Watford squad profile evaluation ahead of the 24/25 season

“If you want a well oiled machine then supply the leader with oil”

It’s transfer season, which has become its own sport to some fans. You can now “win a transfer window” if you sign lots of players regardless if the quality or the logic behind those signings make sense or not. The art of having a coach that can improve players is lost, you either sign players or you get left behind, there’s no middle ground. 90% of English clubs don’t have money, so signing 8-10 players of real quality is nye on impossible, you have to budget for the most important parts of your team, as well as being creative in the market, but that entirely depends on the recruitment team already at your club. When it comes to Watford specifically, I think we’re lacking three key profiles in the squad, four if Louza leaves the club. I’ll simplify it going through each outfield position, which by the way is a very basic way of doing things and I can assure you at club level it’s a lot more nuanced, sometimes too detailed. With squad building and profiling, you want every player to compliment one another, intangible and tangible. It’s basically the circuit wherever your power is in your house — you’ve got the main breaker handle and then below the branch circuit which gets everything else powered up and running smoothly in your house. Long example short: it needs to make sense. Everything has a purpose but different levels of purpose.

Cleverley has made it very clear in how we wants to play this season. 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 depending on the opposition I presume. Off the ball to squeeze the opposition in so we can regain the ball quickly and closer to their goal, on the ball to have speed down the flanks and get the ball to the 10s as quickly as possible. However, football matches are won in both boxes — how well you defend one and how well you stick the ball in the net in the other, it’s quite simple. But what happens in the middle of the field is, to me, the most important way of knowing how you’ll have more chances to stick the ball in the goal. The midfield unit is the most important part of any team, the striker is the most important figure of any team. The midfield can swing the momentum of a game but the striker will win you games regardless if he scores or not. Anyway, enough of the foreplay, into evaluating the Watford squad.

In central defence, I think we’re just ok. It’s not the best in the league and it’s not the worst in the league. We have players that have considerable strengths — Hoedt with his passing and Pollock with his aerial and box defending. But there is one thing they all do lack and that’s mobility and speed. In order to properly squeeze a team in, you do need some form of speed/acceleration if a ball gets played in behind and the sweeper keeper in Bachmann isn’t there to mop up. I think Tikvic does offer that in some form, but the question marks around him are is he ready to play weekly in the Championship. I personally would like to move Hoedt to the central of a back three, albeit there is an argument to say that hinders his ball playing ability but I think that can easily be worked around if you create patterns of play that takes the entirety of responsibility away from Hoedt in build-up. With possession, in my head you have to pick who the most important piece is in each department (defence, midfield, attack). With defence, it’s Wesley Hoedt.

If Watford were playing a back four, I’d say the full back position is arguably the most important of the team but in this system we’re looking to play, I think they’re arguably lowest on the list. Cleverley wants speed and endurance and he’s got that in one player and that’s Ryan Andrews. Judging from the pre season games so far, the role of the wingback is as you’d expect, stay high and wide and get crosses into the box at every opportunity as there’s as many as five players waiting. Watford have to recruit a speedy left wing back otherwise the system just won’t be as effective as it can be, you can’t coach speed into a player.

The most important unit of the squad: Midfield. I didn’t include Imran Louza in the graphic as I assumed he would be leaving quickly, and he still might, but he’s featured heavily in pre season so I’ll include him by words instead. If he stays, Louza is our most important midfielder. He’s the only one that has the ability to control tempo and move the ball from a deeper position into the final third comfortably. It may sound extremely simplistic but Hoedt needs to give the ball to someone who can also progress it with his passes if the first line of pass directly into the final third isn’t on. What we currently have is Tom Dele: excellent ball retainer, can carry it and work his way out of tight spaces, Sissoko who’s all about endurance and getting about the pitch and Kayembé who doesn’t really have a defensive bone in his body, is all about dribbling/carrying and getting a shot off. Without Louza, Watford lack a controller and a ball winner, with Louza Watford just lack a ball winner. A lot of times last season the defence was put under a lot of pressure due to the midfield not really having a defensive bone in their body. Sissoko does offer you a smidge of that but not enough to hang your hat on. Given I think Watford will concede possession a fair bit in the coming season, a ball winner is a must for this squad.

If these players stay, I think Watford are pretty stacked in this position. Asprilla and Chakvetadze are of top 6 quality to me and will be the sole reason why we won’t be relegated (fingers crossed we keep both) you’ve got creativity, goals, leadership, energy, potential, tenacity. As much as Ince didn’t do anything last season, he’s still a good player and one that should have a better season ahead as a rotation option. The signing of Vata on paper is an excellent one, has a bit of everything about him, it’s now up to TC and the player himself to get that potential into consistency. Brendan Rodgers said himself he wanted to keep him, show us why. With these players, if you can get them on the ball constantly then you will do well to a point. Last season a lot of Watford’s possession was stale, Asprilla was getting fewer touches per game than Sema and Martins, that has to change. And the way that changes is having better ball players getting him the ball and a striker that can help sustain pressure.

Now here’s the depressing part. The strikers; again I didn’t include Baah here because why would I? But it says it all that Cleverley see’s something in him and would rather coach him into a 9 than play Bayo or Rajovic there in pre season. Which is a testament to Cleverley and his coaching — even last season he moved TDB to a holder, got Kayembe further forward to utilise his ball striking and got consistency in his overall play from Giorgi too. But simply put, outside of Forde who’s potential and untested at this level — Watford don’t have a striker adequate for the Championship or for the creative players behind them. It’s pretty obvious we need a striker and we’ve needed one for years. I don’t really have any sympathy for the club because you’ve known the financial issue, you’ve got plenty of options to help that disparity (you own another club for this very reason) and still nothing has been finalised, that’s not to say it won’t be — but not having a striker lined up within reason is extremely poor. Our 10s love a through ball, they love bounce passes and linking play, as well as running in behind. Find a striker that can do that to a competent level, he doesn’t even need to be the best finisher. To be blunt; someone that can actually run and hold the ball up would be an upgrade.