With the November international break on the horizon, our series of 2015-16 progress reports continues with a look at a newly promoted Watford side which have shown no fear of the top flight.
What has gone right?
It is clear that Quique Sanchez Flores has made an encouraging start to life at Watford, quickly adapting to what is needed of him in English football. The Hornets play a pragmatic style, always aware of their duty to shutdown the opponent’s route to goal. They have been rewarded with the joint-best defensive record outside of the top five.
Craig Cathcart has made the step up into the Premier League with an ease which has surprised even his biggest fans after a superb season in the Championship last year, while Allan Nyom and Nathan Ake have made the fullback positions their own.
It has not been all about the defence though, with the Hornets improving offensively as the season has gone on, largely down to front two Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo. Flores’ men now have five goals in their last three games – a marked improvement – but it is their team shape and stability which will keep them up this season.
What has gone wrong?
Much was made of Watford’s lack of goal threat, after they managed just two goals in their first four Premier League games, but those questions have partly been answered as time has gone on.
One worry will be the ability to come from behind and change games though. In matches in which they have gone behind this season, five in total, they have recuperated just one point – that coming as Artur Boruc gifted Ighalo an equaliser at Bournemouth.
With Fernando Forestieri and Matej Vydra leaving the club over the summer, the Hornets left themselves short upfront – Belgian Obbi Oulare is not yet considered suitable for first-team football – so there is no game-changing forward available off the bench.
Wide-men Victor Ibarbo, Steven Berghuis and Alessandro Diamanti are also unfancied by Flores thus far, so the Spaniard must find another route back into games from behind.
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Best player so far – Etienne Capoue
Etienne Capoue was Watford’s record signing over the summer, something of a poisoned chalice after the previous holder Nathan Ellington’s woeful attempt to live up to the tag, but the new hitman has already proved his worth.
The Frenchman has the ability to cover every blade of grass, yet still work his way back into position to help his team out in a defensive phase. With his rangy style, spider-like legs which extract the ball from anywhere, powerful running and an impressive passing range, the only thing Capoue has lacked so far is goals.
His performance against West Ham last month bordered on disrespectful, such was the way he manipulated and toyed with the opposition.
Capoue looks every inch the player Tottenham thought they had signed two-years ago, and one wonders if more performances of the same manner might have Didier Deschamps interested heading into a home tournament this summer.
What’s next?
The next two months of fixtures make for intriguing reading, with two very distinct sets of games to manage.
The visit of Manchester United – a day on which cliché says that you realised you have made it – precedes a run of three, on-paper, winnable games against Aston Villa, Norwich and Sunderland. They may not only look winnable, but with a four-game sequence of Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City to follow over Christmas, it may prove a run which defines Watford’s season.
If Flores’ men can take a healthy number of points – say six or seven – from those three games against fellow relegation candidates, then the pressure will be off over that ugly-looking festive period.
A bad run of form against the bottom sides though, could mean that real pressure is on when the Hornets come face-to-face with the top dogs.
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