Match Day Thread Watford v Southampton 13th January 2018

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Jose Cholebas tussles for the ball with Dušan Tadic with Valon Behrami watching on during last season's 4-3 home defeat by Southampton, a scoreline that flattered Watford as much as our 2-0 win against The Saints flattered them in September.
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Head to Head
16 Sep 2007 Watford v Southampton W 3-2 League Championship
07 Apr 2009 Watford v Southampton D 2-2 League Championship
25 Feb 2012 Watford v Southampton L 0-3 League Championship
23 Aug 2015 Watford v Southampton D 0-0 Premier League
04 Mar 2017 Watford v Southampton L 3-4 Premier League

Last time we met
Southampton 0-2 Watford 9/9/17
Abdoulaye Doucouré 38
Daryl Janmaat 66

Current Form (Premier League)
Bournemouth 1 - 1 Southampton
Southampton 1 - 1 Arsenal
Southampton 1 - 4 Leicester
Chelsea 1 - 0 Southampton
Southampton 1 - 1 Huddersfield
Tottenham 5 - 2 Southampton
Manchester Utd 0 - 0 Southampton
Southampton 1 - 2 Crystal Palace

Opposition Briefing
Mauricio Pellegrino is in the first season of a three year contract and thus far he's having a hard time living up to predecessor Claude Puell's 8th place finish last season, let alone their 6th place and Europa League qualification in 2016. Add to that the recent transfer of star defender Virgil van Dijk for £75m to Liverpool and no replacement as yet.

The rumour mill suggests a £20m+ bid for Theo Walcott but he is hardly prolific but he would certainly be an asset returning home. Last season's scorers Tadic and Gabbiadini have managed 3 goals each but Nathan Redmond has yet to get off the mark this season. Charlie Austin is averaging a goal every 100 minutes or there abouts but has been injured and suspended, though it seems daft if a player can serve out a suspension whilst injured.

Southampton have had a tough run of results but had enough about them to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage 1-0 last weekend in the FA Cup.

The Man in the Middle
Referee: Roger East
Assistants: Ian Hussin, Derek Eaton
Fourth official: Anthony Taylor

The Hornets will hope to replicate the 2-0 victory they enjoyed over Bournemouth earlier in the season, which was the only other time East has refereed one of their matches this season.

Watford enjoy a favourable recent record with East in charge with their last five games yielding 10 points and just a solitary defeat.

The 52-year-old did, however, show Ben Watson a straight red card in the 76th minute of a 1-1 stalemate with Southampton last season.
East has shown 53 yellow cards in 16 games during the 2017/18 campaign as well as two reds, most recently when dismissing Christopher Schindler in Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over West Brom in November. (credit: Watford Observer)

Team News
Will appear here when available.

Fez Sez
Despite their poor form and lowly position Southampton have a decent squad and, for my money, the best English keeper at present. They will be looking to turn things around against a fragile Watford side that at least gave a morale boosting performance in the FA Cup last week, as comprehensive a 3-0 win as one could expect.
Score prediction? Somewhat optimistically, as opposed to being somewhat optimistic, I'll plump for a 3-2 win for Watford.

Wherever you are in the world, enjoy the game!

YOOOOUUUUU HOOOORRRRNNNNSSSS​

 

Good luck to the Golden Boys!

 

Can we do what we did to Newcastle and beat them 3 times this season ?

Need to I feel !

 

Thanks for the thread Fez. I think three points would settle things down a bit. Not sure that they will come easily though.

 

Picture of Hughes in training (with Cleverley) on his Instagram page - is he in contention I wonder for a return?

 

Cheers Fez.

We really need a win here. If not then we continue to get dragged down the table. If we can't stop the rot against Southampton then it is just another worrying sign.

A win and Pozzotivity might slowly return.

COYH!!

 

Are you referring to Forster or McCarthy as "the best English keeper at present"?

 

For a brief moment I thought you meant Mark...

 

Thanks Fez. Merson gone for 1-1 with the stupid comment of ‘if Watford hadn’t have got a win against Leicester they would be in deep trouble’. If we hadn’t have thrown 9 points away, we’d have 34...

 

And Lawro 1-1 too, so with both of them going for the same score, whatever happens, it won’t be 1-1.

 

Forster... form is temporary, and all that

 

I think there will probably be a result here. Not because of Lawro but both teams seem to be able to score in most matches and the 'orns have had no trouble conceding late on. Could be a cracker for the neutral as they say.

I'll go 3-1 the golden boys with Richarlison on the sheet. (that's with a goal, not a card ) and TC continuing his cracking form.

I'm still worried about Gray. I'm not sure he is getting a fair break but c'est la vie.

Anyway good luck to all those who go and hope all the cheering of the golden goals keeps the chilly 5C out. At least it is forecast to be dry. C'mon u'orns

.

 

Thanks Fez Is it any exaggeration to say this is our biggest game so far this season? Win and we could be looking at better things as we had hoped for in October but lose and we are in all sorts of trouble. I was really impressed last week - regardless of the opposition quality they at least played like they knew each other and cared about the end result. I am not sure you could say either about the Swansea match.

 

seen that photo before I'm afraid so it is old but he does say he is on the way back which is good.

 

"Obviously, we're miles away in terms of results, but I think this difficult moment is a really, really positive one aside from all the negatives."

Clear thinking from the opposition manager is always good to see

 

Gomes; Janmaat, Wagué, Kabasele, Zeegelaar; Doucouré, Watson; Carrillo, Cleverley, Richarlison; Gray.

subs: Karnezis, Prödl, Mariappa, Holebas, Pereyra, Deeney, Okaka.

 

Pleased to see Gray get a start. Just needs a bit of luck and he'll be grabbing goals again.

 

Was just about to say... anyone who has team news post away!

 

That does look like a decent bench

 

We seem it bit light in numbers today?