So, what a great time to be writing your first match preview. Chuffed to be here, here goes…. Game week 8 sees Watford welcome Sheffield United to Vicarage Road for the first top flight meeting between the two clubs since 2007. About Sheffield Sheffield is a large industrial area to the south of Leeds, most famous these days for the Meadowhall Shopping Centre, for those who like to travel this icon of the area can been seen on the left from the M1 as one passes through heading north. Not much else happens in Sheffield. Sheffield Football Sheffield used to have quite a good footballing pedigree, Sheffield Wednesday were once considered a massive club and battled in the top flight of English football for much of their history, best known now as a sanctuary for ex-Watford players who can no longer perform effectively. This week we play their less well known neighbours, Sheffield United, nicknamed the Blades. Quite a cool nickname that dates back to historical times when we used to make things in this country, less relevant now but a nice nod to the past. Now fully owned by a Saudi Prince, H.R.H. Prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad bin Abdulaziz Al Sa'ud. Don’t think he is one of the mega rich ones but probably one of the few that could afford his name of the back of a replica shirt. I’ll leave Clive to comment further on his suitability to own an English football club. Famous Blades Fans 1. Sean Bean – Actor best known for being the only fellow of the ring to be killed in the first Lord Of The Rings film after being a bit of an arse thus missing out on huge paydays for the rest of the trilogy. Think he may have been in some other films but now advertising tea bags on the TV, looking a bit of an arse. 2. Joseph Marcell – Actor best known for playing Geoffrey, the butler, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 3. ? 4. ? 5. ? Dangermen Billy Sharp. Now 57 Billy Sharp is in his 11th spell with the club, as striker, club captain and genuine fan he can definitely be considered a club legend. Not seen much action this season so far but has scored which is more than can be said for some teams living legend striker types! Will probably score against us. Ollie McBurnie Don’t really know much about him except he looks like he is wearing a false beard. His signing this summer for £20m immediately put him on the media radar as a quality addition and dangerman, playing the Deeney role for SUFC as the pundits haven’t heard of any of their other players. Scottish international with 8 caps and 0 goals puts him slightly lower than Ikechi Anya on my threat scale. Will probably score against us. Ravel Morrison Former Man Utd starlet who was supposed to be the new Paul Scholes when he broke through. Since then convictions for various things and questionable behaviour have somewhat ruined a promising career. One of the few to make Mario Balotelli look like a grounded individual and model citizen, he has played in some odd places as nobody wants him for long. Another who has barely featured yet but is just ripe to tear us a new one in this game so we are once again in the headlines for the wrong reasons as the media jump on his bandwagon, will probably score against us. Phil Jagielka Not really a threat and very old now but at least we’ve all heard of the former England International. Will probably stop us scoring. Probably others but since becoming an entitled fan of a Premier League team I’ve shown very little interest in lower league football so don’t know any of them. The Match Where does one begin? Sheffield Utd have had very creditable start to the season, at the time of writing they are 12th in league with 8 points from 7 games. A good start for their first season back and something we can only dream of at the moment. I can’t profess to have seen much of them but from what I can gather they have played some quite decent football whilst being solid and organised defensively when needed, a decent draw with Chelsea and a win at Everton probably being the highlights so far, losing at home to Liverpool last time out only because of goalkeeping howler. They have also scored in each of their away games so far (alarm bells ring). On the unofficial scale of must win games this is right up near the top for us, only games where you will actually be relegated there and then would be above this. If we are to survive this season it is games like this that we simply must win, I mean no offence to Sheffield United (I did that earlier) but we are now at the point where home games against non top 6, and especially newly promoted, sides need to be won, especially with Spurs away to follow. Defence is so bad currently that we are probably going to have to go all out attack for this one and hope we can outscore them, Welbeck flanked by Sarr and Deulofeu with Pereyra as a 10. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Watford 1 – 1 Sheffield United.
1-2 I think we have the better players, but they will be high on confidence, organised and work their socks off. Some more poor defending will cost us, and we will struggle to create chances against them.
