Payback for Silva is Kab’s revenge
CHRISTIAN KABASELE admits Everton’s pursuit of Marco Silva last season caused turmoil in the Watford dressing room.
Silva had only been in charge of the Hornets for around six months when Goodison Park chiefs made their approach in November 2017.
Watford refused to sanction their manager’s exit but results dropped off to such an extent that Silva was sacked in January.
Fast forward to the end of the season and Everton finally got their man. And tomorrow he takes on his old side for the first time since his departure.
Kabasele, 27 (below) said: “When you see how good we were in the first part of the season, when Everton came, I think most of the players lost confidence in the manager because he didn’t say clearly that he wanted to stay with us.
“Maybe that explained the lack of character in some games.
“Personally, it didn’t affect me but maybe some players felt like this.
“We didn’t talk about this between us but I’m quite sure some players thought, ‘If the manager doesn’t commit 100 per cent to the club, why should I play for him?’ I don’t really know but this is maybe one of the reasons we didn’t get points during 11 or 12 games.
“It’s not just because of Marco Silva though. With Watford it’s always the same story. Always during this period we don’t really get points, so we need to find our winning spirit again.
“At the beginning of the season we didn’t concede so much and we were scoring a lot. Now we are conceding two goals a game and not scoring.”
Silva (above) cannot be blamed this time for Watford being without a win in five games, with four of those matches ending in defeat.
But Kabasele knows beating Everton would be the shot in the arm they need to get back on track.
He said: “This is a special game for the players because he wanted to leave us and especially for the players who didn’t play so much with him.
“They will have extra motivation and say, ‘Okay, you didn’t play me when you were at Watford and tonight I will show you that you were wrong’. It’s a positive for us.”