Watford 0 Plymouth Argyle 0 (12/08/2023)

1-A week on, everything’s different.  We’re only a week into the football season, it’s still a bit of a novelty, we’re still getting into the swing…  but the niceties are over.  We’re no longer happy just to be back in the stadium.

This demand for an outcome is exacerbated by some difficulties in transit.  What was already a convoluted route for logistical reasons was further complicated by a major problem on the M1 north of Luton (insert punchline).  Our complicated journey probably helped us luck out and miss the worst of it, but we still ended up navigating through Luton with Daughter 2 scowling as she endeavoured to hold her breath for the duration.  Will, meanwhile, had also had issues further up the M1 so instead of arriving from Leeds at 11.30 ready to watch the England – Colombia semi final as planned he stumbled into the Upper GT concourse at 2.30 looking emotionally and physically bedraggled.  A damp squib of a game was not going to do in these circumstances.

2- Mercifully, and despite the scoreline, this was a tremendous and absorbing game of football.

Both sides, despite having brought players in over the summer, were largely fielding familiar teams from last season…  excepting renewed or re-signed loans, only Plymouth goalkeeper Hazard and on-loan defender Gibson were “new” of the starting 22.  Amongst the implications of this were, on our side, a continuation of the single-minded pursuit of the system, to which end Ismaël clearly feels that he has identified a favoured eleven of those currently available.  So…  Chakvetadze, Livermore, Healey stay on the bench, still no sign of Ince, Lewis or the fabled new no 9 but no expectation that they’ll go straight in when available, at least until there’s a core familiar with the system. I’m liking the clarity of purpose.

As for the visitors, who have admirably filled the away end for their first Championship trip in 13 years, we’re essentially facing a side who have won their last eight on the hop spanning the two seasons, and it shows.  The Hornets will dominate possession for long periods – 63% over the 90 is comprehensive, if still dwarfed by the 71% against QPR – but this never feels like a one-sided contest, Argyle are put under significant pressure at times but never look like wilting or crumbling under that pressure.

Nor, despite the bloke behind me’s grumble on the way up Occupation Road later, did they come to park the bus.  They defended out of necessity as much as by design, but were always at least a hypothetical threat on the break.  Morgan Whittaker was first to post a reminder of this, tripping in from the right  touchline to fire well wide following the first Watford onslaught; Bali Mumba, like Whittaker a decent looking signing for £1million having been on loan last year, equally prominent on the left.

3- But the gaps behind Whittaker and Mumba were the vulnerable points that we attacked throughout the first half and for much of the second.  Andrews on the right and Morris on the left would gallop on overlaps past the wide forwards, Hoedt in particular spent much of the game casually slinging crossfield missiles to the feet of Sema or later Asprilla on the right flank.  But for all of our threatening possession in wide positions, too rarely did actual threat manifest itself…  when it did, when we penetrated Plymouth’s rearguard, the execution needed to be perfect and it wasn’t perfect enough.

In fairness, we were unlucky too.  Several loose balls in the Argyle box, collateral damage given the weight of pressure, tended to fall to white shirts rather than yellowy-black ones.  Nonetheless, the closest we came in the first half was when Martins’ disruptive directness saw him clip a cross in for Bayo to volley acrobatically, narrowly wide, and when another inviting ball from the same flank saw the same player not quite timing his jump right.

Bayo was, in many ways, the problem.  Not in general inadequacy (though Daughter 2 might still maintain otherwise), but by not really being the centre-forward we needed on this occasion.  His strengths are his mobility and awareness – here, as at Stevenage, his frustration at his runs not being picked out was obvious.  He can even, whisper it, be described as predatory on a good day.  But he’s not a bully, not a physical target man whose presence in a disciplined penalty area can be disruptive in itself, who can receive a ball with his back to goal and cause mischief.  To his credit there were signs of him trying to do that job – he was pulled up in the second half for crashing over Lewis Gibson to try to get his head to a deep cross.

But it’s not his thing.  Nor were there enough bodies in the box to capitalise on those crosses, often just the one target.  Swings and roundabouts… the wingers stayed wide rather than heading into the box which allows us to keep the pressure on but reduces our ability to do much with it.  Meanwhile attempts down the congested centre needed to be either perfect (as Louza nearly was, with an improvised shot that veered off target and onto the post) or lucky (as Sema nearly was with a twice deflected effort).  But you can’t rely on being perfect or lucky.

