Watford impressed with Nathan Ake playing centre back
On Saturday, Nathan Ake enjoyed another game in top flight football. However, an injury to centre back Miguel Britos just before kickoff meant the Dutch youngster would no longer be required at left back... but as a centre back.
Anybody who has followed Chelsea U-21s, U-18s or lower would know Ake played a ton of games at centre back, before being switched to midfield/left back by Jose Mourinho (most likely due to Mourinho's unhealthy need for 6 foot+ players). Watofrd finished the game losing 1-0 at home to title hopefuls Leicester City, but Ake impressed everyone as a centre back. Most importantly, the Watford manager who had some words of praise.
“In the first 15 minutes we had problems in the defensive line. Then we started to play better within the defensive line." Flores said to watfordobserver. "We created stability in the defensive line and corrected a couple of moves and it was ok. I think Ake can play perfectly in this position. He should be trained and play in this position to improve but I’m really happy with his performance. Ake normally plays as a left-back but he knows perfectly how (Craig) Cathcart or (Miguel) Britos work in other positions because they are defenders and they train together every day."
"We always work with the attitude of giving confidence to every single player. The most important thing is that at the last moment (Nathan) Ake needed to change position from left-back to central defender."
“It was very difficult. He is training in a system where he knows his position and he knows the position of the other players.
“It’s not good to mend or try to correct things at the last moment. It’s not the best way to prepare for a match. But I’m not completely surprised [that Ake played well].”
Nathan Ake spoke to Watford after the game. “We didn’t really create any good chances, just corners and other things,. We defended okay, they didn’t have many chances, just one second ball they picked up and with Mahrez's quality, he can put that in the top corner.“They waited a little bit on the halfway line, we tried to play out, but we couldn’t go through them though. They won the second balls and they were in possession again, so it was difficult for us.”
“I think I was okay, I played there for Chelsea but I haven’t done it for a long time. It was good having Seb alongside me, he helped me through and I adjusted well," he said.
“Jamie [Vardy] doesn’t stop running into good spaces and you have to be aware, you have to be focused 100 per cent of the time.
“I also don’t think we created enough though. Sometimes in the second-half we went sideways too much, we didn’t punish them and we need to improve that.”
