Evening guys, it seems amongst all of the Olympic fever it has been a bit lost that the football season begins in just four days with the Capital One Cup when we host Wycombe (why its happening on a weekend I'm not sure?). Therefore, now feels a good a time as ever to ask how we do think this season will go? The season ended superbly last season, from being in the relegation zone in October to losing just once from the end of February as we briefly threatened to storm into a play-off position. Yet since then, its been all change: new owners, new manager, new backroom staff, our top scorer in jail, our player of the season gone and our goalkeeper gone. Will the changes reap rewards? It seems the Pozzi's are very ambitious, with talk of them wanting promotion, but they are happy to wait for promotion it seems. Almunia and Hall are good replacements for Loach and Mariappa in my opinion, yet the players on loan from Udinese and Granada are hard to predict in terms of what effect they will have on the club. On paper these loanees vary in pedigree with internationals Almen Abdi and Daniel Pudil looking to strengthen what looks a good defence and midfield. The problems seems to be in attack, with Deeney serving time and Iwelumo and Garner not up to the job of replacing him in terms of goals. The forwards/wingers the Pozzi's have brought don't exactly have the best reputation, with young Czech Matej Vryda, teenage Cameroonian Steve Beleck and that well-known Scot Ikechi Anya being brought in. The Pozzi's clearly believe they have plenty of potential, shelling out £1.5m for Beleck, but will they be able to cope with the physical rigours of the Championship? Then there's Zola himself. Clearly well-liked as a person in football circles and a wonderful player, but his managerial stint at West Ham left a few question marks with him taking the team from 9th in his first season to 17th in his second season. There is a question of whether Zola started the descent that led to West Ham being relegated the next season or whether it was the club and the players themselves who caused it. In pre-season friendlies he's tried to implement a passing game, which will benefit the likes of Murray and Bauben who like to have the ball to feet, but there must remain doubts over whether this can be produced on a consistent basis in the Championship. What happens if we go behind, would we still stick to our passing principals or panic a bit and start hoofing it. I reckon this will be a bit of a transition season in what is an ever-competitive Championship. A lot of clubs will be aiming for those top-6 places, and it is a much better position to be looking up at the table as opposed to down as we have the last few seasons. Nevertheless, a lot will depend upon how well our loanees bed down into English football, and how the current squad react to the changing tactics of Zola. It will be a tough season, and I don't think we have the quality yet to move into the play-offs, yet I think we will finish within the top 10. Would love to hear your opinions. COYH!!
TBH emiatss, I really do not have a scooby! I keep thinking that we will struggle a bit a first with new players trying to gel, but then when they get used to playing together and how Zola wants them to play, we will start to pick up. But then I get this feeling that we will get off to a flying start and will be a real shock....it's a bit of a strange one this coming season, the first time in a few years that the dreaded R word is not on my mind!
I don't think we'll make the top three, so I rolled four dice in an attempt to work out where we will finish. According to them we will come ninth.
This is one of the most intriguing seasons for many years for a Watford fan. There is virtually no continuity from last season, so that is no guide as to what will happen this season. No-one has ever done what the Pozzo's are trying to do in English football, so our club is both a pioneer and an experiment. A lot of people will be watching with interest and we will get much more media attention than last year. The big question is: can a competitive Championship team be created out of bunch of talented young foreign loanees ? It remains to be seen. Dyche eventually built an effective Championship team out of less talented players, but both he and his players were more experienced at this level. The new manager has no experience of the Championship at all, and neither do the loanees. The task may be harder than Zola thinks. Doubtless he will keep a core of experienced players, but I expect a lot of player turnover in a bigger squad than last year. Players will come and go. I think it will be an "up and down " season in terms of results, sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating, probably ending mid-table. Not having to worry about administration or relegation will be a novelty ,
I am looking forward to this season like no other. It has been a while since we have had ambition to get to the play-offs or promotion. Most of the previous seasons since we were relagated from the Prem have, unfortunately rightly so, about survival. We have made a lot of signings, like Emitass said Abdi and Pudil will add strength. We might struggle up front, the loaness there are well unknown. With Deeney's future uncertain the goals are looking like the issue again. Murry should provide more though. It will be interesting to see how the Pozzo's respect our values and academy as they promised they would. Esspecially with so many loanees coming in. Zola has little experience and I worry a bit about this factor. Dyche will be looking on with a wry smile if things don't start as well as the Pozzos want or expect. As most seasons the Championship is strong, most clubs have certain ambition for the top of the table. This is a sort of well organised experiment on behalf of the Pozzos, I hope it works as well as they have planned. The key for me, is development over time, a passing game, new players, a new boss, a new pitch, new owners, let's hope this brings a positive result which can enhance our future. This, for me, is a very important season, first impressions are positive. Time to take this to the pitch and the league table.
I genuinely find it impossible to tell. There are so many big teams in the league.... lots of teams can realistically think that they have a chance of the play offs, maybe better for quite a few too. For Watford... new owners, new manager....so many new signings with maybe more to come...... we do not know how good these players are, how they will adapt to the Championship and how they will work with each other. We have a new playing surface and want to start playing passing football. From what I saw against Spurs, I'm feeling confident that with talented strikers to be thrown into the mix (which we lacked in that game) we could be a big team in this league. Vydra, Beleck, Geijo, whoever else may come in...they could all knock up 15 goals or more if things work out well. That is the main thing that we missed last season. We tightened our defence up from the season before (and I believe we will do a lot better this season too) but we lost a lot of creativity and goals. With Kightly and Kacaniklic coming in we turned it around, plus Deeney and Murray having a great end of season... but it was 2011 that was troublesome. Fix that and we can easily be up there in the play off scrap again.
Another good thing is with so many trialists coming in, Zola can pick what suits our needs better. This network can only work in our favour, it is not as hit and miss with the loanees, I feel.
I would say it will have to be a season of patience. New manager, new coaches, new playing style, new players plus with a much bigger squad at the moment, the players themselves will have to be patient. I am sure all will get their chance, but if someone has a run out of the team, they need to be prepared to wait until called upon! Hopefully we can keep the team spirit we had last year, as well as adding that extra bit of quality we did lack (loanees aside) Although Maps has gone, I still feel we have a very experienced back line, and have brought someone in with experience of a promotion from the Championship. I do worry our back line will be quite slow, but then I feel we will be playing a little deeper, trying to pass the ball from the back. I do think it will be a reasonably slow to the season. I think we will be involved in quite a few low scoring matches. We will be quite hard to beat but will also struggle to create lots of chances, with the emphasis on ball retention. I can see us being mid-table around Jan-Feb time, and if we are, there is no reason why we can't have a strong finish, but I would still be happy with a top half finish, an improvement in our play, some stability and an increase in attendances!
I had a look last night on a couple of betting sites to see what sort of odds there were for our best goalscorer. On one, it had a very long list of Championship players then at the bottom was who they thought would be our leading scorer - Troy Deeney. The other one also had Deeney at the bottom but above him, but not far above were Iwelumo and Garner. The interesting thing about this list was that they had Alex Geijo in the top 20, even though his signature hasn't been confirmed by the club yet. One thing that surprised me about both lists was that despite his record in the second half of last season, they completely ignored Murray. Talking of goals (sort of), now our penalty taker is currently unavailable, who do you think will take them in the unlikely event that we actually get awarded any? I get a feeling that will be one of the new players, but can't get any further than that in trying to work it out.
Would not be surprised to see Murray get the nod - with Connor Smith as back up if he gets game time. But, in reality, it will probably be one of the new guys - Czech Man or Spanish Guy. As long as it's not Garner!
