Stoke City transfer hope, much-needed change and Watford’s untraditional centre-backs
Reaction from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City beat Watford in the Championship
Andre Vidigal was on the scoresheet again as Stoke City secured a 1-0 win over Watford. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Alex Neil had said that Andre Vidigal would be the kind of signing who could help swing tight games in Stoke’s favour and, on the back of scoring twice on his debut, he’s scored the winner in two home games on the trot.
It’s no coincidence. The 25-year-old summer signing is averaging 3.7 shots, admittedly from a small sample size, compared to a club high of 2 last season (Tyrese Campbell), 2.4 in 2021/22 (Nick Powell) or 2.2 in 2021/22 (Campbell).
They aren’t Tom Ince hopeful punts. He is getting into good areas to take dangerous efforts and he has an appetite to make a difference. He’s versatile in that he can play on the left, middle or right, but he’ll gravitate into places where he can have an impact.
It’s an encouraging start. He’s hit the ground running and it’ll be a good challenge to keep up the pace.
Welcome change of home form
Not since April 2022 had Stoke won two league games in a row at home, which is a stat to make you gasp. They hadn’t won three in a row at home, in all competitions, in two years.
They are playing in a kind of style that most supporters will appreciate too: up and at ‘em. Having been criticised for losing individual battles at Ipswich, this Stoke side put their foot in and made 32 tackles to Watford’s 16.
Formation change and transfer plan
It’s not that Stoke will never change formation or approach depending on the opposition once the window is closed but they want to head in that direction. Last season, Neil changed very regularly – at least outside of March – to go toe-to-toe with the other team. This was the first switch away from the 4-3-3 which has been deployed through pre-season and the first three games. There are options to be flexible, from the start or during matches, but 4-3-3 is still odds-on to be Plan A.
There will be more incomings, with hopefully another one or two wrapped up in the next couple of days. There are targets for the here-and-now and for the long-term too and Stoke have got themselves well-placed at this stage of proceedings, keeping powder dry to have a bit of excitement running up to deadline day.
Watford’s untraditional centre-halves
The best centre-halves, at least the best ones around here, are beasts, horrible, hard-nosed and made out of granite.
So it was a bit of a surprise that Wesley Hoedt had to go into 30-second physio jail because he had been hit by the football. And it was a shock when Ryan Porteous went down in the second half like a carrier bag being caught by the wind when he was standing near Wesley, who was shown a yellow card.
You would have to be very good indeed to get away with that kind of behaviour and be popular at Stoke.
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