One of the Aussie commentators last week wheeled out the old "This squad should be further up the league line" Craig Foster, always to be relied upon for an honest assessment, disagreed. He said the two centre backs (Dann and Tomkins) were ordinary at best, the only two players he rated were Zaha and Luca. Obi Wan was good but still very young.

When you think about it he has a point. Which of our players apart from the ones mentioned are wanted by clubs further up. Townsend maybe but not by anyone in the top 8. The rest are about at their level with the squad players (Kelly, Ward) perhaps ready for the championship. Ayew was on the bench this weekend but I doubt anyone at the club wants him, Reidewald doesnt even get used, Wickham the same and Benteke outscores most other PL centre forwards but only in the number of post dedicated to his uselessness.
We just might be overachieving!

Well, this is a bold statement which statistics don't support I'm afraid.

A third of the total of all his career management victories came with Malmö. His time there ended in 1989.

Have to disagree.

We can field a starting 11, when fit, that is better than the starting 11 of 12 other premier League teams in my opinion. Perhaps it's true that we have only Zaha and AWB who are top 4 quality, but that's 2 more than Watford, Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle etc, and one more than WHU, Liecester, Everton. I think we should be realistically competing for top 8 and would consider Luka, Kouyate, Sakho, Tomkins, Townshend of being worthy of that quality.

Squad depth is a problem, but that's true of at least ten other teams: who do Bournemouth, Everton, Watford have on the bench? When injuries hit you look for the incoming players to be 20% better then they actually are as they're playing for a place and the rest of the team to come together so that the machine as a whole can be better than the sum of its parts. Do you honestly believe Dann, Ward, Kelly are that far off the standard when they have to deputise occasionally against the likes of Brighton or Huddersfield? I don't.
We're where we are because of poor management. Corners at both ends are a massive problem, yet we have proven capability. This is coaching. We have fit strikers since January and choices of positive central mids like Kouyate and Meyer or defensive options like Macca and Schlupp which can be used as subs or to start. They are usually negative options: This is poor management.

PVA has been very bad for a while and is capable of better. He should have been dropped for Schlupp after Bournemouth away. We wasn't. This is bad management.

I'll end by saying that I wouldn't consider Craig Foster an authority on the matter. He was on high wages and reportedly refused to leave when we were in financial difficulty. He was a waste of a shirt, not even bang average on his day. If we applied his attitude and ability across the squad we'd already be relegated.

Edited by ChrisGC (18 Mar 2019 7.36am)

Edited by ChrisGC (18 Mar 2019 7.48am)

Sorry, you are saying Watford have NO players that a top club would want? Foster would be a shoo-in for England if he hadn't said he's not interested. Doucouré? Pereyra? Deulefeo? Holebas who is actually our player of the year this year, most assists by a defender equal with Robertson.

Who do Watford have on the bench? Gomes; Cleverley (England caps); Chalobah (England caps at all levels); Kabasele (Belgium); Prodl (Austria); Britos (Uruguay); Penaranda (Columbia); Sema (Sweden); Success (Nigeria); Quina (Portugal U21) Gray (Luton);

Not giving it the biggun, cos it's probable that the other clubs you mention could also reel off a list of names but perhaps you should not use your lack of knowledge to make you think you are better than you are.

Anyway, good game Saturday, bad luck, I think we can probably call it quits now and forget any bogus rivalry going forward.

I don't have huge complaints about the league position - it's just the uninspired, apparently uncaring performances and dreadful home form.