The run in

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

  1. Happy yellow

    Happy yellow Academy Graduate

    I know a lot of football fans dislike Liverpool but whats all this nonsense about them being lucky and having referees onside all the time helping them to win the title?

    They have won 22 premier league games this year and drawn one. Last season they lost one single match against Man City where Kompany should of been sent off. Additionally they won the Champions League, the European Super Cup and won the World club championship last year.

    Its all down to luck though!

    For a team that has the refs and VAR onside could you explain why Firmino's boardline offside at Villa Park was disallowed? Away at Old Trafford, Man Utd made a foul on Origi that was more of a foul than the one made on Dea Gea at the weekend yet Man Utd's goal stood and Liverpool's did not.

    Also their two 'lucky' decisions at home to Wolves were both correct.

    Their last minute penalty at home to Leicester looked to be a dive from Mane but it was still a foul as he was kicked. The penalty at home to Tottenham was a penalty too. In fact their defeat away to Napoli in the group game was lost due to a far more dodgy decision where they got a very controversial penalty to beat Liverpool.


    Their game at home to Man City where Liverpool scored after Trent's handball was difficult to overall as it hit Bernando Silva's hand first. Also Man City had the entire match to get back into it from being 1-0 down and lost 3-1.

    Does anyone remember Kompany's handball where he turns his back and puts his arms up to block a goal bound shot? VAR was in operation but no penalty was given to Watford. Yes we would of lost anyway but if we went 1-0 up the final scoreline would of been more respectable and potentially this entire season could of been different. Man City had two outrageous decisions given in their favour away to Swansea in the FA cup match to win ( without VAR) not to mention Steling's 'offside' goal against us yet its only Liverpool that get lucky decisions?

    Liverpool have conceded 14 goals this season with their first choice keeper injured for the opening 10 games. Matip, Chamberlain and Keita are important squad players that have been injured so they have overcome some obstacles.

    Statistically speaking ( especially if they go unbeaten this season) they are a truly great side and yet because football fans have been laughing at Liverpool for years instead of saying well played, they harp on about luck, VAR and how poor the league is this year.
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2020
  2. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    - "Trent".
    - Encylopaedic knowledge of every match they've played in this season.

    Yep. Liverpool fan detected.

    You'll be denying they are all on performance enhancing steroids next.
     
  3. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Are you surprised? Who'd support us and us alone? Never win anything. No doubt we'll get the spiel about local team or kids. The usual.
     
  4. Happy yellow

    Happy yellow Academy Graduate

    They said that Leicester City were on PEDs too when they won the league. I just do not understand why some football fans are not able to admit a team deserve to win the league when they are clearly the best team this season.
     
    CleyHorn likes this.
  5. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Makes a change from arsenal I suppose. But at least arsenal are slightly local.
     
  6. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

  7. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    I disagree vehemently with that.

    Watford FC are by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.
     
    Supertommymooney likes this.
  8. Markoa$

    Markoa$ Squad Player

    Yeah 6 at the least. Obviously anything can happen, but we have the better run in. Just need to beat the teams around us. Villa should be our wake up call and hoping it kick starts another run. If the players want to stay in the Prem then they need to buck up their ideas and play every game as their lives depend on it. Pearson has been here before, he knows what he is doing. I have no doubt that behind closed doors, the players got an absolute roasting.

    Deeney was fuming at the end of the game.

    Everton at H is a great game to bounce back from.
     
  9. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Yeah! Much better than those no-hopers Brazil fielded in 1970.
     
  10. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    The Brazilian fans were singing "its just like watching Watford" in 1970.
     
  11. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    You can now take Burnley out of the equation. Fantastic week for them with wins at Leicester and United. They're safe now.
     
  12. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Why? Have they got 43 points? ;)
     
  13. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    Yes ;)
     
  14. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    Sadly so; let's just hope that we are eventually condemned to enduring another season of the vile clogger-orcs.
     
  15. For what it's worth, bet365 have us at 5th favourite to go down:

    Screenshot_20200123_004057.jpg
     
  16. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Evidence?
     
  17. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    You're making it up. And it's b.llocks.
     
  18. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    More fiction.
     
  19. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Oh look, another soft brain moulded by the media narrative. Sad!
     
    GoingDown likes this.
  20. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    No mate. Moulded by statistics. Not mindless, prejudiced drivel.
     
  21. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Quite excellent.
     
  22. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    A lack of critical thinking skills is a sign of a lower education level. It's not your fault.
     
    GoingDown likes this.
  23. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Yawn.
     
  24. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    These Liverpool fans can't help themselves.
     
  25. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Seems supporting liverpool/watford is the new arsenal/watford. It doesn't take people long does it.

    I suppose they get the reflected glory of supporting a successful team to boost their low self-esteem AND the smug satisfaction of being able to tell people they support their local club.

    But it will be liverpool they want to win 29 Feb. Make no mistake about that.
     
  26. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I think we're getting to the stage now where even if we have important players with knocks or are showing signs of fatigue we have to play them.

    We have two vital games coming up and they have to be victories (IMO). This is where the Villa result has left us. We are still in it, but we're on the wrong side of the line and clinging on.

    Everton at home and Brighton away have to be victories. Beating Everton should not be beyond us, but it will be a good victory nonetheless as they do have some quality. Brighton away will be a much harder task than Villa, and we came up short in that one.

    Then we have those two difficult looking games at United and home to Liverpool. Ok, United are on the ropes right now, but Pogba will be back when we play them, and they are bound to have made a couple of quality signings as well. I think they'll be a much tougher prospect than the team Burnley faced last night. Then of course Liverpool are pulling up trees and are probably the best team in Europe right now, bar none.

