Swansea vs Watford review.
Starting line-ups
First half.
Like the entire game, the first half was minimal chances, more-so Swansea than Watford. Swansea’s in possession and build-up is very predictable and one dimensional, almost too easy to nullify. Watford didn’t press high in settled possession, but they did press high from goal kicks and had Hector Kyprianou man man Ethan Galbraith. Once you do that, you take away Swansea’s entire comfort blanket of building up because they either went wide and Watford boxed them in and won the ball back or it went out for a throw, or they tried to play into into Cullen but that was cut out because Abankwah and Keben are much stronger and quicker than the Swansea striker.
If Swansea did breakthrough the press from goal kicks in their buildup, which only happened once in the first half, the back 4/5 would get narrow quickly and suffocate any through ball as Swansea’s wide players always want to make that inside run.
Watford’s tactic was evident to bypass the midfield with short passes and instead have Sissoko and Kayembe run between full back and centre back, Alleyne was tasked with playing those balls frequently down the side as he’s the best passer of the centre backs + the only player that got on the ball and looked the play short was again, Kyprianou. You don’t want Sissoko picking up the ball on the half turn because he can’t do it, same with Kayembe, he also can’t do it. 17% of Watford’s passes were long in the first 45, mainly going direct to Luca down the channels and hoping he does something with it, which in itself can be redundant sometimes, but specifically for this game it worked for the most part as they couldn’t handle the physicality of the big man up top. It’s how the goal came about too. Alleyne with a direct ball to Luca (I’m not saying his second name as I always forget if it’s either two e’s or two r’s) who brought it down brilliantly and played it infield.
The other good chance of the game came from a wonderful Bola cross and Luca was u lucky not to score as Vigouroux saved and palmed it on to the bar. The following corner he was also unlucky as Cabango cleared a header off the line before Luca could head home.
As far as away performances go in the first half, Watford did what was asked. Nullify the home team, create the better chances and go into half time leading 1-0. The numbers back it up too. Watford had two shots in the box in comparison to Swansea’s zero. Watford had 29 final third entries in comparison to Swansea’s 27 and finally, Watford had 12 penalty area entries in comparison to Swansea’s 8. And that’s doing that with having less of the ball, with Swansea having more of the ball (54%) in comparison to Watford’s (46%).
Second half.
Watford started the second half really quickly. Straight from kick off a well worked passage of play which led to Ngakia down the right side, Watford flooded the box but the delivery in was a poor one.
Watford kept up the game plan off the ball well too, forcing Swansea to lose the ball from their own buildup by forcing them down the flanks as they’re trying again, to look for Galbraith centrally — but this time the turnover led to a shot from our man Luca which was struck well but a comfortable save.
As I said, from the 46th minute until the 60th minute — Watford were well on top. Had 52% of the ball, 31 passes in opponents half in comparison to Swansea’s 14, 19 final third passes in comparison to Swansea’s 3, 8 penalty box entries in comparison to Swansea’s 2 and had 2 shots on goal in comparison to Swansea’s zero. And then that’s where it more or less stopped. Swansea pushed Galbraith higher which definitely helped with someone getting on the ball in the final third, and that disrupted the press a bit, but they still didn’t have any meaningful chances from that, but they were getting into the penalty area easily through that change. The legs in the middle started to go and that was when Swansea were able to pop it round Kayembe and Sissoko quicker. The sub of Irankunda changed things too, although what I would say is, Baah had two opportunities to turn a hopeful chance into a good one and he didn’t take it, instead opting to go alone for a blocked shot rather than playing Luca in.
Watford had some good opportunities going forward to kill this game off but with final end ball, poor first touch, or bad decision meant that the game was always there for Swansea to get back level. Baah again was able to break through and instead of looking right to see Andrews in acres of spaces, the space we know Ryan can get one touch out of his feet and shoot low and hard, he opted for a pass to Vivaldo, who did well to hold off the defender and play it to Baah in the first place.
Another example of poor decision making was Kayembe. It happened multiple times this game but his instincts is to always be safe and try and retain possession and take those couple extra touches and turn back. Watford had a good breakaway and if he took the ball in stride with his right foot, the pass to Luca was on on his favoured left side, or if he delayed that pass, Baah was on the far right ready to go 1v1.
Swansea eventually got their equaliser. Was it coming? not really. Their last shot was in the 62nd minute, whilst they were sustaining pressure at times, it wasn’t really leading to anything with both teams cancelling each other out. That’s not to say Swansea couldn’t have won it at the end if it wasn’t for a great save from Selvik. Watford had the better of the game for an hour and Swansea had the better of the last half hour even if it didn’t lead to any high quality chances. The subs Pezzolano didn’t really change the game or make us worse, but the level of ability on the field was evidently worse. I do want to say that I thought in the 23 minutes he got, Vivaldo Semedo put in a good showing. Held the ball up well, got back into shape, won his aerial duels and won a foul to relieve pressure towards the end. I think he’s one that would work really well next to Luca if that opportunity ever presents itself.
Conclusion.
I think Pezzolano has realised in the short term that the best way to get results is to (obviously) play to the players he has strengths as much as he can. I don’t think we’ll see a variation of a back three in a couple of months time but I do think it makes sense for right now. Three fast centre backs so play a higher line, Kyprianou who can cover for 1.5 players and can pass well, defend well and match anyone physically, partnered with Kayembe and Sissoko who are both better going forward and running into space — neither of them are good on the half turn or can pick up the ball in tight spaces = concede possession. Louza in the team Watford are less direct because well, It’s Imran Louza. And then finally Luca being a good linkup player and getting someone closer to him centrally (Irankunda, Baah). It’s simple but effective currently. Watford’s system.
Current crop of players aren’t insane pressers either, you still have to buy those — you don’t suddenly just become a consistent circa 7-9 PPDA team. It has to be game planned like it was vs Swansea, especially in the first half with the setup from opposition goal kicks. There seems to be an idea that Watford have been more intense over the last two results, when it couldn’t be further from the truth — We just press smarter and only in short kicks from the keeper in build-up from the opposition team. In settled possession when the ball has been turned over, it’s a lower line but compact. The overall shape off the ball is really good, as is the shape when as I mentioned when pressing from goal kicks. For example, 44% of the 9 turnovers Watford have had so far have led to shots, which is the highest in the league, but for pressing sequences and PPDA, Watford rank 20th. That’s not Pezzolano going away from what he said about intensity, It’s realising you have a midfield of Kayembe and Sissoko who can’t cover ground or track runners.
It’s simple things like above which would be exposed much more in a back four because there’s three men able to cover for that rather than just the full back and centre back. This isn’t exclusive to Sissoko either. TDB and Kayembe do the same thing and it’s a concern and something that must be addressed in the final week of the window if Gino want’s to have any chance of going for what he perceives to be a top 6 level side.
If Pezzolano does persist with this system, even when the squad is fully fit, I’ll write something about how Glasner and Gasperini should be inspirations on how to overachieve with a 3-4-2-1.
Great report, thank you. BTW re Luca spelling, why not just call him K9 😁