Match Day Thread Watford v Leicester

Watford v Leicester City

Saturday 19th November 2016
15.00 GMT
Vicarage Road

...v... ​

Our guests today: Leicester City, nickname the Foxes are the current reigning champions. They were promoted as champions of the Championship in 2013-14 after a decade away from the top flight.

The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse FC, and moved to Filbert Street in 1891, they were elected to the Football League in 1894 and adopted the name Leicester City in 1919. They moved to the Walkers Stadium in 2002 which was renamed the King Power Stadium after a change of ownership in 2011.

Leicester are one of only six clubs to have won the Premier League since its inception in 1992. Their title win has been described as one of the greatest sporting upset ever. Bookmakers had never paid out at such long odds for any sport.Their previous highest ever finish was second place in Division One in 1928-29. Leicester have spent all but one season within the top two tiers of English football. The club holds a joint-highest seven second-tier titles.

Manager: Claudio Ranieri
He began his managerial career in the lower leagues in Italy during the late 1980s and made his name at Cagliari, whom he took from Serie C1up to Serie Ain successive seasons. He later went on to manage Napoli and Fiorentina before moving to Spain in 1997 to manage Valencia and then Atlético Madrid. In 2000, Ranieri moved to England to become head coach at Chelsea. His four seasons there saw Chelsea improve their points total season on season, with them finishing runners-up in 2004 and reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-final the same season. He was sacked that May but a number of players he signed and brought through during his time at Stamford Bridge formed the core of the side that went on to achieve domestic and international success in subsequent seasons.

He had an unsuccessful second spell back in Spain with Valencia before he returned to Italy in 2007 with spells at Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter Milan. In 2012, he went to Monaco in the middle of French Ligue 2 and earned promotion as champions in his first season, then finished as Ligue 1runner-up in his second season.

This was followed by international management with Greece but he was sacked less than four months later due to a 1–0 defeat against the Faroe Isles. He returned to England in 2015 at Leicester. He was named the 2016Premier League Manager of the Season, and LMA Manager of the Year. He was also awarded the Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Merit and the Enzo Bearzot Award as best Italian manager of the year.

Head to Head
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Results since the millenium:


Recent Form



Premiership Position:



Key Player Statistics
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Leicester:


Sorry about posting this so early but if I did not do it now I would probably not have been able to do it later. Referee and team news to follow.

COME ON YOU HORNS

 

http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2016/11/st...raining-and-in-contention-for-leicester-game/

The Beast is back!!

No Isaac Success though - another week away.

 

The referee will be Neil Swarbrick. Last time at The Vic, in promotion year, he sent off Gabriel Tamas against Huddersfield.

 

Options! Excellent!!

 

Does that 5th yellow card mean that Holebas is suspended for this one?

 

He is - another defender missing!

 

Thanks for the well written match thread.

I hope the players are really hurting from the Liverpool defeat. They tore us a new one. Now there must be some professional pride here. There has to be a reaction performance wise, Watford were dire at Anfield. Liverpool did play very well mind.

The team selections will be very interesting too. I hope WM tries to change a few things, he seems less stubborn than QSF. The international break has only compounded the wait to get back on form. In the last 6 games the only saving grace is the 8 points that have been miraciously collected. Who can say Watford have played decently in the last 6 games?

In my opinion, Watford haven´t played well since breating Utd, this has to change and it might as well change ASA(F)P on Saturday. I don´t mind if we don´t win, but I want to see a decent performance with the players sweating buckets for the cause and giving the strikers more than just scraps to feed off.

END OF RANT, which I can´t really believe I´ve written when we are sitting in 8th, yes 8th in the table!!! However, we are only 4 points above 17th...

COYHHHHHHHHH

 

thanks Leonardo, a great thread!

Just back from my rather boozy weekend in the Cotswolds and ready and aching for football! I have no idea who we will have at the back, nor what system we will play! I do hope Okaka gets on the pitch, preferably at the start! We have a severe problem up front and i just hope Deeney is in the mood to show Leicester what they've missed out on this season, hopefully the 100 will finally come up. So many unknowns but i have a feeling we'll beat them 3-1...obviously!

 

Thanks H - I agree 3-1 sounds about right.

Strange isn't it - our form slumped after our best performance last year - home to Liverpool and now we have gone into the doldrums after the Man U win. Hope the break sees us snap out of it.

 

https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/first-team/injury-update-mazzarri

News about the injury list, straight from the gaffer´s second mouth!!

 

Seems to be as one defender gets fit - another is injured!

 

Very good luck to your Golden Boys!

 

Cheers, Dave.

The Steptoes for you, Dave. Fancying yourselves for three points, surely?

 

We're on a poor run of form atm Andy but I'm ever hopeful of an upturn in our fortunes!

 

https://www.premierleague.com/news/139526?

Leicester injury worries - Drinkwater, Gray and Okazaki all in doubt...

 

Drinkwater has some sort of record in terms of completed passes or possession or something, so that's a plus. Okazaki is a bundle of danger, too, much feared by me.

Shame Success is out, he would've provided the stretch to the team to relieve a lot of pressure at the back. Vardy was impressive for England, which is a concern.

Just looking for a reaction, and Prodl to lead that at the back to get back to our recent clean sheets.

 

Not going today as it's my daughter's birthday. Got a feeling it will be 1-1... COYH!

 

At long last a kick off on the right day, at the right time. Thanks for the thread Leo. I do hope we have put the last match out of mind. I doubt that many teams would have done much better, as it was a complete performance. Leicester on their day can be very good, but hope it is one of those when they don't turn up.

 

Watfordfc: Gomes (GK); Kaboul, Prödl, Britos; Janmaat, Behrami, Capoue, Zuniga; Amrabat; Deeney (c).

 

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