After yet another disappointing result away from home on Saturday, Watford face a Blackburn side that still have a playoff place in sight.
Just two points separate the two sides, with Blackburn in 10th position on 50 points and Watford sitting in 12th on 48 points. These two points, though, seem to be the difference between a side still hopeful about making the playoffs and a team who have perhaps all but given up hope of attaining that final playoff place.
Even the most optimistic Watford fan would admit now that a playoff spot would take a something of a miracle, with the Hornets 11 points short of sixth placed Reading with a game in hand.
Blackburn are nine points away from Reading, also with a game in hand over the Royals, and it is likely that Rovers fans may be resigned to the same outlook as Watford’s should they fail to take three points from this match.
Recent Meetings
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Watford (01/10/13, 19:45)
In the reverse fixture this season, Watford came home with no points after a largely drab affair at Ewood Park, losing 1-0 to a Jordan Rhodes header.
Javier Acuña, who scored his first goal since joining Osasuna on loan in January, started this match alongside Iriney, who has also since moved away from Vicarage Road on loan to RCD Mallorca.
Other notable changes since this fixture are the absences of Diego Fabbrini, who was brought on for Acuña at half time, and Josh McEachran, who came on for Iriney in the second half. Fabbrini is currently away at Serie B side AC Siena, and McEachran has been loaned out to Wigan after returning to his parent club Chelsea.
In a game where none of the Hornets played particularly well, Blackburn took their chances better and were rewarded with three points. A header from Acuña in the first half was the best a disappointingly flat Watford side could produce.
It was Blackburn who had the better of the chances, and Jordan Rhodes scored from a long throw in with 65 minutes on the clock. A good Almunia save late on stopped Rhodes from doubling his team’s and his own goal tally.
Highlights of this match can be found here.
Watford 4-0 Blackburn Rovers (20/04/13, 15:00)
In a match contested only slightly later in the season last year, it was Watford who came out on top – largely thanks to a scintillating second half, with excellent performances from several key attacking players.
The first half of this game was a cagey affair, with Watford seeing the better of the two sides’ chances. Blackburn looked as if they were trying to play a physical game in order to better the Hornets, with several hefty challenges doled out by Rovers in the opening exchanges. Nathaniel Chalobah, Marco Cassetti and Almen Abdi all received medical treatment after various stray boots and flailing arms.
The second half saw the breakthrough, and it proved to be decisive as Watford grew in confidence from the moment Troy Deeney’s first hit the back of the net. A neat turn after receiving a Fernando Forestieri pass saw Deeney gain half a yard of space, and the striker buried his chance with a powerful shot into the corner from the edge of the box.
The same pair put Watford two up after a period of Rovers pressure which included an off-target Jordan Rhodes header that on another occasion would have found the back of the net. Forestieri played an inch perfect pass between Rovers’ centre-backs in order to set Deeney up one-on-one, and Deeney coolly finished with the outside of his right foot.
Forestieri once again was the creator when Almen Abdi scored Watford’s third on the hour mark. A well-weighted dink in behind the Rovers back line gave Abdi just one defender to beat before he hit the ball into the roof of the net with a powerful left-footed finish.
After 75 minutes it was four nil, when Matthew Briggs turned in an Abdi corner that wasn’t cleared properly by a Blackburn defence that by this point looked very weak and disorganised.
The game threw up a bit of drama late on after Watford defender Marco Cassetti angered Blackburn’s Leon Best with a dangerous looking challenge – the Italian jumped for a header alongside Best with his studs showing, and caught the big centre-forward in what looked like a nasty coming together.
Best responded off the ball by getting in Cassetti’s face when play stopped moments later, his head making the slightest of movements when the two players went forehead to forehead.
The referee felt he had no choice but to send Best off after the altercation, with Cassetti receiving a yellow card for his troubles as well.
Extended highlights of this match can be found here.
Watford Team News:
Troy Deeney is the club’s only available striker for the third successive game.
With Mathias Ranegie serving the last part of his three-match ban following his sending off at Doncaster Rovers, and Fernando Forestieri (foot) and Chu-Young Park (thigh) missing out through injury, Ikechi Anya is expected to play off Deeney as he has done in the past two games.
Sean Murray could make a return for the Hornets, as he was declared fit earlier on today following a three match absence with a groin problem.
Fitz Hall (Achilles) and Almen Abdi (foot) are both not in contention for tomorrow’s match due to longer-term injuries, but Almen Abdi is understood to be in line to make a return to football tomorrow night against Boreham Wood, where a young Watford XI will play in the Herts Senior Cup quarter-final.
Player to watch: Ikechi Anya
On Saturday against Wigan, when Watford started to chase the game with time running out and a one goal lead to reverse, there was a distinct lack of invention and ability to adapt.
