Watford must react and make changes after Blackburn debacle

There are games where your team give everything they’ve got, play so well but end up beaten just because the opposition were that bit too good for them.

And then there are games like last night at Ewood Park.

The mess served up by Watford at Blackburn was the complete antithesis of what any fan or head coach wants or has the right to expect. I would have added ‘any players’ into that list, but they at least had the opportunity to change things during the 90 minutes.

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However, the players are not alone in responsibility for the shambles of a show in Lancashire. Rob Edwards held his hands up, literally and verbally, after the game and he too was culpable. He picks ‘em, he shapes ‘em and he gives ‘em the team talk.

Of course, the head coach and his players had to take their medicine very publicly. Nobody enjoys seeing Watford players having to confront angry fans in the away end (though the 592 who made the 400-mile round trip earned every word of anger, even if descending into downright foul and abusive language does nobody any favours).

Edwards had to face the press and then have his every word scrutinised, queried and in many cases criticised by supporters.

Players and coaches get paid well and they know the pressure and potential price of failure that comes with the rewards. However, we all get to see their hung heads, look at their dejected body language and read their attempts to explain.

But when I said the blame has to be shared, I’m also referring to others inside the club who are not on the pitch when the final whistle goes.

As I wrote previously, somewhere within the club there was a decision made not to sign a right-sided player, not to refresh a defence that has been underpinned by the same players for at least three seasons, not to acquire a true goalscorer and not spend any money on a player that wasn’t brought in via the club’s association with an agent whose connection with the club makes the vast majority squirm.

I accept that Edwards has defended and tried to explain all of the above, and again last night he said he is happy with his squad.

I don’t doubt him. I know many supporters do, but he’s no liar. However, I also believe he could be happier with the squad at his disposal. If you ask me if I am happy with my house, the answer would be yes. If you asked me if I’d be happier by adding a couple of en-suites, an extra reception room and a larger garden, the answer would also be yes.

Had the club made any of the player additions I’ve listed above, Edwards would undoubtedly have a stronger set of options.

After last night’s game, of the 18 players in the squad, two are doubts for Saturday. That may be mitigated by the potential return of Hause and Kamara, but if Edwards wanted to do something really radical, there isn’t the depth in the squad to do it.

I can’t be the only person who looks at the current Udinese squad and wistfully sighs. Every time they post a team line-up on social media there is a mixture of excellent players that once wore the Watford yellow and others they have signed who would have solved many of the shortcomings and inadequacies of the Hornets squad.

How is it they are able to recruit so successfully? Is there a ‘favourite child’ in the Pozzo family? And just remember, unless something changes, Hassane Kamara will this summer become the latest ex-Watford name in the Udinese squad list.

Gerard Deulofeu, once of Watford now at Udinese. Pic: Action Images (Image: Action Images)

As well as the question marks over recruitment, there is also the ongoing feeling that there is something not right in the mood at the club – as if there is a lingering, almost tangible cloud hanging over every attempt to shake off whatever that problem actually is.

Over the last few seasons Watford have had some very talented players. That there has often been an apparent lack of motivation, a lack of desire, a lack of wanting to bust a gut when the chips are down, means those players – and a series of head coaches – have never quite been able to realise their full potential or showcase their abilities sufficiently.

If we have good players, and changing the coaches and staff on a regular basis hasn’t worked, then what else is preventing us all seeing them in their best light?

There has to be something, or maybe a combination of issues, that stops Watford emulating Brentford, Southampton and Brighton for example. If the manager and his players are undergoing some much-needed self-reflection and airing of grievances, then now is the time for other areas of the club to do the same, surely.

People often cite high salaries and the trappings of the modern game as a reason why players don’t perform – they know they are getting the same many thousands a week regardless of what they actually achieve.

I don’t buy that though. It’s unlikely that any of the Rotherham or Blackburn players are on minimum wage or driving around in second-hand cars, and yet they seemed distinctly more inspired than their Watford counterparts in the last two games.

Something – actually several things – is not right at the ranch, and while I don’t yet think this season is heading for a write-off, I do believe the abject nature of the Blackburn game has to be a watermark. It needs to be seen for how bad it was and be a turning point. If not, then this season could well head in a very mundane and potentially worrying direction.

