The run in

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by hornetboy1, Jan 22, 2020.

  1. Cassetti's Beard

    Cassetti's Beard First Team

    Errr Burnley and Palace are 4 points off Europe and Everton are 6 - can't see any of those teams taking it lightly to begin with. Once they realise they can't get a European spot and can't go down then yeah, sure, they'll treat it like a 'training match' but isn't that the same for every team that have nothing to play for towards the end of the season? We were a prime example last season!
     
  2. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    What the heck are you talking about?

    Schalke have had the same terrible form since the restart as they had going in to it (they hadn't won in 7 games before the break, and so far haven't won in 5 since).

    Frankfurt's form has been exactly the same as it was before the break (2 wins and 1 draw in 6, vs 2 wins and 1 draw in 6)

    Freiburg haven't been doing that badly either (2 draws and 1 win in the 6 since the restart, including drawing vs Leipzig).

    It's true that Koln have dropped off though.

    The other team to have really struggled since the restart is actually Union Berlin, perhaps due to fatigue of a small squad and missing their fans more than most. They've since dropped from mid-table to being in a relegation scrap, so their form won't be due to resting on their laurels.

    So only 2 mid-table teams struggling, with one perhaps understandably so, is not enough to indicate that mid-table sides have given up.

    https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/bundesliga/form-guide.html

    Out of the teams you mention, some at Newcastle might be playing for their futures given the proposed takeover and them not being completely safe yet. Also Everton have been doing well under Ancelotti and I can't imagine he'll let them coast. Southampton are difficult to judge, though they could at least basically be safe by the time they play us.

    I could see Palace and Burnley maybe slipping a bit, though we do get to play Burnley.
     
  3. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    That's true, but Wolves and Sheffield Utd have shown little sign of slowing down, and they'd also have to overtake a slightly improved Spurs. They may not take the foot off the gas entirely, but I don't think either will really believe they can do it.
     
  4. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    When are the dates of the remaining fixtures announced? Surely they have to do it before the season starts again.
     
  5. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    We’re definitely getting relegated.
     
  6. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    lutonh8a likes this.
  7. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

  8. nornironhorn

    nornironhorn Administrator Staff Member

    I can't imagine they'll allow players not announced in the previous 25 man squads to play
     
  9. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  10. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    It's true that he's definitely not been as good or important as in the previous season, but he's still started 21 of their 29 games and was a used sub in 7 of the others. He's also still their top assist maker with 4 (no one else has more than 2 for them).
     
    wfc4ever likes this.
  11. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    The Times says Fraser has admitted that. He'snot going to extend his contract from 30 June until the end of the season for fear of getting injured and missing out on a big move.
     
  12. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    I forgot we had Sarr
     
  13. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Easily done. I don't think he's ready for the Prem yet.
     
    Knight GT likes this.
  14. dsr

    dsr Academy Graduate

    No, because the transfer window is closed. Players who have been registered with one club cannot register with a new club until the transfer window opens, and that won't be until after the season.
     
  15. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  16. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    When are the remaining fixtures being published?

    Are they waiting until these 3 games have been played so Liverpool can get their title and they can cancel the rest?
     
  17. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Yes. Liverpool champions, WFC relegated, season ends.
     
  18. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    When Sky and BT decide I guess.
     
  19. Hornet77

    Hornet77 Academy Graduate

    An update following last night and now that every team has the same number of matches to play. I see the premier league have provisionally released all the other fixtures (subject to TV) with the last games being on Sunday 26th July.

    https://www.premierleague.com/fixtures

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Sort of OK

    Sort of OK Reservist

    Good work H77. Appreciate we now have a reset so anything could happen but 5 of the bottom 6 teams have the same 4 point haul over the last 5 matches, only Villa worse with 1 point and actually 7th bottom Southampton only 3 points albeit a bit of a points cushion.

    Tough to pick 3 losers from that based on recent form!
     
  21. Hornet77

    Hornet77 Academy Graduate

    Kick-off times and broadcasters for Watford's fixtures against Chelsea, Norwich City and Newcastle United have been confirmed. The Gameweek 33-35 matches are now as follows:

    Chelsea v Watford, Saturday July 4, 8pm
    Sky Sports

    Watford v Norwich City, Tuesday July 7, 6pm
    Sky Sports

    Watford v Newcastle United, Saturday July 11, 12.30pm
    Amazon Prime
     
  22. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    2nd game on Pick too.
     
  23. Hornet77

    Hornet77 Academy Graduate

    It's a tough next game for all of teh bottom six. I'd settle for another point but three would be a huge boost to confidence.
    [​IMG]
     
  24. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    We have the "easiest" match on paper out of the current bottom 6. Brighton, West Ham and Muff have very difficult matches, as for Norwich and Villa it all depends upon the opposition on the day.

    You could also say we have the most winnable match of the bottom 6 in the following round. We have to get a minimum of 4 points from the next two.
     
    The Voice of Reason likes this.
  25. poakley

    poakley Academy Graduate

    Looking at the fixtures we need 4 points from the next 2 games.

    Given everyone else's fixtures the fact that we play Norwich before the others play their game that round we would have an opportunity to open up a 6-8 point gap based on the likely of
    West Ham v Chelsea and Newcastle
    Bournemouth v Newcastle and Man Utd
    Villa v Wolves and Liverpool

    Beat Norwich and that would heap massive pressure on those 3 getting a result from
    West Ham v Burnley
    Bournemouth v Spurs
    Villa v Man Utd.

    Other than Burnley those are tough fixtures
     
  26. ST1968

    ST1968 First Year Pro

    Really great to see so clearly. Thank you Hornet77.

