After four weeks with only three league games after a Covid cancellation and a predictably boring FA Cup game, the rest of January is back to the Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday rhythm of the Championship, starting with in-form Barnsley. They were expected to struggle this season after losing highly rated (and Watford linked) Austrian coach Gerhard Strudel early on but are sitting comfortably in tenth with a sniff of the play offs. The Tykes are fourth in the form table over the last ten games, winning six and losing four. Those four defeats have come all come against the top three -Norwich, Bournemouth and twice to Swansea, with Barnsley not scoring in any of those games. They have, however, beaten everyone else they've played recently so this should be an interesting yardstick of where Watford are in the promotion shake up. Barnsley haven't drawn a game since October, a run of eighteen games, coinciding with the appointment of new coach Valerian Ismael. Watford lost the reverse fixture 1-0 with one of their typically insipid away performances, including another self inflicted blow when Ben Wilmot passed it straight to Alex Mowatt, who needed no invitation to let fly past Ben Foster via the post. Barnsley must be the youngest squad in the Championship with one player 30 years old, another 27 and the rest of the squad 25 and under - no declining players on long contracts at Oakwell... Barnsley's famous fans include Michael Parkinson, Harold "****ie" Bird (RIP) and Darren Gough, who can frequently be found courting controversy and spouting ridiculous opinions on TalkSport, as is expected of all their pundits. EDIT: Top work swear filter, you *********. A completely unrelated picture of our captain, leader, legend So, what to expect from Watford? Saturday was a routine victory against a frankly dreadful Huddersfield, with the Hornets avenging another terrible performance in Yorkshire. Xisco Munoz is favouring an old school 4-4-2 with two wingers which seems like it might be enough to put the poorer sides in the division away but will more often than not mean the midfield two are outnumbered. Pedro has surely cemented his spot ahead of Andre Gray with two good recent performances and a fine goal. Ken Sema has been off the boil since missing games with Covid and will surely start to come under pressure from Philip Zinckernagel soon. Sarr is also misfiring but still offers a lot more threat than the Swede so is unlikely to be rested. With Perica and Success a few weeks away from being fit, Deeney will continue to partner Pedro. Bachmann will likely keep his spot between the sticks after Foster broke his finger "liking and subscribing" to his own channel. The defence is looking settled, all five centre backs being much of a capable-at-this-level muchness. Kiko is a star in this league with another assist at the weekend (albeit this was cruelly chalked off by the official stats people as it took the tiniest nick of the heel of a defender). Masina looks to have the left back slot sewn up after his return from injury but was dozy in possession at the weekend. Chalobah gave one of his best performances of the season and has no competition for the midfield anchor role. Cleverley set the tempo and is a goal threat (until his legs go at about 70 minutes every game) so it's hard to see how Will Hughes fits into Xisco's team (if he's ever fit enough to start...). Anyway, it's all a bit disjointed - Watford rarely look like smashing any teams and it's moments of individual quality or opposition errors that have kept us six points from the automatic places with a game in hand. We have nine games between now and the 27th February fixture on the south coast at AFC Cheats and none of those nine opposition are in the current top six. The next month and a half is crucial to our chances of going up and will give us an indication of whether of not Xisco's cheery hyperbole is going to provide a platform for promotion. Here's an old programme cover from back in the day where it was acceptable to give a player a nickname based on his resemblance to a serial killer: And here's the highlights of a previous meeting at the Vic from the forgotten Pozzo season of 13/14 with an exciting "Where are they now?" round up of our line up that day just below: Almunia (Saves Again) - 43 years old, retired with a heart problem in 2014 Faraoni - 29, plays for Verona in Serie A. Unclear whether he still sports a hideous mullet Pudil - 35, still playing, for Viktoria Zivkov in the second tier in Czech Republic Angella - 31, playing for Perugia in Serie C Cassetti - 43, retired in 2016. Doing some coaching. Toszer - 35, still playing, for Debrecen in the Hungarian second tier McGugan - 32, but has been without a club since 2018! Deeney - 32, Talksport pundit (ho ho ho) Anya - 33, released by Derby this summer after not playing a first team game since 2017/18 Batocchio - 28, finally playing top flight football for the amusingly named Brest in Ligue 1, although has only featured as a sub. One for the nerds in the Transfer Suggestion thread? Subs: Neill - 42, his one appearance for us, clocking an impressive six minutes. Played four times for Doncaster after being released and then dropped off the face of the earth, was made bankrupt in 2016 but recently resurfaced with a role with the Australian FA. O'Nien - 26, regular for Sunderland. This was also his only Championship appearance for us, for just two minutes Merkel - 28, plays for Al-Faisaly in the Saudi Arabian Premier League and for Kazakhstan
I suggested we try and nab Battocchio for old time's sake when Ivic came in as they knew each other from Maccabi Tel Aviv, but sadly we didn't go for him. Isn't Darren Gough a Man United fan?
No idea. Wikipedia has him as a Barnsley and Conservative Party fan. He supports Barnsley F.C. Gough is a supporter of the Conservative Party, and was approached by Prime Minister David Cameron to stand as an MP: an offer that Gough declined.
In all seriousness, for me this is going to be a tough game, have a feeling we’ll score a goal midway through the second half against a side looking a for a draw again based on their form against the top 6 recently. Wfc 1-0 barnsley Joao Pedro (67’) for his second in 2 games
Great write up Steve, nice history of our yesterday's men too. I did wonder where Anya went. Tough game, not so much a home banker, but more of a game we could fall short in. We were hopeless at their place and yet another Yorkshire team who could score a double whammy over us. We will have to play a darn sight better than we did last game too. I would go same team, maybe slot Zinc in a little earlier and gives Hughes 45 SH? Should have enough especially at home, but I remember thinking the same thing when Crewe Alexandra beat us 1-0 with a late goal. 2-1
Barnsley. He says it annoys him intensely when people say he's a ManUre fan, so please carry on doing it.
Nice preview. Perfectly captures how utterly joyless it is to be a football fan in lockdown, but specifically a Watford fan watching endless tepid performances by a disjointed squad at a dysfunctional club.
Wilmot, Hughes and Zinckernagel need to be starting this. Barnsley are a decent team and press well so we'll need players who are comfortable on the ball and make quick decisions with it.
Our left back problem solved. Yes I know he used to be a WB, but given the pace he will have lost by now, we can just tell him he's not allowed to wander more than 30 yards from our goal.
Luckily this debacle does not appear to be on any of the television I have so I won't have to watch it. The match isn't on either.
Sarr has a pretty substantial reach advantage, but JP has better movement, so could see it going either way. I've got Sarr via vicious knockout in the 10th, with JP having been ahead on the scorecards up until that point.