Hamza Choudhury joins Watford

[MPH]

@superhorns have we had your input on his performance for us yet?

[FosseSpark]

He was shite. Constantly in the wrong place and not available for the ball. Having to be bypassed by centre backs or people switching play. He then dropped into a pocket to make it look like he was covering which he was out of position to do. Couple of eye-catching tackles where he recovered from being out of position to win the ball back. 

He could improve. But he was shite yesterday 

[FoxyLeon]

15 minutes ago, FosseSpark said:

He was shite. Constantly in the wrong place and not available for the ball. Having to be bypassed by centre backs or people switching play. He then dropped into a pocket to make it look like he was covering which he was out of position to do. Couple of eye-catching tackles where he recovered from being out of position to win the ball back. 

He could improve. But he was shite yesterday 

 

That's a poor take given the context. If you had watched Watford at West Brom, you would realise Choudhury's signing actually made it possible for Watford to play a 4-3-3, and they were miles better than at the Hawthorns. Yes they were still a long way away from even challenging for the top 6 based on the performance, but Choudhury made them look a much better side than their last game. Not a bad impact considering he's been there just days.

[Guest itude]

Different manager, different result ?

 

And it seems that he has taken his chance with both hands. Taking to social media after the game, Watford fans were clearly impressed with the midfielder’s debut, with some even keen for the deal to already be made permanent.

Sam Ucko : Hamza Choudhury was so good. Made some great challenges and offers so much more balance to our midfield. Let’s hope he can keep it up. #WatfordFC

 

Bradley Hayden : Hamza Choudhury was excellent. Looked a class above anything in midfield, some lovely touches and passes and some brilliant tackles and interceptions too. Sierralta and Cathcart excellent at the back alongside Kamara until his red card. #WatfordFC

Seamus Kelly : Whatever the price is for Choudhury to make him permanent Mr Pozzo please pay it!! #WatfordFC #COYH

Jacob Culshaw : Hamza Choudhury was superb. The tackle in the second half summed his performance up. MOTM. #watfordfc

Jay : Can we exercise that option to buy on Hamza Choudhury now?

#watfordfc

[Super_horns]

1 hour ago, MPH said:

@superhorns have we had your input on his performance for us yet?

Was very good putting himself about having some presence for us in midfield which we have been missing .

 

Positive start certainly but we all know what fans are like .

 

One iffy game and it will be “he’s rubbish” etc .!

[Fightforever]

1 hour ago, volpeazzurro said:

We need to change the system, or at least Rodger's version of it, it stinks. Do we have to wait until Rodgers buys these 11 'technically gifted' players for his precious system which is incredibly flawed and his ability to pick those players to fit it questionable at best. 

A posession system 100% can work we would have finished 4th 2 seasons in a row using it had we not bottled it at the last second.

 

Rodgers causes issues with what he says in press conferences much more than his football imo (his subs are bizzare too). The players we have are quality and when they hear Rodgers say stuff like we can't compete with the top 6. That we will have a summer rebuild to sign no one. Stuff like that is getting to the player's heads.

 

Also I would argue we can't play high press. Tielemans, Maddison, Vardy, Evans and Praet. Some of those being our best players wouldn't last 45 minutes in a high pressing system. 

 

[MPH]

1 hour ago, FosseSpark said:

He was shite. Constantly in the wrong place and not available for the ball. Having to be bypassed by centre backs or people switching play. He then dropped into a pocket to make it look like he was covering which he was out of position to do. Couple of eye-catching tackles where he recovered from being out of position to win the ball back. 

He could improve. But he was shite yesterday 

 

not sure what game you were watching but we has been voted as man of the match by quite a few of the watford fans 

 

[Mendi]

Did well last night for Watford.

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, Fightforever said:

A posession system 100% can work we would have finished 4th 2 seasons in a row using it had we not bottled it at the last second.

 

Rodgers causes issues with what he says in press conferences much more than his football imo (his subs are bizzare too). The players we have are quality and when they hear Rodgers say stuff like we can't compete with the top 6. That we will have a summer rebuild to sign no one. Stuff like that is getting to the player's heads.

