Oscar Garcia to Watford

[tiotom92]

Alright Brighton fans, Watford fan in peace here....thoughts on Oscar Garcia, he is in talks to be our new boss and apparently our number 1 target and expected to be installed by Thursday.

Whats your thoughts on him?

Told the media he was an attack-minded manager but turned out to be the opposite. We had a very good defensive record with him. We managed to sneak into the play-offs with him but I'm not quite sure how, we never had any good (or bad for that matter) runs of results so I guess this gave the illusion that we weren't play-off contenders.

He's not very outspoken in interviews (not necessarily a bad thing - see Gus Poyet) and he could be seen as a bit of a quitter as his last three stints as a manager have led to him resigning under a year in (although apparently promises by the board were not kept?).

Although my post seems pretty negative, he's not a bad appointment necessarily but expect Watford to play some dull football.

 

[BBassic]

Did very well for us with an injury ravaged squad and a couple of players who clearly couldn't be arsed to put a shift in, I'm looking at you Bridcutt and Buckley.

Think he'll do well with the players you've got and everyone will see the attacking football he was on about when he came here.

 

[WatfordDan]

Thanks for the replies all, if he joins, I would imagine it would be as a head coach, like Zola and Sannino, so no transfers to worry about, we do have a very good squad and dont need anyone really.

What formation did you play? We are playing 352 and I think that suits our squad very well, be a shame if he changed that. We do have some very attacking players so hopefully he can get us playing attacking football like Zola did!

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

I didn't see him smile once the whole time he was with us. PTS from his time in Israel I'd imagine.

 

[sir albion]

Thanks for the replies all, if he joins, I would imagine it would be as a head coach, like Zola and Sannino, so no transfers to worry about, we do have a very good squad and dont need anyone really.

What formation did you play? We are playing 352 and I think that suits our squad very well, be a shame if he changed that. We do have some very attacking players so hopefully he can get us playing attacking football like Zola did!

He will play the barcelona way and you will be very attacking...Just ignore the comments regarding 1-0's etc as that won't happen with your squad.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

His Macabi team play some fast football so I wonder if he was just working with what he had here. According to our Chairman he is a very poor communicator in terms of what he wants in the transfer market but if you have a strong person sorting out your recruitment process it might be okay, we were hamstrung by injuries and losing some of our best players last season but still made the playoffs so he must have something about him.

I wonder if this is why NJ has only recently been made assistant, to stop him getting tapped up by OG.

 

[7:18]

He performed a miracle getting our team to the play-off's.
I met him a couple of times and he is a most amicable bloke you could meet. He always has time for you even on match day.
He realised what our strength and weaknesses were and made us a team that was hard to beat (best defensive team) and relying on Ulloa to score any chances we might scrape.
Hence we were better away than home.
Last season we did not invest but sold players.
Would highly recommend him.

top post, love Oscar and would wish him well...opposite of how I feel about Gus, despite his managerial prowess!

 

[Stat Brother]

Expect him to get your team very organised and robust. Sadly though, his play style is extremely dull. Not many people enjoyed his 60% possession football to create 3 shots on target a game...

We only had 4 on Saturday, with 64% possession.


It'll not be a popular opinion on here, but Watford and Oscar will finish higher than us.
History is currently being rewritten, and Oscar is coming out very badly.

We've had rumours about his family.
He was accused of over training the team while never training the team, along with a few other contradictions.
Manager of the Month Oscar only played dull football.
The club were desperate for him to leave but refused to accept his letter of resignation.

It didn't work out.
We're all perplexed as to how a war zone is preferable to Brighton.

I very much doubt any those up in arms about Oscar now, would be protesting outside the ground on Saturday having seen us win 4 of our first 5 league games, even though they were all 1-0 victories.

 

[armchairclubber]

Not sure that we are really the ones to ask or in a position to answer ! He was'nt really given free reign to oversee everything here, could be very different under another system, all teams thrive with good strikers / squad which you seem to have, we don't really know the full story or differences behind his mutually agreed resignation (nothing sinister though on his part) so just think you'll get someone who wants to prove himself. May get more detail or positives from Maccabi fans. Think many Albion fans will be as interested as you.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

He likes to bring his own staff in so Chamberlain's position may be under threat.

Additionally Andrews had a spat with one of the coaches at the end of the warm-up, at the second leg at Derby, but I'm sure both individuals are professional enough to move on.

Benefited from having Poyet's squad, but suffered from injuries initially, which didn't help him. However, even when he got players back the football was turgid. Dull, dull, dull.

Press conferences were also dull.

However, he made the play-off's, which was a good achievement.

 

[BensGrandad]

Maybe because of our squad but he favoured 4-2-3-1. Be prepared to sell Deeney now or loan to sell in January.

 

[8ace]

Alright Brighton fans, Watford fan in peace here....thoughts on Oscar Garcia, he is in talks to be our new boss and apparently our number 1 target and expected to be installed by Thursday.

Whats your thoughts on him?

