Excellent start continued, now Watford must build on it

Surely even the most upbeat and optimistic among the Watford faithful could not have predicted such a start to the season.

Not just the two league wins either, but a third in the cup – it’s been almost 22 months since the Hornets won three on the spin.

It’s also their best goalscoring start (11 in three games) to a campaign since the 1978/79 season: they’re not just they’re winning, they’re doing it in an impressive manner.

Stylish, swashbuckling, scintillating. Silky was the word that Tom Cleverley used to describe Giorgi Chakvetadze, the chief tormentor of Stoke on Saturday.

However, the Watford head coach was equally keen to issue notes of caution because it is, as he pointed out, only two league games out of 46, or 4.3% of the Championship fixtures for the mathematically minded.

It is important to keep things in perspective, because much as this has been a wonderfully upbeat start to the season, any good judge needs substantive evidence before they can reach a verdict.

Only a year ago, Watford thumped QPR 4-0 on the opening day remember.

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So, yes, Cleverley’s urgings to enjoy the moment but not bask in it so much as to forget just how much work there is still to be done, both short and longer term, are wise and sensible.

And just as he said about his team, these three wins do not make him the next Guardiola or Taylor overnight.

It is a very good start, it is some way beyond all reasonable expectations, but let’s get to the international break at the end of the month when there is a natural pause to gauge how far the Hornets have come.

Of course, at the same time as the international break there is also the end of the transfer window, which will be another time for judgment as what Cleverley has in the building then is what he’ll have to work with until the new year.

Even on Saturday, the need for a No.9 that perfectly fits his style of play was still obvious, despite the hard work and efforts of Vakoun Bayo and Mileta Rajovic.

In the way Watford play, that pivotal central striker has to do far more than score. In fact, it may prove to be that the two No.10s and even the wing-backs end up with more goals than the No.9 such is the way the chances are being created.

But if you could roll the energetic pressing and movement of Bayo with the physical presence and predatory instincts of Rajovic, you’d probably have the player we need.

By the end of August, we must hope the club has found the head coach that individual, and brought him to the club – along with another defender, at least.

Of course, to spend too long highlighting what Watford haven’t got yet would be to denigrate the performance on Saturday of those they have.

To be honest, they took a while to get going.

The first half was pretty tepid stuff, with the visitors faster out of the blocks and Watford slowly warming up as the game wore on.

Something that has been said to me by a couple of players about the difference between this season and last is the willingness to change and adapt within games to deal with the problem at hand.

Last season I’m told there was a feeling of belligerence towards diverting from the game plan. Stick with what we’re doing, it’ll work in the end.

Too often though it didn’t, and while that may have been palpably obvious to those in the stands and, it seems, to some on the pitch, many games at Vicarage Road drifted away into draws or defeats as the wait for things to click simply opened the door for the opposition.

This season that’s changed, and it was very clear on Saturday as at half-time we saw both personnel and tactical alterations that led to Watford delivering a half that was as dominant as anything home fans have seen for a long time.

For all his efforts, Jeremy Ngakia is not naturally a left wing-back and so there was no real surprise that Cleverley replaced him with Yasser Larouci.

Two players who had an impressive afternoon. (Image: Action Images)

The Frenchman’s introduction was also part of an urging to use the wing-backs to overload down the flanks, and so both Larouci and Andrews were often further forward than the midfielders or strikers.

Suddenly the pitch looked yards wider, and when there are huge areas for players with such pace and incisiveness as Larouci and Andrews to run into, then it is very likely to be exploited.

It was the second impressive cameo from the on-loan former Liverpool man. Fans of his former clubs suggest he is far better going forward than he is defensively, and time will tell how fair/bitter that is.

Either way, there is an argument that if you have a player so dangerous when running at goal, opponents will be concerned at doing too much to try and get in behind him for fear of what will happen if it goes wrong.

The second half also saw both Tom Dele-Bashiru and Moussa Sissoko doing a bit more on the ball.

In the first half, they were dominant and controlled possession but lacked that next step which was to carry the ball or find the pass which freed those ahead of them.

