Watford shape swamped us - Warnock

Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock admitted Watford`s new look shape and style did its job in stifling the creative life out of his young Eagles on the opening day of the season.

The straight talking Yorkshireman told the official club site "We were up against a team who swamped the midfield with 5 men in there so there wasn`t a lot of room for guile… you are not going to create much against that sort of system."

The Hornets have worked hard in pre-season to adopt a new style of football and have tried out a 4-3-3 formation (reverting to 4-5-1 when on the back foot) without success during friendly defeats at MK Dons and Barnet.

But it appears the tighter shape worked a treat at Selhurst Park with Warnock adding "I thought it was just two professional sides who cancelled each other out. I thought we were more likely to score in the first half but they [Watford] had more of the possession with the system they played."

And in typical Warnock fashion, the Eagles boss, of course, couldn`t help but have a snide bite at the opposition, stating "Watford have not got to please anyone away from home".

Well you got that one wrong Mr Warnock - all 1,800+ of the traveling Hornets went away from South East London well pleased with taking a point off you.

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