WATFORD
If you'd offered Watford 13th place at the start of the season then they would have bitten your hand off. The highest finishers of the newly promoted clubs, three points and three places ahead of fellow survivors Bournemouth, and a whole eleven points ahead of relegated Norwich, Watford can be very, very happy with their work this season, and will be looking forward to 2016/17.
And it could have been even better for Watford, who sat 7th on 29 points on Boxing Day, having secured an impressive 2-2 draw with Chelsea, on the back of a 3-0 humbling of Liverpool. But from there, life became more difficult for them, and it looked as survival was already assured. As such four straight defeats, to City, Spurs, Southampton and Swansea, derailed their momentum and left them tussling for a mid-table spot. By the time they ended the slide with a 2-1 win over Newcastle at the end of January, they were 10th, and out of contention for the European spots, and from there, Watford become another side whose season ended the second they were safe, although they did a better job of not nearly getting relegated than Palace did.
Watford opened their campaign with three respectable draws, but defeat against Manchester City left then on three points as August closed. From there however, they were able to kick on, securing back to back victories in both September and October, either side of defeats to Palace and a thrashing at home to Arsenal. However, it was the end of November when Watford were really able to kick on, and after back to back defeats against Leicester and Man U, they scraped past Aston Villa, and built some momentum, seeing off Norwich, Sunderland and Liverpool in December without conceding. In fact, before their 1-0 defeat at Swansea on 18th Jan, Watford had only lost to big clubs or teams high up in the division. Man City (twice), Spurs, Saints, Arsenal, Man United, Leicester and a Crystal Palace side who were challenging for top four in the early stages.
If Watford's form didn't pick up in the second half of the season, it was due to similar factors as Palace's. An FA Cup run, Premier League security assured, and Odion Igahlo, their main source of goals before Christmas, couldn't seem to find the back of the net in the back end of the season, although Igahlo's partnership with Troy Deeney was exceptional all season. February was a mixed month, as they beat a hapless Palace side, drew again with Chelsea and Bournemouth, and once again lost to Spurs by the odd goal, but March ended up being a disastrous month, with four straight defeats spilling into April, admittedly against once again superior opposition in United, Arsenal, Leicester and Stoke.
However, by this point, 37 points looked enough to keep Watford in the Premier League, and there was no suggestion that they wouldn't pick up a few more. And so they did, beating West Brom, drawing with Everton (and on the final day Sunderland), coupled with their frankly hilarious turning over of a 2-1 deficit to beat poor old Aston Villa 3-2 in stoppage time. It was cruel, but it was beautiful.
So overall, a really, really solid season from Watford. They only lost two games to teams that finished below them, a defeat to a Palace side sat 6th when they lost to them, and a 4-2 defeat to a desperate Norwich side on the penultimate day, when Watford really were on their holidays. The one big problem Watford had was their inability to cause the big sides too many problems: they picked up just seven points against the top eight sides and the top five all did the double over them. Defensively, Watford were reasonably solid; 50 goals conceded represents a very decent total, But in terms of goals scored? Watford only managed 40 league goals this season, which is quite low. And that figure becomes more impressive when you realise that Igahlo scored 15 of those goals, and even more impressive when you realise Deeney scored another 13. Nobody other than those two managed to score more than twice. Watford really needed some support from their midfield, clearly the weakest area of their squad.
So looking forward, Watford have a new manager in Walter Mazzarri, which is a shame because I thought Quique Sanchez Flores did a really good job at Watford. But either way, you'd expect more of the same next season. Tight defensively, Deeney and Igahlo scoring the goals, and a lower mid-table finish.
Big Sam and Gigi
Okay, so I have to talk about the two big stories hitting the football world (at least my football world simmer down people). Big Sam is the new manager of England and Liverpool have spanked £25m out on Gigi Wijnaldum. Let's start with the former.
Okay so Big Sam's appointment has prompted one of two reactions. The first is a proud declaration that Big Sam is the perfect candidate because he's English, smart, good at handling big names and a good tactician. The other school of thought tends to be that this is the worst thing ever, that Big Sam is a dinosaur and heaven forbid England ever hire anyone who doesn't play a Wenger-esque style of beautiful football, because that's worked out so well for the last well now it's five decades and counting.
