Watford v Middlesbrough: e-Football Preview

Article by Watford Correspondent Christopher Lawton

What do you need after a humbling home defeat to a promotion rival? Probably anything other than the longest away trip of the season, to a club scrambling around having recently sacked their long serving manager. Yet that is what faces a misfiring Watford team on Saturday with a trip to the Middlesbrough at Riverside Stadium.

Last Saturday was sobering. An effective, well organised Leicester side showed how to press errors out of a Watford side short on confidence and then ruthlessly punish them. Leicester, like Derby a couple of weeks previously, have shown that if you get men behind the ball and press Watford in the middle of the pitch then the defence is vulnerable.

There is much debate as to the cause of this newfound weakness in a Watford side that was expected to be playing with a little more certainty this season. Despite averaging nearly two goals a game, Watford at the moment are struggling to score consistently with 14 of their 25 goals having come in just three matches. A constant concern amongst supporters is the lack of pace upfront as a contributory factor with the fan's favourite from last season's Matej Vydra being sorely missed.

But to focus on the forward line could be to miss the point. Watford's weakness this season stems more from midfield inadequacy than failure to hit the target. The essence of last season's midfield has gone: Almen Abdi (injured), John Eustace and Jonathan Hogg (sold), Nathan Challobah (not re-loaned from Chelsea); and manager Gianfranco Zola has struggled to find the right blend with the players currently at his disposal. The signing of George Thorne on loan from West Brom this week only serves to highlight where the manager sees the problems in the team.

A year ago Watford went to Leeds and smashed six past them on the start of their rise up the table in a challenge for promotion that went to the final day of the season. While it is not impossible that Watford could do the same at Middlesbrough on Saturday, it is also unlikely given their recent struggles. Both sides will be looking to get some momentum back into their season on Saturday and I expect both sides would settle for a scrappy one-nil win if that is what it takes. Saturday, therefore, may simply come down to who wants more.

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