Glory Of The Football Manager System-Chapter 460: The Quiet Victories III: Watford

The second half against Vitoria was a procession managed with the professional calm of a team that knew the job was done and the priority was preserving energy for Saturday.

McArthur, the thirty-year-old Scot who had been at Palace longer than anyone in the squad, controlled the tempo with the quiet intelligence of a man who understood that the best way to win was sometimes to refuse to try to score.

He held the ball in midfield, circulated it from side to side, drew fouls in useful positions, wasted thirty seconds on every throw-in the dark arts of game management that coaches never praised in public and always demanded in private.

Bojan came on for Eze at half-time and added a different kind of control his touch sharper, his vision wider, his experience a stabilising presence that allowed Kirby to push forward more.

Abraham replaced Pato in the sixty-fifth minute, the Chelsea loanee’s hold-up play giving the midfield a breather every time the ball went forward. Townsend came on for Bowen, and Connor Blake replaced Gnabry in the seventy-eighth minute, the young striker’s raw pace stretching the exhausted Portuguese defence for the final twelve minutes.

But the moment that defined the evening had nothing to do with the goals or the substitutions or the tactical patterns. It came in the fifty-fifth minute, when Ibrahima Konaté appeared pitchside.

He had been doing light training all week jogging, ball work, non-contact drills and Rebecca had cleared him to attend the match and warm up with the squad on the sideline. He emerged from the tunnel in his Palace tracksuit, his right hamstring strapped but moving freely, and when the Holmesdale saw him, the noise lifted.

Not a roar something more tender than that, more personal. A chant started in the upper tier and spread: "Ibrahima Konaté! Ibrahima Konaté!" Twenty-five thousand people, singing the name of an eighteen-year-old who hadn’t played in seven weeks, telling him they remembered, they were waiting, his shirt was still his.

Konaté stopped at the edge of the pitch. He looked up at the Holmesdale the faces, the scarves, the banners, the drum that was beating his name and raised his hand. A simple gesture. The crowd roared.

On the bench, Sakho was watching. The big Frenchman’s face was soft in a way it rarely was in public the warrior’s mask dropped, the general allowing himself to be human for a moment. He caught Konaté’s eye across thirty metres of Selhurst Park turf and thumped his own chest twice. I’m here. We’re here. Come back.

I stood on the touchline and felt the squad beginning to heal.

`[FULL TIME: Crystal Palace 2–0 Vitória de Guimarães. Goals: Gnabry 18’, Pato 34’.]`

`[Europa League Group H After MD4: Crystal Palace 10 pts (W3 D1). Lazio 7 pts. Marseille 5 pts. Vitória 1 pt. Qualification to the knockout round is virtually assured.]`

Forty-eight hours later, we were heading north. Vicarage Road, Watford. Marco Silva’s mid-table side with pace on the counter and the kind of raw, authentic, tight-ground atmosphere that the Emirates could only dream of.

I rotated intelligently Pope returned in goal, Townsend and Abraham started, Rodríguez was rested but the spine remained: Wan-Bissaka, Tarkowski, Sakho, Chilwell, Neves, Milivojević, Zaha. The blend of rested legs and first-choice quality.

`[Starting XI Watford (A), November 4th. PL Matchday 11: Pope; Wan-Bissaka, Tarkowski, Sakho, Chilwell; Neves, Milivojević; Townsend, Bojan, Zaha; Abraham. Bench: Hennessey, Dann, Digne, Ward, McArthur, Navas, Pato.]`

The first half at Vicarage Road was a battle. Not the technical chess match of Bournemouth or the comfortable control of Vitória a proper, physical, elbows-and-studs battle in the November mud. And at the centre of it, the most entertaining personal duel of the season: Mamadou Sakho versus Troy Deeney.

Deeney was everything the Premier League used to be stocky, powerful, loud, confrontational, the kind of striker who would elbow you in the ribs during a corner and then invite you for a pint after the match.

He and Sakho took an instant, mutual, deeply professional dislike to each other. From the first minute, they were at it shoulders into chests, elbows into backs, muttered threats in the middle of set-pieces, the dark arts of English centre-forward versus French centre-back conducted with a commitment to violence that the referee chose to interpret as "competitive."

Deeney trod on Sakho’s toe during a goal kick. Sakho accidentally-on-purpose caught Deeney with a trailing arm during a header. Deeney told Sakho something unprintable. Sakho leaned in and whispered something back in French that made Deeney hesitate for a fraction of a second the hesitation of a man who suspected he had just been insulted but couldn’t prove it.

The Palace fans behind the goal were loving it. Every Sakho clearance drew a cheer. Every Deeney foul drew a howl. It was theatre aggressive, physical, brilliantly entertaining theatre performed by two men who understood that their personal war was as important to the outcome as any tactical pattern.

In the thirty-seventh minute, we scored through the quality that the battle was designed to protect. Neves, given space by Milivojević’s tireless screening, played a vertical pass into Bojan, who had drifted between the lines.

The Spaniard’s first-time layoff found Rodríguez no, not Rodríguez, he was rested found Bojan himself, who had continued his run, received the return from Zaha, and slid a through ball of ridiculous precision into Abraham’s path.

The teenager’s composure was remarkable one touch to set, a glance up, and a finish that was placed rather than powered, the ball sliding past the goalkeeper’s dive and into the far corner. His first Premier League goal.

Watford 0–1 Crystal Palace. Abraham. 37 minutes.

Abraham sprinted to the away end a pocket of red and blue in the corner of Vicarage Road and cupped his hands to his ears. Nineteen years old. On loan from Chelsea. Scoring in the Premier League for Crystal Palace. The pathway was real.

Half-time. I kept it brief. "We’re winning but we’re not controlling. Deeney is getting into Mama’s head. "Sakho looked at me with an expression of absolute outrage. "Okay, Mama, you’re getting into his head. Either way, stay disciplined. No cards. We need you for Tottenham."

The second half began and Watford pushed. They had to they were losing at home, the Vicarage Road crowd was restless, Silva was gesticulating from the touchline.

In the fifty-fourth minute, Richarlison, the young Brazilian who was already too good for this level and would soon prove it at a bigger club, cut inside from the left wing, drove past Wan-Bissaka with a burst of acceleration that caught the Palace right-back off balance, and curled a shot that Pope got a hand to but couldn’t keep out. The ball kissed the inside of the post and nestled in the net. 1-1.

Watford 1–1 Crystal Palace. Richarlison. 54 minutes.

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Thank you to Sir nameyelus for the Super Gift.