The Gang Fight's Back
Oxford 2-1 home win analysis
Despite the fan unhappiness towards Pezzolano and the way he is (steely character, goes straight down the tunnel at full time, head teacher vibe) — I can’t help but feel that we might actually be a good football team at the moment. And when I say good, I don’t mean we’re winning the fucking lot, I mean a coherent system that creates chances and doesn’t concede too many. I made a reactionary statement on Twitter *shock* a week or so ago saying I don’t think tactically Paulo has done much and it’s the players taking over. I would like to retract that idiotic statement because A) it’s not really possible for that to happen and B) there’s clear tweaks that have been made since the mental line-ups have almost disappeared. Whilst I’m on the side of I think a change should be made, it’s not really to do with the football on show. It’s more to do with things bubbling behind the scenes with players not happy and that will eventually spew out onto the field. I do think we have a professional group of players but they’re not robots, it will turn at some point if the atmosphere and environment at the club isn’t what it should be. If he’s not sacked by the time this has gone out, which is the heavy rumour, then he has an opportunity himself to have a sit down with the players and clear the air, because we’ve actually got something good going on here. Granted there’s been no official report of unrest, but you can quite clearly see it at the end of the game on Saturday with multiple players reactions, specifically Baah who should be starting week in week out — I will not hear otherwise. I could go on and on about how bad a decision it is that he’s barely starting and getting minutes but I don’t want to go over old ground and I’d rather talk about the game in which was a highly dominant performance outside of a 5/10 minute spell.
Line-ups.
First half.
Watford got off to the worst possible start. To be 1-0 down after three minutes without conceding a shot and the opposition only completing six passes is some doing even for Watford’s standards. How did it come about? as Pezzolano said, there was a want to start fast and Wiley would have been in if it was a better pass from Vata and Watford had committed men forward so when the ball got turned over, Oxford played some nice short passes and then moved it into space to Dembele who was well defended by Max Alleyne who in turn put the resulting corner into his own net. From then on it was one way traffic for Watford and fully deserved the 2-1 lead from a brace from Ngakia.
From the 3rd minute until the 45th+ minute:
70% possession
16 shots to 4 shots
9 shots in the box to 2 shots in the box
38 final third entries to 19
26 penalty area entries to 9
92 passes in threatening areas to 28
It was wave after wave of attack and enjoyable to watch. It was quick tempo and nothing slow and ponderous at the back apart from one instance where Keben was caught.
But that’s not what I wanted to focus on, I want to focus on the tweak Pezzolano has made to this Watford team and to give him credit even if it isn’t the popular thing to do. Usually Louza would be the deepest midfielder and come and collect off the back three whilst they split, but that means you lose a body in the middle of the field. Now the back three are tasked with bringing the ball out and they’re good enough to do so which is the main thing. Mendy is the deepest and Louza is ahead with Vata and Irankunda either side of him close together. That’s good for a multitude of reasons. A) because Oxford play a two man midfield so it gives them a decision to make off the ball, do they bring their wide players central but that means the wingbacks are free every time, do the centre backs press up but that then means one player is still free for Watford. Every decision Oxford could make would benefit Watford with their 442 press. With staggered midfielders, it means the pass forward is always on and given Louza is our best player, having him on the ball and getting the most touches in those areas is a smart way to go about things. Mendy is decent on the ball, can cover ground and is alert to second balls so to have him deeper also makes sense.
Second Half.
Normal service resumed second half. Watford had multiple opportunities to put the game to bed. Winning the ball back high from a goal kick, lovely play from Kjerrumgaard to play Vata through multiple times. On another day It really could have been 4/5/6 if the shooting boots were on.
The game flipped on the 70th minute when subs were made by Pezzolano. Watford went from having over 60% of the ball to having 28% of the ball for the final 25 minutes of the game. Why? Sissoko and Kayembe came on and Louza and Vata went off. I understood both subs because Louza looked to have picked up a knock and on a yellow and Vata ran his socks off and was knackered. But you simply don’t bring those two players on if you’re trying to close out a lead. One? fine but BOTH hellllllll no. Kayembe needs more than 4 touches to compose himself, isn’t good in tight spaces and Sissoko is serviceable in the final third at times but can’t pass and doesn’t want the ball in any area of the pitch, oh and neither of them have a defensive bone in their body. The Sissoko performance when he came on was nothing short of embarrassing apart from one moment at the end where he carried it forward. The reason this bothers me is because you have Kyprianou there, you have Dwomoh not even on the bench, two players who are better than those two who are getting minutes, albeit Kayembe I can see has some uses, but again in the final third. As soon as those subs were made:
28% possession
1 shot in the box compared to 3
34 passes in the final third compared to 79
5 penalty area entries compared to 14
15 final third entries compared to 26
Sissoko when he came on:
3 successful passes
0 shots
0 dribbles
1 carry
0 Interceptions
0 tackles won
????????
A football match is on average 95 minutes long, you cannot play well for 70 minutes and expect to win when It’s a one goal margin, against a better side than Oxford, Watford will have almost certainly dropped points or even lost that game, the subs were an abomination, and to give Baah only 9 minutes when the game was that open and stretched is just so poor from the head coach.
Also, I know he scored two goals but I thought Ngakia’s overall game was quite poor and I think there is a gap between him and Petris personally. He won us the game and he deserves huge praise for that no doubt but going forward he’s just not quite there yet, in fact I think he might be better on the left but again I don’t think he’s better than Wiley there either. If you just look at his numbers vs Oxford
0 progressive carries
0 dribbles
74% pass completion
0 completed crosses into the box
Defensively I don’t have a question but when you’re a wingback in this system you have to produce more than that.
Finally, I don’t subscribe to the idea that we haven’t played ‘the top 6 yet’ because we’re 9 games in, league table analysis is meaningless at this point. Outside of Coventry the league is much of a muchness and the current state of the top 6 is poor. Granted we’ll know more in the next run of fixtures just about where we are but you’d know that anyway after 15/16 games. If Pezzolano is still here it’s up to him to win enough games to win over a fanbase not keen on him whether it’s unfair or not. He’s obviously a better coach than Cleverley but the squad is much better. Over to you Paulo.