KEOWN TALKS TACTICS
HOW HORNETS HAVE REDISCOVERED THEIR STING UNDER PEARSON
IT’S March 21, 2015. Leicester have just lost 4-3 to Tottenham and sit bottom of the Premier League, seven points from safety. Harry Kane has helped himself to a hat-trick and it’s looking bleak for Nigel Pearson’s side. Yet incredibly, seven wins, one draw and one defeat from nine games later, Leicester are safe. This great escape was Harry Houdini-esque. The players suddenly knew what that winning feeling was like and they carried it into the next season as they became English champions. Without Pearson, who went on to lose his job for matters off the pitch, Leicester would most likely have been relegated and the 5,000-1 title win would never have happened. Today, he faces Tottenham
again in the midst of another revival, this time as manager of Watford. A Premier League table since Pearson took charge of the Hornets places them third, after four wins from six games. They are enjoying the bounce we expected of Tottenham under Jose Mourinho, who has won just five of his 10 games, with one draw and four defeats. At this rate, Watford seem shoo-ins for survival, and I see similarities between them and the Leicester side of 2014-15. Pearson likes a nuisance in attack. He had Jamie Vardy and now he has Troy Deeney.
He had two quality wingers in Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton and now he has Ismaila Sarr and Gerard Deulofeu, who both look in form. Christian Kabasele and Craig Cathcart — both 6ft 2in — are providing a solid base at the back, just like Wes Morgan would alongside Robert Huth or Marcin Wasilewski. Under Watford’s previous management, you would see their full backs flying forward to fill the gaps in their 4-2-2-2 formation. Pearson has limited that — he’s using 4-2-3-1 and has told them to focus on protecting their goal, first and foremost. Adrian
Mariappa and Kiko Femenia, at right and left back, now do that. Midfield duo Etienne Capoue and Nathaniel Chalobah are covering their defence, too, while Abdoulaye Doucoure is going from box to box. With Craig Shakespeare back by his side, Pearson has got these players fighting for him. He looks them in the eye and does not mess around. As Deeney recently said: ‘For the first time in eight years I have been treated like a proper man.’ Having someone like the Watford captain onside is big when it comes to dressing room politics.
Pearson coerced a great amount of confidence out of Vardy, too, and he went on to lead Leicester in their title triumph. N’Golo Kante was signed in the summer of 2015 — and what an addition he was, found by Pearson’s trusted lieutenant Steve Walsh — but Leicester’s title winners were largely already there. This is a manager who knows how to handle diamonds in the rough. Despite their previous struggles, Watford have plenty of them. They got to the FA Cup final but were beaten 6-0 by Manchester City, while Tottenham lost in the Champions League final. Neither side seemed to recover from suffering deflating defeats on their big days, but Pearson is now pulling Watford back together.