Chelsea needs a win to regain some momentum and Watford away is not a good opponent for that now. The Hornets are adaptable and tricky to play against.
Watford goes through managers even faster than Chelsea do. Javi Gracia is the latest and it always felt like he would be just another short term option to stop the bleeding. And while that may still be true, he does seem to be more of a hit than anyone anticipated when he took charge.
The Hornets started hot before dipping a bit and then recalibrating. In that sense, they are a lot like Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth: long runs of good form, followed by runs of bad form, followed by a readjustment. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Through this Watford have kept high up in midtable just as Bournemouth has done.
Their tactics are not overly flashy but they are highly adaptable. Watford’s squad is well put together and able to play a number of different ways. Gracia is able to mostly squeeze the best out of them and Maurizio Sarri and Chelsea should be hesitant to play them with their current momentum.
Gracia sets Watford up in a 4-4-2 base formation. But 4-4-2 is merely the base. Sometimes it can look like a 4-1-2-1-2 or a 4-3-1-2 or even a 4-2-2-2. The only real consistent pieces are the striker pair and the back four. The midfield grows and shrinks as the opponent dictates.
Defensively, Watford look to force a risky pass early if the ball is in the other half. Their players mark tightly without over committing. It is pressure that forces the opponent to make a bad decision rather than putting Watford players in the position to win the ball back. In their own half, they stay compact and narrow and look to force players in to pressing traps in the same press-but-do-not-tackle style.
Offensively, especially when the ball is won in the other half, Watford is often in great positions to counter quickly. They look to attack quickly and in combinations to break opponents down before they can set up. This suits the front six of Watford well because the four midfielders can adapt to wherever they are on the pitch and the strikers work best with quick attacks. Because it is such a free flowing and fast set up, opponents often find it difficult to understand and defend against.
Their biggest strength is in their adaptability. No matter where they win/lose the ball or how their players are positioned when they do so, they can put an attack/defense together. Their players are very well drilled and position matters less than following the instructions.
Their weakness, however, is that their setup relies so much on adapting well that when they do not they can only struggle. It may be alluring to have a free flowing front six, but if even one is having a bad day or is confused, the whole set up breaks down quickly. That is the exact situation that Chelsea is supposed to be good at exploiting under Sarrismo.
As usual, Chelsea’s tactics should match up well against Watford. In practice, that is rarely the case in recent weeks. Watford can just as easily push Chelsea to the end or get caught out by a smart Blues team. Sarri must get the mentality correct because Watford will not allow for much complacency if they are playing on all cylinders.