claretspice wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 2:47 pm
A point gained, and some lessons learned.
Muric - 5 - Rattled early by a very aggressive and well-organised press from Watford cutting down his passing options, resulting in some dodgy distribution and, ultimately him getting himself in an almighty tangle for the goal.
Roberts - 7 - Steady away and did a good job of talking Al Dakhil through the game whilst on the pitch.
Maatsen - 5- Superb in the first 5 minutes with some gorgeous long range passing, but quickly got rattled and it was downhill from there.
Beyer - 8 - Our best player whilst on the pitch both defensively and in progressing the ball.
Ekdal - surprised at the low marks, he gave the ball away a couple of times but he's only been in the country and with his team mates for 3 weeks, and in the second half in particular his one v one defending was very impressive against physical, athletic opponents who might have fancied their chances.
Cullen - 8 - Playing really well at the minute and this was another good push and run performance- the only criticism being that a couple of times he might have shot or played a killer pass around the edge of the box, and he hesitated.
Brownhill - 5- plenty of energy but the quality wasn't always there, and whilst I'm sure the floating role was part of a tactical plan, we missed the second pivot in midfield against a well organised press and physical opposition.
Gudmundsson - 7 - a reasonably solid nights work, without really threatening to unlock the door.
Tella - 5 - well shackled by their left back and when he did get the other side his final ball was hit and miss.
Zaroury - 6 - A somewhat wasteful night but still an outlet despite being double marked and some of his short passing was effective even if his crossing wasn't.
Barnes - 6 - One of our best players for an hour, but then allowed himself to get frustrated and sucked into a wrestling match that he wasn't going to win either with Hoedt or the ref.
Al Dakhil - 7 - took 20 minutes to settle but the last half hour was very promising indeed.
BPF - 7 - absolutely fine but never tested.
Foster - 7 - Thought he shaped up nicely last night but bailed out for a missed sitter by Obafemi.
Twine - 7 - thought he progressed the ball nicely in his time on the pitch.
A frustrating night when not everything went our way, but we kept going and in the end grabbed a good, and deserved, point. Watford have under-performed this season, but they're a team with Premier League players and in the event they were the best team we've played this season (give or take Sheffield United) and gave us a proper Premier League style test. It was a good yardstick for us and it showed up both good things (we basically dictated the game throughout, were unlucky to be behind at half time and played the entire second half in their half) and limitations (the number of rimes we turned over possession cheaply in the first half in particular under pressure and a proper good press, and the way that we struggled to commit defenders in the second half and ultimately got dragged down into a scrap to the detriment of our football).
No-one would criticise VK's team selection I don't think given how well it worked v Preston, but the biggest lesson from last night for me was that against the better teams, and certainly in the Premier League where we'll face a really strong press every week, we can't empty midfield and leave Cullen as the only pivot/receiver. Roberts and Maatsen stepped in as they often do yesterday, but they're not as good at receving the ball on the half turn under pressure and progressing it into the middle third and beating the press - and as a result we badly missed Cork alongside Cullen. Had Brownhill dropped back, that might have helped, but he didn't and it's not really his strength in any event, so particularly with JBG as a natural attacker, we ended up a bit lopsided and struggling to establish the control over the middle third that's generally been our strength this season.
The other lesson is to play the game, and not get sucked into nonsense with a ref who has already indicated he's not sympathetic. We wasted 20 minutes last night from the 55th to 75th minute getting drawn into silly season.
