We also signed Porteous, Hoedt and Kone in January - they've all come in and managed to be quite good, regardless of what Bilic has supposedly been doing and your thoughts on him. If Araujo was good enough to help be Bilic's "lift-raft" (?) then he would surely play him to score us some goals and keep him in the job.
I think you're misrepresenting both my posts about Cucho and about Araujo. The more accurate analogy would be with my thoughts on Louza when we signed him - perhaps a talented young player, but the wrong signing for what we need/needed at the moment in time we signed them.
Deep in a vault at London Colney, sits a stack of print outs of posts on this forum, most of which admittedly came from TVOR, but detail years and years of Watford fans calling for Assombalonga to get a chance, or be signed back. Billic unwittingly found these while trying to purge the training ground offices of any trace left behind from former coaches. Vydra is next on his list.
I don’t know if there have been more since, I just remember this shortly after he signed: https://www.massivereport.com/platf...cord-setting-start-in-black-and-gold-mls-2022
Records or not, selling Cucho was a mistake. Even more so when any available money from the sale was spunked on Bayo,Manej and Davies. Really would have been better off keeping him.
I think sometimes people forget that these players don't want to be here. Cucho didn't want to stay at Watford, it was very evident in that documentary he had no intention of staying at Watford. I'd rather not have a team of talented players who don't want to play for us, which IMO is part of the issue with our current squad... Think we'd have been stupid not to cash in on him personally.
If we could’ve kept him it would’ve been a no brainer, but we probably needed the money and he probably didn’t want to be here. What the club definitely shouldn’t have done is gaslit the fans with the “rule of 11” nonsense. It’s ridiculously unnecessary and insulting.
I actually think the issue of a player “not wanting to be here” is quite a rare one. It usually happens when a bigger club show an interest in a player but his club tries to hold onto him, as we have seen in recent seasons with Mahrez at Leicester and van Dijk at Southampton. Most footballers are very young men for whom a season, or even half a season, seems a long time. So foreign players in particular work from one transfer window to the next and it doesn’t seem to matter to them if they are on loan or signed ‘permanently’, but for that period they are happy to play for the club they are at. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are putting in 100% effort, but they are not actively looking to leave. They can arrange that with their agent at the next window, which is what Cucho did. I honestly don’t get the impression that Sarr, for example, feels he is chained to the club and is frustrated that his every effort to leave has been thwarted.
I get the feeling Sarr likes to be a big fish in a small pond, he seems like that shy kid at school who easily had the talent to shine but who was always more comfortable blending in
Can't understand why he's only given 45mins to produce something before getting hooked, when that other lump Davis hasn't put in anything that even resembles a performance since Norwich away.
He’s a striker on a football pitch - going up against a pair of defenders should hardly have been a surprise.
