Hello! We're for another Preview- and after a welcome (and unexpected) 3 Points against Derby at the weekend, coupled with another Millwall loss we're suddenly looking a lot more secure than we have done as of late. We're currently on 39 Points, without any backing statistically purely from a gut reaction I'd say 46-48 will be the "guaranteed safety" mark this season, and if we can't pick up effectively 3 Wins from 12 Games- especially when we still have the likes of Rotherham and Wigan at Home we'll deserve to go down.
The Derby game was perhaps a poisoned chalice somewhat- because now we're headed into the game tomorrow with somewhat of an expectation of at the very least a repeated committed display. I would hope we see a repeat performance, because I think Saturday has proven we are capable of performing to a high standard- I don't care what they said on the Football League Show, Derby weren't that poor; we simply outclassed them in the key areas. While its a long-shot we do get something from the game tomorrow with the threat Watford pose as long as we see another full-blooded, gutsy performance I won't really mind.
I didn't think I'd be saying this on Monday, but Bettinelli hardly had a save to make in the whole game on Saturday. So with that in mind it was a hard game to gauge Bettinelli on one way or the other. That said there isn't a question about whether he should be playing or not- and it'll be really interesting to see how he develops over the next 12 Games, and hopefully he can build up his confidence- picking up at least 4 Clean Sheets along the way to set him up for next season.
Clean Sheets are of course not just down to the Keeper, the Defence play a big part in them. Saturday was as good a defensive display I've seen from a Fulham team in seemingly forever. I've been seemingly Bodurov's biggest fan this season, He isn't an all-round amazing Centre-Back- if he was he wouldn't be at Fulham, and while he has looked shaky as of late Saturday proved once again why he deserved his place in the Starting XI- and with the exception of someone coming in, I'd make Bodurov one of the players we build our team on for next season. In my mind Hutchinson has between now and the end of the season to prove himself- if he can put in performances like he did against Derby he'll stake his claim for a place in the team next season- and force Kit (or whoever is in charge) to consider them for a starting place. Our two loanee Full-Backs are a different story, I wouldn't necessarily be against signing Stafylidis permanently- although I would prefer someone else coming in with a bit more of a cool head; I'd be keen to sign Jazz Richards permanently- whether or not he'd want to is a whole other story.
The midfield will be interesting tomorrow- I highlighted in my other Watford Preview the need to boss the midfield to stop penetrating through-balls, and we know how that turned out. One thing I didn't think I'd be saying roughly a week ago was Bournemouth is a winnable game for us; more so than the game tomorrow in my opinion. As such, and with the knock he picked up on Saturday I'd rest him for the game tomorrow, if Saturdays game was anything to go by when Parker doesn't play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday I'd happily get the more condensed quality performances from him. This of course opens up the Holding Mid spot- and if you read these regularly it won't come as a surprise to know I'm going to say Hoogland, he came on in the DM Role on Saturday; which has me cautiously optimistic that Kit has recognised his best position. Christensen was another player who picked up a knock- and especially after the last time he had a seemingly overnight recovery I wouldn't be considering him for selection. This leaves the two other midfield spots in the three open, and in this case I'd be playing Tunnicliffe- who I think could turn into a key player for us tomorrow because of the type of game I foresee it becoming, and Sean Kavanagh; who'll give us some added width, while also providing more cover for Stafylidis. The player for the #10 Role is a No-Brainer of course- and Bryan should be in that position for as long as his Costa Rican heart desires.
The Striking Situation is relatively straightforward, McCormack and Woodrow seemingly clicked at the weekend- and while McCormack in particular was far from perfect; why change a winning formula. The unfortunate nature of the fixture list is Kit hasn't done a Press Conference for the game tomorrow- so we haven't got an update on Hugo's fitness- as I said in my Derby Review I'm not completely ruling him out because he's had to feed on scraps in the last month or so, and we've seen the kind of goalscoring run he is capable of when he's playing in a team that actually knows what a Football is, and I'd try out dropping McCormack for one of Leeds, Huddersfield and Sheff. Wednesday with Hugo coming in- because as I've been saying recently McCormack has been looking quite jaded.
Team for Watford:
Bettinelli
Richards, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis
Tunnicliffe, Hoogland, Kavanagh
Bryan
McCormack Woodrow
As I said in my Derby Review, Saturday was pretty much perfection- or the closest we've gotten to attaining perfection in forever. With the exception of one deflected shot, the only nerves I had on Saturday was out of anticipation of something happened- as opposed to something actually happening.
While we can hope for more of the same, that level of performance I can't see us attaining consistently; because if we could we'd have been looking up rather than down. That said, I'm not an ultimate pessimist- and you're only as good as your last game and all those cliches so I'm heading into tomorrows game in an alright mood. The key thing for us was to give us that gap between us and the Relegation Zone, and although I would have preferred Rotherham & Millwall to draw; the Millwall loss has given us a relatively sizable cushion to work with.
Thanks for reading as always, as I've already said; I want to see another gutsy performance tomorrow- and then regardless of the result I'll be happy. I think after Millwall if anyone predicted we'd pick up any points from Wolves, Derby, Watford and Bournemouth they'd have been checked for mental illness- as such we've already exceeded expectations in that regard, and with the way Bournemouth are playing at the minute I'd set a target of getting another point from one of these next two to take us up to 40 headed into the last 10 Games. Anyway, I hope I'm proven wrong with regard to maintaining that level of performance and we're headed from Vicarage Road in high spirits.
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