Over recent years Lawro has predicted a lot of doom and gloom for us. However this year he seems fairly upbeat about our prospects. He thinks the new manager will make us hard to beat at the Vic and get more out of the players than WM managed. So I thought let's keep a record and see if Lawro's old downer on us returns. Can't se his table prediction yet. Phil McNulty predicts doom and gloom with us relegated in 18th. Lawro starts off predicting a 1-1 against Liverpool. I'd take that Cram and Foster, athletic heroes, 0-2 and 0-4 but then they are from the NE
The bookies have us just about the least likely to win the title. Maybe the punters in the Watford area know when to keep their money in the pocket.
Can Lawro be put into the prediction league to see how we, as amateurs, compare with someone paid to give opinions.
I can put him into the predictions league - we won't have exactly the same fixtures because I sometimes use Championship fixtures (ie. Norwich - for our Canary friend) or Udinese fixtures, to substitute for Friday and Monday matches - but I will simply match his result against ours. I will play his joker on what he tips on Liverpool - being an ex scouser.
Mark Lawrenson is now officially in the WPL. I have no idea which fixture he would play his joker on, but, as an ex scouser it has to be Liverpool. So that he has the same chance as any of us his Watford tip will be doubled - and when Liverpool play Watford then his joker moves to the Seagulls (he played for Brighton before Liverpool). He will, of course, be tipping 10 Premiership matches every week as against our occasional tips on Udinese (or Norwich). It gets complicated when we get down to the later rounds of the cup - when our 2 leagues run parallel to each other, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Lawro is now amongst the profis, so our honour is at stake ! Will he even make the first 10 ?
Didn't know where to put this, but this article is a bit more like it! Why Are Watford Tipped For Relegation? All Evidence Suggests Otherwise Greg Johnson Manna from heaven, Phil ‘Thommo’ Thompson called it. “Why not Gary Rowett?” asked Paul ‘Merse’ Merson. The Soccer Saturday inquisition were not best pleased when Marco Silva was handed the Hull City job and the unenviable task of lifting the Tigers out of the relegation-bound tailspin they had tumbled into last season. Having arrived in January, the Portuguese simply ran out of time but he made an instant impact during his five-month stay at the KCOM stadium, lifting a club that had looked head and buried back onto its feet to give it a go at forcing their own great escape. If Silva had been appointed earlier, or the previous season lasted a little longer, who knows. He could have closed the gap and kept them up. In the 18 league fixtures he oversaw, the club won 21 of their 34 points for the season, or 1.67 points per game. Over a full 38-match campaign that would have translated to a final tally of 44 points and safety. Their form wasn’t the only thing transformed by Silva. Hull’s football became sharper, more sudden and threatening. Their home was turned into a fortress instead of a wake. While Thommo and Merse may have scoffed at his CV, the Portuguese’s work did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by his other suitors in the Premier League. In May, Silva became the new manager of Watford, replacing Walter Mazzarri. His first competitive match saw the Hornets pick up where the Tigers had left off. They held Liverpool to a 3-3 draw at Vicarage Road playing on the break, keeping themselves compact without the ball and springing on the counter when chances opened up to strike. It was a performance that made a mockery of Merson’s pre-season prediction that Watford were for relegation. Back on one of his favourite hobby horses, he mocked the Hornets for hiring a manager who had somehow enhanced his reputation by being relegated. Silva, it seems, still hasn’t been forgiven for getting the Hull job, or showing up his myopic critics on Soccer Saturday with the turnaround he inspired. No, it wasn’t enough in the end but blaming this failure on a manager who presided over his team winning 61.77% of their points for the season after taking over in January suggests Merson wasn’t paying attention. Given his ignorance over who Silva was and what he had achieved as a trophy-winner in foreign lands with Champions League, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Yet this dismal doubling down should make Watford’s progress under Silva this year even sweeter, especially for a set of supporters who have grown used to criticism – of their “kick and rush” football in years gone by, of the Pozzo model and of ruining modern football through the mass loaning of players. After an impressive summer in which eight new players have been signed and Tom Cleverley added as a permanent member of the squad, the Hornets are a side that look locked and loaded, and ready to realise the ambitions of their Italian owners. With access and intel to markets that were previously out of reach, they have snagged Brazilian forward Richarlison, who showed enough on his debut to get his new admirers excited. Dreams have been realised by the return of Nathaniel Chalobah too, back at the club where he made his first steps in senior football. He bossed it in the first half against Liverpool alongside Abdoulaye Doucoure. Their partnership could be one to watch, and there is more to come. Will Hughes is still to step foot on the pitch in a competitive fixture. For a side with a player roster that has been too transient to keep hold of a proper identity – and a high turnover in managers that has unsettled the relationships between the pitch and the stands – Watford have become lumbered with the image of a mercenary club. By bringing in signings to create a more homogenous, homegrown core of English footballers in the dressing room, with the likes of Chalobah, Cleverley, Hughes and Andre Gray, the Hornets can start to push back against the idea they lack substance and heart. Even if the majority of these efforts will start and end at shifting perceptions rather than making any real alterations to what takes place on the pitch, it can matter to fans, and help anchor a side in something that at least feels more real when times are hard. The signs are good for Watford in the short-to-medium term but if Silva does as well as he is expected to at Vicarage Road, the Pozzo family cannot take his regime for granted. Questions are still being asked as to why Slavisa Jokanovic and Quique Sanchez Flores were ejected from the dugout out in previous seasons despite winning over the fans, getting the culture of the club and doing good work in the dugout. If they are onto another good thing, they cannot afford to mess it up again due to knee jerk, ungrateful gambles on trading up for bigger names that don’t necessarily deliver. With Silva, Watford could strike gold.
