Watford made a short journey to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham earlier today. The Hornets began the match on the front foot and took the lead in the 2nd minute through Andre Gray’s smart finish from close range. They kept the pressure on the home side but couldn’t add to their lead.
The second half was more of the same, but Aleksander Mitrovic finally managed to make a breakthrough in the 77th minute to earn his team a hard-fought point from the encounter. The match ended 1-1 with both sides living to fight another day.
Let’s take a look at how each Watford player performed during the contest against the Cottagers.
GK: Ben Foster – 6/10
He made some excellent saves during the match but was hardly tested by the Fulham attack. Foster was left helpless for Aleksander Mitrovic’s equaliser from close range.
RB: Daryl Janmaat – 5/10
He failed to cope with the threat of Luciano Vietto and was unable to make an impact going forward.
CB: Craig Cathcart – 7/10
He dealt with Mitrovic’s presence quite well in the first half but couldn’t cope with his aerial prowess towards the latter stages of the game.
CB: Christian Kabasele – 7/10
He could have scored with a header in the first half. Kabasele did his job well defensively but was dominated by Mitrovic’s physicality in the final quarter of the game.
LB: José Holebas – 5/10
An unusually poor performance from the Hornets left-back. His delivery from set-pieces failed to hit its mark, but he was quite sound defensively.
CM: Abdoulaye Doucouré – 6/10
He worked his socks off in midfield and provided some added protection to the Watford defence.
CM: Etienne Capoue – 7/10
The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder had a good game for the Hornets at the centre of the pitch. His physicality helped Watford dominate the midfield in the first half.
RM: Will Hughes – 8/10
He set-up Andre Gray quite well in the 2nd minute for Watford’s opening goal. The 23-year-old looked a class act down the right flank and hardly gave away the ball during the match.
LM: Roberto Pereyra – 7/10
He went close to scoring with his attempt, which went off target. He was always looking to create chances for his teammates and was a constant threat in left midfield.
ST: Andre Gray – 8.5/10
His pace caused a lot of problems to the Fulham defence. Gray scored a breakaway goal in the 2nd minute and could have registered a few more in the first half.
ST: Troy Deeney – 7/10
He worked hard in the opposition half but was not as impactful inside the Fulham penalty box.
Substitutes:
RB: Kiko Femenia – 5/10
He hardly made any impact in the game after coming off the bench to replace Hughes.
ST: Isaac Success – 7/10
He went close to scoring the winner with his shot in goal.
LM: Ken Sema – N/A
He didn’t have enough time to make an impact in the match.