    So, IF we beat Everton and Brighton, and lose those expected matches against United and Liverpool, which is realistically probably the best case scenario (6 points from those 4 games), then we'll have the final 10 games needing 11 points to get to that magic 40 point mark. I personally think we'll get 40 points, but I'm not convinced 40 will be enough this year. I think it's going to be 41/42 required, maybe even 43, so we've got to set out target for 43 points. You are certain to stay up with 43 points IMO.

    So in order to get 43 points we'll need to get 14 points from our final 10 games (assuming we pick up 6 points from our next 4 games). Considering three of those are very tough being Chelsea away, Arsenal away and our nemesis Man City at home, you're really left with 14 points from 7 games. 4 wins 2 draws which allows for 1 defeat. It's doable, but a tall order.

    This is what we have to do in order to stay up. Beat Everton home, Brighton away, Southampton home, Newcastle home, Norwich home.....all achievable to a greater or lesser degree.....then one win and a couple of draws from West Ham away, Leicester home, Burnley away and Palace away.

    This allows for expected defeats at Chelsea, United, Arsenal and home defeats to Liverpool and City.

    You can see it's tough and if you take out those games where I think we'll almost certainly lose, we can only afford one more Villa type slip up for the entire season.

    Of course there are lots of assumptions on my part, but knowing Watford and their abilities, you've got to cast your judgement against something, and I've based my theories on how Watford usually perform.

    We need to start another Pearson inspired run. 14 games to go, some of those very tough ones. To get to 43 points, which will ensure survival, we need to win 6 draw 2 then can afford 6 defeats. 20 more points for a team who have taken 24 games to amass 23 points. We're still playing catch up and it will take the rest of the season to do it.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  27. FromDiv4

    FromDiv4 Reservist

    Assuming Norwich will not get more points than us another way to look at it is that we just need one more point than Bournemouth and West Ham.
     
  28. We technically just need to out goal difference them!

    They've played each other twice now so if we perform better we could actually stay up not winning a single point more.

    (Actually we'd need to draw the game with west ham!)
     
    hornetboy1 likes this.
  29. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    That would be hilarious if that played out. We get 1 more point, with a draw against West Ham away, then lose all other games, but stay up because Bournemouth and West Ham lose all their games but by heavier margins than us along the way.
     
  30. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    I was surprised how poor Brighton were at muff. They are a very hot and cold side, a bit like us really. I am looking forward to our trip to the Amex, we got a boring 0-0 there
    last season, but I have a feeling we will want revenge for our opening day spanking at the Vic. Hughes might want to play (if fit) to make up for his miss of the season. They
    look very dodgy at the back and after thrashing Spurs 3-0 that day, they have limped to more draws to wins.

    They are not awful by any means - but they are in very real danger of dropping into the relegation zone over the next few games.
     
  31. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    That defeat on the opening day was such a bad one, and has haunted us all season. Even in that game, had Gray not missed a sitter or the referee given a penalty for a blatant handball with the score at 0-1, things could have been so different.

    This could be another Villa for us, or another Bournemouth/Norwich. It's all down to attitude. Villa wanted it more on Tuesday, and I got the impression we were a bit cocky. Deeney with his antics only inspired Villa, even their players have said this. Although if it takes an opponent to inspire you, then Villa do have some serious issues. Thing is, Deeney winds up the opposition and their fans. Sometimes it's positive, but sometimes badly backfires and we suffer because of it.

    Anyway, Brighton are not very good, but are usually a completely different prospect on their own patch. But if we are really fired up and are in a serious frame of mind, we could certainly win this. A defeat would probably kill off any lingering hopes we may have of staying up though.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  32. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    West Ham's cause isn't helped by the fact that they play all their home games at a neutral ground. I reckon they'll go
     
  33. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    @hornetboy1
    I know you mention the need for 40 points a lot and the fact you think we might need more but I'm interested in how you think the other teams in the bottom 6, probably excluding Norwich, will get there. Looking at the remaining fixtures for all the sides involved, I think it's hugely unlikely that you will need 40+ points to stay up. I reckon somewhere around 37, 38 will do it.
    This is not a criticism by the way, just interested in how you think teams will get there
     
  34. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I'm not looking too much at the run in for other clubs, I'm just basing it on the points they currently have now and because there are a lot of teams fighting it out. This tends to force teams into improved performances. Usually before the end of the season the bottom two have gone and you may get a fight between a couple of clubs who are cut drift. That doesn't look like being the case this season.

    There are only 2 points separating 19th and 15th place. For example, during our game against Villa, at one stage we were 15th, just 3 points behind Arsenal. By the end of the match we found ourselves 19th and 7 points behind Arsenal. This is just over the course of one game.

    The very fact there are so many sides still fighting this out, tends to force teams into getting better results. When a side thinks they are safe they tend to switch off. Many times you hear the phrase "they're on the beach". I don't think you'll hear much of that this season.

    Couple that with the weakness of the top 6, bar Liverpool, these teams are usually so formidable against the lower clubs, but this season they are all losing points to the lower clubs. This will invariably increase the points total down the bottom.

    Looking at the table today, I think there is a real reason to suggest the points total for relegation is going to be a lot higher this season. More so than any season in recent history.
     
  35. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    History repeating ? "They're rubbish so we will beat them at their place".
    Or more likely we'll play like cr** and lose 2-1 giving our relegation rivals 3 points and a confidence boost.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.

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