Watford welcome Barnsley to Vicarage Road on Tuesday evening looking to strengthen their position in the Championship playoffs.
While the Hornets have recorded six points from three games since the appointment of Xisco, Barnsley need a response after suffering back-to-back defeats in the second tier.
Match preview
© Reuters
When making the decision to swap Vladimir Ivic with Xisco last month, the Watford hierarchy were undoubtedly taking somewhat of a risk with the club already sitting in the top six of the standings.
However, while it remains early days under the Spaniard, there are signs that the Hornets squad are already reacting positively to a change in playing style.
On the back of performing well at Manchester United in the FA Cup, Watford recorded a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Saturday to give themselves a four-point cushion over seventh position.
Xisco initially witnessed his side struggle to make the breakthrough against opponents who could have moved to within three points of them in the standings.
Nevertheless, getting over the line was all that mattered to the new management team, keeping the club within six points of second-placed Swansea City with a game in hand.
Opponents Barnsley succumbed to defeat against the Welsh side on Saturday night, their second setback in a row after previously losing out to leaders Norwich City.
A tough run of fixtures continues for the Tykes on Tuesday night, although Valerien Ismael will put their latest results into perspective ahead of another clash with a promotion-chasing side.
Still under little pressure to achieve anything more than avoiding a relegation battle, the Yorkshire outfit remain just six points behind Watford ahead of their upcoming showdown.
Many will fancy a comfortable home victory, but respect must be given to a team who have won 11 of their 18 fixtures since Ismael's appointment in October.
Watford Championship form: WDLWLW
Watford form (all competitions): DLWLLW
Barnsley Championship form: WLWWLL
Barnsley form (all competitions): LWWLWL
Team News
© Reuters
Having made no changes until establishing a 2-0 lead at the weekend, Watford boss Xisco is expected to select the same 11 players.
That would see Troy Deeney retaining his place alongside Joao Pedro and goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann continuing to keep out Ben Foster between the sticks.
Barnsley manager Ismael will almost certainly make a couple of changes to the team which lost out to Swansea at Oakwell.
Carlton Morris,a recent arrival from Norwich, and Dominik Frieser could be brought into the attack, replacing Conor Chaplin and Victor Adeboyejo.
Herbie Kane is likely to keep his place ahead of Romal Palmer in the centre of midfield.
Watford possible starting lineup:
Bachmann; Femenia, Troost-Ekong, Sierralta, Masina; Sarr, Cleverley, Chalobah, Sema; Pedro, Deeney
Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Walton; Sollbauer, Helik, Andersen; Brittain, Mowatt, Kane, Styles; Frieser; Woodrow, Morris
We say: Watford 2-0 Barnsley
Barnsley have made a habit of reacting well to setbacks this season, and it would not come as a surprise if they earned a result at Vicarage Road. However, Watford's players appear to be enjoying life under their new boss, leading us to predict a comfortable night for the home side.
Top betting tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Watford win with a probability of 46.52%. A draw had a probability of 27.1% and a win for Barnsley had a probability of 26.35%.
The most likely scoreline for a Watford win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.04%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.08%) and 2-1 (8.86%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.72%), while for a Barnsley win it was 0-1 (9.14%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 13% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Watford in this match.