 

Also I would argue we can't play high press. Tielemans, Maddison, Vardy, Evans and Praet. Some of those being our best players wouldn't last 45 minutes in a high pressing system. 

 

I certainly agree with your first bit, it totally baffles me! If your boss, teacher, mother or father tell you that you're not good enough, the chances are you'll believe it!

 

As for the high press, we can use 5 substitues now and if you add Barnes, Daka, KDH, Perez and even Soumare into that, against certain opposition I believe we could still blow them away. Also, like the old 'total football' of Ajax days, you don't have to do exactly the same thing all of the time and be too rigid to systems. 

Edited 13 August 2022 by volpeazzurro

[deep blue]

9 hours ago, Fightforever said:

He doesn't really fit our style of play. We need technically gifted players for a possession based system. Choudhury is never going to be that type of player. He doesn't need to be anyway. In a high pressing style of play he would flourish.

I don't agree with this. He could have been useful coming off the bench for us when we needed more bite and aggression in midfield, an area where we have often come up short as the game progresses.  Many teams, no matter how technical most of their players are, have someone who can perform this role.

 

I believe there have been games where he would have been invaluable if brought on to help beef up our midfield and, for me, Rodgers has failed to grasp the opportunity to do that.

[ParkerPen]

19 minutes ago, deep blue said:

I don't agree with this. He could have been useful coming off the bench for us when we needed more bite and aggression in midfield, an area where we have often come up short as the game progresses.  Many teams, no matter how technical most of their players are, have someone who can perform this role.

 

I believe there have been games where he would have been invaluable if brought on to help beef up our midfield and, for me, Rodgers has failed to grasp the opportunity to do that.

yes, like he could have come on against Brentford

[Fightforever]

39 minutes ago, deep blue said:

I don't agree with this. He could have been useful coming off the bench for us when we needed more bite and aggression in midfield, an area where we have often come up short as the game progresses.  Many teams, no matter how technical most of their players are, have someone who can perform this role.

 

I believe there have been games where he would have been invaluable if brought on to help beef up our midfield and, for me, Rodgers has failed to grasp the opportunity to do that.

Do you really want to pay £65000 a week for an impact sub. Easily could be an academy player on that bench instead.

[Dahnsouff]

42 minutes ago, deep blue said:

I don't agree with this. He could have been useful coming off the bench for us when we needed more bite and aggression in midfield, an area where we have often come up short as the game progresses.  Many teams, no matter how technical most of their players are, have someone who can perform this role.

 

I believe there have been games where he would have been invaluable if brought on to help beef up our midfield and, for me, Rodgers has failed to grasp the opportunity to do that.

No, his positional discipline is shocking, ending with him lunging.

[MalletFox]

13 hours ago, goose2010 said:

Why? If he has a good season in the championship why wouldn't you give him a go or us ? 

 

If he has a strong season this year he deserves a chance, just like Barnes and Dewsbury-hall 

 

 

I don’t think he’s got the level of quality on the ball that we need for where we want to be in the league, he’s very limited in that regard. He suits a team which press high and I’m sure will do OK, but he won’t get regular game time here, that’s just the reality I think.

[MalletFox]

10 hours ago, Bayfox said:

Only the option to buy is believed to be 6 million.

Ohh is it, I’d take that 🤣

[Marmite]

He looked petrified on the pitch. He would make a pass and put himself in a position so he couldn’t receive it back, it was comical to watch 😂

[funkyrobot]

I think he benefited from it being his 1st game and the fact that Watford somehow managed to hold on to the win. For me he was typical Hamza. Some excellent crunching last ditch tackles, but other than that, not involved much in build up play and tended to shuffle the ball backwards to a centre half when he received a pass. Little in the way of creativity. 

[sacreblueits442]

9 hours ago, An Sionnach said:

I think Rodgers quite rates Hamza but the constant fear of a red card and ten men prevents using him. Since the Klopp incident the refs have been on high alert. I don't think Hamza is a dirty player by any means but he is old school and in today's delicate PL he doesn't really fit.

