In light of Watford Coach Javi Gracia winning The Premier League manager of the month award for August after winning three games in three, I wanted to write about the difference in class between the Spaniard and his predecessor Marco Silva. Whilst many were surprised that Gracia kept his job in the summer, with this tedious ongoing ‘joke’ that Watford ‘show no loyalty’ towards their head coaches, despite Watford only offering one-year contracts. How can you be disloyal when both parties honour the contract provided? It doesn’t make sense, but that’s a story for another day.
Marco Silva was appointed Watford Head Coach on the 27th May 2017, signing a two-year contract. Silva had rejected proposals from Porto, Crystal Palace and Southampton, despite those three clubs offering more money as he felt Watford had the best project and the best place for him to develop in English football. Silva said when being appointed – “Firstly, I really like the approach of the board and the owner,” he told the club’s website. “They showed me the project and I like the ambition. I’m excited. It’s a good challenge and I’m really happy. The club want to improve for the next seasons and this is what I try to fight for my career as well – to always improve, to do a good job and to ensure a good connection between the manager and the club. The ambition this club has is really important to me.”
Now there’s no denying in the first eight games of the season, Silva had Watford playing very attractive football, a team with an identity and a team that could score goals. Watford picked up fifteen points in the first nine games of the season which is an impressive return. Despite the good start to the season, there was a sense that Watford were tactically naïve, horrendous from set pieces and that the team would either win comfortably or get completely battered, which proved to be right. In Silva’s 24 games in charge of Watford, they shipped in 47 goals, 20 of them coming from a set piece. They also lost the most points from winning positions with 19. For all the comparisons that Silva gets to Mourinho, which I can’t understand why as they’re both completely different, A Marco Silva team is usually tactically poor, can’t defend set pieces or defend that well in general as proved by his time at Hull and Sporting. The same story with set pieces at Hull where they conceded 14 in 36, at Sporting it was 22 from 55, and now at Everton it’s 4 in his first 5. I think it’s fair to say his zonal marking system doesn’t work and it hasn’t for years, which is worrying if you’re a fan of the club he’s coaching.
An approach worth up to £15m from Everton came in for Silva following Watford’s 4-2 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, In a game that the Hornets should have won comfortably, if it wasn’t for Richarlison missing sitter after sitter. And quite obviously Watford knocked all approaches back for their Head Coach. But that wasn’t where there was murmurs of unhappiness. Silva was constantly berating the transfer dealings in press conferences and how he needed more players. One of the reasons why the relationship from Coach and Board went downhill was because Silva wasn’t happy that Watford weren’t prepared to pay £25m for Islam Slimani, which you can fully understand why the club weren’t willing to do that. Silva didn’t endear himself to the fans or the board in press conferences when he refused to rule out a move to Everton and it was well documented that he wanted to jump ship after nine games, NINE GAMES. All in the process of Everton illegally tapping up Silva and even talking to Carrillo and Richarlison who Silva said he would take to Goodison. It turned out that Silva had previous with his clubs, Hull fans dislike him for his conduct, Sporting fans dislike him for the same reason, and now so do Watford fans. Eventually Silva was sacked after a run of 11 defeats in 15 games, with the club rightfully blaming the actions of Everton. Silva will go down as the worst and arguably most hated coach to grace Watford In the Premier League, and Watford had Mazzarri the season before.
Now let’s talk about a complete contrast in respect, values and ability as a coach. His name? Javi Gracia. This is a man who stands by loyalty, who never complains, who constantly has a smile on his face. Gracia turned down a new deal at his first club Pontevedra as he felt he didn’t deserve it after losing 3-2 in the play offs to Cueta. He also walked away from Almeria after he got them promoted as the club planned on selling all of the players that got them to La Liga. Gracia said “I came out of a meeting with Almeria knowing I wouldn’t carry on. Maybe teams have to value what they have more and give players protagonism, but sometimes they think it’s not enough. Sometimes there are delusions of grandeur.” Can you see the difference in mentality already?
Gracia replaced Silva at the end of January and picked up 10 points in his first 5 games, including a 4-1 win over Chelsea. People were saying oh, it’s a Chelsea team not playing for their manager, an unhappy squad. But let’s not forget that this Watford side were battered in confidence, not scoring goals and shipping them left, right and centre. They also played Holebas at centre-back and Zeegelaar at left-back. The results and points dried up after that, but you could see the players were playing for their manager. The only slight burden that Javi had was that the team couldn’t score an away goal, which I felt was more down to the players rather than him. Watford were creating chances, but just not scoring them on the road. Richarlison and Pereyra missing open goals, Deeney missing a pen, it’s all ifs and buts, but it all adds up.
There wasn’t that much optimism going into the season due to injuries to Deulofeu, Chalobah, Doucoure and lack of signing a striker. However, Javi being Javi was very happy with the squad and he is what you call an old school coach with a modern ideology. He doesn’t care for the transfer market, he just wants to work and improve with what he’s got. He doesn’t need a certain type of player to fit his philosophy, a philosophy that is based off adaptability. I know it’s only five games (including the cup) but the atmosphere around the squad is the best it’s ever been since Watford have been promoted and that’s down to Javi. Just look at the reactions from the players who aren’t playing from the video of Gracia winning manager of the month award. Players like Gomes, Masina, Navarro, Penaranda all smiling with joy and absolutely buzzing.
My question to you is, would you rather a manager who embraces the club and leaves a ‘legacy’ when he leaves in Gracia? because he’s loved in Spain and from his previous clubs like Malaga, Almeria, Pontevedra. Or would you rather have someone like Silva, who doesn’t care for values and respect and just wants to get to the top no matter what? Any sane person would take Gracia. Silva needs to be careful with his conduct, because it’s only a matter of time before he turns on Everton. The idea of Marco Silva is great, but the actual reality is much different.
LKenz 