Ed Still speaks for the first time as Watford head coach, making his plans clear

Ed Still speaks for the first time as Watford head coach, making his plans clears in a sit down interview with the club’s media.

The 35 year old is looking forward to getting going and issued a rallying cry to fans following a mixed reaction on social media to his appointment.

His first game in charge is Preston away, Watford sit 12th in the Championship table with 44 points from 31 games played, and are 3 points from the playoff places.

Interviewer: “A very warm welcome to Watford. How does it feel to be taking on the opportunity of the Hornets new head coach?”

Ed: “Fantastic. I’m absolutely thrilled to be here. I’m super excited. And yeah, we’ve finished the first training session this morning.

“First contact with the squad this morning as well. And it was great to get going. It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind, but you know, to get all the staff together yesterday to have the first conversation, start preparing everything, and then to get out on the pitch today was great. So yeah, I can’t tell you how excited I am.”

Interviewer: “The word whirlwind sounds very apt. It must have been a pretty hectic 72 hours or so. Tell us about how the move from Anderlecht to Hertfordshire came about and your first contact with the club.”

Ed: “Yeah, so contact started kind of middle of last week. They were the first contacts with Mr Pozzo and a few other key people of the club and of the group.

“And the conversations were really positive, not just about challenging for promotion, but about the methodology that’s in place here, about the other targets or the other elements that are really important for the club, such as developing young players.

“So it is the most important is definitely winning games. But the aspect of developing young and not so young players is crucial.

“About bringing together a whole team of staff members, the football coaches, the performance staff, the medical staff, all of that, that everybody’s aligned, working hand in hand for the first team.

“So that was all part of the conversations. We had several very long chats and then just working out, you know, what the best thing for me. And it was really clear pretty quickly that, you know, this was the best place for me to be.

“And, you know, I’m convinced that I’m the person, the best person to be here and that I can take the team and the club forward.”

“I’m all about being on the pitch with the players, developing them. And as I said, bringing together all of the people behind the scenes here to make sure that, you know, the club is working as one behind the scenes.

Interviewer: “You have an interesting backstory that we could talk a little bit about that. So you have English parents and you were raised in Belgium and all whilst undertaking your studies, you got into the world of football. What were your first steps into the game?”

Ed: “Our first steps, because it was the same for Will as it was for me, he was the first one who got a job in football, was as a video analyst.

“So we both started out as a video analyst in one of the smaller clubs, STVV in first division in Belgium. And we were both super fortunate to hook up with head coaches who gave us a lot of responsibility, a lot of trust and who made us from video analysts into assistant coaches.

“So Will followed a Belgian coach called Yannick Ferrera onto Standard Liège. I followed Ivan Leko from STVV to Club Brugge. We went to Antwerp together.

“We went to China together. We coached some top players there in China, like Oscar and Arnautovic.

“So that, you know, that took me on to becoming an assistant coach. And then I had a bigger opportunity as a head coach, took that, I think I was 30 or 31 when I took the first job.

“First experience was fantastic. Second experience was fighting against relegation, which is one of the toughest things that I’ve done. Fortunately, we were successful on the last day of the season.

“But it just opened my eyes to so many things. And then I spent the past two seasons being an assistant. We worked with Bill last season and last together, all three brothers, all of us together, which was fantastic.

“You know, we were really successful in a tough moment for the club there in Ligue 1 in France and then had the opportunity in Anderlecht, which is the biggest, if not one of the biggest clubs in Belgium. It has a massive history, an amazing past of developing young players as well from Lukaku to Kompany to Thielemans, etc., etc. So I wanted to see a bit of that as well. And then, yeah, the opportunity came up here to make the step to Watford.”

Interviewer: “Who were the coaches that you admired when you were growing up and has there been any particular influence on your career when it comes to a coaching figure?”

Ed: “Watching and seeing how Tuchel has taken his teams, changed them, developed them. He’d be one of them, Kompany. I sat on my pro licence with him and he’s a good friend. And yes, you know, seeing how he took Anderlecht, what he wanted to do with Anderlecht, which was his first job, and then seeing how he came into the Championship having had no Championship experience and how he dealt with that with Burnley and absolutely stormed it. To see how he’s gone from that to, you know, a tough period in the Premier League, but then what he’s doing with Bayern Munich now is, yeah, those are a couple of inspirations that I’d mentioned.”

Interviewer: “First day on the training ground today. We have a multinational squad, as you know, at Watford. We heard you speaking both English and French.

“How important will your European experience and linguistic knowledge be in leading this team?”

Ed: “Yeah, I think it’s an asset. I mean, I think it’s another one of those reasons that just feed into why, you know, I believe I’m the right person at the right time here for Watford.

