Manchester City Battle to Win Against Watford
By David Crook
Sometimes Manchester City win by playing beautiful football but sometimes battling to secure a victory can do more for team morale.
The thing about Manchester City is we are relentless under Pep Guardiola. We have some wonderful players, we play a fantastic spectacle of football, but we just keep going. If anything, the performances of our challengers indicate our ability to win a war of attrition may be important in the coming months.
In the cold wet December evening, Manchester City spent most of the match imposing their style and fluency on Watford. For long periods Watford did not just have any possession, but they never even saw it, as it passed in a flurry of attacking intent.
There were a number of changes from Saturday. Mahrez came in for Sterling. Delph replaced Zinchenko. Both centre backs were replaced with Stones and Kompany coming in. Despite these rotations, Guardiola has his team so well drilled they just carried on regardless. This is probably another aspect of the relentlessness as personnel changes have little effect on intensity.
More from Game Review
- Manchester City keep unbeaten streak alive with 1-1 draw vs Brighton
- Manchester City march towards the title with 3-0 win over West Ham
- Manchester City “tear cockneys apart again” in masterclass 4-1 Premier League win
- Manchester City produce a professional performance to reach the FA Cup Final
- Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich: the Etihad brought all the Champions League drama
How it took so long for City to score the first goal was a mystery to everyone other than the Watford keeper, Ben Foster. He was intent on stopping every shot and I thought he may even accomplish that.
In a busy period he kept out goal bound efforts from Sane, Mahrez, Bernardo and from Jesus. The profligacy in front of goal has returned and that is a worry. Against Chelsea on Saturday we will need to be more clinical.
The breakthrough came from Sane who chested the ball past Foster into the net following a great cross by Mahrez.
The second and decisive goal came early in the 2nd half. Silva fed a slide rule pass to Jesus who beat the defender and whipped the ball back for Mahrez to slot home. There were other chances to score but these fell mainly to Jesus who was unlucky to see his efforts go wide on a number of occasions.
The intensity of the performance altered when Silva was replaced by Gundogan. This prompted a period of slower passing and some careless play. Delph gave the ball away and Doucore scored for Watford.
The last 6 or 7 minutes of the match became an uncomfortable onslaught as Watford sought to use their height and power advantage. Guardiola took off Jesus and brought on Laporte and Manchester City withstood the pressure.
There are some games where the most satisfying thing is to race into an unassailable lead. There are some games where a battled result means more, as it says a lot about team spirit. This was one of those games.
Guardiola will remind his players that intensity and control cannot drop during a game. But the heart shown by the team, the willingness to work for each other, is beginning to make City stand out and look like champions again.