I agree with your selections, unless Janmaat or Kiko or available, or we buy a defender during the week!
4/5 still to go though. We got Welbeck and Sarr with a day and a few hours to spare. If we are going to get anybody then sooner rather than later would obviously be best though. Pearson seems entirely relaxed about the whole thing.
That's the Tranmere replay m8. VAR check on the fixtures says that if the suspension starts in the FA Cup, it ends in the FA Cup. End of.
It is slightly worrying with the Dad's Army duo of AFC Tom Daley running at them. I'm trying not to think about it until at least Thursday,about tea time.
Bournemouth still have a fair few players out themselves, don't they? I don't understand how some people are so quick to write off Dawson, given he's only just come back into the first team and had one full league game under a manager who knows what he's doing. He's still under 30 and was a regular in an established midtable Premier League side, so he must still have something to offer. As for Mariappa, he's a bit hit and miss, but he should cope with this level of opposition (who've scored the fewest goals apart from ourselves and Palace) alright. And we have a strong midfield and are pretty strong up front and Muff's defence is almost as bad as ours so far and much worse on recent current form. Fact is, as things stand Bournemouth are the worst side left we have to play away, they've lost four relegation six-pointers in a row (including failing to get a single shot on target at home to a Burnley side with a defence at best as bad as ours) and we can't reply on our home form alone. If we can't get something there then we might as well forget about staying up from then on.
I can honestly say I'm more nervous about this one than any of the last few games. Before I'd pretty much accepted relegation and each win, as good as they were, still saw us a long way off even getting out of the relegation zone. I even saw wolves as a free hit and I actually thought we'd struggle to get a point after the exertions and heroics of the week before. We're now back in it. A win for us with villa playing man city (which they should lose - and don't let the Burnley result fool you, villa are awful) and we'd be 17th. The teams above us can't all win either so we'd probably have closed the gap to a point or 2 from 15/14th. It just got real. A loss here would probably see us 4 points from safety again and the psychological effect of that could be massive on the players and our current momentum. As awful as Bournemouth have been vs our current form and as much as I'd like to think this should be a win, I'd actually be relatively happy with a draw keeping us 2 points from safety. And these games always have a habit of biting you on the arse when you think you're doing well, especially adding to the fact this is on the early Sunday ko under the scrutiny of the cameras. This pessimistic view was brought to you by the letters H and O and by the number 3.
Pearson doesn't strike me as the sort of bloke who'd keep quiet if he thought it was essential that we reinforced in specific areas to avoid relegation.
That's great news. One of the best, if not the best referee in England. He's one of the few who is fair to Watford, if not a little bit kind even. Let's hope that continues. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/18140868.mike-dean-referee-watford-trip-bournemouth/ Watford should approach Dean and say they will throw the replay if he throws the game on Sunday. https://twitter.com/i/status/1214216739195629569
Actually relieved Kabasele suspended for this, despite being our best defender. The biggest walking red card against the biggest red card divers would have only ended in one outcome.
Harry 'tax dodger' Redknapp has sold his house and bought the one next door. Max Denim(owner) insists on having the Russian flag flying at all times at Dean Court. Rumoured to be looking to sell his stake in the club. AFCB or Denim to be more accurate, have bought Canford Magna Golf Club in order to build a training facility on it. Not sure if this will ever see the light of day. 1, The money/the need to remain in the Premier league. 2. The place floods every year. 3. Poole Council desire to build 800 homes (on a pontoon no doubt) on the land. Eddie Howe's crown is becoming tainted, but he would love to put one over on Watford. They will certainly be up for this game and expect to win. We need to begin at pace, no sitting back and inviting them to attack. Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Harry Wilson will practicing their dives all week. A draw will be a good result.
Last season I said the year they bring in VAR is the year Bournemouth go down. So it is proving to be. Their entire club ethos made impossible by VAR and it's wonderful. We're better than them and we always have been. And now they have no referees to hide behind. Prediction Bournemouth 0-3 Watford Deeney (23), Capoue (42), Sarr (78)
