Completely frozen out at Watford by Walter Mazzarri, Juan Carlos Paredes might not be playing for his club on a regular basis, but that hasn’t stopped him from making appearances for his country.
With 68 caps already to his name for Ecuador, the 29-year-old has only made one appearance for the Hornets so far this season, in an extra-time loss to Gillingham in the EFL Cup.
Speaking in a press conference about his squad choices, relayed by CRE Satelital, the manager justified his decision to pick the Watford man on a regular basis.
He said: “Regarding Juan Carlos Paredes, if I remember correctly, I’m Ecuador’s manager, and there’s no better player than him at this moment in time. A lot of people don’t know, Juan Carlos isn’t playing for the first team at Watford, but playing a lot for their reserves.
“He gives me the videos of the games, because we can’t get hold of them easily. I see him play, I analyse him, I see him in training, and I see that he’s at a similar or even higher level to the other players I have in his position.”
The right-back was bought by Watford from Granada back in 2014, and enjoyed regular football in the Championship before seeing his time on the field drop a bit following Premier League promotion under Quique Sanchez Flores.
As for his time under Walter Mazzarri, it seems Paredes will want to forget that altogether.
