I found last night's match too tedious to watch without being easily distracted. Frankly, there was more entertainment on our forum postings. That said, after two matches with Williams' system in something close to realization, we can now start to see the wheat from the chaff ... those players that can versus those that can't and those that struggle. Those that can, should be part of a promotion squad. The others, bye, bye!. We have probably one more good season from Allen at his current burn rate. Sad to say. Probably the same with Naughton. But the class in those two shines through clearly when we're playing football that's a level above pedestrian ... the way we were playing under Madness and the haphazard manner under Duff. It's almost like Allen and Naughton have this sweet spot we've slipped "up" into. Pato may have another season in him, but he's not the solution at #10 as much as he may appear to be now. Ideally, the Williams #10 has to be a box-2-box midfield player and this is not Pato.
Given where we are in the table, I think it's time for Williams to start playing Cooper regularly when resting Pato and or Allen. After last night's showing, to play Patino ahead of Cooper is insulting. As insulting as playing Yates ahead of Cullen. We need players on the field that are capable of delivering for us now, not potentially in 3 to 5 years for another club. Similarly, why bring in another Arsenal kid when we have Congreve - unless he's been sulking in the U21, surely there's as much meat on that bone as there is on either of the Arsenal kids.
And FFS, let's see more of big Myk instead of Yates. I'm sure Big Myk can work just as "hard" if not "harder" if nothing else.
As
@ivoralljack numbers indicate, Watford achieved more from less, much more. A familiar tune. Was this an off night or did we take two steps backwards. The midfield of Grimes-Fulton-Pato is sub par and worse than watching water boil especially after seeing and comparing it to an Allen based midfield. C'mon Williams, figure it out.