On Saturday, the Hornets head back to the Vic with a spring in their step, having finally got their first win of the season before the international break courtesy of a rather accomodating and inept Norwich. Saturday's opponents are likely to be at the opposite end of the scale, as Sean Dyche's anti-football Burnley roll into town, with their incessant hoofing, niggly fouls and cynical time wasting. Oh god, the time wasting. In the corresponding fixture last season, they began this within the first ten minutes, something never seen before or since. Make no bones about it, this is a team that is set up entirely to stop good football being played by any means possible, picking up the gauntlet from Stoke and Wimbledon before them in the Premier League. And as another ball is pumped sixty foot in the air from one of their centre backs there he is, in his flasher's Mac, chewing gum and berating officials about "foreigners" and their cheating ways. Thank god we got rid of Sean Dyche and his orange Lego goatee. He did well for us as a Championship club with no money but since then he's become a caricature of himself, all gravelly injustice and a total inability to move away from his anti-footballing blueprint. He did once sign an actual footballer in the gifted Steven Defour but got rid of him when he kept trying through balls along the floor rather than punting it up in the air for whatever combination of big ugly strikers they were playing upfront at that time. And who could forget his angry post match interview when he was convinced Mbaye Niang should've been sent off after scoring for hugging a fan? Since 2014/15 when they were first promoted under Dyche, Burnley have topped the table for long balls every season they've been in the Premier League. It was only their season in the Championship in 15/16 that allowed someone else to take that accolade and that was Quique Sanchez Flores' Watford but at least we've moved on since then... oh, hang on. Anyway, onto early team news. Club record dud Ismailia Sarr managed to get himself injured on international duty so doubt we'll see him. Deeney should be fit enough to start so expect to see us attempting to take on Burnley at their own game. In each of our last five games, we've had to make a first half sub due to injury so would be nice to buck that trend. Welbeck and Quina will definitely be out and it seems unlikely that Cleverley and Pereyra will be fully recovered from their hamstring strains. We'll need a change at the back after Comedy Kabasele made an unwelcome return and got himself needlessly sent off. Hopefully Prodl will be back as Mariappa always seems to struggle against the Burnley brutes upfront. I doubt either will start but Matej Vydra and Andre Gray would love to score against their old clubs, Vydra being particularly motivated by Quique binning him off for Obbi Oulare and Victor Ibarbo last time he was here... Anyway, if we can keep Ashley Barnes quiet and avoid Jack Cork having his customary good game against us, we've got a decent chance to build on Norwich. Deulofeu has shown a return to form recently and that he actually cares about us being in a relegation fight - in a strange kind of way, he's been a bit of a leader as his tracking back and working his socks off has set the standard. If he's on it on Saturday, he'll be the best player on the pitch. Let's hope he is... COYH!
90 mins of Burnley lumping it up to our 10 defenders. Not even sure I want to listen to it. Defensive mistake on 87 possibly an OG. 0-1 to Burnly.
The much needed victory against Norwich will mean nothing if we don't win this game. Even if we win, our league position will still be terrible. We need to win three on the bounce now to have any chance of catching up with the pack. We've won at Norwich, now we have to win this and the game at Southampton. Fall short and I just can't see us pulling away from the drop zone. I don't care how we do it, it's all about the victory.
If we get 4 points for Burnely and Southampton we’d be right in touch. From Boxing Day we have a really good run of fixtures that will decide our fate as long as we are in touching distance.
We never do well against Dyche's cloggers at home. Always seem to struggle to break them down and that's before QSF's new defensive tactics. Must win game. 0-2 (2 headers from Wood, Barnes or their CDs)
I actually think we'll be able to defend alright against a direct approach. It's any hint of pace and fast play that we had been struggling with (though it's obviously improved a lot recently). Got to win... Deeney straight back in I'd assume, to give us some muscle up front (though, let's be honest, he'll probably be miles off the pace). He's not perfect but I do think this formation should be a lot more balanced with him in there. If Capoue and Doucoure are firing and Gerard continues his recent good form, we've got a good chance. Another win and can we dare to dream about a famous 17th place finish?
If we're going to stay up this season, we have to start winning games right now and we have to beat the teams that we are chasing. This is a good run of fixtures for us, but we have to make the most of it. If we fail to do this, then of course we're not relegated, and no doubt we'll be still claiming there is hope and rightly so, but we have to make inroads closing the gap sooner rather than later. If we just pick up just 4 points from the next two, the table will still look pretty bleak. That would mean 12 points from 14 games, with Leicester away as the next fixture. That would almost certainly mean 12 points from 15 games. Assuming Villa don't lose their next three games, we'll still be in the bottom three. The knock on effect will be every winnable game (on paper) is a MUST WIN fixture. That kind of pressure is telling and is the thing that destroys you. This is why I say, we must win the next two in order to get to a point where you're back in the pack fighting it out. Playing catch up all season, with that type of pressure, will be the team's undoing.
