When the call went out for preview-writing volunteers, I thought I was well placed to provide some expert analysis in the build up to our ‘clash’ with Manchester United; my well-placedness coming from the fact that my brother in law and his two teenage sons are huuuuuuuge Man Utd fans, what with them living in rural Somerset and all that. We even had a family party a few weeks ago that gave me an even better opportunity to get some expert insight from someone who in terms of mileage might be 250 miles from the team they support, but spends at least five hours a day pinned to the yellow ticker thing on SSN begging for their team to splash out another £100m. So after joint consumption of about twenty pints of cloudy scrumpy and a few shorts, I was able to gather that: Solskjaer, ******* waste of time, what did we expect signing a ******* manager on loan from a ******* third division team in Finland, Macguire, ******* waste of £80m, Leicester must be ******* laughing, why the **** we let Smalling go to Spain, Christ, Scott ******* Jools-Holland-Hootenanny, ******* waste of space, anyone who starts for Scotland must be ****, ******* Jesse Lingard, get off that ******* social media *****, ******* waste of space, why didn’t we buy that ******* Mount / Hazard / Zaha / Chilwell / anyone having a half decent season that will cost in excess of £50m as the level of spend seems to be the way that Man Utd fans grade how well their club is doing - **** the results, that Wan Bissaka’s alright though. It might be that some of those words have been relayed to the dressing room at Old Trafford as Man Ewe have some decent results since - wins against Spurs, Man City felt unexpected and they come to the Vic on decent form having given the mighty AZ Alkmaar a 4-0 seeing to. As we don’t have the great Juan Camilo Zuniga Mosquera (full name) on the bench this time, I fear that form might continue come Sunday. As for Watford, I missed the Liverpool game but treated myself to the highlights which consisted of airshots, embarrassing misses and GD looking fed up. However, relying as I can on the always excellent ratings from the Watford Observer website, I can see that Kabs was MOTM, Foster “couldn’t have done much about the goals”, Mariappa was “out of position but performed well”, Capoue “played some aimless passes”, Deeney is “still working his way back from injury”, GD “looked exhausted” and Gray “made some good runs after coming on”. All perfectly believable apart from the last one. Unfortunately it can only end up 0-2, Rashford pen (24), Solksjaer (88). Apologies for preview length / crapness / inaccuracy - just moved house. And saves me volunteering for another.
Law of averages says if we kick a football in random directions long enough one of them will go in a goal This will be that time
I’ve cracked the code btw. This season’s home shirt mirrors our season, the black half replicates our season up to Xmas. The second half of the season will be golden. COME ON WATFORD
Or just a role reversal of our previous seasons! Man U struggle more against teams outside the top 6 it seems - maybe a motivational issue? Now if only we could score..
This is the game we turn our season around. Play like we did against Liverpool and take our chances, a comfortable win is on the cards. Rashford is the main man at the moment and with his blistering pace is always dangerous on the break. Saying that, Mane and Salah are both quick and we managed to keep them quiet bar a quality finish and an extremely lucky second. Pearson is no fool and will know that United will look to counter at every opportunity similar to Liverpool, so I would imagine the set up would be the same. However United’s back line doesn’t have the pace that Liverpool’s does, and they couldn’t keep up with Deulofeu (when he bothered) and Sarr. So if United’s back line presses up high and we win the ball back, we will be in. It is really going to come down to finishing our chances. I believe Pearson will get them firing in training this week. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have an exhibition match against our own u23’s since they don’t play now for a while. Get our starting 11 to ping the ball about against the kids and hopefully score. Going for a shock result of; Watford 4-2 Man Utd. Sarr with a Hat-Trick Deeney with a Pen
Nice write up. Your expert sounded like he was pissed as @rses lol. Of course it's a must win game. Every game we play from now to Arsenal end of May is a must win. Just watched Manure struggle to break down a very good Everton side. Draw was fair. . Can we beat them? Yes. Will we? Depends if our forward line has had practice to get confident back. We played very well at OT last season, but this is a totally different game. Us vs TV seems to go different each time. It was awful vs Southampton SH, but that Chelsea game nearly turned out positive. I would also start with 2 up top. We more or less reverted to 4 4 2 at Anfield at the end. Start Deeney Success and put Sarr and Delafooin theif proper positions. Keep the defence the same and maybe bring on Gray later. I would also seriously consider starting Quina. Watford 1 Manure 0
I watched poor doddery Denis Law open the envelopes last night on the Gary and Gabby show. He looked like Rod Stewart's grandfather and Rod is most people's grandfather himself! Any chance he could play up front on Sunday for us?
United have fantastic pace in attack and break at speed. But due to their lack of creativity, they struggle to break down teams that defend deep. Plus they expose their centre backs lack of pace when they push forward, leaving them vulnerable on the counter themselves. Easy game plan for us: We’ve got pace of our own in attack. If we sit back, encourage their wing backs to join the attack Slabhead and Lindelof to push forwards, we can long ball it into the channels and catch them on the counter. Prediction: GD to play well as the scouts will be watching. We’ll have our best game of the season. It’ll finish 1-1.
They've drawn their last 3 games against opponents outside of the traditional top 6. It seems like a run destined to be broken with a victory against us.
I've got a really strong feeling we're gonna win this. The exact same winning feeling I had before Brighton, West Ham, Southampton, Sheffield United, Palace, Newcastle and Burnley.
In a strange kind of way, I am actually feeling quite hopeful about this game. It just feels like a corner has been turned and we're moving in the right direction again. United will no doubt be coming to us thinking three points is in the bag, and hopefully we can use their complacency to our advantage. They've had a good run of results but seem to have struggled against the 'easier' teams (and we are the easiest of them all). I liked the system we used last time, liked the line-up and most of all liked how there seemed to be a confidence in the squad that's been seen for a long time. There also seemed to be more of a battling spirit. A win here and I think we'd be feeling quite different about our prospects for the season. ...Come on you Orns?
It's a strange feeling being a Watford fan at the moment. Once you accept relegation is probable, there is a lot less to worry about. Last season, even when we were doing well, I was far more anxious about results than I am now.
I was thinking this last week myself. I've got to the point where I've accepted relegation, so you just know Watford will screw me over by winning a few games like this giving me pointless depressing hope for me to lose all over again next year!
I'm excited for next season regardless of the division we are in. I think we've got the right manager for either scenario.
Since we've been assured on here several times that everything will change and we'll shoot up the table as soon as the ball goes in off someone's arse, I'm expecting them to be focusing this week's training sessions strongly on posterior-finishing. If I see the ball cannon up off Andre Gray's crack and out for an opposition throw-in, rather than a solid single-cheek connection straight into the back of the gaping net, I will go mental.
Simplistically, Utd struggle more the more possession they have. They highlighted the stats on sky yesterday and they were pretty remarkable. So the better we play the more likely we are to lose.
There's an even better run they'll no doubt break. They've gone 12 games without a clean sheet - worst run since 1971...
Ball hits the bar fron a scuffed Delafoo shot from 5 yards out, rebounds to Gray who miskicks it into the path of Deeney who bellies it in by accident just as he leaps for an unlikley header. Deeney lifts his shirt in celebration and the other players pat his stomach.