Keeping the likes of Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr is a definite plus for the club (though achieved more by circumstance than dogged refusal to sell), but it’s hard to imagine Watford will be able to hold onto either beyond the end of the season if promotion is not secured. So far this season, Pedro in particular has carried Watford in many of the games and the small pockets of team performance that have earned the points banked have generally involved him. He’s only 20 and he can’t do it alone.

Going back to the options Edwards has: until he has a fully fit squad, he does appear to be hamstrung in regard to what he can actually change.

However, if I were in his shoes I think I’d have to take Christian Kabasele out of the firing line. He’s been a great and loyal servant to the club but he has the look of a man who needs a break. There was a moment in the second period at Blackburn where he had possession midway inside his own half and inexplicably – under no pressure - played a 20-yard pass straight to the feet of Rovers striker Brereton Diaz. It was the action of a man who is lacking in confidence. If he’d been a boxer, you might have expected his trainer to hurl a towel into the ring.

I know I have said this before, but I’ll say it again: we have defenders who have experienced promotion, relegation, promotion and relegation again. To expect them to be the mainstays of another promotion season is unfair. They are good players but surely even they would benefit from fresh faces, competition and defensive support?

In fact, for the time being, I’d probably pause the idea of playing 3-5-2 (or derivatives thereof) and go to a back four.

I also like the no-nonsense, aerial power of Francisco Sierralta, but he may also benefit from being taken out of the firing line, especially if a fit Hause can supply the physical presence.

As Edwards has said, he has a lot of options in the centre of defence, and a number of different leaders in his squad. Having played just seven minutes of Championship football, William Troost-Ekong is surely chomping at the bit to get on the pitch.

He didn’t have a great night in the cup against MK Dons, but he wasn’t alone there. Similarly, others have been given numerous chances in league games, and he hasn’t.

As captain of Nigeria he has bags of experience, and if it were possible to partner him with the physically commanding Hause, then it could give him the best possible platform to play to his strengths.

A back four then allows Ngakia or Gaspar to play a more conventional role on the right and hopefully Kamara to be deployed at left back, and if a midfield three included Pedro to roam ‘in the hole’ behind the strikers, then he could find the space between the lines to terrorise opponents and pop up in areas where he can do real damage.

The midfield pairing of Choudhury and Kayembe had looked pretty good until last night when they were sucked into the general malaise. Gosling came on for the second half at Blackburn and would at least give a hard-running, wholehearted showing if the head coach decided to give either of his previous midfield pairing a break.

Sema was one of the better performers at Blackburn and his hustle, bustle, all-action approach made him extremely effective wide on the left in Watford’s last season at this level.

Provided he’s fit enough, Davis would be my choice through the middle. He’s strong, he’s combative, he can run at defences and he has that touch of class. Bayo was largely anonymous last night and although he scored two in two before that, he may now benefit from a seat on the bench.

The right of attack is where you hope to see Sarr, though the injury he picked up last night might prevent that. If so, Pedro could move out there and Asprilla play in that floating midfield role. That might be an attacking formation and personnel list, but the next game is at home and if you can’t set out to be on the front foot in front of your home fans, then when can you?

When you look at what Watford have in their ‘roster’ there are some very good players, some very talented individuals, a number of experienced professionals and a lot of exciting young talent. What doesn’t currently seem to add up to is a team/formation/shape that brings all those qualities together for 90 minutes to deliver a performance that lives up to the potential of a club that was one of the favourites to win the league, let alone be promoted.

Last night, Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson referred to Watford being a “Premier League team” and talked about their “Premier League players”. The local media asked him how he felt about beating one of the ‘main promotion contenders’.

To the outside world, Watford are expected to be right up there. There may be nine sets of opposition players, managers, fans and local media who have been left wondering what all the fuss is about because at no point this season so far have the Hornets shown those qualities for a sustained period within a game, never mind for an entire 90 minutes.

Perhaps some at the club have believed the hype? After last night’s game, Edwards said that no team anywhere can hope to just turn up and take points. It was that lack of desire, the missing spirit in his side, which clearly hurt him the most.

Has the culture of hiring and firing had a sub-concious effect on the players? After all, if you know that on countless previous occasions the failure of the team has resulted in the coach paying the price and not you, there is a comfort zone that clearly exists between them and any day of reckoning.

Will the result, performance and reaction from fans at Blackburn be a wake-up call for any in the squad who thought that simply pulling a shirt on and being present 46 times this season would suffice? It certainly ought to.