 

[JOLovegrove]

Some people are making it sound like he got us relegated. Yes, it wasn't the most exciting of football in the world, but he got us into the play offs with a squad riddled with injuries. And how quickly can some people forget THAT Forest game. Surely up there with Buckley's brace against Doncaster as greatest moments of the AMEX era? Winning 4-1 at Leicester wasn't bad either, especially if you, like I was, there.

He got to be the 26th best rated team in the English league last year, some make it sound like he was the devil incarnate. If we end this season 18th or so scoring and conceding a lot more goals, would people still prefer Sami?

 

[Phat Baz 68]

He will get them organised to a point but do not expect attacking football in the form you would normally expect it.
There will be about two shots from outside the box (or anywhere else for that matter) every 6-8 games.
It's dull to watch and leaves you very very frustrated as to why no one is having a pop at the easiest of chances.
Good possession footy but again as with Poyet extremely limited end product on the day.
Getting into play off positions last two seasons was pure bloody luck IMHO. We came up against sides Palarse and Derby that just knew how to score goals, we didn't.

 

[Don Quixote]

He will probably get you promoted.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Oscar guided us to 6th place and the play offs which was no mean feat. However we probably punched a bit above our true capability and got found out in the 2nd leg of the play offs at Derby when injuries exposed the lack of depth and quality in the squad, compounded by his rather conservative tactics and formations.

On the other hand Oscar may well become a revelation given the quality of your squad and willingness to bring in blood from partner Clubs.

However as suggested on the other thread Oscar is not renowned for moving the ball forward at speed, which would waste Deeney and Vydra's attributes. His style is for a more methodical build up, some on here might describe it as 'why do it in one pass when you can use 10?' Plus there's no guarantee that he will play two up front either. The only time The Albion really attacked 'Watford style' was in the home game against Leicester, who allowed us acres of space and we cut them to pieces, despite his natural caution. We beat them 7-2 on aggregate last season.

Worryingly there isn't much of a plan B, as exhibited at your place last season, one of our poorer displays.

Finally Oscar is a very passive figure and seems happier 'coaching' rather than 'managing'. He doesn't get every animated and you won't get many sound bites from him.

I think many Albion fans were quietly excited when Oscar was appointed and hoped that his pedigree at Barca would elevate the Spanish influence that Poyet introduced. But looking back this all rather fizzled out, which was rather curious.

 

[Acker79]

I think there are rumours and claims about his behaviour that were not really given much attention until after he left and the local paper reported it was in part because his disappointment with the transfer activity at the club.

Then word spread, people who have sources in the club suddenly start reporting that pretty much every target we missed out on was down to him, that he never trained with the players, that he over trained them, etc. even though some of this goes against the official line from the club (e.g. there were reports about him meeting with Grabban, but after he left people "in the know" report their sources info that he never met Grabban and went missing on deadline day).

Despite what he is rumoured to have done/not done, Tony Bloom has said he tried to convince him to stay.

All of that should, imo, be taken with a huge pinch of salt. Maybe the official line is trying to appear professional by not getting into a petty 'nu-uh, it was you' back and fourth through the press, bad mouthing a guy who left in a more amicable way than Gus. Maybe the rumours were attempt to spin a general negative feeling around the club's transfer set up.

Those who have leaked info from the club aren't likely to know either way and will take their info on faith, the club aren't likely to admit to having an official line that tries to be professional while leaking information to counter reports they would rather not officially get into a back and forth over.


On the pitch, I can't say I really enjoyed the football that much. I remember enjoying the first 30 minutes v Doncaster and Wigan that came close to each other, making me think the tide was turning and Oscar was going to get the side playing the "like Gus, but more attacking football" we had been told to expect. But then we seemed to quickly fall back into quite dull, uninventive football.

The caveat to that, is that last season there were a lot of injuries, and we never really got to play our best eleven together that often.

A large chunk of last season's squad were released/sold since the start of the year/summer, and we have now brought in some better players that really, for me, are showing up some of the players still left over (primarily Crofts and JFC - though the latter is young and has scope for improvement), so perhaps he genuinely didn't have the players to consistently play the style he wanted, so never got to show what he could do.#

If your players can play his style, perhaps we'll get to see what could have been.

 

[Justice]

He will get them organised to a point but do not expect attacking football in the form you would normally expect it.
There will be about two shots from outside the box (or anywhere else for that matter) every 6-8 games.
It's dull to watch and leaves you very very frustrated as to why no one is having a pop at the easiest of chances.
Good possession footy but again as with Poyet extremely limited end product on the day.
Getting into play off positions last two seasons was pure bloody luck IMHO. We came up against sides Palarse and Derby that just knew how to score goals, we didn't.

I will give you last season but the previous season we were 3 wins away from automatic promotion I dont call that luck.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Boring dull attritional cautious football. I dont buy into the injury stuff as towards the end he had a fully fit squad. Wasnt really that disappointed to see him go.

Props to 8ACE for posting that video.

 

[Acker79]

I will give you last season but the previous season we were 3 wins away from automatic promotion I dont call that luck.

One win. If we'd beat Hull on the opening day, we'd have been 2nd on 78, watford in third on 77, hull in fourth on 76.