Watford

Steve Morgan’s passionate display at last night’s Fans Parliament meeting has won him more friends than enemies.

While most issues certainly weren’t explored in enough detail, our chairman’s candor was refreshing.

Tomorrow it’s the turn of the players to front up.

Watford are strutting into town on the back of 7 wins from their last 10 games, making them the form team in the Championship. They’ve also won more away games (10) than any other side.

Some have complained about their revolutionary link-up with Udinese, which has seen an influx of loan players arrive from the Serie A club, but I applaud their innovation. If they can do it and it’s not breaking the rules, hats off to them I say.

They beat us at Vicarage Road back in November after Christophe Berra was controversially dismissed. At that stage, I didn’t think they’d be anywhere near the play-offs, but three months later they now look a good bet for a top two finish.

Of their many temporary signings, striker Matej Vydra and Chelsea midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah are those grabbing the headlines. The latter is hotly tipped to become a regular at his parent club in the coming seasons.

Wolves

I applaud Dean vareniclinerx.com Saunders for trying something different against Cardiff last weekend. But it didn’t work and should have been changed sooner than it was. After Cardiff went a goal up, the pack should have been immediately reshuffled.

We were more effective in the second half and had it not been for Doyle and SEB’s profligacy we could easily have taken a point. Both are guilty of missing big chances of late, which we simply can’t afford to do.

I’d play 442 from the start tomorrow with a team along the lines of:

But we’ve lost so many games now with so many different teams, picking a strongest XI is almost farcical. I look at the whole squad and only Sako is an automatic starter. That says a lot about where we are.

Predictions

42 people correctly predicted doom against Cardiff.

Most thought we’d lose by more goals than we did though (at least that’s something) with only 8 people getting the 2-1 scoreline correct.

Well done SOIAW, Steppenwolfe, Raydewolf, martin, westozwolf, Telford Wolf, Geordie Wolf and Wolves4ever for claiming the maximum. It’s a single for everyone else.

I shall continue to predict with head and not heart (and hope I’m wrong).

2-1 Watford.

Up The Wolves.

Four months into the Solbakken era and the soundbites are beginning to sound suspiciously McCarthy.

Great effort. Real fighting spirit. No points.

Not good.

He’ll know that apologies, platitudes and hard luck stories will do little to appease the faithful with our winless run now extending to seven demoralising matches.

Whether Christophe Berra’s dismissal midway through the first half was the correct decision (most seem to think it wasn’t), the fact still remains we allowed Watford (and Troy Deeney) to force the situation in the first place.

Ten men or eleven on the field, the same problems persist.

Stretched at the back by pace. Laboured in possession. No penetration going forward. All very concerning.

Bakary Sako remains a positive and whether or not his unlikely equaliser was down to a moment of brilliance or a terrible misjudgement from Manual Almunia, he’s always the man making something happen.

With that in mind and looking back to our previous win, against Blackburn at the start of October, perhaps we should revert to that game plan?

Pack the midfield, dominate the ball and free up our one big talent to do the damage.

If not a change in shape, then what can be done with personnel?

It’s said that players become better when they’re sitting on the sidelines and that must be true because Frank Nouble and Razak Boukari are rapidly assuming Pele-like status in my head.

I maintain that the forward should be given some involvement. If we don’t try, we’ll never know. He was amongst the substitutes today, but again unused.

Boukari did zilch prior to a stint on the treatment table, but I’ve convinced myself he’ll be the solution to our one-paced woes upon return.

Whatever the solution is, something has to change.

Ståle will be hoping it’s a change of luck.

Keeping eleven on the pitch would certainly be a start.

Wolves go to Vicarage Road tomorrow looking to arrest a run of three straight away defeats with Watford hoping to continue a purple patch.

The eyebrow-raising 6-1 that Gianfranco Zola’s side enjoyed last weekend may have been slightly distorted by the fact Leeds finished the game with just 9 men on the field, but it was still a fine victory.

It followed a solid 4-point return from their previous two home games; a nil-nil against Millwall and a victory over Leicester. As a consequence, they come into this match a point ahead of Wolves in the table.

I know absolutely nothing of their squad. New owners and the arrival of Zola have resulted in a raft of foreign signings (mainly from Italy), which makes them an unknown quantity.

Wolves

As encouraging as the second-half display against Brighton was it took our winless run to 6 matches. That’s simply not good enough in the Championship.

Injuries haven’t helped. Losing both Peszko and Boukari was a massive blow to our already paper-thin squad. Getting the latter back in full training this week was therefore a major boost.

We paid £3 million for Boukari in the summer, so I still have high hopes he can deliver for us with a run of games in the team. Sadly, this weekend has probably come a little soon for the winger. With Henry also ruled out, Ståle is once again working with the bare-bones. This will probably be the team:

I think Sigurdarson is due a start, particularly after Ebanks-Blake’s poor first half against Brighton continued his recent run of under-par performances.

Doumbia for Henry is a no-brainer and can’t really envisage any other changes.

Opposition view

Here are a couple of grabs from WFC Forums:

“Another tough match and they come thick and fast. Wolves are under performing for sure but still have some dangerous players. We need to try and improve the home form in terms of creating chances. I think it will be tight and will go with a 1-1 draw.”

“I can see us winning this one. So far this season the only teams who really seem to cause us problems at home are teams like Millwall who play direct, physical football and shut up shop for 90 minutes. We tend to do better against teams who actually try and give us a game.”

“I’m always slightly surprised when people predict a loss or say “we’ll settle for a point”. Why? Derby aside, who have we played this year that have been a lot better than us? Nobody. We are a decent side with some very talented players and we are easily good enough to beat anybody and are improving every week. We should not be settling for a point against anybody especially at home. I’ve been going long enough (33 years) to know the pitfuls of watching Watford but I honestly believe that with the current squad that we should no longer settle for second best and we should be confident of winning any game.
Watford 0-2 Wolves!”

Predictions

10 people correctly said we’d draw against Brighton but none went for the 3-3. Not really surprising I suppose. It’s a point for all 10.

I was quietly confident about our away form prior to recent results. I thought Solbakken’s system could frustrate the opposition when the onus is on them to attack. But we’ve given away too many goals to make it work effectively.

Watford are on a decent run, but I don’t think they’re any great shakes. If we play well, we can get a result.

I’ll say a draw – 1-1.

Up The Wolves.

* Please when leaving score predictions for the Prediction League can you write the score numerically at the bottom of your comment, so I can pick them up easily? It’s not a pleasant task sifting through paragraphs of copy to find a prediction buried in the middle.