Hornets š v Hammers ā - Tuesday 28th, 3pm
Right, marquee signing arrivesā¦Lukerz, bag and phone in hand, ālook whoās backā¦ā
Time for me to bag the 3 points (COVID permitting).
Side should be
Fabianski
Johnson - Dawson - Diop
Coufal - Soucek - Kral - Masuaku
Bowen - Fornals
Antonio
Benrahma doesnāt do enough to start the game despite his goal today. Diop & Dawson canāt be trusted as a two, so Johnson helps out. Time for the Czech boys to come in next to Coufal in a midfield 5.
Back to basics, solid at the back, gritty, Lanzini with a penalty (off the bench).
0-1
Time for me to bag the 3 points (COVID permitting).
Side should be
Fabianski
Johnson - Dawson - Diop
Coufal - Soucek - Kral - Masuaku
Bowen - Fornals
Antonio
Benrahma doesnāt do enough to start the game despite his goal today. Diop & Dawson canāt be trusted as a two, so Johnson helps out. Time for the Czech boys to come in next to Coufal in a midfield 5.
Back to basics, solid at the back, gritty, Lanzini with a penalty (off the bench).
0-1
Comments
But....
Can't win, won't win. Loss!
Fabianski; Coufal Dawson Diop Johnson; Kral Soucek; Bowen Benrahma Vlasic; Antonio
Lanzini all day long
Even Fornals before Benrahmaā¦
Benrahma is more a liability than an asset at the moment IMO
Fab
Coufal Diop Dawson Johnson
Soucek Kral Lanzini
Bowen Antonio Vlasic
Would prefer Johnson over Masuaku, think he's limited there but he's a better 'defender' and offers us more protection, and atm it's that side of the game we're struggling with not the attacking aspect
For a back 3 to work the outside ones MUST be footed the side they play on to cover the marrauding wing back. It is much more important for the LCB of a back 3 to be left footed than a LCB in a back 4. They have to cover the wing side far more than a CB in a 2.
Whenever we have successfully played a back 3 it has been Cress, or on a couple of occassions Oggy, as the LCB.
Or we continue to go with back 4 and give Longelo a go at LB.
I really think one of these options needs to be tried VS Watford. Masu just can't defend enough as a LB and Diop needs more help there.
So for me it's either:
------Diop-Dawson-Alese-----
Coufal------------------Masuaku
OR
Coufal--Dawson--Diop--Longelo
Under Munoz P7 W2 D1 L4 GF7 GA10
Under Ranieri P9 W2 D0 L7 GF14 GA21
Watford have lost the last four and haven't kept a clean sheet all season but they have scored in the last five
They also haven't played since 10 December so either they'll be well rested or a bit rusty
Ranieri is still the "Tinkerman", changing his starting line up almost every game although he does have long term injuries to 1st choice keeper Ben Foster, RW Ismaila Sarr and CB Nicolas N'Koulou who only joined from Torino in the summer.
Only DM/CM Moussa Sissoko and CB Craig Cathcart have started all 9 Premier League games under Ranieri, CF/LW Josh King has started 8, LW/RW/CF Emmanuel Dennis and CB William Troost-Elong have started 7. Another 14 other players have featured in the starting line up
Dennis looks like a bit of a worry, he has started the last 6 matches and has scored 5 goals of his 7 goals under Ranieri. Against Everton Dennis came on with 25 minutes left when Watford were 2-1 down, scored, had two assists and earned his 5th yellow card of the season to earn a one match ban. Watford won 5-2.
We've won our last three meeting with Watford, 4-1, 3-1 and 3-1
The last time Moyes and Ranieri met in competition was 3rd December 2016, Sunderland v Leicester, 2-1. Ranieri got sacked in February
https://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-to-disown-a-relative/
Fabianski
Fredericks - Dawson - Diop - Johnson
Noble (c) - Kral
Vlasic - Fornals - Lanzini
Antonio
Areola, Baptiste, Ashby, Coufal, Masuaku, Soucek, Benrahma, Yarmolenko, Bowen
I think Moyes will make changes having played poorly only 48 hours before this game. Watford have had 3 weeks of no games & whilst they may be rusty, they will be energised.
One change is I think we need to get back to having Soucek being the one to get forward. Rice carries the ball well at times but often the impact is limited. Soucek is an average midfielder without his attacking input but we're also a much more average team without his attacking input and I think it's been sacrificed for Declan. Rice too often drives a bit, checks and then tries to play a sweeping pass out to Coufal. If we want to do well to keep Rice, maybe that means putting a check on his personal ambition within games.
Everyone looks worse than they did last season (apart from Rice) but a lot of that is confidence. We're a bit timid and not flowing as naturally as before but there were moments when things looked better yesterday. It just needs to click back into place.