By half-time, the Watford performance felt like a bit of gum that had lost its flavour. The chewing was still going on, but there wasn’t anything being produced by it.

After the break, just as the wing-backs provided the required width, so did the engine room of the team deliver that drive to carry the team forward.

And that was exactly what Giorgi Chakvetadze and Edo Kayembe needed.

The Georgian was, for my money, the best player on the pitch by some margin and at the current rate, that’s a phrase that could be written regularly this season.

He is just a joy to watch and must be a nightmare to defend against. He can go left or right, he can go straight at you, he can ride a tackle, pick a pass and shoot.

It’s as if someone has taken the best bits of Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr and bundled them up into this shaven-headed individual with possibly the world’s smallest shinpads.

He created seven chances on Saturday, a figure only bettered for Watford since Opta started recording these stats by Gerard Deulofeu in a game against Arsenal in 2019.

We all know how good Deulofeu was on his day and, while as with the team as a whole it needs more time to draw conclusions, all the portents are very good when it comes to Giorgi.

Just as anyone predicting the first two results can come and read my tealeaves, if you tipped Kayembe to be the Championship’s joint top scorer after two games then there is a hint of Mystic Meg about you.

Obviously we only see what players do for 90-odd minutes, but clearly Kayembe has been equally impressive in his work at London Colney as Cleverley has been fulsome in his praise for the midfielder for several weeks.

The first goal on Saturday had a touch of Tom Ince’s third against MK Dons about it, and given Ince has made a career out of that sort of role and spoke after the game about a good No.10 needing to take up positions that a second striker would, Kayembe’s awareness for the opener shows he understands the requirements.

His second was a cracking strike. Maybe goalkeeper Johansson should have done a bit better, but there again was it fair to expect Kayembe’s right-foot to suddenly take on the appearance of a pro golfer hitting a driver off the fairway?!

In between the two Kayembe goals was one from Andrews which will probably be less talked about, but the way in which he struck the ball is worthy of note.

In such a position, players often go for power over placement, but Andrews kept his knee over the ball and drilled it between two defenders and the keeper. It was his shot that also led to Kayembe’s opener let’s remember.

Andrews had six shots on Saturday, the most of any player on the pitch.

During Saturday’s second half, Watford had 17 attempts on goal, six of which were on target, six were blocked and one hit the woodwork. It was total dominance.

Having seen Millwall drag themselves back a week earlier, it was a relief when the Hornets made it 3-0 though, in actuality, Stoke had not shown any real signs of life from the start of the second half.

Mattie Pollock was once again so solid. The defender has won an average of 80% of his aerial duels so far this season, which underlines his power and ability in the air, but he’s got more to offer than that as some of his passing and tackling has evidenced.

Plus there was the overhead kick in the second half which wasn’t that far away.

There must also be praise for James Morris, who told me after the game that Tuesday and Saturday were the only occasions he has played at left centre-back in a competitive match.

He had a very good afternoon, and that position looked more suitable for him than left wing-back.

A fourth consecutive clean sheet at Vicarage Road for Dan Bachmann. (Image: Action Images)

Behind the defence, Dan Bachmann made one save late in the game that ensured a clean sheet when Koumas went clean through but found an Austrian with arms and legs extended too much to cope with.

The Watford keeper clearly splits fan opinion, but statistics show he has now kept four consecutive clean sheets at Vicarage Road and is undoubtedly benefitting from not being asked to constantly play tiki-taka on the edge of his own box.

The Hornets still like to retain the ball and try to break the press, but it’s apparent under Cleverley that Bachmann and his defenders have the freedom to go long if they feel trying to complete a neat triangle poses an obvious risk.

Saturday was, overall, a very, very good day’s work. Solid but unspectacular in the first half, destructive and decisive after the break.

With two more home games to come in this rare sequence of four consecutive fixtures at Vicarage Road, Watford have the perfect platform upon which to build confidence, points and progression.

The last time they won four or more games in a row was in March/April 2021. That was the season when  . . . no, it’s far, far too early to even mention that word.

As Cleverley sagely stressed, this has been a very good and enjoyable start. But it’s purely that. A start.