Dear Sheffield United, Would you like your 3 points gift wrapped or just as they come? Regards, Watford Football Club
Feels likely. If we can get first goal we might spark into life. Concede first and heads will drop though.
Before Wolves I would have said the next two will determine whether we are in a relegation scrap or not. Well the Wolves defeat answered that question......we emphatically are. Next question before Sheff Utd is now, are we able to fight to stay up. Anything other than a win will confirm we are unlikely to have the ability to claw our way out of it. I watched Sheff U against Liverpool and they were very unlucky to lose that. Only a crazy mess up by their keeper denied at least a point. There's no way Watford would have stood up to Liverpool like United did. They have also won at Everton, a place we've never won in our history. I would say we are actually the underdogs in this match. United are a better "team" by far. We have superior quality, but it means nothing if you're not committed to the cause. If things do not go our way, and Watford are lacklustre, then the fans will turn and things could get nasty. We have to be out of the blocks early and score the first goal. We have to play at a high tempo and try to blitz them. We cannot afford to fail in this game, or else I believe all realistic hope of staying up will quickly fade.
Indeed. There is no excuse not to come out of the blocks fast against Sheff Utd irrespective of quality of execution. The intent needs to be there. If we come out in 3rd gear with lots of meaningless sideways passing at slow pace it will be unforgiveable. Needs to be West Ham level of performance not Brighton.
Huge game, strangely looking forward to it, been a long time since we've genuinely needed 3 points for survival. We need to play dirty, lots of winding up the opposition, plenty of fouling, crunching tackles, timewasting, pack the midfield etc. Quina, Kabasele and RP have to start, I'd even consider bringing Gomes back in, a lot more vocal than Foster.
Preview is sort of OK but there is a major error as Jagielka will probably also score against us. Other than that, top gallows humour. 9/10.
It was the home defeat to Sheffield United under Boothroyd that proved that we were relegation fodder. A similar result would prove it again. There's a good team in there, but the wrong manager to get anything out of it.
I think this has potential to be a season defining game. Win and I think we'll have the quality to stay up. Lose or draw and I think we're ****ed.
Hard to see us getting anything. They will get a goal in the first 20 minutes due to some inexplicable act of defensive suicide and that will be it. We will lose by a margin if at least 3 goals.
I hope its a pact Vic. Arsenal showed how behind the boys we can get. Even if we go a goal down there needs to be an immediate response from both players and fans. Nothing else but three points will be acceptable from this match. Sheff Utd are a good side, nice fanbase and play decent football. We cannot hide in our shells on Saturday, take the lead and stick 11 behind the ball, park the bus, brick up the goal, whatever needs to happen. Wolves showed possesion means nothing if your toothless in attack. Welbz to start, actually same team that started at Wolves would do. Got to be up for this one. Get that Mia Kaftka whatever her name is to give a pre match speach. We just need to the lads to gef off their mental depression blocks and go for broke. I was spot on with my prediction last week, and I hope I am again. We lose this, its done. September or not, the pressure will tell. Watford 1 Sheff Utd 0
Whatever happens, it's always a laugh taking the piss out of Paddy Kenny in the Sheff Utd goal. I'll look forward to that at least.
Lets revert to looking at one of the most important questions; How do you realistically set up this particular squad now if you are QSF ? I feel sorry for him because it's not an easy question anymore. Setting up defensively or semi defensively is futile. Our midfield assets do not seem to be assets anymore. Scorers can't score. However all this contrasted with; We are 4th (105 shots) in the league for most shots on goal this season. That must demonstrate there is still decent attacking flair in the team. We are 9th in the table for 'big chances missed' Possession has not been an issue even though you can't derive too much from that nowadays. Still better to have it than not. I look at those core stats & ask myself is it just ordinarily bad luck that that round ball of leather is not touching the back of the onion bag. How can it be we have dropped off a cliff so convincingly? The only real benefit to all this is that I've not heard QSF say 'Amazing' or 'in the moment' once. If it doesn't work with QSF in the next 3-4 games I think Mr P needs to bring in a known big brand manager, it's too much of a risk to try otherwise.
