Walter Mazzarri admitted Watford are in a state of “total emergency” as his injury‑stricken team fell to their sixth defeat in eight games.
Goals from Ryan Shawcross and Peter Crouch enabled Stoke City to cruise to their second victory in six weeks against opponents bedevilled by injuries to at least nine players.
Mazzarri does not fear for his job as Watford’s manager because he claims there is a consensus at the club to build for the future. Mid-table momentum can be everything at this stage of the Premier League season and while Stoke won for the first time in a month, a fifth successive away defeat continued Watford’s alarming nosedive.
“I don’t feel under pressure, because I speak with our owner [Gino Pozzo] every day,” Mazzarri said. “We know our objectives and we are not here just looking at the next five or six matches, we are looking together for the next three years. With the injuries we have, in the Premier League these results can happen. Now we look for solutions.”
Watford may have put in a much more concerted effort than in the humiliation at home against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday but the points count was the same at a club where managerial security is seldom held sacred. Mazzarri, Watford’s eighth manager in four and a half years, arrived at Vicarage Road on a three-year deal in the summer.
He admitted it was a gamble to recall Valon Behrami from a hamstring injury against Stoke but said: “Because of the total emergency we are in, I took responsibility to make Behrami play.”
Watford have been linked with an £8m bid for Brentford’s free-scoring striker Will Hogan and they are also believed to be interested in signing Henri Lansbury, the Nottingham Forest playmaker. Mazzarri said: “The problem is the January transfer market is not very easy. In 15 years, I have not had the injuries in one season we have now but we still have the quality to recover.”
Even though Stoke started a point worse off than Watford and without a win in five matches, their approach reflected far better spirits. At least they had performed well in losing at Chelsea and Liverpool.
The Watford players certainly appeared to give their all for Mazzarri but he still left the field shaking his head and clasping his hands together as if in prayer at half-time. For with virtually the last kick of the half, Shawcross half-volleyed home as he ran unmarked on to Charlie Adam’s corner. It was the Stoke captain’s first goal for almost exactly two years.
Watford went for broke after half-time, introducing a second striker in Odion Ighalo for Behrami and almost immediately Abdoulaye Doucouré forced Lee Grant into a superb diving save. Within four minutes Crouch, having scored in the 4-2 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, claimed his 98th Premier League goal when Sebastian Prödl totally missed Adam’s cross.
Crouch should have scored again 15 minutes from time but almost comically mistimed Ibrahim Afellay’s cross for the ball to fall to square to Jon Walters, who also failed to convert. Prödl headed wide in a burst of Watford pressure late on, but Walters and Shawcross both went close as Stoke saw out the game comfortably.
Grant should convert his loan move from Derby County into a permanent deal, for a fee of around £2m, once the goalkeeper has tied “up a few loose ends at the Derby end” while Stoke are looking to take up a one-year option to extend Crouch’s contract at the end of this season.
“We are speaking about it,” Mark Hughes said. “We’ve got the option to do that. This is my fourth season here and I haven’t seen any diminishing of his powers.”
The Stoke manager added: “He’s not just in the squad because he’s a good guy. He’s great, got no ego and while he’s been frustrated and knocking on my door asking why he’s not been in the team, I’ve reassured him he’s an important part of what we’re doing here. He’s hoping he can get his century. Very few British strikers have scored 100 Premier League goals and he deserves to. He’s been a top striker.”
