Match Day Thread Swansea v Watford

SWANSEA VERSUS WATFORD

Venue: Liberty Stadium
Saturday 22nd October 2016
15.00 BST
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Swansea City represent England when playing in European competitions, although they have represented Wales in the past. The club were founded in 1912 as Swansea Town and joined the Football League in 1921. The club changed their name in 1969, when they adopted the name Swansea City to reflect Swansea's new status as a city. Swansea have played their home matches at the Liberty Stadium since 2005, having previously played at the Vetch Field since the club were founded.
In 2011, Swansea were promoted to the Premier League. Swansea beat Bradford City 5–0 to win the 2012–13 Football League Cup (the competition's highest ever winning margin for the final), winning the first major trophy in the club's history and qualifying for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, where they reached the Last 32 stage but lost over two legs to SSC Napoli.

Managers:
John Toshack was Swansea's most successful manager with three league promotions and three Welsh Cup wins and led the club to their highest league finish, sixth place in the 1981–82 First Division. In February 1996, the Dane Jan Mølby became Swansea's first foreign manager and took them to the 1996–97 Division Three play-off final but they lost to a last-minute goal.
In 2011 they achieved promotion to the Premier League under Brendan Rodgers (known to some Watford fans !), becoming the first Welsh team to play in the division since its formation in 1992. During Swansea City's centenary year (2012–13), the club won the League Cup for the first time under Michael Laudrup, the first major trophy in Swansea's 100-year history.
In February 2014, Laudrup was dismissed and defender Garry Monk, a Swansea player since 2004, was named as his replacement.and Swansea finished eighth in the Premier League at the end of the 2014–15 season with 56 points, their highest position and points haul for a Premier League season.
On 9 December 2015 they announced that they had parted ways with manager Garry Monk after one win in eleven matches and after a brief period with Alan Curtis as caretaker manager chose the Italian former Udinese Calcio coach Francesco Guidolin.
On 3 October 2016, Guidolin was sacked and replaced by American coach Bob Bradley as the club's new manager. The selection of Bradley marked the first time a Premier League club had ever hired an American manager.

Head to Head
Meetings in the last 10 years have resulted in 3 wins for Watford, 4 for Swansea and 2 draws.
At the LIberty Watford have not won in the league - drawing 2 and losing 2.



Recent Form
Watford are in better form having won 3 drawn 1 and lost 1 of their last five matches against Swansea with 1 draw and four defeats. New manager Bradley will hope to gain the first ever win of an American Manager against Watford on Saturday having lost narrowly to Arsenal in a five goal thriller last time out.

Odd Facts

• Watford have won only once in their previous six league matches against Swansea City (D2 L3).
• Swansea have lost their last four Premier League matches. They have never lost five consecutively in the competition.
• The Hornets have had seven different goalscorers this Premier League season, having had just eight players find the net in 2015/16.
• In Bob Bradley’s first match in charge, Swansea mustered six shots on target, their most in a Premier League match since the opening day of the season (nine v Burnley).

 

Not entirely happy with logos / tables etc but cannot find the sites I used to use last year which gave a better finish.

 

Good luck Golden Boys, you appear to have discovered your mojo

 

Cheers Leo, looks good!

It´d be great to get two wins on the bounce, the Swans aren´t in a good position at the moment either. Bradley will have had a bit more time with his squad now though he might not understand the Welshies as he is fresh off the boat!

I think Ighalo will start this game with Success coming off the bench. I´d also like to see Watson start instead of Capoue, just to rotate the midfield a bit. We have a decent squad might as well use it. Watson and Behrami either side of Pereya for a bit more strength away from home and all.

COYH!!! Roll on Saturday!

 

After good showings against all the top teams especially Liverpool an Arsenal the Swans look to be getting back on track after a very tough opening 8 fixtures. the new manager in less than a week has improved the squad and had their chances to beat Arsenal last week. They had 11 more passes than Arsenal which is unheard of and scored two goals.......The corner is changing as we turn it and i can see the swans winning at last 3-0 to confirm we have turned the corner.....

 

Well - your first two games were promoted teams Burnley and Hull followed by some tough ones - our first five were also very tough. I think you will improve but hope we catch you just before that really happens. 3-0 seems optimistic but with us anything is possible. Whatever - good luck after Saturday

 

Thanks Leo, a good thread. Still not that happy with our defence and the number of chances we create. Just when you think we have found the right team they put in a below average performance. I think that both managers are still learning about the EPL, and while I would hope that we can get six points from two away games, I am not over confident.

 

Oh, Dave, Maurice Johnston left us over thirty years ago.

 

I feel we won't get away with being so sloppy against Swansea.

Mind you cannot get any worse than last season's "efforts"!

Reckon it will be 1-1.

 

I'm not overly confident - we won at Boro without playing particularly well & this has the look of another Burnley about it. If the team turn up and play like they did for those two, we'll come away with nothing.

But I think Success breeds success. If he starts, we'll be fine...

 

Looks like Isaac might not be fit..

http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2016/10/isaac-success-might-not-be-available-for-trip-to-swansea-city/

 

I can't see Bradley being defensive for his first home match in charge, especially after their performance at Arsenal.

 

Bags packed, early start heading out west in the morning...

 

Apparently the last time that Swansea failed to score against us at home was in 1923. Perhaps Frenchie remembers that game.

 

On another note, has anyone seen the film "Twin Town," one of my favourite films....

 

Lovely day here at Oystermouth Castle and The Mumbles, Swansea Bay

 

Say hello to Catherine Zeta-Jones for me!

 

Think I need to travel a bit further west to see her

 

She often pops back home to the Mumbles!

 

I shall be over there in an hour for some Joe's ice-cream!.......Swans to edge this and get back to winning ways, Swans 2-1.............