The Observer - 25.08.2019

• The Observer
  10 25.08.19 Football

Premier League

Rodgers rapt after

Barnes screamer

silences Blades

Six minutes after being sprung from
the bench, Harvey Barnes lashed
in a terrifi c winning goal here to
leave two managers very happy.
Chris Wilder was not one of them,
bemoaning an uncharacteristically
slack start to the game by his team.
But Brendan Rodgers was pleased
with the way his side earned their
fi rst win of the season, while the
watching Gareth Southgate can
only have been excited by several
English talents : Barnes, Hamza
Choudhury and, in particular,
James Maddison.
The fi rst Englishman to attract
attention here, mind you, was Jamie
Vardy. The striker was booed on

his return to the city of his birth on
account of his childhood allegiance
to United’s local rivals. Sheffi eld
Wednesday have, of course, grown
to regret their decision to let Vardy
go – he was a teenage hopeful on
their books – and some Blades fans
may have rued abusing him here.
Because when Maddison released
him with a delicious pass in the 38th
minute, Vardy thrashed the ball into
the net with a vengeance.
The ruthless fi nish perhaps gave
Southgate cause to lament Vardy’s
retirement from international
duty but any disappointment was
more than offset by Maddison’s
display, not least the way he made
the opening goal. Given freedom
to roam infi eld from an advanced
position on the left, he collected

1
SHEFFIELD UTD
McBurnie 62

2

LEICESTER

Vardy 38, Barnes 70

Paul Doyle
Bramall Lane

Henderson; Basham

(Morrison 78), Egan,

O’Connell; Baldock,

Lundstram■, Norwood,

L Freeman, Stevens;

McGoldrick (McBurnie 54),

Robinson (Sharp 54)

Subs not used Jagielka,

Osborn, Moore, Besic

Schmeichel; Pereira, Evans,

Söyüncü, Fuchs;

Choudhury; Tielemans

(Mendy 89), Praet

(Barnes 64), Maddison,

Pérez (Morgan78); Vardy

Subs not used Justin,

Gray, Albrighton, Ward

Sheffield United Leicester

Referee A Madley Attendance 30,079

3-5-2 4-1-4-1

the ball after Ayoze P érez forced a

mistake from Chris Basham and

opened up the home defence with a

superb pass with the outside of his

boot. He found Vardy in the position

where Basham would have been,

and the striker did the rest with glee.

“There are not too many players

who can play the pass [Maddison]

made for that goal,” said Rodgers.

“We pressed really well and won it

back and his touch and through ball

were sensational. I’m sure Gareth

will be having a good look at him.”

Up to that point both sides had

been quite untidy in possession

and a breakthrough did not looked

imminent. “I’ve never seen us give

the ball away so cheaply as we did

in the fi rst half,” said Wilder, while

Rodgers reckoned “our passing was

too slow”. Despite that, Leicester

had looked marginally the more

dangerous, with the inventive

Maddison involved in most of what

they did well.

Youri Tielemans dragged a weak

shot wide from edge of the area in

the eighth minute after being teed

up by him. Then Maddison glanced

a header wide from 10 yards after

a fi ne delivery from the right by

Tielemans. The Belgian conjured

another lovely cross in the 17th

minute but Vardy bungled a header

from close range. Oh, how the home

fans laughed. But not for long.

Leicester would have increased

their lead early in the second

half if not for a vital clearance by

John Egan.

One of Wilder’s many qualities

is that he is not slow to make

alterations. In the 54th minute

he mad a double substitution,

replacing his two strikers with

Oliver McBurnie and Billy Sharp.

There was a roar of approval from

a crowd who knew what to expect.

Maybe Leicester knew, too. But they

failed to cope and, within eight

minutes, McBurnie brought Wilder’s

men level, jumping between Caglar

S oy unc u and Jonny Evans to meet

George Baldock’s cross and head

into the bottom corner.

But the home crowd cursed

the next twist. In the 70th minute

one of Leicester’s centre-backs,

S oy unc u, joined in an attack and

inadvertently headed the ball

backwards from a cross by Christian

Fuchs. It dropped perfectly for

Barnes, who, having just replaced

Dennis Praet, walloped it home from

15 yards. “He could not have hit it

more cleanly,” said Rodgers.

Harvey Barnes delights in restoring
Leicester’s lead, scoring what proved
the winner shortly after coming on

Haller off the mark to

add to Watford’s woes

25

Mark Noble has scored

25 Premier League

penalties: only Alan

Shearer (56), Frank Lampard (43)

and Steven Gerrard (32) have

scored more from the spot in the

competition.

