Fixing Watford

"It might be a bit of a cultural re-set [is needed] for the football club"

Ah shit, here we go again. The running of Watford Football Club is like that GTA meme; never-ending nonsense. From Gino Pozzo right down to the stewards on match days, there’s an us against you mentality, which is great if everyone aligned, but when it’s fans vs club, it’s another level of shit. It feels right now that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel regarding change, the one ray of hope I have is Ben Manga, but even then there’s no guarantees of him being successful given we know how and what Gino is capable of, and that’s self sabotage. The mad thing about it all, is that Watford is so easily fixable, it wouldn’t take two/three years like Chris Wilder said, It could take six months; but it only works if the owner of the club commits to it and doesn’t go AWOL like Daniel Bachmann coming for a cross. But where does it all start? let’s begin there.

Gino Pozzo:

The buck starts and ends with Gino. It’s his club, he can do what he likes, I get that. However, if he hasn’t realised his way of operating is clearly outdated, then god help us. Gino should take a page out of his fathers book and hand over the football operations to someone who’s more qualified to do so. Given the programme notes by Scott Duxbury, that looks to be the case, but we know their words mean little to us, show us instead. Speaking of showing, Gino could get two easy wins with us if he simply distances himself from Mogi Bayat and cuts all ties with him, and sends Giaretta packing at the end of the season. Two people who have no business being involved at the football club. Bayat is a walking points deduction and Giaretta has shown nothing in his time here or in his previous work to suggest he’s any good at his job.

Head Coach appointment:

With one more season to effectively go for it, Watford will need to decide what style of coach we want to appoint. One thing I don’t want to see is someone appointed on a one-year deal — I want to see at least a minimum of three-years. You can point to the success we’ve had in the past, but that was when we had a step on others with recruitment and actually had a plan. Now the clubs that are thriving over a longer period of time are the ones who have stuck by their Head Coach/Manager. Football works in cycles, so there’s a popular way of playing and the ability to yield ‘winning football’. If you look throughout the top five leagues in English football, the top four in every league play a certain style of play; a positional approach. There’s variations of a base formation between 433/4231 and a form of back three, but the best teams in the league tend to use a base of 4231 — Arsenal, Manchester City, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, Leyton Orient. That doesn’t mean if you play like these teams, you’re automatically going to be further up the table, it doesn’t work like that. If you look at Ben Manga’s background, he’s heavily influenced by German football — and there’s similarities with English football in the sense that both games are heavily influenced by goals being scored in transition. The links to Farioli excite me, because I think he’s the sort of profile that would excite the players at the club and even the fans. It’s not something we’ve had before, It’s De Zerbism, It’s heavy possession with emphasis on getting the wingers in behind quickly through sucking the opposition in with their press. It would take a collective buy-in from everyone at the club, and it would probably take more time, but you’d have a foundation and a coach that has a different perspective on football, and want’s to improve youth players, experienced players as people, not just footballers. If you enjoy coming into work every day, you’re more likely to get more done and want to get more done. Farioli isn’t the only name out there of course — there’s others like Marti Cifuentes, Gerardo Seoane, Gennaro Gattuso, or even John Eustace, who’s doing a superb job at Birmingham. Appoint the style you want, and stick to it even when there’s a sacking — it’s a much easier streamline for everyone involved.

Recruitment:

The past few years, I’ve produced a recruitment plan with the help of data analysis — but this time I’m going to take a different approach. Rather than including visualisations, I’m going to suggest players, but the emphasis will be the skillsets needed and the intangibles required. I think there’s two non negotiables when it comes to bringing players in:

• Character assessment requirement

• Head Coach agreement

When looking at the current squad, and working on the basis João Pedro and Ismaïla Sarr will be leaving, on top of a potential precarious financial issue — the squad will need roughly 10+ players with the loans going back as well. Burnley managed to flip their squad in one window, but they also had and have the money to do so; It’s not the same at Watford, so we’ll have to be smart with our money and not have a disastrous transfer window like we have the last 3/4 years.

Goalkeepers:

For me, the weakest department in the squad. I also think goalkeeper is the one position which you can’t coach or change the style of the keeper you already have. If you’re hesitant from crosses and have poor distribution, that will always be the case. Bachmann is sometimes a good shot stopper, but doesn’t command his area or distribute well enough — the same with Okoye, and Hamer is better distribution wise and commanding of his area, but not to the level required. If we’re working on the basis that Farioli or someone like him is to be appointed, Watford need someone who’s comfortable on the ball, sweeps pretty well and dominant from crossing situations. There’s always going to be a trade off because a complete keeper is rare. Possible options being:

• Seny Dieng (QPR)

• Michael Cooper (Plymouth)

• James Trafford (Manchester City)

• Dominik Kotarski (PAOK)

  

Left-Back:

