Match Day Thread Swansea City v. Watford

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Swansea City vs Watford

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Premier League
Date - Saturday, 22 October 2016
Kick off - 15:00
Venue - Liberty Stadium

Just 9 months ago, Swansea City climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone with a gritty win against Watford. With new head coach Francesco Guidolin watching from the stands, Swansea edged a 1-0 victory thanks to an Ashley Williams' header in the first half.

Roll forward to the present, and Swansea have another new guy at the helm, Bob Bradley will be taking charge of his first home match - a game that the Swans need to win to restore and instil confidence in both the squad and the fan base.

Bradley's first game in charge saw the Swans lose 2-3 away at The Emirates. Whilst the margin of defeat suggests a creditable performance, the reality is that the Swans were (easily) second best for the first 70 minutes, arguably only (really) coming into the match after Arsenal were reduced to 10 men. Perhaps a harsh judgement, but nevertheless ......

Watford come into the match on the back of a hard earned 1-0 victory away at Middlesbrough - a win that lifted them into the top half of the table (before Southampton played).

Swansea and Watford have played each other on 44 occasions, with Swansea winning 21 times, 9 draws and Watford 14 times.

Turning to Saturday, I think that Bradley will secure the first win of his tenure - a nervy 2-1 home win - and hopefully climb out of the relegation places.

 

2-0 to US , us I mean not USA

 

I hope you're laughing at my little quip rather than my predicted score

 

The quip ....... honestly!

 

Another tough game (well they are all tough in the premiership) It looks like we will play a much more attacking game like Arsenal play and that is good but like Arsenal we have problems in defence with no leadership that Ash was good at. We need the captains job in defence and i dont mind Leon as club captain representing the club but as captain on the pitch then no way as he is not good enough and wont play many full games anyway as we have seen.....Walcott's first goal was a lucky goal with amat and fab both at fault and should have cleared that or at least Fab should have got a hand to it. but credit to Walcott he put pressure on the both that enabled the mistake...We have nobody in the back that i consider captain material like ash was but that is what we need and must be Bob's priority now to get our back 4 a solid unit..... A home win for me by more than one goal but our defence must improve a lot...

 

That wasn't a quip. It was a crime against humanity.

IF we are set up correctly, and that in some way depends on who is available, I'd like to see Baston up front with Montero and Barrow on the wings. Do that and we'll start climbing the table right here in convincing style. A different lineup and we may well struggle as we always do against so-called 'lesser' opposition.

2-0 Swans.

 

-----------------Fab----------------
Naughton----VDH---Amat------Kingsley
-----------Leon-------------Cork----------
Barrow-----------Gylfi------------Montero
----------------------Baston--------------

This line up beats Watford by a couple of goals imo.

 

Valley I would go with that side, just hope everyone is fit, I hope he saw enough Saturday to show that we should not be playing Taylor or Fernandez, I have the feeling they may start though. This is a must win game and I don't care how we do it. Swansea 3-1

 

This would have been a must win for Guidolin , but to say its a must win for Bradley in his 2nd game in charge is a bit of a knee jerk .
Something against Stoke , be it a point or three is a bit closer to reasonable expectation .
For me Bradley's season starts against Everton . Ill go wishful thinking against Watford and hope for a 1-1 outcome

 

No Roof. Watford is a must win to get some much needed points I the bag as well as boost moral.

Lose v Watford and we will most likely struggle v Stoke and lose v Everton. Beating Watford is crucial this weekend.

Bob is as good as Pep and Klopp don't forget.
He has no time for a honeymoon period. We need points asap.

 

I see Moyes is saying that all games are a must win for Sunderland already but I think they are worse than us.

 

Roof have you not seen the league, I am not worried one bit about Bradley, it is a must win for Swansea, if we lose on the weekend then we are n the slippery slope to relegation. We have to start winning and if he isn't capable of picking a winning team then let Curtis do it. We have to start winning we cant wait another 3 or 4 games.

 

But are there another 2 teams worse than us?

 

Hull and Burnley and haven't bothered to think of any others.

 

I realise we are in a very precarious position and desperately need points ...BUT , Watford is Bradley's 2nd game in charge . We can wishful think all we want till the cows come home but it takes any new manager at least a handful of games to get a grasp at whats up .
We may win this game , but its not a must win situation till Everton . Any points up till then would be nice .
But a good win against a quality Everton will up the confidence level for our run to the New Year .
Hell , we may beat Watford , Stoke and Man U before we get to the Everton game , but must win results aren't an issue with me till after his first 4 games in charge .
He needs time to get his finger on the pulse IMO , and that's just my opinion .

 

Roof - in my view, it is not a "must win game" for Bradley's Managerial reign, it is far more important than that - it is a must win game for the Swansea squad.

We need to beat Watford to build "confidence": lose to Watford and lose to Stoke and the writing is well and truly on the wall.

 

As far as I'm concerned we installed a new manager to quickly and created the " Panic " of a lot of fans into expecting wins right out of the gate .
The installing of Bradley as manager had much to do with the Americans wanting an American in charge and little to do what was right for SCFC .
Out of all the managers we could have chosen , putting the " First American " Premier League manager in place shows they put what was good for themselves ( The Americans ) ahead of what was good for SCFC . I would have waited a bit before replacing Guidolin and if I was to chose a replacement , it certainly wouldn't have been Bradley ....BUT.. its their money and I will fully be behind Bradley and hoping for results right off the bat but not expecting much for a few more games .

 

Taff spot on.

 

Agreed. The win/loss/draw isn't about Bradley, or shouldn't be. Its about 3/0/1 point(s).