Noble is spot-on

1

WATFORD

Gray 17

3

WEST HAM

Noble 3pen, Haller 64 73

Nick Ames

Vicarage Road

Foster; Femenía, Dawson,

Cathcart, Holebas ■;

Capoue; Doucouré,

Cleverley (Quina 86),

Hughes (Sarr 74); Deulofeu

(Welbeck 74), Gray

Subs not used Gomes,

Janmaat, Chalobah,

Kabasele

Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop,

Ogbonna ■, Masuaku;

Rice, Noble; Yarmolenko

(Antonio 55), Lanzini

(Sánchez 88), Anderson

(Fornals 78); Haller

Subs not used Balbuena,

Zabaleta, Jiménez, Ajeti

Watford West Ham

Referee Chris Kavanagh Attendance 20,035

4-1-3-2 4-2-3-1

For Watford, the danger signs are

clear. For West Ham, who knows? A

breathless contest, in which defend-

ing was a dirty word from the outset,

deservedly went the visitors’ way and

suggested their evident frailties might

be counteracted by attacking potency.

That was provided by Sébastien

Haller, their record signing from

Eintracht Frankfurt, who opened

his account with two poacher’s goals

after Andre Gray had equalised Mark

Noble’s penalty. His new team have

their fi rst win but Watford, who will

rue an extraordinary miss from Will

Hughes at 1-1, remain pointless and

must perk up urgently.

A downbeat Javi Gracia knew it,

admitting his team “have to be more

clinical”. Watford produced 23 of the

game’s 39 shots but only three hit the

target. Only Hughes will know how

he did not improve that ratio when,

in the 55th minute, he met Gray’s

fi zzed centre at the far post after the

striker had skipped around Lukasz

Fabianski. It was a sitter but, perhaps

seeing the ball late, Hughes turned it

wide from a matter of inches. These

things happen but Watford, who

disintegrated thereafter, are in such

desperate form that he may not see

the funny side for some time.

“The dynamic is not good; we need

to improve something ,” said Gracia,

whose team have lost seven games

in a row and gone 18 without a clean

sheet. Even then, Hughes’s miss

showed how fi ne the margins can be

and it typifi ed an encounter that was

frayed, rattling fun throughout.

For a manager it must have verged

on the shambolic and, during the fi rst

of two cooling breaks in the 25th min-

ute, Manuel Pellegrini could be seen

talking animatedly with his back line.

His side had already ceded the lead.

A minute had passed when Haller

fudged a goalscoring opportunity but

managed to chip across the area to

Manuel Lanzini. Like his teammate,

Lanzini appeared to have over-

complicated but salvation came via

Abdoulaye Doucouré’s clumsy foul.

On the 15th anniversary of his debut,

Noble beat Ben Foster and Vicarage

Road hummed with concern.

The stadium almost erupted in

relief when Gerard Deulofeu clipped

the bar but Watford, who lost 3-0 to

Brighton here a fortnight ago, were

already running the risk of a similar

fate. It was postponed, at least for an

hour or so, by the fact that this week’s

opponents were so loose. The chasms

in West Ham’s defence begged to

be exploited and they were when

Gray whipped a fine strike across

Fabianski.

Still the chances came. Tom

Cleverley twice miscued while Felipe

Anderson headed against the inside

of an upright from Lanzini’s corner.

“The fans saw a very good game, two

teams that play in an open way,” a

satisfi ed Pellegrini said, and at half-

time the score hardly refl ected the

entertainment.

The interval appeared to have

knocked some sense into everyone

until Hughes lost his bearings. “It

was impossible to miss,” Gracia said.

Haller soon showed how to score a

tap-in. It came from a similar move,

Anderson squaring for the simplest

of fi nishes. Four minutes earlier, the

teams had stopped to take on more

fl uids; perhaps Pellegrini had offered

choice words to his attack.

They were now rampant. Foster

saved from the substitute Michail

Antonio and, from the resulting cor-

ner, fl ipped the same player’s header

against the bar. This time Haller was

poised again, converting acrobatically.

“It’s a new league for him and it’s

not easy, those goals will give him

a lot of confi dence,” Pellegrini said.

“I trust a lot in him.” Norwich await

West Ham next weekend; on this evi-

dence, four goals from that fi xture

might seem a conservative prediction.

Sébastien Haller acrobatically

hooks home his second goal and

West Ham’s third at Vicarage Road

AARON CHOWN/PA

50% Possession 50%

3 Shots on Target 2

8 Total Attempts 11

57% Possession 43%

3 Shots on Target 9

23 Total Attempts 15