OPINION: WHY CARDIFF CITY NEED TO STICK BY MAX WATTERS

Opinion: Why Cardiff City need to stick with Max Watters

Despite Cardiff City’s 1-0 win over Birmingham City in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off last weekend, many fans have called for Max Watters to be taken out of the Bluebirds line-up following a series of misses.

Watters was taken off at half-time by Steve Morison, but presenter Michelle Owen confirmed during the Sky broadcast that this was due to unwellness rather than a difficult first 45 from a finishing standpoint which saw Watters fail to score with 3 shots on target.

But speaking in the post-match press conference, Steve Morison was staunch in his defence of the 23-year-old striker, praising his all-round play while also saving some choice words for those who have written Watters off already:




STEVE MORISON:

“If you’re getting chances and don’t put them in the back of the net, you dust down and you crack on. Max has been unbelievable today and he was because he nearly, nearly scored. If he had scored we’d all be waxing lyrical about him. That’s the margins.”

Morison’s statement wasn’t without merit. As a lone striker against a back-three he constantly harried the defence, and ran his socks off for 45 minutes. It was Watters’ run into the box which created space at the back post for Jaden Philogene to score his first for the club and Cardiff’s winning goal.

That being said, Cardiff could and should have been comfortably ahead with the game sewn up by the time Watters’ cameo ended, and in the end they had left-back Jamilu Collins’ unbelievable slide tackle on Scott Hogan to thank for the three points.

Cardiff and Steve Morison are left in a tough position. New signing Kion Etete waits in the wings to replace a misfiring Watters, but the former Spurs striker is only 20 and himself missed a gilt-edged headed chance in the second half. Watters is a player who relies on confidence, as evident from his red-hot form at Crawley Town, and Morison is correct to say that a lot of the criticism directed his way has been unfair.

However, the manager’s pleas for harmony do ring somewhat hollow when, just 6 months ago, Morison hooked off Watters after just 37 minutes in a February win against Coventry City, before declaring that the striker “wasn’t good enough”. If Morison is choosing to throw his weight fully behind Watters as City’s number 9, it will need to be more consistent than this.

At the moment, the striker just needs one to go in, any way whatsoever. He had an excellent chance one-on-one with John Ruddy on Saturday, but narrowly fluffed his lines. It’s easy to forget that the former Crawley and MK Dons hitman is only 23, and has plenty of time to grow and develop. If he can get one, it’s very easy to see Watters bagging plenty of goals in this new, expansive Cardiff system.

All he needs is time and a run of games, which despite Steve Morison’s strong rhetoric at the weekend is far from guaranteed.

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I see him the best option at the moment, it depends on Etete, is he fit enough and up to speed?

Long term, it looks like it will be Etete and the new loan premier Striker fighting it out, unless Watters does start scoring a few his runs are good?

Intereresting situation!

I’m sorry he is just not up to the standard I’m afraid. Not particularly fast and has shown very little in overall play to make up for it. I don’t get the impression that once he scores one the floodgates will open unfortunately we were lucky that his misses didn’t cost us against Birmingham

No one can argue that he failed to convert 3 good chances in the first half against Birmingham but in the case of 2 of them you need to credit Ruddy for making the save, BUT, the 3rd chance when set up by O'Dowda where he slipped and lost control of the ball was very poor. However in my opinion he is the forward best suited to the style in which we are playing so we do need to stick by him and hope he gets a goal soon.

This will be the season where he is looking like being SM first choice at forward and with the chances being set up for him any return of less than 10 goals will in my opinion be a failure. He also has to impose himself more in away fixtures than he has to date.

I think there is a decent player in there but he needs to show that.

He isn't good enough if we seriously want to go up this season,we Need strikers that will convert there chances they get ,Need to be clinical, it can be the difference between winning a game or not .

I don’t think that he will deliver the goals we need.
He’s just not clinical enough even though the service hasn’t been good enough to him at times.
His record elsewhere indicates that this is a higher level of football than he’s capable of scoring in.
I agree he does make good runs etc but his job is to put the ball in the net.
And how many games does he need ?
I don’t agree with all the criticism he’s getting but we can’t keep hoping win games by the odd goal .

Can see Etete being given a couple of starts soon but I’d also stick with Watters. It’s not like Warren Feeney or James Collins where you just have no hope. Watters movement is really good and his link up play with others is brilliant at times. He just needs some confidence and to believe that he can cut it at this level because our manager certainly thinks he can.

