What a great thing momentum is. And we don’t have any right now. Who said it was all going to be easy after that nasty run of top 6 fixtures we just had? Who thought we were going to turn up at Brentford and come away with the spoils? It just doesn’t work like that. Why not? Because we’re Watford. And the Premier League is hard. And because football is not predictable. But there are some things about Watford and football which are predictable, and this week at Burnley: 1. Our defence will get breached. 2. Dyche will moan to the 4th official, a lot. 3. We’ll look good up front, and Dennis will either score, nearly score, or finish the game very frustrated because he should have scored. 4. Vydra will come on and either score, or finish the game very frustrated because he should have scored. And he’ll look a bit sulky but I would still have him back. Wood will probably score the last minute winner. 5. Burnley will be ugly. Sean Dyche It’s always seemed strange to me how immaculate and unchanging his ginger goatee beard and pointed sideburns have been, over the years. It shows exacting standards but no flair, and a dogged adherence to something tried and tested. Very much like his teams. He’s not an old man, like our Claudio. But he’s old school. And if he keeps on going til he’s 70, he’ll still be putting out the same stubborn, well-drilled and hardworking team, but with different names on the shirts. And his voice will be old and gravelly like now, but perhaps a bit softer. He’ll still eat worms, mind, and everyone who works with him will know that he eats worms. And he’ll continue to laugh it off with the press. Like the worm sucking joker he is. He’s like Nigel Pearson, but less adventurous. He might eat maggots if things got bad in the wilderness, and he might even kill a rabbit. But he’d keep another rabbit in his rucksack to throw to the wolves before he ran. Not like Big Nige. Sean’s a pragmatist, and he’s deeply unsexy. But somehow him and Burnley keep going. He did alright with us in the Championship. It was his first job in management. It was difficult circumstances. He did what he has become known for: getting results with limited resources. But Gino didn’t fancy him. Gino wanted to take us on a Zolacoaster. We’ve since been on a rollercoaster with about 58 different head coaches. And at no point has Sean Dyche ever been considered a possibility, either by the press, the fans, or indeed Gino Pozzo or Scott Duxberry. Reedley Marina, Burnley So this is where our family canal holiday began in September. In Burnley. It was such a pleasant surprise. I knew Lancashire would be beautiful, and we even made it as far as the Yorkshire Dales. But I didn’t expect the beginning bit in Burnley to have any charm. But it was very nice. And we had a burger and chips in the bistro. And a nice cold pint of Estrella. Very continental. I think the bistro, with the outside elevated terrace you can see, is where Dyche arranges to meet any prospective players and their agents. I know if I was a player, and Burnley were interested in me, I would be swung by the prospect of moving to a place with a marina and such a reasonably priced Bistro. They do scampi as well. I didn’t get to see much more of Burnley, but the canal on the way out did have its fair share of debris, including some old footballs floating on the brown, stagnant water. I thought perhaps the Burnley training ground was not far away, and these were the result of some regular long ball practice. So there we have it. I have mentioned Vydra, who will be happy to score. I have mentioned Wood who will score. I don’t have much else to say about Burnley except that they have a captain in Mee and a manager in Dyche who are so wily and resilient that the whole team play without na*veté and will use any opportunity to outfox their opponents. And wobbly teams like Watford are meat and drink to them. They don’t need Maxwell - shouldda been a hornet - Cornet. He can be injured and Dyche will not be phased because he has a team philosophy which is not based on individual talent or star players. His team know what they have to do and they will do it. Play ugly and don’t be a girl. That’s what he says before, during and after a match. Dyche is not phased by much. He doesn’t panic about slow starts to a season, and he will be quietly confident that if they can keep West Ham at bay, which they did, then they can build on that against us. He’s fairly one-dimensional in terms of playing style, but he knows how to make a substitution or a minor tweak, and you can be sure he’ll know how to target our weaknesses. The only problem regarding that last bit is he’ll have too many to choose from. Is there any hope for us at Turf Moor? Probably not. But…well cast your minds back to just over 3 years ago. It was August 2018. England enjoyed a good World Cup, with players like Danny Rose shining in Gareth Southgate’s set up. Yes, just over 3 years ago and Danny Rose was good. Deeney was already deteriorating and Gray was always, well, Gray. But those two & Hughes banged the ball into the Turf Moor nets as Watford showed them cloggers how to play - on their Turf. Bringing the points home in the second game of the season after beating Brighton 2-0 in week one. And incidentally, following on from the Burnley away fixture that year, like this year, we played Palace at home next. And we won again. It was a nice run of fixtures with maximum points and we took the momentum into the home game against Spurs and beat them too. I also seem to remember that we beat them 7-4 at Turf Moor once. But that was many years ago and we probably had Micah Hyde. What does Claudio need to do? I don’t want to say too much about William Troost Ekong. But here is a picture of Claudio putting a consoling arm around him after more comic defending. I hope someone else can play instead. It’s not fair on him or us. I hope Kabasele is fit and able to step up. Not much else to say, except that surely Ranieri learned from his mistakes against Brentford. He must know that Kucka is not a starter over Louza. And Pedro should start, but not in place of Cleverley. And if Burnley are without their star man, it can mean dilly dong squat…I hope they have all learned that bit too. That’s it. I HOPE but I don’t expect. I’m now going to watch the rest of Palace v Everton, with Hughes actually starting the match. And he’s just taken a corner. And they scored. Wow. And now he’s been subbed off, and Palace are struggling to control the midfield. To think we sold him and bought Kucka. Have a GREAT week everyone!