“So knowing I said I was clear from the off, you know, I’ll be able to speak to most of the players, a majority of the players in the squad in their native language, which is massive.

“So one of the facts here is that we have, I mean, nearly 10, if not more than 10 French speaking players in the squad. So myself, Karim, my assistant, is going to be massive for that as well. Just connecting to everybody. We need, it’s probably I’d say the biggest challenge that we have in being successful between now and the end of season is creating a unity within that dressing room and creating a really, really strong dressing room.

“And I said to the players this morning, that is more important maybe than the tactics. Of course, the tactics, you know, are going to define a fair bit of it, but definitely not a majority of it.

“You know, the most is going to come from how strong the unity is in the dressing room, because that will just feed out onto the pitch, you know, come 3pm on Saturday already.”

Interviewer: “Unity and tactics. Well, fans will be very keen to hear all about your playing style and philosophy. How would you describe that, Ed?”

Ed: “I’m not going to sidestep that. But what I will highlight is that, again, that is not the most important, because it’s not like coming into pre-season now. It isn’t the 1st of July. There are six weeks to prepare for the first game of the season. Deepdale is Saturday at 3pm. And so we’ve now got three training sessions left to prepare that.

“And so we knew coming in here, if we start drawing up a huge philosophy of football and massive football principles and dozens and dozens of stuff that the players got to take on board, that’s not giving us the best chance of winning on Saturday.

“So what we want the fans to see and what we’re going to put in place is a team that’s really, really compact, that’s going to be really aggressive when we don’t have the ball, that can create fast transitions.

“And then when we do have the ball, we’re playing forwards. We want to play forwards. We want to play with tempo and speed.

“We’re not going to be a possession-heavy team where we want, you know, over 60% possession and we want a really slow build-up. We don’t want that.

“And I’m going to highlight what Charlie and Dan have done in the past couple of weeks. What they put in place for the last two away games was really positive.

“And that was one of the reasons why I insisted. And one of the first things I wanted to do was get Charlie heavily involved in the staff because, as I say, what they did in the past week was really positive for the team. And we want to keep on going with that. We want to tweak a few things here and there. But yes, aggressive, fast-tempoed and forward-thinking.”

Interviewer: “Did you have the opportunity to study the team much before your arrival? I know it’s been a whirlwind coming here to Watford Football Club. How much do you know about the team and what were your first impressions today on the training ground?”

Ed: “I know a lot and we know a lot with Karim. It went really quickly in terms of the number of days and number of hours. But there were enough hours there to watch six or seven games, to analyse a lot of the players’ profiles.

“There are at least half the players that I already knew really well having in previous jobs tried to recruit them or analyse them as opposition players and a lot of that. So there’s a really big part of the squad that we both knew really well.

“But we’re also open that we don’t know everybody off by heart, definitely not. And we want to see how trainings are in the coming days, in the coming weeks, to see what we can learn more about the players and transfer that then into strong performances.

“So yes, it’s not, as I said with the work that Charlie did beforehand in the last week, it isn’t about coming in and ripping everything up and starting anew with completely different ideas. We want that continuity for the players to be able to feel as if this is now a natural step forwards.”

Interviewer: “What was the very first message that you delivered to the players when you took to the training ground this morning?”

Ed: “All in. Just intensity. We asked them two things. One is just the basics of discipline, be on time and all of that stuff, which normally is not an issue at all. It’s always good to remind it when you start.

“And the second is that when we walk on the training pitch, we just switch our focus, our mode, and we go all in.

“So if we train 1 hour 30 minutes like we did today, or if we train some days 45-50 minutes based on the physical load that’s needed, whatever time we spend on the training pitch, it is all in and there’s no holding back or kind of little bit 50-50, I’m not feeling so good. We don’t want that. We just want players who are fully fit, fully focused, and we go with them.”

Interviewer: “You join with the team three points off a playoff position and a very exciting young squad at your disposal. What are the aims from now until the end of the season?”

Ed: “To challenge. We want to challenge to get into those playoff spots. There is 15 games left, we’ve got three points that we need to catch up and then go beyond. One of the things about the Championship is it is one of the most, if not the most competitive league in Europe.

“And once you get to 3pm on a Saturday or lunchtime kick-off on a Saturday, the league table doesn’t really matter anymore. We’re fully aware of that and I’m fully aware of that. And there are lots of teams who are in and about the playoffs. It could be anybody from, I don’t know, it could be any of six to eight to maybe ten teams who could still jump up the league table.

“We’ve seen it so many times in previous seasons where a team puts on a late run. So we just want to be in one of those teams who gets in or as close as possible to the playoffs. And then once the playoffs starts, you never know what can happen.