Stick with Watters for now, potential is certainly there just needs a goal. Etete has looked decent so far so wouldn’t mind if he started instead but please just use Harris an an option to come on late as a winger to use his pace. Worked well against Brum.

I think we should stop talking about ‘seriously going up’ as a top half finish would be a great achievement.
Saying that, of course, we all want promotion.

Morison says he was unbelievable.
Nothing wrong with sticking up for your player and giving him confidence but he was unbelievably bad. Very poor performance and I watched Morison closely rant, rave and throw is hands up in the air every time Watters missed or messed up.

I don’t believe Etete is ready to be the no.1 striker yet so we have to stick by Watters and hope he comes good. Hope I’m wrong but I’m not holding my breath. He’s been with us long enough.

Can see Etete being given a couple of starts soon but I’d also stick with Watters. It’s not like Warren Feeney or James Collins where you just have no hope. Watters movement is really good and his link up play with others is brilliant at times. He just needs some confidence and to believe that he can cut it at this level because our manager certainly thinks he can.

Stick with Watters for now, potential is certainly there just needs a goal. Etete has looked decent so far so wouldn’t mind if he started instead but please just use Harris an an option to come on late as a winger to use his pace. Worked well against Brum.

Both players you mention are better than watters .

We'll soon see, Morison is a Striker and knows what will work best with our formation, I think Watters will start again?

For me another 3 starts for Watters and if NO goals from him as we are creating chances, then if you include last season that will take him to about 18 appearances for City 1 goal, for me he then needs to be sold to a league 1 club.

I'm all for opinions but there is no evidence whatsoever that Etete is a better player than Watters.

For me, every appearance before this season is null and void for him. He's started three games in a new look line up and philosophy. Didn't look great in two of them but was isolated and had no service.

He's had one start where we've created the situations the manager has hoped for and on another day he could have scored three.

The misses were poor, especially the one on one, but for me I still see just enough to persist with him for a little longer.

People say it's a strikers job to score goals, I slightly disagree with this even though you want them scoring of course. His job is the same as everyone else's on the pitch, to contribute to winning more games than we lose. He did his part first half v Birmingham for me!

When I saw Etete I had a flashback of Rudy Gestede

I'm all for opinions but there is no evidence whatsoever that Etete is a better player than Watters.

For me, every appearance before this season is null and void for him. He's started three games in a new look line up and philosophy. Didn't look great in two of them but was isolated and had no service.

He's had one start where we've created the situations the manager has hoped for and on another day he could have scored three.

The misses were poor, especially the one on one, but for me I still see just enough to persist with him for a little longer.

People say it's a strikers job to score goals, I slightly disagree with this even though you want them scoring of course. His job is the same as everyone else's on the pitch, to contribute to winning more games than we lose. He did his part first half v Birmingham for me!

A Strikers job is to make the right runs and get in the right positions, Andy Cole used to miss a fair few, but was so good he scored shed loads. He's on his last chance or so lets hope he can convert some chances and take the pressure off!

We are doing ok so he should get chance .... make a change to do this as all previous strikers (except moore) were never given an extended run in team to try adjust to championship level? Saturday he made the runs any good forward as to do now let's hope he scores tonight to go with Saturday's performance otherwise unfortunately he will run out of time and managers patience.

I dont see any dog in him, he is too easily pushed off the ball for a big guy, makes the runs yes but he looks like he could do another gear..Div 1 striker...

I think we should stop talking about ‘seriously going up’ as a top half finish would be a great achievement.
Saying that, of course, we all want promotion.

Morison says he was unbelievable.
Nothing wrong with sticking up for your player and giving him confidence but he was unbelievably bad. Very poor performance and I watched Morison closely rant, rave and throw is hands up in the air every time Watters missed or messed up.

I don’t believe Etete is ready to be the no.1 striker yet so we have to stick by Watters and hope he comes good. Hope I’m wrong but I’m not holding my breath. He’s been with us long enough.

An interesting thread and (for me) you and Gary (Castle Blue) are spot on with your comments

I stated a few days ago that Morison was very aggressive on the touchline but sometimes that is required, if circumstances dictate. I also mentioned that he was bound to defend (publicly at least) his current no.1 striker in the absence of a viable replacement

Like you, I believe Etete is a 'work in progress' but I like what I have seen to date. Time will tell...

Watters, again for me, works hard and gets into some good positions without (until the Birmingham game where he fluffed his important lines) getting the service he needs. He has potential; but that needs to show itself sooner rather than later, if he is to have a future as a first team regular