Watford vs Leicester: Brendan Rodgers left with much work to do after Andre Gray's sting in the tale

Watford 2-1 Leicester: Gray's late winner condemned the Foxes to defeat on Rodgers' first outing as boss

The Watford bench was on its feet before the shot had even hit the net. With the clock showing 92 minutes, Javi Gracia leapt into the arms of his staff and substitutes: three points secure in the most dramatic fashion. A few feet away, meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers stood in silent contemplation, adjusting his fringe a touch as the television cameraman zoomed in for a closer look. He was ready for his close-up.

Regrets? Rodgers probably doesn’t do regrets. Or else, he calls them something else entirely, like “learning experiences” or “imagination windows”. He may even have allowed himself a wry inward smile at the Leicester fans who began each half by singing “we all hate Celtic”. A more competitive league, a better standard of opposition, a bigger global stage: well, here it all was. But he also has one hell of a job on his hands.

On a blustery, miserable day in Hertfordshire, Andre Gray’s injury-time sucker punch was the difference between these two sides. And while Watford’s jubilant fans serenaded their former manager with chants of “Javi Gracia, he’s better than you,” Rodgers simply stood tight-lipped in his smart black suit, wrapped up against the cold. He will already have noted the vast improvements that need to be made in terms of his team’s sharpness, fitness, attacking patterns. But now he knows he also has to work on their psyches.

For having spent over an hour scrapping to get back into the game, after going behind in the fifth minute, they handed it back in one fell swoop. Kasper Schmeichel’s slack goal kick was bulleting back past him just seconds after he had taken it, a lapse of concentration, a lapse of shape, a simple inability to grind out the result and make their hard work count.

This will be a protracted process. The days when Leicester won the league with the 18th-highest possession in the division are gone. These days they are eighth, and poised to rise if this game was anything to go by. Rodgers’s 3-4-3, a clear break with the system of his predecessor Claude Puel, is a formation designed to bring the ball out of defence and launch quick attacks. But too often they were slow and ponderous, moving the ball without purpose or precision, irritating their travelling fans.

“Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack,” they chanted at one point during the first half during another inconsequential round of pass the parcel. And one of Rodgers’s main jobs will be to synthesise his own preference for a technical passing game with the full-throttle, slingshot football that will now always be part of the club’s DNA. He applauded a long diagonal ball from Harry Maguire. He applauded a shot on target from Wilfred Ndidi after a promising move. He applauded Ricardo Pereira trying to release Jamie Vardy with a through ball that was just a little heavy. And after a nightmarish start, signs that the building blocks are at least in place.

Vardy equalised for the Foxes (Getty Images)

Adrian Mariappa and Gerard Deulofeu had already missed from close range by the time Troy Deeney got in front of Wes Morgan to flick the ball in after five minutes. And yet thereafter neither side was really able to summon up much of a rhythm, much less a chance. Ndidi and Abdoulaye Doucoure were marshalling their respective midfields, expertly snuffing out danger, perhaps the two best players on the pitch. Youri Tielemans was disappointing. So too Harvey Barnes and James Maddison.

Watford, of course, are a team who already know what they’re doing. They defended aggressively and in numbers, looking to release their wingers with quick diagonal balls, blocking the supply lines to the dangerous Vardy. Yet such is Vardy’s opportunistic instinct that only a single error is enough for him. With 15 minutes left, Craig Cathcart fatally lost sight of his man, moving across to cover the channel while Vardy was sneaking straight up the centre. Teed up by Tielemans, taken on the run, Vardy’s shot was cute and clever, dinked over Ben Foster.

Gray grabbed the late winner for the hosts (Action Images via Reuters) (Reuters)

And that seemed to be it: at least, until injury time when Schmeichel lined up an innocuous goal kick under little pressure. He chipped it straight to Etienne Capoue, who headed it to Deeney, who flicked it straight into the path of Gray, whose finish was hard and low. Another big stride for Watford in their quest for European football next season; a sting in the tale, meanwhile, for Rodgers and Leicester. There’s plenty of goodwill behind him, and optimism too. But things may have to get worse before they get better.