#PLstories- Roy Hodgson makes Fulham and Crystal Palace comparison and admits Watford set for relegation ‘dogfight’ #WATFORDFC
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Roy Hodgson
Watford manager Roy Hodgson will draw from his wealth of Premier League experience as he aims to steer his new club to safety. The former England boss takes charge of the Hornets with the team stuck on a terrible run of form – one win in ten games across all competitions – which has seen them drop into the relegation zone, two points from safety.
Roy Hodgson said: “It’s gonna be a real dogfight this year, because the teams who are at the bottom, are all a little bit adrift of the teams closer to the middle of the table. So we’ve got a lot of ground to make up, and it’s one of those with 18 games to go, you’re very worried that, you know, a defeat is going to put you further back, so we certainly don’t underestimate the task.”
He was asked about the feats he achieved with both Fulham and Crystal Palace and certainly saw how those circumstances shared similarities with his present task in Hertfordshire.
Roy Hodgson said: “Well, I think it’s pretty similar really to Fulham. Palace was exceptional in the sense that, you know, four games in a row and no points. But having said that, you know, in seven games, we still had no points, and we got three points on the eighth one. Well, that’s probably more than we’ve got here for a while. So it’s certainly not an awful lot better than the Palace situation.”
During his first season at Fulham, the 74-year-old only managed to keep his side up on the final day of the season thanks to a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth.Speaking of that past experience,
Roy Hodgson said: “I’d really like to think that we could do without the drama and get ourselves enough points to avoid the enormous tension that we had at Fulham that time. And you know, I think in the last five games [at Fulham], we took as many as 11 or 12 points, it was something quite incredible. I mean, you’re not going to do that all the time. There’s no doubt about it. So if we want to survive here, we better start getting out points tally moving in the right direction, a lot quicker than that. I think that the magnitude of the task is around about the same. I don’t think it’s easy for any team that finds themselves in February at the bottom of the table, or in the bottom three, to be certain that they’re going to get out of it. We’ve got to believe that the quality of the squad and the desire, if you like, of the players to keep the team in the Premier League is going to be good enough to get us out. And I was lucky enough at Fulham, and lucky enough, too, at Crystal Palace, and to a somewhat lesser extent at West Bromwich Albion, to find the players there who are going to get to do that for the club.”
Hodgson will begin his tenure as Watford manager with a trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley this Saturday. The Clarets are two points and one place below the Hornets at the foot of the table, so a good result could be season-defining.
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