In search of Watford Football Club
Weird Watford
Has there ever been a weirder Premier League team than this season’s Watford?
The Hornets, following their 3-2 home win against Everton on Saturday, are up to seventh, which is excellent for a side in only their second consecutive season in the top flight. But how exactly the hell did they get there?
Consider: Since Aidy Boothroyd left Watford in 2008, they’ve gone through 11 managers, despite moving in the right general direction the entire time. They were promoted to the Premier League ahead of the 2015-16 season under Slavisa Jokanovic, who promptly failed to agree terms to a new contract and was replaced by Quique Sanchez Flores. Flores guided the Hornets to a very respectable 13th-place finish in his, and their, first season in the top flight and was summarily let go. He was replaced by Walter Mazzarri, who has been good so far and as a result should probably also be thinking about what he wants to do after upper management inevitably decides to fire him at the end of the season.
Watford’s owners, the Pozzo family, have, in other words, taken a non-traditional approach to running their club and it is, somehow, some way, working.
Take, for another example, the squad, which is an amazingly diverse mishmash of players about whom you have almost certainly at one point remarked, probably while watching the Europa League, “oh yeah, that guy.”
Of Watford’s 10 most used outfield starters, two are French, one is English, one is Greek, one is Swiss, one is Austrian, one is Dutch-Moroccan, one is Argentinian, one is Uruguayan and one is Nigerian. Their wonderfully experimental goalkeeper, Heurelho Gomes, is Brazilian. Even by the Premier League’s very high standards, Watford are extraordinarily cosmopolitan.
The players are also extraordinarily new to the team. Of the 21 outfield players who have appeared for the Hornets in the league this term, 11 joined at the beginning of the season, seven joined at the beginning of last season, two joined the season before that and the last one is Troy Deeney, who has scored 99 goals for the club in over 250 appearances.
As well as being geographically diverse and new to the Premier League, this team is also old, with an average age of over 28. If there’s a theme in the construction of the squad, it’s probably that many of the players at one point played in Serie A, which I suppose we might reasonably call the Mazzarri/Pozzo influence. But we might just as reasonably suggest there is no theme. The regularity with which Mazzarri has pulled new, hitherto completely obscure players off the bench this season has been remarkable.
Name any club in the Premier League, and you can, in one more or less concise sentence, explain them. Stoke: They used to play route one and now they don’t, and nothing’s changed. Bournemouth: They play the right way, except for in defense, and they punch above their weight. Hull: They’re getting relegated.
Where would you even start with Watford?
I suppose you could start with the way they play, except no one knows what it is. They’re decent in attack — tied for seventh in the league in goals scored — but the Deeney – Odion Ighalo strike partnership that defined the team last season has managed only four goals, and no longer defines the team at all, except as a reference point for pundits trying to make it seem as if Watford still have some, any, defining feature.
Their leading scorer, Etienne Capoue, is a midfielder, and after scoring two goals in only his second start for the club against Everton, Stefano Okaka is now tied (with a defender and a midfielder) for third on the team in goals scored, with two. All of which is to say Watford are good in attack for reasons that aren’t quite clear, although it seems rather uncontroversially to involve a lot of Jose Holebas and Nordin Amrabat.
One of the few things that seems clear is that they’re much worse in defense than they are in attack — only five teams have conceded more goals and four of them are in the bottom four. And yet this is also weird, or at least stereotype-defying, given Mazzarri was schooled as a player in Serie A during the ‘80s and early ‘90s, and as a manager in Serie A during the 2000s.
The fact Watford occasionally play with three at the back is evidence Mazzarri’s schooling had some impact, but there seems to be little correlation between their playing three at the back and their being any good. The real correlation is between Watford playing bad teams and being any good. They’ve beaten West Ham, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Hull, Leicester, Manchester United and, most recently, Everton.
They deserved to beat Everton, and while desert is an imprecise concept in this sport, I know this because I watched it happen. Watford deserved to win. I know this, but I don’t know why. They didn’t dominate the game or control possession. They completed only 73 percent of their passes. Okaka, who was their best player, appeared to have been sent on the pitch with instructions to close down every Everton player at all times. And he did it, somehow, and with a little Jose Holebas here and some Nordin Amrabat there, Watford won 3-2, and moved up to seventh in the table.
And well how exactly the hell did they get there?
Beats me.
Weekly Awards
The Tony Yeboah Award for Having To Be Hit III: Marc Muniesa
This was a good week for long range shots, both made and missed, from Sofiane Boufal to Jeff Hendrick to Ander Herrera to Ramiro Funes Mori. The best of the lot came at the Emirates, where Marc Muniesa strolled onto the scene somewhere around 40-yards out to kick the living biscuits out of a ball Petr Cech was forced, much to his apparent surprise, to tip over the bar.
The Dennis Bergkamp Award for Best Touch: Riyad Mahrez
Riyad Mahrez’s assist for Jamie Vardy’s second goal against Manchester City on Saturday was as good as it gets as far first-time cushioned passes on the end 40-yard cross field passes go, which is pretty good for the most part. Mahrez has been spoken about only sparingly this season, as Leicester have drifted aimlessly toward the relegation zone. The Foxes, and Vardy in particular, seemed to remember themselves at the weekend, but Mahrez, and that sublime first touch of his, stole the show, in the subtle, whispery way that captivated us all so much last season.
The Carlos Tevez Award for If Avoiding Relegation Was Easy It Wouldn’t Be Fun: Sunderland
Sunderland, after their hilariously bad start to the season, have been rounding into form of late, and began their match against Swansea at the Liberty having won three of their last four. So of course they lost 3-0, reclaiming their rightful place at the bottom of the table. We know Sunderland aren’t going to get relegated with roughly the same level of certainty we know Bob Bradley will refer to “the Liberty” at least once per post-home-match interview, which means the question is: How will Sunderland not get relegated? My fear is they’ll continue with the two-steps-forward-one-step-back approach they’ve adopted over the past couple of months and finish comfortably mid-table. My hope is they adopt the 10-steps-back-11-last-minute-steps-forward approach pioneered by Gus Poyet in 2013-14.
The Birmingham City Award for If Avoiding Relegation Was Easy They Still Wouldn’t Do It: Hull
Hull are getting relegated. They’ve collected five points in their past 11 matches, and they collected only one at home against Crystal Palace on Saturday after playing well for the first time in months and then conceding a last-minute Frazier Campbell equalizer. If there’s a silver lining for Hull fans it’s that they’re so bad this result keeps the pressure firmly on Palace manager Alan Pardew, who despite a long track record of successfully untethering himself from reality wasn’t able to convince anyone a 3-3 draw away at Hull is a good result.
The Everton Award for Failing To Capitalize On A Top Four Finish: Tottenham
Tottenham were the best team in the league last season, thought many, despite the fact they finished third. They had a young team and an exciting young manager and this was the year they were going to show everyone just exactly what they were all about. It hasn’t quite gone to plan. Spurs are fifth after their loss to Manchester United at the weekend, and were knocked out of the Champions League at the first hurdle. They’re still only three points off the top four, but they’ve rarely displayed anything approaching their best form of last term. It seems their window for capitalizing on last season’s success is closing fast.