It’s Xisco Inferno as new Watford boss off to flyer
INTRODUCTIONS to management in a new country seldom go much better than this.
Xisco Munoz, parachuted into Watford five days before Christmas to rescue their Premier League return mission, saw his new team defeat league leaders Norwich in his first match in charge.
It was thoroughly deserved as well, with Watford finding a fluidity in attack and a general self- confidence t hat has been absent from their play for a while.
Is mail aS arr was excellent throughout and a worthy match-winner. His contribution will no doubt be especially pleasing to Xisco as a former winger.
It was a strangely limp display from Daniel Farke’s Norwich, who created next to nothing as they saw a five-match winning run ended.
They might have moved seven points clear at the top of the Championship as we fast approach the midway marker of the season but the truth was Watford, who came down with them in July, might have won by more as they showed their promotion credentials.
Watford’s new Spanish manager Xisco had swapped Georgia, where he’d led Dinamo Tbilisi to the league title earlier this month, for the hottest of managerial hotseats in England. The 40- year- old is Watford’s fifth permanent manager since the start of last season.
The first impressions seemed promising enough. Xisco had only taken charge of two training sessions but had aimed to return smiles to faces, doing his best to restore Troy Deeney to his integral role within the team after the captain’s clash with Vladimir Ivic led to the Serbian boss’s downfall.
Deeney was restored to t he starting team, in a front two with Andre Gray, in an indication that Xisco was determined to live up to his promise to attacking more.
Despite Xisco’s enthusiastic instructions in both English and Spanish, sometimes making use of Kiko Femenia to translate and relay orders, Watford didn’t see a great deal of the ball in the first-half.
But when they did, there were signs of the incisive football often absent under Ivic. Their reward was a deserved half-time lead.
Really, they should have led prior to that. Gray was only eight yards out and really should have done better when he skewed a volley into the side-netting after Sarr cut back from the byline.
But with Norwich’s creator- inchief Emiliano Buendia often crowded out — and the league leaders reduced to pot-shots from range — Watford pounced when their moment came on 39 minutes.
Ken Sema was allowed far too much time to slide a low cross from t he l eft t hat Norwich keeper
Michael McGovern seemed to leave to his defenders, meaning the ball evaded all except Sarr, who was left with a tap-in.
Gray might have doubled the lead but side-footed over from a good position.
Watford’s intensity increased after half- time with Sarr twice delivering crosses that caused trouble. Gray appealed for a penalty after failing to reach one on the stretch and McGovern punched another away under pressure.
Farke threw on forward Jordan Hugill among three substitutes at once with 23 minutes to play. Buendia tested Ben Foster from 20 yards but it was a comfortable save.
With nine minutes to play, an equaliser seemed inevitable when Mario Vrancic slipped Teemu Pukki clean through but Adam Masina produced a perfectly-timed tackle to rob him as Norwich players shouted i n vain for a penalty.