Villa – Watford; This should be easy. Yes, right!

Heh, I find my self laughing masochistically at the thought of this game.
Per the headline, it should be shouldn’t it? They haven’t won a game since they beat Man Utd in late November, after all.
We all know that means nothing though and there’s no better club to face than the Villa if you need a bad run bringing to an end.

So while Watford are seriously struggling and looking like very likely relegation fodder, we should of course not forget that they beat us quite easily in our first game of the season.
I read an article earlier that said that our undoing that day was caused by our fullbacks pushing up too far and getting caught on the counter. Matt Targett was at fault for two of their three goals, but at least we won’t have to worry about him during this game.
But then, Digne is even more attacking and you can bet the old tactician Roy Hodgson will have watced our previous meeting back and may well try the same tactic again.
The interesting stat for me is that although Watford are struggling, they actually average more shooting chances than the Villa. That’s possibly not a surprise to many of us, but it is a rare thing for such a struggling club to do that and probably explains why we haven’t done so well lately.

Squad news and nothing has changed.
Konsa is suspended and Traore is still out with a hamstring issue.

Along with everyone else, I see changes for this game.Stevie G praised Chambers against Newcastle, but I found myself wondering what the manager was talking about, as I thought he was poor. I’m going to assume he keeps his place, but again I’d rather see Hause there.
McGinn and Luiz are both likely candidates to be dropped, but I struggle to see that Gerrard will drop both. Luiz is not really a defensive mid, but he has been poor for weeks now and even though there’s not really any alternative to him in that position, I think he has to be rested. There’s a lot of speculation that he wants out and I wonder if that’s because he’s being asked to play out of position?
Whatever, I struggle to see who replaces him, to be honest, except erm, John McGinn. We’ll no doubt see.
Actually, while I think about it, I wonder if the scot is happy about having to play more of a covering role when we all know he seems better pushing forward?

And then the next probable change is Ollie Watkins, who has been miles off form lately. Asley Preece, of the mail thinks there’s something not right with him and speculates that he might be unhappy with the way he’s being asked to play.
Anyone seeing a possible pattern here?
Remember a few weeks back, where I said I’d seen it suggested that players weren’t happy with the changes that had been introduced when Gerrard and his coaches came in?

I digress.
Are we really going to drop Watkins for Danny Ings who to my mind has been even worse over the last few months?
I stand by what I said last week. It’s okay Ings being the better goaltaker, but you have to get involved and actually get on the ball to be able to take chances. For my money Ings doesn’t do either in our system, so bringing him in seems pointless to me. That said, maybe reintroducing him against a struggling side is a good idea.

As for Watford, they need to assess the fitness of two of their players, but Woy, the canny old goat, won’t say who they are. Very wise, I think. Why give the opposition any clue at all?
Ismaila Sarr, the bain of our last meeting might be back for his first game in three months and Peter Etebo is back in training. I’d guess they’re probably the two that need to be assessed, but who cares really, Watford fans apart?

It’s guessing time then and I’m laughing again.
This should be easy. Watford don’t do draws and we don’t either really. So that’s out.
Stevie G has asked for a reaction after the poor showing last week, so I can’t even consider a loss.
Hence it has to be a win and I’m going for a 2-0 victory.

The nagging doubt though is what if we do lose this game?
I suspect major questions will begin to be asked of the manager.

But let’s push those thoughts to the back of our minds.

A nice 2-0 it is then.

UTV!