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Baah's brilliant burst earns victory for a more solid-looking Watford
So much hype and attention is focussed on the two transfer windows each season, but sometimes what’s just as important as who you sign is which players you decide to keep.
Having joined Watford from Rochdale in summer 2021, Kwadwo Baah had not played a minute of competitive football for the club until he stepped off the bench for the last half an hour of the Carabao Cup tie with MK Dons in August and promptly scored.
Up until then, Hornets fans would have needed to have attended pre-season friendlies to have seen Baah in action.
He was an unused sub five times in the 21/22 season, made 15 loan appearances for Fortuna Dusseldorf and their B-team in the following campaign, and was then having a promising loan spell with League Two Burton Albion last term – two goals in 21 outings – before a hamstring injury curtailed things in January.
Both Rob Edwards and Valerien Ismael were happy to send the forward out on loan, and Tom Cleverley could easily have done the same – or even allowed Baah to leave permanently.
Instead he gave him game time in pre-season, initially trying him in the No.9 role and latterly as one of the pair of No.10s.
Baah has looked more and more impressive and, after giving Manchester City and in particular John Stones a tough time on Tuesday, many felt he was due a start against Sunderland yesterday.
Cleverley kept him on the bench though, sending him on with a little more than 15 minutes to go, and Baah promptly came up with an assist for the winning penalty that was as vital as Tom Dele-Bashiru’s confident 12-yard strike to win the game.
Baah has a bit of everything. He’s extremely strong, he has pace to go with that power, he can do a few tricks, and he is very direct and determined.
The pass he controlled in the 84th minute from Angelo Ogbonna came at him fast and chest-high, and he had Black Cats skipper Dan Neil right behind him.
Baah showed excellent touch to get the ball down, shook off Neil as he turned and then attacked the right of the box, fending off a further attempt from the defender to tug him back.
When he got to the box he slowed, sucked Neil in and then was upended as he moved towards the by-line.
Certainly not the best piece of defending the Sunderland skipper will ever display (and when none of your teammates make any attempt to argue a penalty decision you know you’ve got it badly wrong), but that moment was all about Baah.
From the moment he took the ball down to the moment he was sent sprawling inside the box, he was in charge and knew exactly what he was doing.
With two more games this week, surely Baah gets a chance to start? Cleverley pointed to him needing to improve his fitness and these are things not so obvious to us not working at the training ground.
But if Baah can deliver an hour of what we’ve seen in small pockets, then I reckon we’d all like to see it – and if he can do that for the rest of the season, not deciding to loan or sell him in August may turn out to be as good as any other business.
His contribution helped secure three points that Watford badly needed after a run of league games where they appeared to regress after such an exciting and promising start.
Against Sunderland they looked more like the team that swatted away Stoke than that which was pecked apart by the Canaries of Norwich.
Cleverley had his wing-backs sitting a little deeper, a nod towards the need to be more solid, particularly in the opening minutes.
There was almost an audible sigh of relief when 10 minutes passed with a goal being conceded, although the Hornets were far from passive and they started the game brightly.
Yasser Larouci, Edo Kayembe, Festy Ebosele and Vakoun Bayo all either forced saves from keeper Anthong Patterson or had efforts blocked as Watford made a strong case for going ahead.
They duly did in the 28th minute, when Larouci swung over a cross from the left and Ebosele swept home the sweetest of volleys that curled into the bottom corner. Superb technique from the Irish international.
In the build-up to that opening goal, Bayo played a key part. Even seeing him in the starting XI was enough to register on the social media Richter Scale, and to be fair it was a surprise to have Daniel Jebbison back on the bench.
Bayo is a trier, a worker, a team player who gives his all and does the hard yards. What he’s not been so far, other than in lower leagues, is a prolific goalscorer.
He’s summed up by his stunning bicycle kick against Derby and then his awful lob that went wide at Sheffield United – he’ll get goals others can’t, but often not the ones he really should.