Huge opportunity as teams around us are playing top 6 teams and each other over the next 2 games. 4 points the minimum needed over the next 2 games.
0-0 or 1-0 either team . Mariappa will probably come in for Kabasele which isn't great given his lack of height .
Cloggers? This from the side that has had 18 straight red cards in 6+ seasons? (we [Burnley] have had 3.)
See Hornetboy 1 posts for explanation of the acknowledged vendetta the prem referees have against us. I believe of the 18, 1 might have just been legitimate. Refs are too scared to give cards to Burnley cloggers in case they get their "****ing heads kicked in" by such hardnuts. Joey Barton played for you. Nuff said.
Normally on other teams' message boards I use the name dsr_burnley, just so you know I'm not hiding or trolling. I can't remember why I didn't on here.
What do you think we will see from the Burnley team and the game? My view was a specialism in sneaking 1-0s and defending heavily. I have to say you did in my opinion spend a lot of time time wasting to see out 0-0s and 1-0s. What do you think the score will be?
Man this game is going to be grim, the only thing that would make this worse is if it was in Burnley.
I fancy us to win. Mind you, i always say that unless it's away to Man City, or a cup game, or both. No away wins this season, but we're scoring and conceding more. 1-2 at Leicester, robbed by a dodgy VAR, 2-2 at Villa and at Brighton, 1-1 at Wolves, robbed by a dodgy VAR. Last time out at Sheffield (0-3, we were rubbish) is the only time we haven't scored away this season. I'll go standard 2-1 Burnley. Gray won't score.
Who would you rather have up front out of Gray and Vydra? What has happened to Matej - not adjusted to Lancashire life? Just when everyone has about lost patience with Gray and his terrible first touch and missing tap ins, then he pulls a decent goal out of the bag. I think it'll be an ugly 1-1.
No idea, really. Vydra hardly plays, so I don't know how good he is. Barnes and Wood are pretty much immovable as the front two, and before that Vokes was the alternative, and now it's Rodriguez.
Kabasele would have been useful in this match. I hope Prodl is properly fit. Marriapa's sin is he is a bit too small to deal with Burnley's strong front players. As the red card tally shows, Burnley are not dirty - but they are big and physical. They don't have to be dirty. I anticipate Watford will be largely successful in keeping the attacks at bay, but, somewhere along the line, a good cross and a powerful header will see them brushed aside. Watford's defensive organisation has improved markedly under QSF but that will only get you so far and Burnley will batter at the door. Hope I'm wrong of course. But it is easy to underestimate Barnes and Wood just because they aren't fancy.
We could have done without the international break after the win at Norwich really, as we'd have probably had a bit more wind in our sails if this game was last weekend. Maybe the much anticipated return of our eminent, celebrity captain can make up for the lost momentum? My money is on a bleak 1-1 draw, with Troy equalising from the spot after Del treats the semi-conscious crowd to a bit of his best ballet in Burnley's penalty area.
Do we have to play this? Life without an impending Watford game to get depressed over has been quite enjoyable.
And we are back gonna be a great game with plenty of skill on offer, lots of goals , but think we will probably nick it 3:2 heroes of the day likely to be Deeney, Gerry and fancy the mountain in defence that is Dawson to put home the winner oh hang on a min Burnley , ah no that’s gonna be **** 0-0
This is going to come down to what approach we play. With a win finally under our belts, it would be fantastic to win our first home game straight after. It's doable, but it really depends on the game plan. Is QSF going to let us sit back for 75 mins, keep the score to a draw then go for it? Or will we finally see some of those defensive shackles released and we can venture forward as a more attacking outfit? Burnley are about as good as us at keeping teams out this season. They were useless at Brighton, but tend to have a good game right after, almost allowing them to be clear of any relegation threat every season. Going by that exact logic, this should be their "bad" game. We will have to be slightly more positive in our approach, especially if they score early and take the lead. Not once have we come back from going behind, so that will almost force the tactics to change. Our niggling injury list continues to remain on par with the General Hospital over the road from the Vic. but at least we should see a reduction in this soon, and players are slowly getting back to speed. Will Deeney start? Not sure, he may make a sub appearance perhaps SH If I was QSF I would ease him back in at first. That means probably the same side that finished the Norwich game - which is fine as we did well even with ten men. Kabs will be a miss, and as people have rightly said already, Mapps coming in could be a nudge up to Burnley attacking his side. It's never pretty football when Burnley come to town, or to anywhere for that matter. But if we are really serious about having a chance at staying up, we have to win this. All our games against the Ginger Winger have been tight affairs, so do not expect many goals, if at all. Watford 2 Burnley 1 (Gray, Delafoo) (Barnes)
Looking forward to HB1 telling us who the ref and VAR will be and therefore exactly how many penalties will be awarded or turned down for and against us.
