3 Watford FC issues Paulo Pezzolano must fix at Vicarage Road ASAP | OneFootball

A look at the issues that new Watford manager Paulo Pezzolano must fix at Vicarage Road.

Following a mid-table finish in the Championship, Watford took the decision to sack yet another manager with Tom Cleverley departing Vicarage Road and he has been replaced by Uruguayan coach Paulo Pezzolano.

The 42-year-old began his managerial career with Torque before taking charge at Liverpool in Montevideo as well as Pachuca and Cruzeiro before being appointed Real Valladolid coach at the end of the 2022/23 season.

He led Valladolid to promotion to the top-flight last season but was let go by the club in December with some fairly big off-field issues involving owner and chairman Ronaldo affecting the on-pitch performances as they put in one of the weakest La Liga seasons in recent memory.

He now moves to Hertfordshire with a fairly big job on his hands to turn around the Pozzo-owned Hornets and make them a serious contender for promotion to the Premier League once again.

As he prepares for a first summer in England, Football League World has looked at the standout issues that Pezzolano must fix at Vicarage Road if they are to become more serious once again next season.

Goal scoring issues

Watford started the season brilliantly and that was with the major help of midfielder Edo Kayembe becoming something of a goal magnet with three goals in the first two games of the season to help the Hornets win their first five matches across all competitions.

However, Kayembe ended up on eight goals with no player reaching double figures in the Championship as Ivorian striker Vakoun Bayo notched nine in 38 appearances in the second-tier.

In their final 24 games of the campaign, Watford managed just five victories as they struggled for goals or any kind of consistent threat with just 21 goals scored – notching more than one goal in a game on jus three occasions.

Focus and motivation

That collapse in the second-half of last season, which began when they were in the top six and the play-off places on Boxing Day and saw them plummet to an eventual 14th placed finish, could well be tactical but may also be a cause of inertia at the club.

It did appear to be the case that the Pozzo family turned their overarching focus back to Udinese last summer with the Friulians needing their own rebuild, having stayed up on the final day of the 2023/24 Serie A season.

Now is the turn of Watford and that may be why they acted so swiftly to change the manager but the focus and motivation on the pitch has to stem from the sidelines and in the hierarchy, rather than allowing a season to coast towards an underwhelming conclusion.

They ended up 11 points adrift of Bristol City in sixth spot as a result of taking just five points from their final eight games of the campaign when an even underwhelming points return could have seen them legitimately change for a play-off spot.

Tactical clarity and cohesion

That lack of energy and seemingly allowing a season that had promise to drift could well be a mentality issue, from both the pitch and the boardroom, but also due to a general lack of identity.

Even with those five victories to kick off the campaign, there were some signs that they were quite fortunate and two of those wins were EFL Cup ties against League Two’s Milton Keynes Dons and Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle.

Pezzolano is a pragmatic coach but he does have a defined style of football with a desire to play quickly and vertically with possession, rather than ‘lumping it’. A clearly defined style and tactical cohesion from the manager could well solve more than one issue for the Hornets.