Roy Hodgson Tactics At Watford 2021/2022 – How Their Improved Defensive Structure May Give The Hornets Hope Of Premier League Survival

“It is a sadistic pleasure. The suffering never stops.”

Quite a grim quote, but these were the words used by Roy Hodgson in an interview with The Guardian back in January 2018 to describe the miserable rapture of football management.

Last May, after guiding Crystal Palace to their fourth successive mid-table finish, the former England head coach called it a day on his illustrious managerial career.

Hodgson stepped away from the insufferable line of work as the oldest manager in Premier League history at 73 years and 287 days old.

However, this record has since been broken…by Roy Hodgson.

In true masochistic fashion, the 74-year-old has returned to the dugout to suffer some more.

In January, the former Liverpool coach agreed to take over from Claudio Ranieri at Watford for the remainder of the season.

The Hornets were certainly insufferable during the Italian’s brief reign, picking up merely seven points in the league out of a possible 42.

When Ranieri’s dismissal was announced, the newly-promoted side sat 19^th in the league, giving Hodgson an extremely difficult task on his hands to guide Watford out of the depths of despair.

Hodgson’s greatest task at Vicarage Road – besides keeping them up – is to solve the team’s wildly detrimental defensive record.

So far, Watford have seen an improvement in this front.

This article will be a tactical analysis of Watford under Roy Hodgson.

It will be an analysis of the defensive tactics employed by the experienced coach, examining how he has improved things on the pitch, with the exception of Wednesday nights 4-1 catastrophic defeat at the hands of Patrick Vieiras Palace.

A switch to the 4-3-3

Watford began the season with Xisco Muñoz in charge.

Despite being a disciple of Rafael Benitez, the Spanish coach demanded attacking football from his players, one which relied heavily on build-up play and possession-based football.

In stereotypical Spanish fashion, Muñoz was an admirer of the 4-3-3 system, which was his preferred formation during his tenure with the London club. However, towards the end of his reign on the sidelines, Muñoz moved more towards a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The 41-year-old was prematurely dismissed at the start of October and replaced with Ranieri.

During the Premier League winner’s dire three-month spell at the helm, Watford went from deploying a 5-4-1 to a 4-4-2 and ultimately to a 4-3-3.

When Hodgson took the reins, he refused to overhaul the tactical system too much but switched to a 4-4-2, his favoured structure throughout his career.

Watford has now utilised various formations in this bleak campaign.

Two losses and a draw in his first three goalless matches in charge prompted a reversion to the 4-3-3 in Watford’s recent bout against Brighton and Hove Albion.

The Hornets were a goal down at the interval using a 4-4-2 with the side looking completely unbalanced against the fluid Seagulls.

So Hodgson mad