Mattie Pollock - One of the Championship's more underrated centre backs?

After putting together some fine form to begin the 2024-25 Championship season with Watford, Mattie Pollock continues to steadily fulfil his hefty potential.

It’s been an interesting couple of years for Mattie Pollock.

After sitting on the side lines at Watford for much of the early exchanges of the 2022-23 season, the young centre back effectively forced his side’s hand in that January to move on loan to Aberdeen.

Some Hornets fans may of viewed his Scottish departure as the end of his time at Vicarage Road full stop but that six-month spell at Pittodrie did him the world of good in a development sense and now, Watford are beginning to reap the rewards after his hit-and-miss 2023-24 campaign with the club.

Through the first four league games of this campaign, Pollock has anchored a defence who have been one of the tougher backlines to break down in the Championship, conceding just four goals in total.

That’s helped Watford to claim nine points from the 12 available to this point and considering that many fans were expecting a much tougher start overall following another up-and-down summer transfer window, his performances have certainly helped to push Tom Cleverley’s side much further than first anticipated.

In just about every sense, the 22-year-old is a no-nonsense central defender, one who’s physical thanks to his 6ft 2in frame and tough in the tackle. That’s perhaps best highlighted by the fact that through the opening four matchdays, his 31 aerial duels won and 40 overall duels won are the most of any player in England’s second tier.

Not only that but his 72.7% success rate in attempted duels ranks as one of the highest in the division of all players to have been involved in over 15 such actions.

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That’s a fantastic platform for any defender to build from and through the opening four weeks of the Championship season, Pollock has been able to add an extra level of skillset on top. His reading of the game has improved over the off-season as reference by his seven interceptions - a tally beaten by only 11 players in the division - and it’s helped him to also make 18 clearances in the process, the most of any Watford player alongside Francisco Sierralta.

Additionally, it’s further aided him to have a better upstanding of how best to challenge his opposing player, leading him to both pick up six tackles and be dribbled past just once to this point.

But aside from his defensive ability, what is also to note is that Pollock’s passing range has come on leaps and bounds in the past few months in particular.

Whether that’s a change of playing style for him on a personal level under manager Tom Cleverley or whether it’s an area of his game that he’s identified himself to improve upon is a bit of unknown, but it’s definitely proving to be a key part of Watford’s set up early on in this campaign.

Interestingly, the 22-year-old has attempted more forward passes than any other player in the competition through the opening four matchdays (140). Granted, that’s a statistic in which central defenders usually dominate given their time spent in possession of the ball but even still, considering the players in that position and the teams that they play for in this competition, few would have likely expected Pollock to be top of the charts in that category.

That passing range is additionally helping the Hornets to unlock their opposition in a different manner to before, as Pollock’s driven passes from the right-hand side of the backline are allowing his teammates to take up more appealing positions on the field in which they’re flourishing.

In fact, the 22-year-old ranks fourth amongst his teammates for attacking sequence involvements as a result (14), with his three chances created in the process clocking in quite highly amongst all Championship central defenders. He’s also recorded an assist against Derby during which he picked out Vakoun Issouf Bayo with a perfectly-weighted 35 yard chipped pass into the penalty area.

Of course, improvements will have to be made to his game in order to reach his potential over the next couple of years but it’s fairly safe to say that if the Vicarage Road outfit are to avoid any serious drops in form between now and May, Mattie Pollock will have to continue this level of performance throughout.