Watford's New State Of Gracia

Watford's New State Of Gracia
20:39, 22 Jan 2018

Watford may be going continental once again with the appointment of Javi Gracia, but there is more than meets the eye with this one.

Often pigeon holed as pass driven and accused of failing to dig in, Gracia’s part of a growing number of Spanish coaches that are more varied in their approach to football. While style is of course of a factor, Gracia’s places more importance on other factors - hard work, tactical organisation and above all character.

Giant killing

It was these aspects that allowed him to achieve some several major results against several LaLiga giants. In his final season with Malaga, 2015/2016, he was unbeaten against eventual champions Real Madrid. Gracia also engineered a victory over Atletico Madrid that season, and overall his Malaga side conceded just five goals in six games against those two and Barcelona, now viewed upon as Spain’s big three.

Gracia was particularly lauded in his first season with the club for beating Barca at Camp Nou, before also getting a point against them at home. That season the Catalans were crowned Champions as well, to make the achievement even more impressive. There was never a great deal at his disposal with Malaga either, as Gracia had to regular contend with his best players being sold at a moments notice and generally had limited resources. Still, he rarely grumbled, and instead got on with the task in hand.

Planning, planning…and more planning

He arrived early at Malaga’s training centre to plan for games, sometimes as much as a month in advance, and left late on the evenings. Cooped up in his office, often for 12 hours a day, Gracia would mastermind many of Malaga’s against the odds results.

Encountering solutions, taking on board new ideas, studying meticulously - it’s all in the Gracia repertoire and the basis of what will be his foundations at Watford. For the success he encountered at Malaga and before that Almeria - where he achieved promotion bringing the club back to the top flight - some underlying black marks are on his record but can be explained.

Osasuna’s relegation was much to do with meddling at board level, where once more Gracia found a lot of matters out of his hands that eventually impacted on the field. A big payday came in Russia with Rubin Kazan and Gracia was backed in the transfer market for the first time in his career, but was ultimately doomed as communication issues and apparent stubbornness took over.

The experience has clearly added another layer to Gracia as a coach, and his desire to get back into management as soon as possible speaks volumes of the man. Hopefully those values will transmit to the players at Vicarage Road too. While not being a large personality, Gracia is tough, resilient and a decision maker.

As a player he was of the same ilk, steely eyed and unassuming but someone you’d want alongside you in the dressing room. This rubs off on his players too, and while things fell apart at Rubin it was notable his former players had nothing but good things to say about the Spaniard.

Style

Above all Gracia’s style is about organisation however, and not allowing the opponent comfort on the field. His sides like to press, and smother any spaces or zones unattended. Defenders will be drilled, almost exhaustively, and ideally for Gracia be going to sleep dreaming about the duties of their role. He will want a general in midfield too, someone who covers a lot of the field and is able to hunt down opponents, while also being able to pass over short distances adeptly to retain control.

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