Rob Edwards acknowledges fans after the defeat at Blackburn. Pic: PA (Image: PA)

There are many things that need to change to get this season back on track, but one of them must not be changing the head coach. When I was sat in the Lower Graham Taylor Stand last season, cussing and critiquing a series of utterly shameful and inept performances under first Ranieri and then Hodgson, I was very much in the camp that wanted a managerial reset. We needed a young, expansive, progressive British coach, and we needed the club to give him time to turn the ship around. No trigger fingers, no knee-jerk reactions at the first hint of a problem.

Now we do have the first hint of a problem, I’m not going to be a hypocrite and call for change – and that’s also because I have faith in Rob Edwards. It hasn’t been the start we all hoped for in terms of performance, but it is only nine league games and he does seem to see and feel the same things us watching do. Whereas the likes of Hodgson were seemingly detached from the reality of what we all saw and happy to totally hang his players out to dry, Edwards has generally summed games up in the same way as most of us. Not everything he says are statements I agree with (such as his assertion the squad is strong enough). But at least he calls a bad performance out, accepts his role in that and doesn’t just watch the band play on as the Titantic tilts decidedly towards the waves below.

Anyone who does think a change of coach is the answer would need to convince me how any other person in that position would be able to juggle the players available to come up with anything better. Of course there is always the chance there might be a an uplift in attitude and application if there were a change, but that’s a big if. It didn’t work twice last season, notwithstanding the knowledge that there was a bad smell inside the dressing room which has now been cleaned out.

Pointing the finger at Edwards would be to excuse the players and those supporting him behind the scenes, as I’ve written earlier. Why should he take more than his fair share of the flak? He was the last one to arrive at the party – most of the players and all of the senior figures had sung several choruses of Auld Lang Syne long before Edwards rode into town.

There is one game to go before the international break, a time in previous seasons when the exit door has often spun. Surely that’s not what we want, or need, this time around?

Everything about the game at Ewood Park was wrong from a Watford perspective. The season has not started largely as we hoped, and there is ground to make up, changes to be made, attitudes to alter and yet still 37 games in which to do all those.

I am told I will get the opportunity to sit down with the owner at some point soon, and I have a lengthy list of questions waiting for the occasion. I’ve asked more than once for a date, while making it clear to the club that any interview has to be unrestricted with no topics off the agenda and no pre-sight of what I plan to ask. If I ask something and the owner chooses not to answer, I need to be able to report that along with the responses he does give.

I continue to speak to the chairman, and while there will be articles in which he is quoted, I will also use conversations I have with him to write accurate and informed pieces that may not contain quotes at all. There is much to work through, it’ll happen on a regular basis but there probably won’t be any 6,000-word epics such as I wrote in June.

Having said that, he knows that there will always be space in the Watford Observer, even at very short notice, should he wish to provide any updates, share any thoughts or give any reaction.

When I sat down with him at the start of the summer, he outlined many areas that needed to change, and were going to. I think it’s only right, at some point soon, that I have the chance to revisit many of those with him to see what the Watford progress report looks like.

And I will continue to ask Edwards questions before and after matches. He has never ducked anything and gives thoughtful, frank responses.

I always caveat any interviews with anyone at the club by saying I can’t promise or expect answers that everyone will like, agree with or even believe.

What I would say is that when anyone at Watford FC says something that any fans disagree with, it doesn’t make those answers wrong or implies they are lying. Similarly, it won’t matter how many times or variety of ways I pitch a question: if the answer is continually the same I’ll report that and eventually move on.

I wrote the bulk of this piece well after midnight after the game at Blackburn. I then had a sleep, and came back to it later today, just to allow myself to shake off my own disappointment and because I believe things can feel differently in the daylight.

I’ve tinkered with bits, I’ve added bits but generally it’s the same piece and my feelings are the same.

Blackburn was a bad experience, one that could have been avoided on the night by a better performance, or even headed off during the summer with different recruitment.

Nonetheless, none of us can change anything that has happened. We can lament it, we can rake over the coals, we can be angry and disappointed. But we can’t change it.

What we need now is some reflection inside the club – not navel gazing, but some proper, honest, everything on the table conversations. A frank acceptance that there are, and have been, failings in all areas is required. And then we must – must – see a different trajectory, from the playing squad and the club in general.

That starts on Saturday. All games are only worth three points, but it does feel like this one might actually carry a lot more than just the result at the end of 90 minutes.