With just one forward available tomorrow, as was the case in the last two fixtures, how well the team function going forward will have a lot to do with Ikechi Anya’s performance.
Against Barnsley Anya was excellent – his movement and pace were exactly what was needed in the system that we played, even allowing for his tendency to stray offside in what is an unfamiliar position for the Scottish international.
His unselfishness was also extremely important in this match – Anya set up Watford’s second and third goals against Barnsley. Anya’s role in this game was very important, and his well-rounded performance helped the players around him immensely.
Against Wigan however, Anya’s pace and unselfishness were not as apparent. Though he got himself into a number of good positions, Anya failed to make a difference and did not impose himself on the game in the same way as he did in the Barnsley match.
Anya’s lack of composure when one on one with the keeper was also exposed, with a glorious opportunity spurned in the latter stages of the second half that could have seen Watford level.
Anya is my pick for the home team’s player to watch not because he is certain to shine against Blackburn Rovers, but because his role is so important to Watford’s attacking play should he be deployed alongside Deeney up front.
If Anya performs well he is unplayable, and the other attacking players benefit; if Anya lets the game drift by around him or doesn’t play well, I fear that we will not find a way through Blackburn’s defence in open play.
Blackburn Rovers Team News:
Blackburn Rovers come into this game off the back of a solid 1-1 draw with league leaders Leicester City.
They will take heart from their performance after going one nil down at the weekend, and will see their spirited second half performance as a foundation on which they should build, should they have any hopes of getting into the playoffs.
It was reported earlier on today that Rovers full-back Adam Henley is out for the season with an ankle injury sustained in the closing stages of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leicester.
It is likely to be too soon for midfielder Tom Cairney to return to action after an ankle injury which has kept him out of contention since 22 February.
Another injured ankle also keeps Rovers midfielder Ben Marshall on the sidelines. Marshall sustained ligament damage in late January and has yet to return to a match day squad since.
Player to watch: Jordan Rhodes
It’s an obvious choice, but he’s an obvious choice for a reason. Jordan Rhodes is Blackburn’s top scorer, and has scored the second most goals in the league.
A brief lean spell ended recently when Rhodes put three past his former club Huddersfield Town in a 4-2 win at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Jordan Rhodes scores goals with his head and both feet. He scores goals from quick breakaways, from gaining a yard of space, and from set plays – as we saw away at Ewood Park earlier on in the season, as Rhodes’ goal came from a long throw-in and won Blackburn the game.
He has strength and a real poacher’s instinct. Even when the players around him do not perform, he has the ability to produce a chance from nowhere and score important goals.
If Rhodes plays well on Tuesday night, he will carve out at least a couple of good opportunities to score. And if he plays very well, he’ll put away the chances that he gets.
The Hornets back line will want to stifle the 24-year-old’s game if they are to keep a clean sheet for the seventh consecutive home game.
Though they aren’t my chosen players to watch, if Josh King returns to the Rovers starting XI following a spell out of the squad through injury, Watford will have to deal with his pace and directness.
King was probably my man-of-the-match from the last meeting of these two teams, as he was the most likely player to carve out an opportunity in an otherwise muted affair.
Similarly, Craig Conway is a direct player that has the potential to create something out of nothing. The 28-year-old made a deadline-day move from Cardiff City, and has made seven appearances so far for Blackburn, with two goals and two assists to his name already since joining Blackburn.
Match Prediction
This game is a difficult one to call. Watford have been extremely impressive at home under Beppe Sannino, having only lost once and conceding just one goal since the Italian took over in December of last year.
Blackburn however are chasing the playoffs and so will probably come here to win at all costs – a draw would do little for their hopes of finishing in the top six, and so Gary Bowyer may throw caution to the wind and play a very direct game.
How this will feed into Watford’s game plan will be interesting, as this could make the game play out more like an away match, with Blackburn looking to impose themselves from the off.
Squad selection will also be key, and I think Sannino will likely give Joel Ekstrand his first start since his two match suspension following his tenth yellow card of the season, which came against Bolton several weeks ago.
If the Hornets back five are tight and work together better than they did against Wigan at the weekend, I see no reason why another clean sheet can’t be attained here.
I’ll be optimistic and go for a 1-0 Watford win, but this is reliant on Anya’s movement in the final third being effective, as well as the back five playing together as a unit. Both of these things were done to perfection against a poor Barnsley side; the players now have the chance to do it against tougher opposition.
I don’t think we’ll have enough creativity to score many, but I am faithful in the squad’s ability to play well as a unit at home.
Next Fixtures:
Sheffield Wednesday (Away) Saturday 29 March 2014
Burnley (Home) Saturday 05 April 2014