“But that is definitely the aim between now and the end of the season.”

Interviewer: “Is there anything about Ed Still you feel people don’t know but should?”

Ed: “Hopefully they’ll get to know me a little bit in the coming weeks. But I’ve said to many people here since yesterday, I’m not the most important person here.

“It’s all about the players. It’s all about the team’s performance, you know, come every game. And it’s definitely more about the fans and what they’re going to get off the team than it is about me.

“I mean, I feel and I know that Will and my younger brother Nico who are all involved in it just feel like really normal people, completely in touch with what the fans are living and experiencing and how they feel when they go to the games at the weekend.

“And I hope that people can just feel that humility and then the passion and enthusiasm that we have for the game, now for Watford FC.

“And yeah, hopefully people feel that they can feed off that and that that’s reflected in the team’s performance comes out there.”

Interviewer: “What are your feelings on Watford Football Club as a club in terms of the heritage and tradition that we have here?”

Ed: “Yeah, what stands out is that family. It does feel like a family. Walking in yesterday to see and to hear how many people have worked here for a long, long time is wonderful.

“You know, you feel people who are attached and who really care about the club. And I know even just from the outside that Watford is all about that family feel and the family environment. And I do.

“I hope that I’ll be welcomed into the family. And I’ve heard about it from a lot of people. May that be friends, but also family.

“You know, Emma Saunders is is my sister-in-law. And we’ve had lots of conversations, you know, in the past months with herself, her brother, her mum, the all-season tickets holder, holders who love the club so much. So I know all about it.

“And yeah, I just want to come in and care for that and feed into that. And hopefully, you know, it can only go one way, which is upwards.”

Interviewer: “And of course, a rich tradition of giving young coaches an opportunity.”

Ed: “Yeah, definitely. It sticks to your ears, I’d imagine. Definitely. Yeah, of course. And it does. It feels, you know, walking in here, it does feel like a fit from that point of view.

“I mean, going all the way back to the great Graeme Taylor, the opportunity that he had at a really young age way back.

“And then Brendan Rodgers started off here really young. Sean Dyche was really young also.

“And then the Pozzo family also have given, let’s say, unknown coaches that massive opportunity of stepping in onto the training field here and then out of Vicarage Road to lead the team, which is what they’ve done to me now also.

“So hopefully, you know, I can be as successful as what Jankovic, for example, was at Xisco, was here in past seasons and just go forwards.”

Interviewer: “And finally, Ed, a message for our fans, if you have one.”

Ed: “Thank you. I know that I’m not the biggest name, and I know that many fans might be a little bit underwhelmed. Some of them, having seen the bookie, some of them might even have thought this must be a mistake. There’s a misprint that it was for Will. And I get that 100 percent. There’s no problem, no issue with that.

“And so I get that they might be underwhelmed and they might think, bloody hell, you know, what are they doing? But stick with us. Give everything you’ve got, all the love and passion you’ve got for the club. Give it to the players at Deepdale on Saturday already and then in our next home game.

“And hopefully, you know, they’ll get to know me. They’ll get to see what I’m all about. And I hope that they’ll really enjoy the coming weeks.”

Here’s how fans reacted after Ed Still speaks for the first time as Watford head coach, making his plans clear…

@ocolston07: I must be in the minority that is excited by him😶

@SmithyWFC85: Let’s hope he proves the doubters wrong and does well. Good luck to him as we all want a successful WFC .

@GD2602: Seems like a lovely fella, grounded and honest. let’s hope he is given the right support, but unfortunately many of us will have our doubts going off the track record of those in power at the club.

@harrod_alan: Wow, if we play half as well as Ed comes across we will make the playoffs – I am ALL IN 👍 🐝

@louorns: As far as first impressions go, the Ed Still interview the club just put out is a very good one. Of course means nothing if you don’t win games, but it’s always good to hear actual answers rather than robotic spiel

@HJClarke95: I thought it was interesting the way he commented on his own personal profile at the end, “I’m not well known, I’m the bookies error not being will”. Removes the pressure and can focus on the squad

@louorns: Hopefully does well. Can tell he knows the majority of fans are skeptical

@DanielOwens1979: Yep – that was a very well-handled response and he came across well. Considering I didn’t know he existed a few days ago I’m cautiously optimistic.

@watford1985: Just watched the Ed Still interview, let’s make no bones about it, the bloke is a Weapons-Grade Nerd. Not necessarily a bad thing, that’s the way football is going. #watfordfc

@sambperry96: Okay, I’m onboard. Ed comes across well; knowledgeable, understanding, well matched, and overall seems to ‘get it’. Time to pick ourselves up and get behind him.