Okay sarcasm aside, of course the answer is somewhere in the middle. Those clamoring for Big Sam clearly wanted an English appointment and/or are trying to make the best of a bad situation and getting behind their manager. Both noble causes, if maybe misguided. I personally don't think Sam is the perfect choice, and I would rather have not hired an English manager, simply because I don't think the standard of English managers is as high as foreign ones. I'd personally have waited twelve months because in this market? Come on a high profile freeing up of a serious contender seems inevitable.
However, I understand the desire to go English, to try and complete the project that Roy Hodgson was so totally inept at even beginning. On paper, Big Sam is a similar choice to Hodgson - they both focus on building from the defence up, they don't play fancy football, they focus on the result and they've both had some success with smaller clubs. However, I have two rebuttals to the idea that Allardyce is just Roy Mark II. First of all, there were clear and obvious signs that Roy shouldn't be given a big job, seeing as how he completely bottled the last big job he'd had, less than two years previously at Liverpool. Moreover, his international record and career records were mixed at best. Big Sam on the other hand, has been at four clubs in the last seventeen years. In that time he got two of them promoted, established them in the Premier League and nearly got Bolton Champions League football - BOLTON. In fact, if we're being bluntly honest, he's arguably the best manger in Bolton's history, certainly one of their best. He got them into the Premier League, and more importantly kept them in the Premier League, giving them a sustained run. To put that into context, Bolton hadn't been in the top division for more than two seasons since the 60s. Big Sam got them up, kept them up and led them to four top half finishes in the eight years he was there. Then he did a decent job at Blackburn, keeping them in the Premier League. He got West Ham promoted and led them to top half contention, and his only "failure" was at Newcastle, where he did just okay, and was sacked when Mike Ashley came in and got the club relegated inside two seasons. Oops.
The other point I want to make is that just because Roy failed on the big stage (and there was tangible evidence that he would), doesn't mean we should only hire big names, and doesn't mean that the FA shouldn't stick to their project of hiring English managers who have proven they're adept at organising defences and adding steel and leadership to the side. I do respect what they're trying to do and I think that Big Sam is a significantly better candidate for that then Roy is. Moreover, just because said tactic didn't work because they hired a complete ignoramus, doesn't mean it will fail again, when they hired someone who isn't a complete ignoramus.
Okay so Wijnaldum. I've discussed this at length elsewhere, so hit me up on Twitter if you enjoy me ranting senselessly about how stupid this transfer is. Last weekend on my blog I talked about Liverpool and mentioned that our attacking midfield options were somewhat stacked. It was and remains our best position and we should be focusing on bringing in a left back (apparently we are bringing in Jordan Amavi so decent job done there LFC), an experienced Bundesliga defender (Klavan has since been confirmed - good job LFC) and a strong, defensive, Emre Can type central midfielder. To which LFC responded by buying another attacking midfielder, who isn't better than Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho or Mane, and will probably be asked to play deeper, either in a 4-3-3 or in a 4-2-3-1 next to Can, because suddenly Liverpool fans have decided anyone is better than Jordan Henderson (spoiler alert - they aren't).
Forgive me if I think this is a stupid idea. Wijnaldum is a solid back up option for Coutinho. If something happens to one or two LFC attacking midfielders I'll be glad we signed him. What he isn't, is a central midfielder. And he's definitely not a defensive one. And don't give me that "well what if LFC play 4-3-3 and he plays as an inside left" nonsense because we already have the perfect player to slot in on the left hand inside channel of a 4-3-3, he's called Phillipe Coutinho and he's better than Wijnaldum. Or James Milner. Or, still, Hendo. We don't need another attack minded central midfield player, and we definitely don't need another CAM pretending to be an attack minded central midfield player, let alone a £25m one who failed to score away from home. What we need, is someone to anchor our midfield because Can can't play 38 games a season. And if your answer to this conundrum is Stewart, then get out because I can't have a serious conversation with you.
So LFC still need to go out and sign a defensive midfielder. And if they don't because they signed Wijnaldum instead, then we're going to look like complete idiots when Emre Can gets injured.
The Hard and Fast Section
- England won the toss. Will bat first. Finally.
- Stokes and Jimmy in. Good. No Rashid. Bad.
- New two year deal for Rosberg. Ummm...
- Can United just sign Pogba already?
- I had to include that Big Sam picture.
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