Swansea vs Watford
A small breakdown of Swansea vs Watford
I never know how to do an opener when writing because it seems so awkward. Like when you’re a kid at Christmas and everyone is watching you unwrap a present. Anyway, Swansea away eh. That first half last season was arguably the worst I’ve ever seen us play in an opening 45 vs a team not named Manchester City, and I include the first half vs Norwich in the cup recently in that too. Was only until we were 2-0 down that we started looking alright but even then it’s easy to play whilst 2-0 down as the opponent takes a breather.
Looking solely at their performance vs Sheffield United — (even first half, Swansea better side second half) what Blades did well, but didn’t end in a shot was win the ball either high up when the pass was played into midfield, or they took advantage of the middle of the field when Swansea committing men forward in possession and caught them outnumbered on the counter. But what Blades didn’t do effectively was pickup Josh Tymon on the left hand side. He would often come inside to offer an underlap run or be an outlet in possession for the keeper.
Then when the ball was played back to the keeper, Tymon would go wider and because Blades’ press at the top of the pitch was disjointed — with O’Hare making a front two and Hamer man marking Galbraith, it effectively left the entire right side of Blades’ flank free.
Swansea’s new signing Malick Yalcouyé is also already a big component for them. You can see he’s got the trust to carry out multiple tasks. He leads the press at times (shock 442 press) and then getting back to cover the passing lanes into the lone defensive midfielder. Then in possession he’ll drop deep, rotate with Eom when he comes inside too. On paper it’s a 4-2-3-1 that Swansea played, but Yalcouyé and Franco pushed up to make it a three, especially the latter who was consistently finding space between lines on that right side.
Another thing to be wary of, is their wide players making inside runs but starting from the touchline position. When one of the full backs carries it forward uncontested, they’ll start to move and make that run inside or get infront of their man either from a slide ball through or a cross into the box. Eom especially has excellent movement but wasn’t found that often when he makes a quick dart ahead of the full back and onto the blindside of the right centre back. He did it in the opening 30 seconds of the game and then multiple times after throughout the 90. Ronald also does the same thing but it’s not as consistent, but still managed to work it well vs Sheffield United, especially in the second half.
Where Watford can hurt Swansea is quite obvious with the players they have
Commit men forward and aren’t settled in counter attack situations
Space between right back and centre back
Midfield doesn’t pick up runners
Panic from buildup and either go long aimlessly or weight of pass into midfield is off
Swansea losing the ball through build-up/getting caught in possession and being unsettled.
Blades overloading Josh Key by baiting him to press and then the striker making a run in behind happened multiple times in this game too.
How Watford can setup to beat Swansea
Concede possession
Let their centre backs have it and press on the midfielders
Kayembe baiting Key and Baah spinning into space
Give Irankunda a free role to drop in behind their midfield and play balls through
Predicted line-ups.
