Preview: Watford vs. Leeds United – prediction, team news, lineups
Senior Reporter Ben Knapton | March 27, 2024 After the international break, Leeds United leads the Championship standings going into their match against Watford on Good Friday evening at Vicarage Road. Two weekends ago, the Whites defeated Millwall 2-0, and their hosts defeated Birmingham City by a goal to zero, likewise coming out on top and keeping a clean sheet.
Following the dismissal of former manager Valerien Ismael, another victim of Watford’s notoriously impetuous board, former Hornets player Tom Cleverley, who ended his playing career at Vicarage Road just a year ago, took the dugout at St Andrew’s for a match against Birmingham.
The 34-year-old’s reign, however brief, got off to a perfect start against an inconsistent Blues team. Emmanuel Dennis’s goal just before halftime gave the Hornets the lead and put an end to the team’s four-game losing streak, which also marked the end of Ismael’s reign.
As the season comes to an end, Watford finds itself comfortably out of the drop zone but with little to no chance of making a late-season playoff push thanks to just their third Championship maximum since the beginning of the year—all of which have, interestingly, come away from home.
The last Championship victory for the home supporters’ squad at Vicarage Road dates back even further, to November 28. Since then, Watford has suffered six losses and three draws in front of their own supporters in the second division, even though they have scored in all but one of those nine games.
The last visiting team to lose in th league at Vicarage Road was Norwich City. Daniel Farke, the former manager of the Canaries, may get revenge on his old team for their November loss on Good Friday, as Leeds looks to win the Championship for the fourth time in a row.
Farke’s team has swiftly found their brutal ways again, taking nine points from nine games against Stoke City, Sheffield Wednesday, and Millwall. This comes after an FA Cup exit to Chelsea and a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town stopped the momentum of a Whites side that had won their first nine Championship games of 2024.
