How many clubs have been double promoted to the Prem since us? It's definitely not unheard of in the lower leagues, but I only remember Southampton doing it between 2010 and 2012 iirc
Yes, I've thought that and a lot of fans have said it but every time we lose we seem to put it behind us on go on another good run - we seem much more resilient over the last two/three years. That comes from McKenna I think - very even-mannered approach which translates to the players. West Brom the one team to deservedly beat us this season, Leeds won at Portman Road but we were unlucky not to get something. Who are Watford's top players?
When you did your double promotion did you change the tactical approach much in the Championship? That's the main thing we have changed I would say - in League 1 we dominated possession and in the Championship we are happy to counter attack, even at home.
Varies game to game. No-one has been outstanding, we are much more a team of 7/10 players now rather than any real stars. Livermore has been a real steadying influence but couldn't get in the side for the first 10 or so games and then missed out on Saturday through injury. Rajovic has been scoring but playing poorly. Kayembe has been good recently but it's more about team effort and commitment rather than last season where the team looked good on paper (Sarr, Pedro, Davis, Choudhury etc) but played as though they simply didn't care and didn't want to be here, not helped by a revolving selection of coaches as the owner panicked at the prospect of missing out on promotion. The team atmosphere was terrible but is vastly improved this season.
A good reason not to give away corners then! I'm not keen on our system of the main defenders marking space and the others marking the opposition and trying to hold them off their runs.
For a long time we did well for a club our size despite all the instability (which wasn't all our fault, we had some horrendous luck with the appointment of Oscar García the season we did go up!), although perhaps in hindsight it was never part of a master plan and we were just lucky that a lot of the **** we flung at the wall happened to stick, I definitely think it was a lot easier to stay up in the Premier League a few years ago than it is now for one
What losers! Pales into insignificance when you compare it to our errrmmm.... Evening Standard 5-a-side, Herts Senior Cup and pre season Ibiza Cup victories...
FYI this is what Kieran McKenna said about Watford today. “A very decent side, another team not that long out of the Premier League with some of the same squad there and a really difficult place to go,” McKenna said. “But another one to enjoy. I’ve said it all along, we have to enjoy the journey, coming to a place like this, Southampton away, going to a places like that and winning games, we can’t take that for granted. “It’s on to the next one, but let’s just enjoy each stage point along the way and the next one is another really good team, we’ll freshen up and we’ll try and go and deliver another performance.” Watford’s impressive home results is matched by their stats during those performances. “Not just in terms of the points they’ve accumulated but in the underlying numbers,” McKenna said, speaking to TownTV. “They’ve lost one game in their last 10 and that was away at Leicester. They’re in really strong form and they’re a really strong team. “It’s going to be a strong challenge for us, but Middlesbrough was, the game on Saturday will be and the games after that will be. “So we’ll give them the absolute respect they deserve and we know we’re going to have to be physically and mentally at a really, really high level on Tuesday night but that’s what we’re going to try and strive to achieve.”.
Not sure there's an absolute stand out. Sort of fits with our midtable-ness. Almost every player in the first choice XI seems to be on a redemption arc though, either defying what their previous club (or a previous head coach here) said about them or now putting in a level of performance we'd thought was beyond them. Says a lot about the level big Val has them operating at really.
Our best player? Don't really have one anymore, and even last season only Pedro really stood out. We do however, have royalty within our ranks. One of the most lovable players' of the team who always gives 7/10 no matter the game. He knows who he is, and so do we.
Any of the ex PL squad we have left are those who were involved in a horrendous relegation, so not sure that’s worth a lot TBH.
He's not really featured yet this season, but it's rumoured that he may be on the bench tomorrow night. An exciting prospect from the Youth/Academy Programme - Ricky Aquadrome.
If I am honest I don’t really know anything about this Ipswich team other than they win most games. I don’t think I even know who plays for them. I haven’t watched them once this season but going off their results we will be up against it and I am expecting us to get beat. Hopefully Livermore is back and we can play him in midfield and put FS in central defence with Porteous.
It's mad that we are 2 points off the playoffs and yet our newly promoted opponents are TWENTY points ahead of us. What an incredible season they are having. Even if you took our post Sunderland form and extrapolated it over all 20 games we would still be precisely 10 points behind the Tractor Boys. I'll take a point.
I guarantee marking space is going to come back to haunt us today. Nailed on. If you look at the goals Ipswich score they are trained fully to exploit this
This was looking like an away win all day long. However the fact that David Prutton is backing Ipswich tonight must give us hope
Ipswich haven't had a bad spell in the league for almost a year..I think we will win comfortably tonight..in valerian we trust
Really? He's been awful this season: constantly leaving wide open spaces, treating the pitch like some sort of playground.
Feels so weird to be looking forward to a Tuesday night Championship game at the Vic in the winter. Usually such a chore. 0-3.
I'm just starting to believe we might have something good going on which is normally the catalyst for a defeat. 1-4
This game is all down to how well we defend. Ipswich have been shut out just once this season. If we can nick 2 goals and keep it tight then we can pick up a result, but I’m going with 2-2.
It'll be an interesting match-up for sure - Ipswich have created the 2nd highest amount of xG in the league, whilst we've got the 2nd best xG against in the league!