We’ll have a decent amount of possession and attacking play, they won’t look like they’re that bothered about scoring until about the 70th minute, when they’ll score from a set piece. The remaining 20 minutes will then consist of us giving about 50 fouls away, all of which will be the same type, the type when our player bundles their player over while they have they’re back to them, as they try and hold the ball up/shepherd the ball out of play.
I concur. This has got a 1-0 loss written all over it, Bachmann will be rooted to his line, WTE will duck, Cathcart will be out of position and Rose will be on the halfway line watching while Woods heads in a routine corner. More lessons learned for next time.
To be honest, a Vydra winner against us is just about the only disgrace we haven’t had to experience yet as a Watford fan. Makes your blood run cold thinking about it.
“Watford’s defence just seemed to dematerialise.” This comment from MOTD is haunting me because nail, head, nearly every game. We will play reasonably well and graft and may even give cause for some hope. We may even score. But somehow, sometime, anytime, we don’t know exactly when during the 90 minutes, those words will appear in front of my eyes. Twice. And we will lose 2-1.
Anyone who visits this forum on a regular basis will already know we have plenty of massive kn0bs among our fan base
I'll be shocked if McNeil, Gudmundsson, Taylor and Lowton don't put in their highest number of crosses for the whole season on Wednesday. Bachmann is timid when the ball is in the air and Troost-Ekong and Cathcart turn to statues at random points during games.
I actually went to the 7-4 win that season. It was just about a complete game of football you could imagine. Nothing even remotely like that will happen on Wednesday. Claudio has come out and said more or less, he knows WTE is losing us games but then again why doesn't he chuck Kabs in? Half fit or not - he's less error prone and will at least want to stake a claim for a starting place. We just cannot lose our next two games. Two draws will be alright - better than losing 6 on the bounce. I cannot see it though. We did battle against Brentford but we can never sit on one goal leads. If we take the lead, we will need to score at least one more to contain the late Brain Fart in defense that will happen. I would be pleased with a draw, it will stop our run of losses - but do not expect a dry night. 1-1
Is that a snippet from the Daily Sport? It was around that time era. A paper full of girls with their boobies out and some slack dash sport reporting.
Have to play the same sort of high tempo pressing game as against Chavsea for example. Have to work harder than Burnley and take the chances when they present themselves. For the love of God WTF needs to be dropped. He is causing Cathcart and Kiko issues all the time. Kiko saved his bacon a few times by tucking in against the winkers from Griffin Park. Rotate Cleverley and Kucka for a half each and get Louza back in. King to nine, Dennis on the left and either Cucho/Pedro down the right.
Line up, formation, system like v Man Utd, Chelsea and Man City and we will be alright. Tinkerman special like v Brentford and we’ll get turned over. I’m confident Claudio will get it right.
This is going to be misery. They will just have a higher level of professionalism, guts and competence to us and win 2-0 in a poor game.
Yep, despite what the league table says they will be even better at doing to us what Brentford did. Just like Brentford missing their goal scorer, They won’t need to worry about their lack of goals either, because they’re guaranteed to be gifted, at the very least, one goal by us without them actually having to do anything. All they have to do is not let us settle in midfield and the game is won.
Ugh. Burnley. Bolton, Stoke, Burnley. There's always one and when you think you've flushed one, another floats up. We all know what's going to happen. We get frustrated, resort to long ball and Tarkowski has the easiest day of his life. Chris Wood scores from a corner. Vydra pokes home a second as we search for a late equaliser.
Even though Burnley are likely to struggle some seasons I find it hard to believe they've only won one game so far this season.
Had the train and 2 match tickets booked for this but unable to go due to testing positive for Covid an hour before the Brentford debacle. Nightmare Friday night. By any chance whatsoever, does anyone want 2 tickets to this? I mean, who wouldn’t? Very good price.
Don’t worry. When you’re struggling for goals, along come Watford. When you’re struggling for wins, along come Watford. Watford, the cure for all bad form problems.