4- All of which goes to justify that dogged prioritisation of the system.  Such a radical change – which has already yielded a team far more purposeful, convincing and even inspiring than what we watched for most of last season – isn’t going to be achieved instantaneously, or without having to sort things out in the face of real games of football.

The same goes for the “defending a high line” thing, for which Daniel Bachmann is principally in the spotlight.  This is part of the deal… pushing up high is part of keeping our foot on the opposition’s throat. and once we’re better at capitalising on our ability to do so the rewards that result will more obviously justify the inherent risk.  Until then, we can expect more close calls as we saw here (and having bemoaned our luck a couple of times, we should acknowledge that it was helpful that Ryan Hardie never quite had the space to execute what could have been a routine lob into an empty net at one point having robbed the Austrian).  To blame Bachmann’s inadequacies with the ball at his feet is misguided however – he’s being asked to play this way and doing so boldly despite often having born the brunt of excessive twaddle from our fanbase in the past.  One might even call that self-sacrifice in the name of the plan leadership, I dunno… although one hopes that solutions at either end of the pitch are found before, say, Jamie Vardy or Adam Armstrong come calling.

As an aside, vulnerability at our high line wasn’t restricted to the goalkeeper-cum-libero.   Ryan Porteous was mugged by Mumba late in the first half before being let off by a careless slice after one of several buccaneering runs by the Argyle wide man.  This particular confrontation got quite narky in the second half, Porteous being the member of the three amigos to brandish the cutlass on this occasion following Wesley Hoedt’s turn at Stevenage.

5- Though the game ended in stalemate, there was no sense of futility or inevitability about it.  Our best spell in the second period came following the also increasingly traditional replacement of the midfield ten minutes after the break (though Imrân Louza would survive the quadruple-switch and almost make the full ninety on this occasion).

Key protagonists off the bench were Ismaël Koné, whose highs and lows remain as far apart as anyone’s in the squad but who swaggered through his first twenty minutes or so, and Yáser Asprilla.  The young Colombian has been the focus of attention this week with all manner of top clubs linked with his signature and his lack of involvement thus far presumed related.  Here, he showed why such claims aren’t entirely fanciful, as disruptive with his rapier passing as Martins had been with his direct running before his slightly grumpy withdrawal.  A missile from Hoedt, a clever pass from Asprilla, Andrews crossed towards Bayo and only some inhuman defending from Dan Scarr kept it level… finally, last ditch stuff from a defence composed to that point.  Another cheeky pass slipped in Andrews who crashed into the side netting.  But no surprise that the best chance, the one clear chance that either side generated, came on a rare occasion that saw us able to counter an Argyle counter, Bachmann’s clearance touched to Asprilla who played a ridiculous no-look reverse pass that unpeeled Plymouth’s defence and saw Bayo through on goal.  Sadly a striker who can look startlingly effective when relying on instinct never looked likely to capitalise given time and space to think about things and fired miserably wide.

Plymouth, having gotten where they’d gotten, applied their most concerted pressure late in the game in pursuit of extending that winning run to nine, with Bachmann called on to make one sharp stop from Randall and Mumba once again prominent.  It’s tempting to say “we’d have lost this last season”, but in reality last season both sides would have approached this differently.

Either way, a slightly disappointing result but a very fine game of football.  Neither of these sides will struggle this season, quite how much more we can do than “not struggle” will depend to no small part on our ability to sort out the fine detail in the way we’re playing.

Won’t be at Stoke, and probably not Blackburn.  Have fun.

Yoorns.

Bachmann 3, Andrews 4, Morris 4, Porteous 4, *Hoedt 5*, Sierralta 3, Louza 3, Dele-Bashiru 3, Sema 3, Martins 4, Bayo 3
Subs: Chakvetadze (for Sema, 55) 3, Koné (for Dele-Bashiru, 55) 4, Asprilla (for Martins, 55) 4,  Livermore (for Sierralta, 66) 3, Kayembe (for Louza, 89) NA, Healey, Forde, Pollock, Hamer