Left-Back is another position Watford have struggled in for quite some time. Holebas, Masina and Kamara all have shown fluctuated performance levels in The Championship and Premier League. All three were positionally poor, Masina and Holebas possessed good deep crossing traits, whilst being quite reliable aerially — Whilst Kamara is a solid 1v1 defender (ranked number 1 for 1v1 duels won in the league this season) but is often caught out of position, makes poor choices in possession, but is capable of creating big chances. Ryan Manning at Swansea would be ideal but I don’t think he’s attainable anymore. Mainly want somebody who’s capable of playing inside and outside with possession. Other options could include:

• Álvaro Fernández (Manchester United)

• Harry Toffolo (Nottingham Forest)

• Jordan Zemura (Udinese)

• Josh Doig (Hellas Verona)

Centre-Back:

I really like Porteous, I think he’d be able to be part of a very good partnership for this level. I disagree with the idea that he should be captain, I think he can develop into a leader, but not right now. I think the current partnership with Wesley Hoedt won’t ever work because they both have the same aggressive personality, there’s not a calm head that takes control in key moments. Whilst Hoedt is very good on the ball, I don’t think his lack of ability in defensive situations makes up for it. The structure and chaotic nature of the team certainly puts more pressure on the defence, and the uncertainty with Bachmann behind them can’t help — I’d be looking to bring in at least two new central defenders, with the idea of partnering Porteous. Someone who’s capable in possession but also can be reliable defensively. I also want us to bring in somebody with leadership qualities, we’ve lacked a strong spine for a while.

• Jake Clarke-Salter (QPR)

• Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton)

• Almamy Touré (Frankfurt)

• Johan Vásquez (Genoa)

• Jake Cooper (Millwall)

  

Defensive/Central Midfield:

I mean, we’ve basically struggled everywhere this season and midfield is no different. Louza has shown what he can do in patches, but coming off the back of two long term injuries, I’m going to cut him some slack. Choudhury is an excellent ball winner, but hurts us in the possession game, and then you’ve got Cleverley who’s always injured and I’m not convinced he’s good enough anymore anyway, Dele-Bashiru is unfortunate with his injuries too, Gosling, albeit a better right-back has been released, leaving us with Ismaël Koné who will be a very good player, but needs to be surrounded by a John Eustace, an Étienne Capoue, Valon Behrami. I can’t explain what it is, but you get my idea. This Watford team lacks a spine and leadership, another question is does the culture allow you to be that character, but that’s for a different day. I think we need to build a strong spine, and that doesn’t mean fill it with experienced 28+ players, as Burnley have won the league with a centre-back pairing that are both 21/22. The type of players I’d look at:

• Ben Whiteman (Preston North End)

• Ryan Wintle (Cardiff City)

• Krystian Bielik (Derby County)

• Ben Wiles (Rotherham United)

• Josh Laurent (Stoke City)

• Adam Forshaw (Leeds United)

• Miha Zajc (Fenerbahçe)

• Morten Hjulmand (Lecce)

• Ethan Ampadu (Chelsea)

  

Wingers:

You don’t need to be a wide player to be a 1v1 threat, but I don’t think any modern day team can be successful without speed in the dribble in wide areas. They’re key to unlocking low blocks. Sarr is not a 1v1 specialist, or hasn’t been for some time. The only one we’ve got in the squad is João Pedro, and occasionally Yáser Asprilla.

• Chiedozie Ogbene (Rotherham United)

• Elayis Tavşan (NEC)

• Chris Willock (QPR)

Cyril Ngonge (Hellas Verona)

Striker:

If you look at it now, it was obvious Watford were never going to score a lot of goals this season. We’re full of creative players who like to get on the ball, rather than having that instinct to score goals. Often we don’t have anybody in the box, but when we do have that someone, and Vakoun Bayo did want to score goals, he got 4 goals in 900 minutes. Granted ability wise he isn’t very good, but it does show that if we actually recruited properly, we’d have probably scored 15+ more goals than we have done this season. I also think this position, Watford have a type. They might have different skillsets, but one thing our strikers usually have in common is personality and captains. Luther Blissett, Marlon King, Troy Deeney, Danny Graham, Heiðar Helguson, Tommy Mooney, Gifton Noel-Williams.. the list goes on. I think we need at least two strikers coming in, one being the main man and the other with that experience to come in and keep the team ticking over. Jonson Clarke-Harris is someone I like personality wise, but the question around the step-up remains to be seen.

• Ashley Barnes (Burnley)

• Jonson Clarke-Harris (Peterborough United)

• Teemu Pukki (Norwich City)

• Rhys Healey (Tolouse)

• Josh Maja (Bordeaux)

• Jean-Philippe Krasso (Saint-Étienne)

• Thomas Henry (Hellas Verona)

• Cyriel Dessers (Cremonese)

• Kevin Denkey (Cercle Brugge)

Some of these names aren’t who I’d personally go for, It’s more the skillset and personality that I’ve seen that I think this current Watford squad lacks. Like I said earlier, the culture change of the football club will also aid in some players developing mentally, not just as football players. Whatever happens, we have to have a reset this summer, and actually follow through with it, because we’re sleep walking our way to a relegation battle, and if the powers that be at the club can’t see that, they’re going to be in for a huge shock next season if they don’t clean up their act.