    For me there are five things to look for in this particular relegation run-in.

    Three are the "normal" ones. Does the club have experience both in the mgt team and the players for a successful relegation fight? Secondly are the squad fit and not suspended? Thirdly who do we play? With the exception of losing Deulofeu and games vs. Chelsea and Man City I can't see any of the other teams better placed than us with the experience of Pearson/Shakespeare and the likes of Cathcart and Dawson and the opposition still to face. Having a point advantage at this stage helps too.

    Fourth is the uniqueness of the situation and how teams adapt. Since the restart Brighton, ourselves and Villa have all picked up points already adapting well to the situation. Bournemouth, West Ham and Norwich have all failed twice already. This will breed confidence in the successful teams and send a nervousness through the other clubs. Confidence building is a crucial factor in this mini-league of nine games.

    Finally is the location of the remaining games. I appreciate that in Germany home advantage seems to have been nullified somewhat by having no crowds but in England away fans are often as noisy as the home fans. My theory, and it is only a gut feel, is that that the seemingly bizarre travel arrangements for long trips (Palace hired 20 people carriers to go to Liverpool last night, Arsenal had lunch on a coach before playing City) due to Covid-19 will really upset teams travelling far. After tonight we have four home games and three 30-45minutes trips to London. West Ham and Bournemouth both have two or three trips to the North and I don't see them doing well there, especially the latter with the distances involved. This factor I believe will have a huge impact.

    I remain confident. And that confidence wont be dented by a poor result/performance tonight if we see one as it will hopefully support my final theory. If we get a cracking result and performance tonight then hands up, I'll take the three points and shut up.

    ST
     
    nfh, Knight GT and sydney_horn like this.
  27. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    You're right, our furthest trip after tonight is West Ham!

    I partly agree with your sentiment about away fans, in some countries, notably in Spain and Portugal away fans don't travel in great numbers, I'm unsure about France and Italy (remember the one Udinese fan?). However in Germany as well as England away fans do travel great distances and are vociferous.
     
  28. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Not sure I agree about the away fans being as noisy as home fans. The key for me is that the fans at many grounds in the U.K. are close to the pitch and the home fans obviously circle at least three quarters of the ground. In many cases the away fans are also in the upper tier only. For the away players they’re getting constant grief from every side of the ground irrespective of how loud the away fans are, which for me is one of the main disadvantages to the away team, with the overall loudness of the home fans being more an advantage to the home team rather than a disadvantage to the away team. This element has now obviously been removed.

    Conversely they made the point on BBC last night that players aren’t chasing down as much because they don’t have the crowd urging them to cause balls into the corners etc.
     
  29. ST1968

    ST1968 First Year Pro

    Away fans, yes you are right they do. But the home fans are more passionate in comparison with England was more my thrust. Massive generalisation of course.

    So losing the home fans I think is a bigger factor in Germany and is not directly transferable as an issue to England; certainly not as straight forward as some have portrayed it to be. Hence my theory that the disturbance to away teams through travel in England will be a bigger factor. Just a theory. Evidence is 'mixed' at the moment after 1/2 rounds.
     
  30. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    I'm pretty sure I read we have the shortest combined travel distance for our remaining fixtures out of all the PL clubs.
     
  31. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    Bournemouth needs to get a win at Newcastle looking at that - Man United, Spurs, Leicester City, Man City, the first three are likely to be fighting for Champions League still and Mna City are class no matter what team they play, also Southampton seemingly have nothing to play for this is a little bit of a derby and I am sure they would be up for it, especially if it means relegating Bournemouth, Everton away is no easy fixture either, could they be in a Europa place?
     
  32. Hornet77

    Hornet77 Academy Graduate

  33. El distraído

    El distraído Johnny Foreigner

    A very useful chart. Thank you for sharing.

    Reasons to be optimistic...

    1) All out relegation rivals are in equally poor form.

    YES we have been shocking for most of the season.

    YES we are bad enough to go down.

    YES we probably deserve to get relegated and if we do so we can blame only ourselves

    BUT I can almost guarantee you that the likes of Borwich, Bournemouth, Villa and West Ham are singing from the same sheet right now.

    2) We are almost always **** against Burnley. Having had over 24 hours to reflect on the defeat yesterday, I am trying not to read into last night's performance too much. No excuses, we should have performed much better, but I do believe we'll be far more up for it against Southampton than we were against Burnley.

    3) Despite the poor performances for the majority of this season, our players have the ability to get us out of this relegation scrap and guide us to safety. I do believe this. It's in our hands. We control our fate.

    4) We have some very winnable games coming up. Also, should we take serious points from West Ham or Norwich, then that really is a bit of a double whammy against them and a big bonus for us.

    5)
    Whether we survive or go down, results this season will be a major wake up call for Pozzo. How can it not be? No businessman wants to see the value of one of his assets plummet. With coronavirus decimating the world's sconomy, we may not be splashing cash like it's going out of fashion, but I fimly believe that the deadwood in the squad will go in the shop window and we can begin to rebuild. The likes of Gray, Success, Peñaranda, Mariappa etc. will all be in line to get the chop. This can only be a good thing.

    Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic here, but I am just trying to find whatever positives I can!
     
  34. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    Careful, the bedwetters will be out in force! Again, not defending the team, but few teams have really clicked since the restart, if anything our performance against Leicester was one of the better ones out of the strugglers (though Leicester are probably looking over their shoulders nervously now), anything could happen. Kind of made my peace with this season after the incident last night, yeah I'd like us to stay up, but if we do go down, there's nobody to blame but ourselves
     
  35. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I'd be just happy if we kept a clean sheet for longer than 7 seconds this time.
     

Share This Page