Forward dropping deep..A tale of 2 halves and 2 men

[irishfoxkev]

As I said in the match thread was very happy with the variety we showed in our play throughout....Like many when i saw Slim and Leo up top I thought we would be in for a night of incessant hoof ball but far from it...In the first half Slim was getting all the plaudits for coming deep to get the ball which he did very effectively but no goals created...Poor Leo getting lambasted by almost everyone on here .Second half was all change....the much maligned Leo came deep to collect the ball.....50 mins collected the ball midway in their half,played a super diagonal ball to Gray on the left and one nil?? 62 minutes great take on the chest by Leo from Hamer clearance, showed great intelligence to let the onrushing Andy King to take the ball off him and burst into the space behind him...perfect pass from King to Slim and 2 nil.... No input from Leo for the third but 93 minutes he dropped short for Amartey to find him from free kick.Leo laid it off to Chilwell turned and ran into the space on the left wing.. Great return ball from Chilly ,good initial control from Leo  before the ball broke to Musa and 4  1 ......I'm not trying to put myself forward as Leo's biggest fan but he contributed significantly in 2nd half in what was a very entertaining display .Was the decision for Leo to drop deep and hence become our most creative player a stroke of tactical genius or pure fluke?  Whatever I am a happy ? ?

 

 

 

 

[Guest the fox]

As much as I criticized ulloa, him being there allowed slim to play of the defense's shoulder instead of exhausting himself with aerial duels.

 

Slim would be a terrifying player for Watford, with deenay doing the ulloa role while being faster and a playmaker can be bad news for teams trying to crack the top 8 (including us)

[Captain...]

Ulloa came on and played the Okazaki role a few times in the last few seasons and was quite effective, he was also part of our fluid front 3 during the great escape, he has limitations such as pace, but his hold up play can be excellent, I remember Slimani being touted as someone who plays behind the front man, but I have not really seen him do that role effectively. Either way I'm glad we didn't just hoof it forwards for 90 minutes last night.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Definitely think the way we play requires one deeper forward and the other further forward. Even Nuge and Vardy did this back in the day. If Ulloa can do Okazaki's role well and we have 3 vying to play up[ top in Vards, Sim and Kelechi then all looks good!