Watford have an ever increasing injury and suspension list as they take on Swansea City in tonight’s Championship fixture at the swansea.com stadium. ( Kick Off 7.45pm ) On Boxing Day the hornets lost at home to Millwall causing a team meeting and some frank discussions as you can imagine with Slaven Bilić at the helm. Now he wants a complete change in his sides mindset for tonight’s game.
To add to his frustrations Bilić has star player JoÄo Pedro out for some weeks after that Millwall defeat. Talking yesterday he said. "It’s ligament damage. None of the ligaments are completely ruptured, but they all have damage, and he’s going to be out for a while - about six to eight weeks. It’s a big blow. I don’t have to tell anybody what João means to this team - he’s exceptional, he’s someone who you can build a team around, and we will miss him. But it is what it is - there’s no crying, and there are many games left. We know we need to stay in contention until João and the rest of the injured players are back and available.”
While the current crop of injured players now stands at eight - with Hamza Choudhury, Imrân Louza, Edo Kayembe, Dan Gosling, Tom Cleverley, Kortney Hause and Rey Manaj all joined by João Pedro on the sidelines Bilić has other concerns as well. Hasane Kamara is under a three game suspension for his red card picked up on Monday. A card the Watford boss stated he deserved. However, Bilić insists there is some hope for the hornets. He is confident that the team he can select will battle for every blade of grass over the next six weeks. "In midfield we currently have a situation where we might have to play people somewhat out of position. A few of them - like Louza and Cleverley - we expect to be back in a month or so, but Kayembe and Choudhury should be sooner than that, which is good news. The light is there, but for now we have to survive and pick up the points we need, which isn’t easy. What I like is the attitude of the guys - which we saw with Choudhury and João Pedro attempting to play on when they were injured. It’s a very challenging time, but we’re looking forward to trying to do something when the situation is not ideal. It’s great to attack that challenge, and we’ll keep fighting as hard as we can.”
On tonight’s game the Watford boss was complimentary as to Russell Martin’s tactics. "Swansea will be a totally different test. They try to almost trick you by closing you down and making you try and find space. Millwall are predictable, you know where the ball is going, and I am not critical of that. They do it well and they make it work for them. You cannot start on the back foot like we did. You can’t be slower than them from the start as you will soon be in trouble. And that is what happened on Monday. Even after a slow start you have time to come back, but then we conceded a goal, lost Joao, got a red card. After that it became very difficult. It was a very disappointing performance because not only was the week before the game very good in terms of preparation, but we had been in good shape for many weeks. I expected us to be up and on the front foot, but it was actually awful from the start. Then we had Joao’s injury, a red card and after that it’s very difficult”
After the Millwall defeat Bilić called all his squad together and as he states it wasn’t for a tactical debrief, you get the impression it was more about one way conversations regards focus, commitment and professional pride. "We needed that meeting. It was good. And now we go to Swansea with an opportunity to show what we can do, and carry on what we were doing before Millwall " said Bilić.
The news of Watford’s deficiencies may work in Martin’s favour as he desperately needs a win and three points to finish off the year. If that’s the case it will be the swans first win in nine games. But the actual ‘doing’ of the task has undone Swansea many times this season. Russell Martin described his teams defending as ‘rubbish’ and ‘pathetic’ post match after the 2-1 defeat at Reading on Tuesday and knows that the fans have been patient enough after eighteen months of reorganisation and promises. We know it won’t be his final game if the swans do lose but Burnley at home then follows.
Let’s put it this way if the swans were Watford Russell Martin would be a long time down the road, he has to start convincing the supporters he can deliver on his promises, and the next two games are crucial. Bilić may well believe Swansea City can trick you, but the growing numbers of discontented Swans fans would also say the same.
The game is on Sky Sports Red button as well as Swans TV. Check for details, tickets for the game are available but not in huge numbers.