Premier League 2018/19- 3 reasons why Manchester City beat Watford

2. Watford’s defensive strategy-

Garcia's negative strategy resulted in a 3-1 defeat

Javi Garcia is a flexible manager and is known to change his formations regularly. However, against City, he committed the same mistake as his Bournemouth counterpart Eddie Howe and opted to play with a conservative 4-5-1 formation. Initially, it seemed like his strategy was working as City struggled to find space to pass the ball in the final third and could not score a goal in the first half. But in the second half, Manchester City worked their way out and played with more dynamism and Watford could not stop them. Even when City took the lead in the game, Watford did not press and were happy to employ seven players inside their own box. This meant that Guardiola's men were always in control of ball possession and they had a lot of time and space to create chances which won them the game