Watford v AFC Bournemouth

billythekid

billythekid

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Last Six Games At Watford - Five Have Ended In Draws

With the Cardiff game done and dusted and AFCB taking a point in a 1-1 draw to still remain unbeaten, next game is away this weekend for AFCB at Watford’s Vicarage Road ground.They have another new manager for this season, Serbian, Vladimir Ivic, he replaces Nigel Pearson. Ivic was previously at Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Watford have signed a few players in the transfer window. Three players from Udinese for undisclosed fees, Defenders Francisco Sierralta, William Troost-Ekong and striker Stipe Perica. Defender Jeremy Ngakia from West Ham on a free transfer. On loan striker Glenn Murray from Brighton and midfielder James Garner from Manchester United. A number of players have left.

Watford who were one of the clubs relegated alongside the Cherries have started the season with a 1-0 home win against Middlesbrough, they then drew 0-0 away at Sheffield Wednesday, followed with another 1-0 home win against Luton (same WDW as AFCB). Then followed their first defeat of the season, 1-0 away at Reading, followed with a 0-1 away win at Derby County. Their most recent game was Wednesday night at home against Blackburn Rovers which they won 3-1. Watford are third in the table with 13 points and AFCB are fourth with 12 points.

The last time our club visited Vicarage Road was a year ago bar a day or so. In our last six visits to Watford, five out of the six games have ended in draws, last time 0-0.

In all our league games at Watford, AFCB have W 14, D 15, L 24.

In all competitions AFCB have W 38, D 39, L 40.

Watford Team News
Out injured are Troy Deeney and Andre Gray, Will Hughes has been recovering from surgery and hasn’t started this season.

Watford Player To Watch
Ismaila Sarr has to be a player for us to watch, linked with a move away to Premier League clubs, but no deal materialised. The young Brazilian winger Joao Pedro has been playing as a striker and has had a good start to the season, so far he has scored three goals in his last four games.

AFCB Team News
Both David Brooks and Josh King missed the game at Watford. Lloyd Kelly still out, no news on any more injuries after the Cardiff game, but Adam Smith went off injured late in the game.

AFCB Player To Watch
On the form he showed against Cardiff it has to be Junior Stanislas, let’s hope he can stay free from injuries this season.
 
...have to wonder whether King and Brooks will be in the side for this game, as Watford are a physical side who like to get a foot in and not sure that JT would risk them?

Adam may be missing but we can cover him as a wing back if we go four at the back with Stacey on the right and Rico on the left...

We could do with sharpening up our attacking edge, but not sure how we can achieve this given the movement of our attackers and often teh choices they make on the ball. It seemed Danjuma was soley intent on dribbling through the defenders and Stans shooting was wayward along with the clumsy ball control of Dom and some poor free kicks and corner routines we should work hard on these areas IMO.

I lkied Stacey's crossing, certainly better than Diego's last night..Lerma still can get the ball forward well and Gosling will chip in a few goals hopefully....

There was a glimpse of what Riquelme could offer when he came on which is encouraging....
 
Normally a draw would be a good result there. However 2 points from the past 2 games may leave JT thinking that we could do with a win here. Going unbeaten is one thing, but 3 without a win may allow some doubts to creep in.

That said, 4 points from the next 2 games would be excellent.
 
Bit of updated positive news re four of our players.

Echo

JOSHUA King and David Brooks could be among four players to return to bolster Cherries' squad this weekend.

The pair, alongside Lloyd Kelly and new loan signing Cameron Carter-Vickers, were all left out of Wednesday evening's 1-1 draw at Cardiff City as they continue to build up their fitness.

Carter-Vickers has not played competitively since July, while King, Brooks and Kelly have not featured for Cherries this month due to injury.

But boss Jason Tindall is confident all four are edging ever closer to contention, with Saturday's trip to face Watford at Vicarage Road a realistic target.
 
Watford away, I think we'll see the return of the 3 in midfield, same as Norwich (h). I just hope a fit and motivated King can play up front in it.

-------------Begovic------------
----Mepham---Cook---Kelly---
Stacey--Gosling--Cook--Lerma--Rico
----------King----Danjuma
 
northstandmark said:
Watford away, I think we'll see the return of the 3 in midfield, same as Norwich (h). I just hope a fit and motivated King can play up front in it.

-------------Begovic------------
----Mepham---Cook---Kelly---
Stacey--Gosling--Cook--Lerma--Rico
----------King----Danjuma
Click to expand...

Actually I prefer this to mine lol. Hope Brooks gets involved at some point.
 
Watford looked pretty decent against Blackburn judging by the highlights. Their manager wasn’t happy and wanted more.

Big big ask this for Saturday.
 
This feels like a real benchmark match. Theoretically we should be on a fairly similar level to them. I hope we'll prove that but I have my fears.
 
...I have no fears as we are good enough to beat them IMO...would like to see Brooks and King back on board for this one, surely JT will be on their cases to step up and show themselves?

assuming Adam is not fit after his knock??

otherwise????

I also hope that we can have a solid back line protected by Lewis Cook just in front of Mepham, Steve Cook and Rico..

stick in Stacey and Stanislas as wing backs..Gosling and Lerma in the middle..then Danjuma just behind Solanke in attack?

Hopefully then have King/Brooks/Travers/Simpson/Riquelme/Surridge & Ofoborh

...just need Jefferson disciplined as they will get after him IMO especially if Capoue is playing!
 
DJ said:
Watford looked pretty decent against Blackburn judging by the highlights. Their manager wasn’t happy and wanted more.

Big big ask this for Saturday.
Click to expand...
I actually thought Watford looked poor at the back, Blackburn could easily have scored 4 or 5, and the Watford centre half was very lucky to get away with a yellow when he bought the bloke down as he was clean through.
 
redharry said:
I actually thought Watford looked poor at the back, Blackburn could easily have scored 4 or 5, and the Watford centre half was very lucky to get away with a yellow when he bought the bloke down as he was clean through.
Click to expand...

True, but viewing the highlights, Watford could easily have had 4/5 or 6 themselves to be honest. Capoue returned for them last night too and in 30 minutes looked a class above.

A really tough match, but fancy us to win it 2-3 or something like that.
 
This game is Huge.. we must not Lose...it would be the start of a gap opening between them and us....and its massive in terms of confidence to move on as one of the ' elite'.

And its Watford v their Muff from down the Sand....they want to DO US for past Whuppings we have inflicted on them! They hate us turning up at the Vicarage and making them sad for a week after.
Luckily there will be no Waspy, Bumbly Bee , Hornety crowd....buzzing and Z- carring around. No buzzy buzzy buzz buzz !

Early Tipping Point !

I can see a draw..2-2..but if we Win this there could be No Stopping our Bandwagon.
 
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this could be a watershed game for our season; it's a short turnaround from last night so can we change personnel, accommodate king(!), brooks, kelly etc and still put in a decent performance and hopefully get a result?

[one of eddie's weaknesses was an inability to rotate personnel, albeit it was impossible last season given the number of injuries]
 
We played very well v Cardiff and were very unlucky not to win. Created enough for 4 or 5 goals. Watford won their match, but didn't dominate anywhere near as much as we did in ours.
This statistical model (hat tip to whoever first posted it) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/championship/
re-assesses each team's "power index" after each match based on a number of factors. Interestingly, our rating actually went up after the Cardiff game, and Watford's went down. To me, this is just a quantitative confirmation of what we all saw yesterday -- that we played really well and apart from a few bits of unluckiness would have blown them out of the water.
I'm not under any illusions though; Watford should be the hardest team we play in this division.
 
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