Hate the term must win but this one is pretty close. Could be our season starts here and we desperately need it to happen. For some reason I think it will 2-1 to us
There is no possible combination of acceptable back 4 that can be made out of our catastrophe for defenders. For that reason I propose we don't bother with a defence and just pack the midfield.
It’s nice to see there is another team as poor as us e.g Newcastle. All we need is 2 other teams that are a catastrophe and we might be ok.
What I don't really understand is why, particularly with Quique being the manager that he is, in the actual search for solidity we haven't even tried deploying Dawson at right back. He played there over 100 times for West Brom, over 90 of which were under Pulis, so it is a position he is extremely familiar with. He might have been nothing of an upgrade whatsoever up to this point, but he would immediately be our most (and only) defensive full back and give us at least some protection down one of the flanks whilst simultaneously taking him somewhat out of the firing line as he adjusts to whatever our defence actually is. It would also give Quique the option of, say, deploying Janmaat at left back, if Masina is indeed so unimpressive in training that he doesn't consider him an upgrade on Holebas, whose defending for the first Wolves goal was genuinely unprofessional. Realistically, I can't see a reason why he wouldn't do this. If, indeed, "The aim of this team should be clean sheets and defend the spaces" as Quique claimed after the match, then why would we not take the only option that offers some chance of achieving that, short of the players we have miraculously becoming completely different in ability in the next week?
Dawson, Cathcart, Kaba, Janmaat? Possibly more solid. We'd set up to counter-attack though, as Dawson wouldn't push forward. A difficult one for QSF. We can go on the offensive and risk being caught on the counter (for the zillionth time), or let them have the ball and use Delia, BobbyP and Gray on the break. I would be tempted to try the latter. If we do this and they score the first goal, however...
It's certainly the defensive lineup I'd go with (with the caveat again of not having seen Masina in training day in, day out but having seen him at the Vic on Tuesday night). > If we do this and they score the first goal, however... Then we'll be in exactly the same situation as if we do whatever we're doing now and they score the first goal!
Will we manage to cope with their attack minded central defenders . They also switch the strikers around a bit - Sharp might still be banned?
I'd also like to add that no full backs should push forward collectively as much as our pair do, and we are repeatedly punished for it, so this seems like a positive to me! Especially if we are indeed playing an actual winger ahead of him in Sarr, so there is actually an attacking threat coming from wide/the wing for the first time, as well as having some effect on pushing the opponent's winger and full back backwards/at least making them think once or twice before they decide to bomb forward because there is an actual, existent threat facing them.
. I’m hearing we’re in talks with Rafa Benitez. Apparently he’s not happy in China. Ten million bonus to keep us up. Don’t panic mr mannering! Petrol has gone up btw
Or maybe Zidane will take us on as a pet PL project?!! Excuse my ignorance, what has petrol got to do with anything. Or is this a joke I don't get?
I would agree moving Dawson to right back if manager is insistent on playing him. He's just no good at centre back. Holebas needs replacing as well, he hasn't got the legs to run back when the move breaks down as, being attacking minding, he's at least half way up the pitch. Im struggling to think who would be the ideal choice to replace him though. Cathcart and Kabasele/Mariappa central defence. The latter pair aren't the best but again low on choices. I'm not too worried about the full backs not getting forward in this game. I'd rather keep it tight, let the attacking players do their jobs and win 1-0 than leave ourselves wide open. Just get the 3 points.
Any win will do. I imagine we will lose at spurs but win this and then a chance to beat Bournemouth at home to be right back in the pack. Same team except Kabasele for Dawson.
I was originally going to come for for this. Given the last few weeks, I’ve gone out of my way to find something else to do is I don’t have to. I won’t be going again until the players start putting some effort in. If they don’t give a ****, why should I or anyone else?
