Pre Watford match chat.

[Cjay]

Stupid international break.

Just over 1 week till kick off ( 9 days).

We kick off the latest of our rivals, Leicester 1st, Southampton 2nd, Ipswich 3rd and finally us as the latest kick off (televised of course)

Is that an advantage or disadvantage? Or makes no difference?

Disappointing season for Watford lead to the sacking of Valerien Ismael on 9th March.

Former Manure and Watford midfielder Tom Cleverley been put in charge till the end of the season and managed to get a win at the first attempt.

1-0 vs Birmingham.

Got some decent players Watford.

Emmanuel Dennis, Matheus Martins, Yaser Asprilia all tricky players on the right day.

Big striker Mileta Rajovic has a decent record of 1 goal every 187 minutes.

So not without threat.

And of course how will we cope without (if he does miss the game) Georgie Rutter? Will we have a plan? He's only missed 1 game entirely in the league and 1 more where he only came on late and we drew 1 and lost the other (first 2 games of the season).

Hopefully we cope like we did vs Chelsea.

Who replaces him?

Firpo apparently may miss the game as well for International commitment (Dominican Republic play a game at 1:30am on the 27th) , been important his partnership with Jimmy, big loss potentially?

We beat them 3-0 last time, Piroe, Byram and Anthony scored.

[1964white]

So we could be without Georginio & Junior at Vicarage Road.

We do have cover though.

Whether the changes will affect our current form is open to debate

[mentalcase]

Got plenty of cover for LB, nobody can do what Georginio does, but, that might also mean we don't lose the ball as bloody often either.
Piroe, Gelhardt, Joseph, Gnonto, plenty options.
Lets just hope we don't have any injuries after the break to contend with.
3 points would be brilliant.

[weasel]

We kick off the latest of our rivals, Leicester 1st, Southampton 2nd, Ipswich 3rd and finally us as the latest kick off (televised of course)

Is that an advantage or disadvantage? Or makes no difference?

And of course how will we cope without (if he does miss the game) Georgie Rutter? Will we have a plan? He's only missed 1 game entirely in the league and 1 more where he only came on late and we drew 1 and lost the other (first 2 games of the season).

Hopefully we cope like we did vs Chelsea.

Who replaces him?

Firpo apparently may miss the game as well for International commitment (Dominican Republic play a game at 1:30am on the 27th) , been important his partnership with Jimmy, big loss potentially?

We beat them 3-0 last time, Piroe, Byram and Anthony scored.

I think at this stage of the season it doesn't make too much difference. I think it only really matters where it gets to the point of the season where the result becomes completely important and as such if you were drawing you might be happy to settle for a point. I think at this point, regardless of how the others do, if it was level then we'd be going all out to win.

I think the Chelsea match is more relevant than the two at the start of the season. We looked good going forward without him and as pointed out for all we lose some moments of magic we might also hold onto the ball better so swings and roundabouts. We have enough quality with the likes of Summerville, James and Gnonto to break teams down

Byram comes straight in for Firpo. Perhaps interesting that despite Summerville and Firpo linking up well that Summerville has had his least productive matches since Firpo came in. Maybe having Byram makes Summerville be a bit more direct.

Also interesting that the 3 scorers from the last time we played them are all currently bench warmers.

[1964white]

Last time we played Watford at Vicarage Road

The usual hard work from James for our first goal.

Brilliant strikes from Raphinha & Harrison.

[weasel]

Last time we played Watford at Vicarage Road

The usual hard work from James for our first goal.

Brilliant strikes from Raphinha & Harrison.

The one match where Marsch didn't speak about metrics after we won despite Watford battering us then gifting us goals.

[mentalcase]

The one match where Marsch didn't speak about metrics after we won despite Watford battering us then gifting us goals.

WTF !!

[andrewjohnsmith]

Farke said he hoped to have Rutter back for this game. Seems a big ask. Piroe is most likely replacement. Farke has played him at 10 plenty.

Firpo is a very late return. But Byram is due a game anyway.

I had to look up Tom Cleverly's age. It only seemed like yesterday when he was starting his career. 34. Retired last season due to injury.

I suppose late kick off is best we could hope for after an international break. We have the late kick off 3 days later too. So it works out to the same rest time as everyone else.

[Irish Ian]

As Cjay said Watford have some quality, some on here were calling to bring Dennis in the xmas before last if I recall..

Always tricky these fixtures, I think our defence will have a tad more work to do than they have had for most of this season.

I would be surprised to see Rutter back so quickly but my main worry at this point is the lads coming back from Int duty on a fit state to play.

Recall our 4 Welsh and one Finn will be playing in Euro playoffs and with the potential for foreign travel, then ET and pens it could be tough on the body, especially at this stage of the season when players are nearer to picking up niggles due to the quick turn arounds and the accumulative tiredness aquired over a season. Ampadu has played 51 games already, which is madness

[Chilli D]

Playing last can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. It all depends how the earlier results go.
If they go in our favour then we go into the game knowing we can pull clear if we win but if Ipswich and Leicester both win, which I think they will, it puts us under pressure to match them.
Personally I would rather we were playing first but I think Sky have put us last deliberately for the reason I state.

[1964white]

https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads ... -00.60869/

Watford fans dreading this game.

[DavidH]

It's just occurred to me (after all this time) that Farke perhaps DOES expect Georgie to be back for Watford. He clearly waited until the international break to get him to the surgical team. Well, he could have had another 9 days on top of the break by sending him to the operating table before our previous home match against Millwall. It was a home match, so the advantage was always going to be with us, and any away match is likely to be harder. It would have made more sense for him to miss the home match, than the away game. Time will tell, but it does appear Farke believed he didn't need the extra time to recover to play at Watford.

[1964white]

[1964white]

Watford have won two of their last ten matches, 0-1 victories at Rotherham & Birmingham.

In those ten games, the Hornets have lost at home to Cardiff, Leicester, Huddersfield & Coventry, drawing one against Swansea.

[Cjay]

It's just occurred to me (after all this time) that Farke perhaps DOES expect Georgie to be back for Watford. He clearly waited until the international break to get him to the surgical team. Well, he could have had another 9 days on top of the break by sending him to the operating table before our previous home match against Millwall. It was a home match, so the advantage was always going to be with us, and any away match is likely to be harder. It would have made more sense for him to miss the home match, than the away game. Time will tell, but it does appear Farke believed he didn't need the extra time to recover to play at Watford.

Would be a shock imo if Georgie was involved vs Watford.

He will have had 9-10 days to recover and return to training

Seems a bit of a push?

If we can't beat Watford without him that is poor.

More worried about Hull on the Monday

[Scoobychief]

We won't see rutter Friday nor monday

[The Subhuman]

Would be a shock imo if Georgie was involved vs Watford.

He will have had 9-10 days to recover and return to training

Seems a bit of a push?

If we can't beat Watford without him that is poor.

More worried about Hull on the Monday

It will be interesting to see how we go wiythout him. Gnonto with his pace, vision and passing chops looks the obvious replacement plus the bonus of James starting right. Piroe leaves us a little shy on creativity and pace in central midfield and James on the bench but would seem to be Farke's preference.

James as the 10 (the position Bielsa bought him for) would be another option

[1964white]

It will be interesting to see how we go wiythout him. Gnonto with his pace, vision and passing chops looks the obvious replacement plus the bonus of James starting right. Piroe leaves us a little shy on creativity and pace in central midfield and James on the bench but would seem to be Farke's preference.

James as the 10 (the position Bielsa bought him for) would be another option

This for me.