Kab: Hornets want revenge for Toffees nicking our Silva
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 bigwigs made their
approach i n November 2017. Watford stayed strong and refused to sanction their manager’s exit, but results dropped off to such an extent he was sacked in January this year. Fast-forward to the end of the season and Everton finally got t heir man, meaning t hat tomorrow he takes on his old side for the first time since his acrimonious departure.
Kabasele said: “When you see how good we were in the first part of the season under Marco Silva, when the Everton story 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.
Manager
“We didn’t talk about it 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 and try to get some.
“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, so we need to find the right balance.
“We need to fix the problem, and be more efficient in our own box and score more goals in our opponents’ box.” 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 scored in the corresponding fixture last season and added: “This is a special game for the players because he wanted to leave us and especially, maybe, for the players who didn’t play so much with him.
“They will have extra motivation and say, ‘OK, you didn’t play me when you were at Watford and tonight I will show you that you were wrong’.
“It’s positive for us because, if everybody can have this extra motivation and give everything on the pitch, we will maybe have more of a chance to win the game.
“The game against Everton has changed for the fans as well.
“It has become a more important game because of the story around Marco last season. And we also want to fix the game we played there last season because we were leading 2-0 and we lost 3-2.
“We missed a penalty and all the situations add to the recipe.”
Despite Silva turning his back on Watford, Kabasele insists the manager will always be close to his heart.
He said: “He will always be special for me because he will always be the manager who gave me my chance in the Premier League.
Moments
“Even in some difficult moments when I didn’t play so well, he kept me on the team, so he’ll always be special.”
Watford’s players will be up against another old pal in the shape of Richarlison, who followed Silva to Everton last summer.
Kabasele added: “He is a very, very good player.
“It’s a good challenge as well for everybody to try to stop him because now he has reached the Brazil national team, so he made a big improvement again. He will be a big player, for sure, because we know how he plays and we need to be smart to stop him.”