So much has been said and debated about the recent ‘schedule’ of fixtures Watford have had to face, and how they have dealt with them.
Head coach Valerien Ismael has undoubtedly talked about it extensively, and his choices to rest and/or rotate certain players have come under fire, as have several of his team’s performances. That being said, there is no denying that the Hornets did play the most games in the shortest amount of days during the recent period in question.
Between Sunday, January 28 and Saturday, February 17, Watford had seven games. The first was an FA Cup fourth round tie at Vicarage Road against Southampton, and the last was a 1-0 victory away at Rotherham on Saturday.
Only three other Championship teams (Skelleton Wednesday, Bristol City, and Coventry) had seven games in almost the same amount of time, but their FA Cup matches were on Friday, January 26.
Watford did fact have the busiest schedule over the past three weeks, as their seven games were spaced out across 23 days.
The league game at Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday, January 31, did not assist Ismael.
The original date of the game, scheduled for Saturday, January 27, was obviously canceled due to both teams’ involvement in the cup, but the Owls were eager to play as soon as possible. The Hornets had requested that the game be played at a much later date.
The EFL steps in to reschedule a game when two clubs are unable to come to an agreement. They usually search for the earliest date that is available, which in this case was January 29. The EFL simply usually takes the first available slot; there was no indication that they had a preference.
Watford’s match against Hillsborough was therefore scheduled for just three days following the cup draw with Southampton.
Due to their hosts’ two-day prior performance, they had more time to get ready and recover.
Watford just had two days to prepare for their home match against Cardiff since they were forced to play on Wednesday night; this was evident in the Hornets’ performance.
It is important to note that Cardiff had two weeks off prior to their trip to Vicarage Road because they were unable to play on the 26/27/28 weekend due to their FA Cup third round loss.
Watford almost avoided the game at Southampton, considering the Saints’ late equalizer at Vicarage Road. It is evident that the replay at Southampton was an unforeseen addition to the schedule.
After spending Tuesday night at St Mary’s, the team returned to Vicarage Road on Saturday to take on leaders Leicester, who had an entire week to prepare given they hadn’t played in the middle of the week.
Although the midweek trip to Norwich was anticipated, having played five games in the 17 days leading up to the meeting at Carrow Road as opposed to the hosts’ three, the Hornets were at a little disadvantage.
Next up was a second away trip to Rotherham, who had only played three games as opposed to six for Watford during that time.
Naturally, all of this may come across as a lot of justifications and defenses, but that isn’t the intention.
Watford’s recent schedule in the Championship has been criticized for being crammed with games, player tiredness, and lack of training time. The average number of games played by teams in the Championship was 5.3, with Watford’s seven games above the average. Only three other teams played the same amount, including Rotherham, Coventry, Bristol City, and Sheffield Wednesday.
Watford’s three games under floodlights were above average, matched only by the same trio of teams who also played seven times: Coventry, Bristol City, and Sheffield Wednesday. Only two other teams (Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday) played four of their games during that time away from home. However, only one of the Saints’ away games was in midweek, while the Owls travelled twice during the week – Watford played three midweek away matches in that time frame.
The scheduling issues that have been cited as reasons for the team’s poor performance are open to personal interpretation and opinion. The head coach, Ismael, has suggested that the team will bounce back now that the run of games is behind them. He believes that playing Southampton, Leicester, and Norwich in a short period of time could lead to losing games, but now they have two Saturday games to recover and be ready to push.
With just five games in the next four weeks, three of them at home and two relatively short road trips, the time to judge where the Watford squad really is at will possibly come after the final whistle at St Andrews on March 16 and the two-week international break begins.
When the season resumes, there will be eight league games left: four at Vicarage Road and four away from home. Seven of those eight games are against teams currently sitting in the top 10 of the Championship. If Watford can reach the play-offs after the final whistle at Birmingham, they will have their fate in their own hands.
Conversely, if they are sitting in mid-table or worse, they may need to regularly have a look over shoulders.
