Football News: Team Review - Watford

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Team Review - Watford

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League Position: 2nd (Championship)

Goalkeepers:

Daniel Bachmann
Pontus Dahlberg
Ben Foster
Rob Elliott

I know Ben Foster is beloved by Watford fans, but he is nowhere near top class as a keeper, even when not making mistakes (which he does far too often). It is clear they will be sticking with him and Bachmann being the main choices and that is a mistake in my opinion. Neither is good enough at this level from what I have seen. Unless Dahlberg turns out to be a revelation, which seems unlikely judging by the reports of his loan spells, they need to upgrade their keepers.

Defenders:

William Troost-Ekong
Christian Kabasele
Craig Cathcart
Francisco Sierralta
Mattie Pollock
Adam Masina
Danny Rose
Kiko Femenia
Jeremy Ngakia
Marc Navarro

It is not a defensive line-up to put fear into opposing attackers at all, in fact the bizarre decision to sign Danny Rose makes me really worry for this team. He does not even like playing, has a dreadful attitude and is exactly the kind of player you do not want around young players coming through. Unless they play a very defensive system, this defence does not look capable of keeping clean sheets on a regular basis. It has the look of a relegation team.

Midfielders:

Nathaniel Chalobah
Imran Louza
Will Hughes
Peter Etebo
Domingos Quina
Tom Cleverley
Dan Gosling
Tom Dele-Bashiru
Kwasi Sibo
Ken Sema

An odd mix in midfield of journeymen players like Cleverley and Gosling, added to a bunch of extremely raw players such as Louza, that they are taking a chance on coming good. So long as someone does come good, then it works, otherwise they are in trouble as there is a real lack of quality and creativity.

Forwards:

Kwadwo Baah
Ismaila Sarr
Philip Zinckernagel
Joshua King
Joao Pedro
Cucho Hernandez
Emmanuel Dennis
Andre Gray
Ashley Fletcher
Troy Deeney
Isaac Success
Stipe Perica
Filip Stuparevic

I can only imagine that a number of these forwards will go out on loan, because there simply is not enough room in a squad to keep them all happy and playing in the first team. There are two things that I see when I look at this list, firstly injuries. There are a lot of players there that miss significant chunks of time through injuries. Secondly a complete lack of goals. None of them are prolific. That cost the Hornets in their last spell in the Premier League, it looks like doing so again.

Manager: Xisco

Very much an unknown quantity with virtually no experience (as far as I can see he has managed just 11 games in his career). Your guess is probably as good as mine about him!

Conclusion:

A squad that looks like a relegation battler, though you can never tell for sure, especially in current circumstances when it only takes one positive covid test to rule half a team out for a few games. If they can get a bit of luck, they might well do enough to avoid being drawn into a relegation dogfight, but they do not look good enough to survive without it.

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Written by Tris Burke July 20 2021 17:45:50