Watford 2 Bristol City 2 (22/09/2012)

Five thunks from the eventful draw with Bristol City.

1- Much has been made of the size of our squad, of the challenge of keeping everyone happy and forging an identifiable team from the multitude of options. As such a degree of experimentation is to be expected… trying this and that, seeing which combinations work best.

Even allowing for which, this looked like a hell of a long shot. As on Tuesday we fielded a back four containing three men who you feel might be more comfortable in midfield (NB: not Nos). Which… is fine, in itself, an ambitious statement of attacking intent. But perhaps a couple of eager bounds beyond merely “ambitious” in the context of our three man midfield, deprived of the unwell Hogg and recovering Eustace. We’ve discussed this in isolation before, but a three man midfield needs a lot of ability and a good deal of graft. Chalobah looks ridiculously comfortable in possession and, at seventeen, will surely develop into one hell of a player… but he’s spindly and rather lightweight, and doesn’t provide the heavyweight counterbalance that a partner to Abdi and Yeates surely needs for the unit to have half a chance.

Up front, meanwhile, the most peculiar selection decision of all with Big Chris sacrificed in favour of the returning Murray. Big Chris hasn’t looked well suited to our current system but has lead the line, given the side some much needed leadership and given us an antidote to teams sitting deep. This selection left us with a front three of Murray, Vydra and Forestieri… all talented individuals in isolation but rather lacking in size and variety. A Fantasy Football team pick, high on twists and turns and tricks and rather lower on effectiveness as a real life combo. A bit like having three puddings… indulgent and ultimately rather unsatisfying.

The consequence of course was lots of possession and twisting and turning but an opponent comfortable enough sitting back without a reason not to and creating as many presentable chances from their more limited time with the ball in the first half as we did with our lions’ share.

2- The other Big Thing on the teamsheet was the presence of Troy Deeney on the bench (alongside Big Chris and Steve Beleck, presenting the tantalising but unfulfilled prospect of a triple substitution that would yield a wholesale change of approach). I’m torn on this, I suspect I’m not the only one… I can see the argument for giving the guy a break, he having served his time, I can also see the argument that says that this sort of track record doesn’t sit comfortably with the profile of a family club. Academic really, the decision has been made… but either way, whilst I’m happy enough with celebrating his future achievements on the pitch I don’t really see what the round of applause – albeit peppered with boos – that greeted his introduction was all about. What are you applauding him for, exactly?

Whatever your position, however, there was little disputing the magnitude of his impact, surprising in its immediacy. This was not the performance of someone who’s missed pre-season, half an hour’s run-around or otherwise. Deeney provided pretty much exactly what our forward line had been missing… power, aggression, single-mindedness, a focal point. His opening contribution was a clarion call, turning to belt a shot goalwards that Heaton could only palm into Vydra’s path, the Czech striker not reacting quickly enough, waking up to the new reality of our potency like the rest of us.

For the first time we looked much the better side, rather than merely the side with the ball. City were reeling, unable to cope with this new dimension to our game. Murray’s brilliant clipped pass released Cassetti into space down the right, the Italian squared the ball from the by line and Wilson, forced to intervene by Deeney’s presence, bundled the ball into his own net…

3- And having whinged a bit so far, it’s worth dwelling briefly on one of the subtler positives of the afternoon. If there were any lingering fears about the team spirit of this rapidly assembled squad of players they were surely dispelled by the furious celebration that met the opening goal, the outfield players sprinting to bundle Cassetti. One of the defining characteristics of the Vialli season, that dangerous but obvious comparator, was the report of old boy and new boy camps in the dressing room. Not this season, not on this evidence.

4- The danger of us scoring too early in this sort of game, at least for the moment, is that you let the cat out of the bag. Forced to commit numbers forward for the first time, City realised pretty quickly that we had neither the personnel to win the ball back in midfield, nor a defence remotely capable of stopping them from scoring. Marvin Elliott’s a big, tough bloke but there’s no excusing the ease with which he dominated Neuton to meet Bryan’s unchallenged cross. Just pathetically easy. From then on the game was slightly chaotic… City had further chances, we still looked potent. Ultimately a magnificent Pudil ball found Vydra; the younger Czech had done a better job than you’d have credited of leading the line but this is where you want him, ball at his feet, teasing the keeper and finishing brilliantly. A goalscorer. And then we screwed up at the other end again, having brought on two proper defenders in Doyley and the colossal Hall (Onesize is XXXL, it would appear) to protect our lead poor organisation saw City beat the offside for Davies to score a critical goal off the bench at the Vic for the second season running.

5- I’m on board, genuinely. In calmer reflection the frustration is borne of the fact that it’s quite evident that the players we have are capable of an awful lot better than this. We’re really not very far away from being an excellent side… Eustace and Hogg back in midfield at the expense of Yeates in particular, whose willingness to make forward, ambitious runs when others were simply providing sideways options didn’t compensate for bad decision making and bad execution when he got there, would be expected to yield similarly dramatic improvement to Deeney’s introduction. Given the size of the task Zola has been given, patience is required. That’s easy enough to say… it’s after games like this that the following through with actions becomes a little more difficult.