....Hamza has been halfway out of the door for the last three seasons that I can recall!!!

There was always a last-ditch problem that prevented him from going out on loan. Our injury crisis was the last one and if I recall, Steve Bruce was about to take him on loan but something happened to scupper that. I cannot recall the other reason regarding the season before that, but it was bad luck for Hamza.

  If Rodgers really cared about Hamza, he would have pushed to make the loans go through, I think all Rodgers sees, is a limited player who he struggles to incorporate into his team, as he doesn't think he is good enough.

[thereeldeel]

I’ve been a choudhury fan from the get go and personally know enough of his circle to clear up the wage issue. He’s never been on money near to £60k. Facts.  so we can take that out of our complaints. One of the very lowest earning players in the squad closer to half of that. Secondly he’s defo been made a scape goat throughout. He’s barely played in the last two years and you still got people banging on about the lad. He’s happily and adequately filled in with zero Match fitness on numerous occasions. Whilst his progress has been halted by lcfc not allowing him to get a loan or transfer. All the while haters at every corner like he’s had anything to do with us being sh!te. you might not think he’s the finished article but it’s not like he’s been starting games, he’s been asked to fill in and help on the rare occasion. Why you complaining about Him when our creative midfielders and strikers on £100k plus are not doing what they’re paid for and they get the same chance every week. he’s been made a scapegoat because Rodgers is a bottlejob.

Let it go man blimey.

[majaco]

Watching the start of the Watford game.  Choudhury looking calm and collected.  Looks like he's communicating well.  Positioning looks good.  He's slightly underhit one pass.   

 

Unlike us, he looks like he's playing above Championship level

[An Sionnach]

I have noticed a trend to rehabilitate Choudhury , Perez and even Vestergaard recently . Considering they have been dismissed as sub standard and useless by the vast majority on here , what is going on?. In truth they are nothing like as bad as some of the headbangers think. On the reverse a lot of of our players who have been praised to the sky are nothing like as good.

[Claridge]

11 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

I have noticed a trend to rehabilitate Choudhury , Perez and even Vestergaard recently . Considering they have been dismissed as sub standard and useless by the vast majority on here , what is going on?. In truth they are nothing like as bad as some of the headbangers think. On the reverse a lot of of our players who have been praised to the sky are nothing like as good.

or you tend to forget how shit they were when you haven't seen them play for a while

[FoxesWalk]

On 14/08/2022 at 00:06, thereeldeel said:

I’ve been a choudhury fan from the get go and personally know enough of his circle to clear up the wage issue. He’s never been on money near to £60k. Facts.  so we can take that out of our complaints. One of the very lowest earning players in the squad closer to half of that. Secondly he’s defo been made a scape goat throughout. He’s barely played in the last two years and you still got people banging on about the lad. He’s happily and adequately filled in with zero Match fitness on numerous occasions. Whilst his progress has been halted by lcfc not allowing him to get a loan or transfer. All the while haters at every corner like he’s had anything to do with us being sh!te. you might not think he’s the finished article but it’s not like he’s been starting games, he’s been asked to fill in and help on the rare occasion. Why you complaining about Him when our creative midfielders and strikers on £100k plus are not doing what they’re paid for and they get the same chance every week. he’s been made a scapegoat because Rodgers is a bottlejob.

Let it go man blimey.

Thanks for the insight, Hamza 

[Foxxed]

Looking at his stats alone--typically 7s in recent matches--it looks like he's improving to be amongst Watford's top players. It'll be interesting to see how far he's developed by the end of the season. It's a pity we didn't loan him out before. Playing some football matches surprisingly enough seems to have done him the world of good.

[An Sionnach]

55 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

Looking at his stats alone--typically 7s in recent matches--it looks like he's improving to be amongst Watford's top players. It'll be interesting to see how far he's developed by the end of the season. It's a pity we didn't loan him out before. Playing some football matches surprisingly enough seems to have done him the world of good.

You know our method , keep them on loan until they are 28 and then sell them to Peterborough.