Phil Sumbler
Valérien Ismaël was happy with the second half display shown by his side in last night’s 1-1 draw with the Swans but still felt that his players were too afraid to make a mistake and that is something that he wants to continue to work on.
Watford looked like a side destined for another defeat in the first half as the Swans dominated the game totally but the second half painted a different picture, a picture that may have frustrated Luke Williams but clearly pleased the Watford manager.
Watford have not won at home this year and it was showing with empty spaces seen all round Vicarage Road and the frustrations of the home crowd in attendance was not helped by an own goal inside the first twenty minutes which gave the Swans the lead. The key moment though could possibly be pinpointed to a pin point save on the stroke of half time where Cabango’s header was kept out.
Whether Watford would have had the mental strength to fight back from a two goal deficit we will never know but it certainly gave them time to regroup during the interval, something which they did to good effect and found themselves level just ten minutes into the second half.
“It was a difficult game given our situation at the minute”, said Ismaël. “You can clearly see the mental side plays a big part to the players, and everything came together with the goal we conceded. Last week it was after three minutes, today was an own goal but nonetheless I think in the second half we came with more energy, and the fans responded well and gave the players some energy.
“I think that we wanted to be too sure with an extra touch into the box, so we think too much at the minute, we overthink everything so everything seems to be difficult, and when you take the extra touch then the opponent is there to defend.
“That’s why we got blocked, we had a lot of chances to create but it is like this when you are in a situation like us, when you are not winning games, it goes in the confidence. I was a player so I know how it feels, but we give the confidence to the players, we keep pushing, and the best antidote now is to win a game, and we have the next chance on Saturday.
“I think we work a lot at the moment with the players on this side. It is not technically or tactically, just the confidence when you miss the pass, and when you don’t want to make the decision, and play negative backpasses.
“It is clear that they don’t want to make the mistake, or you come into the box and take an extra touch. We just need now to come back to our strengths, and don’t think too much – “just play and pass the ball, if you make a mistake in front it doesn’t matter. Play positive, play forward,” so this is what we talk about always with the players, but they are too worried at the moment and then it happens the opposite [way than they want].”
You can watch extended highlights of the game here
