Talking Tactics | Swansea City v Watford
Swansea City are looking to bounce back from defeat to Leicester when they take on Watford on Tuesday (7:45pm) at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Ahead of the action, WhoScored.com preview the clash, taking a look at what to expect from Watford, the key battle and a key stat.
What to expect from Watford
Watford have had a mixed start to the season with three victories from their opening 12 league fixtures.
In their most recent outing, the Hornets put an end to their five-game winless run with a 1-0 victory over the league’s bottom side, Sheffield Wednesday, at Vicarage Road.
Yaser Asprilla scored the only goal of the game, just four minutes after coming on, in the 82nd minute to secure all three points for Valerien Ismael’s side.
Away from the Championship, Watford were dumped out of the EFL Cup by League One side Stevenage with the Hornets bowing out after a penalty shootout.
Ismael has demonstrated a preference for the 4-3-3 formation with a front three - largely consisting of Tom Ince, Vakoun Bayo and Matheus Martins - which have contributed seven of Watford’s 15 goals in the league so far this season.
Key Battle
The WhoScored.com match forecast suggests the Swans may create chance to score by forcing an individual error. Only Leicester (six) have conceded more shots on goal as a result of an individual error than Watford (five), whilst Swansea have conceded just the one.
With that said, only Leeds are conceding fewer shots on goal per game (9.8) than Watford (9.9) on average in the Championship.
All signs are pointing to an exciting battle between attack and defence here and a lot of emphasis will be on the performance of the two goalkeepers. Watford stopper Daniel Bachmann has kept the second highest amount of clean sheets in the league so far with four, whilst Carl Rushworth has kept two for the Swans
The Swansea attack will be doing their utmost to ensure Bachmann doesn’t make it five tonight, and Jerry Yates will be hoping he can add to his tally of four goals this season.
The 26-year-old has scored four goals from his seven attempts on target in the league this season. He is Swansea’s top scorer and will be looking to fire the Swans to victory here.
Key Stat
WhoScored.com have identified a key differentiator between the two sides so far this season is finishing scoring chances.
Finishing chances is considered one of Swansea’s statistically-calculated strengths with the Swans boasting a conversion rate of 13.9 per cent, ranking them fifth in the league.
Whereas, finishing scoring chances is one of Watford’s statistically calculated weaknesses, with the Hornets scoring from just 8.9 per cent of their total attempts at goal, ranking them 18th in the Championship for that metric.