Throughout Wolves’ stuttering start to the season, Nuno Espírito Santo has remained calm, almost upbeat at times; his team were taking on a new challenge, they were growing. With this comfortable, confident win over a ragbag Watford, the enigmatic Portuguese coach was able to repeat the refrain with vindication in his voice, if not a smile on his face.
“We are ready to compete,” he said. “We were the better team and our fans saw a good game. We now have to improve again. We did well but we have to play games and compete, compete, compete. We are playing at Besiktas on Thursday again, it is tough.”
The match was decided easily enough, a first-half tap in from Matt Doherty complemented by a second- half own goal from Daryl Janmaat. In between, Watford had a lot of the ball but struggled to make any impact.
Quique Sánchez Flores has been at the club three weeks but after the shellacking against Manchester City this was another chastening result. Watford remain bottom of the table with two points from seven matches and still a glaring void in the column marked ‘wins’.
“We have problems, we have insecurities. We made easy mistakes that give advantage to an opponent. All these things happen when you are a bit down,” Sánchez Flores said. His general criticism soon gave way to a more specific critique however, with the Spaniard suggesting his players had not understood, or failed to act upon, his instructions.
“Sometimes the players can be confused or not know very well their orders,” he said. “Our forwards had more pace than the defenders but they forgot to use it. Now everything we did was slow. This was not the team I am looking for.
“I prefer to say OK less possession but stronger, more compact, more pressure. We can’t even use the space to counterattack because we are not a compact team. But this is a process and I hope between all of us we can find a kind of solution.”
This game had been branded a six-pointer and was also expected to be a cagey affair. Yet Wolves played with confidence and set about Watford with a clear strategy of catching an open defence on the turn. It was a strategy that created early half-chances and bore real fruit in the 19th minute.
The move that led to the opening goal came down the left, wing-back Jonny providing the spark with a quick first-time pass inside Janmaat. Pedro Neto – making his first Wolves start – read the pass and cut the ball back beyond the obvious target of Raúl Jiménez to the back post, where Doherty tucked home from six yards.
Wolves retreated into their shell after that and Watford began to dominate the ball, but the results were as their manager observed. In particular the forward line of Gerard Deloufeu, Danny Welbeck and Ismaïla Sarr, who had never played together before, looked like the strangers they are. Deulofeu was intent on driving down blind alleys, Welbeck was bested by Willy Boly while the main contribution from record signing Sarr was a shot scooped horribly over from 18 yards.
Deloufeu was hauled off at half-time, not for ignoring his instructions, his manager said, but because of a “bad day”. His replacement Roberto Pereyra briefly looked like changing matters, sending Doherty spinning before crossing on to the head of José Holebas for Watford’s best chance in the 53rd minute. Rui Patrício made the save, however, and also denied Tom Cleverley on the follow up.
Eight minutes later and the game was up. Adama Traoré played the key ball this time, an unlikely but excellent pass through a corridor of Watford players to set Doherty free once again.
His cross was not the best but after substitute Morgan Gibbs-White – on for Neto – was able to get a flicked head on to it, the ball flew against Janmaat and into his own net.