Nonetheless, Cleverley has said several times that in the system he plays, the No.9 may not be the main source of goals as the work asked of them means they will not always get that many chances.
So while not wanting to be an apologist for Bayo’s lack of goals, it’s also fair to look at his part in yesterday’s opener.
He chases a ball down the right flank that could have gone out of play, gets to it and then slips a pass to Moussa Sissoko before running inside to receive a return and sends in a shot that is blocked.
The ball then gets worked to Larouci on the left, and the rest we know.
Bayo doesn’t get an assist or even a mention in that goal unless you look a little deeper. He may not be the answer but he is clearly trying to do what is being asked of him, and some of the vitriol directed towards him from some quarters is disappointing.
Having gone behind, Sunderland rallied towards the end of the half, and Jonathan Boind made a fine flying save to tip over a rising drive from Luke O’Nien.
However, Watford passed up a glorious chance to double their lead a minute before the break when Giorgi Chakvetadze sent Sissoko racing clear down the right.
The skipper checked in the box but, when most were expecting a goal attempt, he tried to find Bayo and although the striker managed to dig out a shot, it felt like Sissoko made the wrong decision given the position he was in.
That was to prove more costly three minutes after the restart when Patrick Roberts was afforded far too much space and time on the right to deliver a low ball to the near post which Wilson Isidor turned past Bond.
Even if the start to the first half was improved, that’s not much help if you drop your guard straight after half-time.
Then it was anyone’s game, and Sunderland were probably the better side although they never really opened Watford up.
Their best chances came from distance with Bond doing well to show strong wrists as he not only got to efforts from Jobe Bellingham and Romaine Mundle, but pushed them some distance away from danger.
Enter Baah, and he took centre stage with the surge that led to the penalty, although credit too for Dele-Bashiru whose penalty was struck with power and accuracy such that Patterson going the right way made no difference.
There were few scares in the closing minutes, and we even saw the always-entertaining sight of the keeper going up for a set piece: Patterson’s header was decent but straight at Bond.
Over the 90 minutes it was a game that could have gone either way, and Sunderland will have a case for feeling they were worth a point.
Undoubtedly Watford looked more robust. The wing-backs were still a threat without leaving vast open spaces behind them, and it seemed that Sissoko and Dele-Bashiru worked so that one stayed a little deeper when the other went forward.
The Hornets were back to their pressing best in the final third, especially in open play, often shoving Sunderland back deep into their own penalty area.
In his first appearance at Vicarage Road, Ogbonna exuded knowledge and experience, a wise and calm head whose mere presence filled Watford hearts with confidence.
Just like Sissoko does in midfield, the Italian defender orchestrates from the back and the likes of Mattie Pollock and James Morris will undoubtedly learn from playing alongside him.
It all provided a platform on which the attacking players could pose a threat, even if things did look a little more wobbly when Ryan Porteous was sent on at right wing-back.
Cleverley later explained that both Ebosele and Larouci needed to come off, and with Ryan Andrews injured he had to put Porteous out there.
The Scottish international looked lost going forward and consequently then struggled to get back. He gave it his all, but hopefully he’ll not be needed to fill in there again.
It was an afternoon to enjoy and a win against a team that is clearly one of the Championship’s stronger sides.
Sometimes the quality of the opposition, and the low but understandable expectations for this season – based upon the two previous miserable campaigns – are overlooked when judging a performance and result.
Sunderland had won five out of six before yesterday, including seeing off Burnley and Middlesbrough, two teams tipped by many for success this season.
To expect Watford to dominate teams of that calibre for a full 90 minutes isn’t really fair, but to hope for attacking and exciting football, solid defending and to leave the ground feeling the players have cared as much as the fans do is certainly reasonable.
This is a likable Watford team with some thrilling talent and wise old heads: certainly not perfect and still with some questions to answer and issues to solve.
But already this season they and their head coach have put smiles back on faces and points in the bag – two things we’d all have gladly accepted last winter.
