John Eustace. Captain, Leader, Legend, Manager?

168 appearances for Watford, just under 100 of them as captain. Took pay cuts, waved bonus fees just so the club could play him — scorer of overhead kicks, player of the season winner, and my personal favourite ever Watford captain, as well as one of my favourite ever players. One of those footballers that you just knew were going to turn up every week, and had the ability to go with it. A ferocious midfielder that also have lovely technique, doesn’t get the credit he deserves in that regard, similar to another former Watford captain Troy Deeney. But why am I writing about Mr Eustace? well he’s only become the favourite to be the next Watford Manager/Head Coach; I’m fully aware that odds are hugely dictated by how much money goes on said person at any given time. You might think this link has come out of nowhere, but in truth there has always been an admiration of his abilities and his future abilities as a coach — before Eustace left for Derby, Gino Pozzo offered him a coaching role to work under Zola, but he declined due to not being ready to retire just yet. Regarding his suitability for the current Watford job, It’s hard to gauge his actual ability due to the fact the only lead job Eustace has ever had is with Kidderminster Harriers in the national league where he guided them to two playoff finishes in his two seasons at the club. Mainly this piece will be quote orientated because there’s not a lot to go off in terms of his managerial career to date, but hopefully gives a good insight into what he might be like as a Watford manager rather than the player we know and love.

Digging deeper into his tenure at Kidderminster — Eustace completely revamped their style of play, and I know what I’m going to say next is sort of cliche due to anyone that passes more than three times per sequence gets dubbed this — but his team were nicknamed “Non league Barcelona” due to the attractive style of play the now 42 year-old implemented. Gainsborough Manager Dave Frecklington said at the time “Let’s not beat around it, what a side they are. We knew what they were all about but that was a different level in what we were up against, they are like a non-league Barcelona with the way they play. It doesn’t matter how you set up, we had to change formation three times to try to tackle it. In every position, they are really strong and my team can use it as a learning exercise as that is the level if you want to get promoted.” This style of play he encouraged was a surprise as his time as a player was the complete opposite — you know who else was as surprised? Kidderminster owner Colin Gordon. Gordon gave an interview to The42 and said I wanted a young, hungry manager, He is a role model to everybody who has ever been in a dressing room with him. Any player that’s ever played with John Eustace will tell you that he’s a proper man, a proper leader of men. If he talks, everybody listens. I employed him because of the person that I knew. I didn’t realise that he’d quickly become one of the best coaches I’d ever seen work after Brendan Rodgers and a lot of the top boys. I’ve seen them all work and this guy is special. The model at Kidderminster was to develop top young players and move them on. Our recruitment was through academies. You’re released by clubs [at a higher level] and then given a chance to go full-time with us, so first of all you’ve got to handle that these kids thought they were going to become top players and it didn’t work out. But then you’ve got to impart knowledge on them to help them bounce back and we did that particularly well because in the time since probably about 20 players have gone back into the league. John’s assistant Matt Gardiner has brilliant talent ID but John is a great galvaniser of young men.” The job Eustace did at the club was remarkable as he had to rely on young players and budget cuts right throughout the club, but he built a clear identity of the team, something the fans still talk about to this day according to Gordon. The former Watford captain was praised for his mentality of wanting to be the best and continuing to learn and want to improve every day, whilst having traits of players wanting to run through brick walls for him as his man management was based on no fear and freedom. Gordon said as much — “The one thing about John you’ve got to know is that he has no fear, he has bravery. He’s never going to be intimidated by a home or away crowd. And that’s why people trust and want to go with him. That’s why he was a natural captain at Watford, Coventry and Derby, that’s why players follow him in the dressing room, he doesn’t recognise fear. ‘I have a job to do. If I do it well, these people will cheer me. If I do it badly, they’ll boo, but I’ll still believe in the job I’m doing.”

Delving more into the style of play, non league writer was quoted in saying “It was football that hadn’t been seen by a Kidderminster side in years. It was front-foot, free-flowing, ambitious, attacking. People say it now about Liverpool, if you were a neutral you’d go and watch a Liverpool game. If you were going to watch a game in the non-league, you were going to watch a John Eustace Kidderminster Harriers side. It was obvious from the profile of the player that he was bringing in, there was a real clear philosophy — we’re going to play on the floor, front-foot attacking and we’re going to play our way to promotion. It was a fluid 4-3-3. You could say it was a 4-5-1. You could say it was a 4-3-2-1 depending on how you looked at it. But some of the football was very wing-based. He liked his full-backs to get forward, and having the flair players in behind as well.” Obviously this sounds really appealing, but there was concerns according to Wilkinson, especially when it came to coming up against more physical teams, and sometimes found it difficult to break down teams who sat in a low block and said go on, breach us. Obviously quality of player will play a part in some of this, but with Watford expected to be a more dominant team, facing teams with a similar approach to those low block teams will almost certainly happen. Gordon is convinced Eustace will go onto be a club manager one day soon — “His knowledge of the game is exceptional, but I don’t know how you’d describe it, he has no ego. The top managers have faults, huge faults, John’s got none. He genuinely will get anybody to follow him to the end of the earth because they trust him. John’s humility and ability to have people trust in him is the thing that stands him out from most people. That I [initially] thought was his strength alone to be a top manager, but then he just happens to be one of the best coaches I’ve seen work.” Eustace eventually left Kidderminster and joined QPR as an assistant manager.

Eustace has been kept as assistant manager under McClaren and Warburton, with both of them set to depart in the summer after their contracts expire — but he’s been kept around due to his impressive temperament and coaching ability within the environment he’s in. He has a great repour with the players — he doesn’t shout, he doesn’t scream at players — he speaks to them like men, like humans, not like toddlers who don’t know what they’re doing. He understands this because of his playing career; people listen best when they like you funnily enough. When McClaren was sacked, Eustace was put in charge of QPR to help them stay up, It wasn’t smooth but he got the job done by getting 7 points from 7 games. Swansea City looked at him for their rebuild for the past two seasons, mainly because Julian Winter knew the former midfielder from both of their times at Watford. Winter said he wanted Eustace because he aligns with the Swansea Way, but Eustace had a change of heart and turned down the job, leaving Russell Martin to take over.

Eustace wrote a training piece to Elite Soccer on Attacking and defending transitions, and how he likes his teams to navigate in those phases of play by showing his training methods.

“This is a session designed to encourage the defending team to win the ball back and quickly play it forward to their attackers. The attacking players then have to look after the ball and bring in other players to transition and help to create chances against the opposition. As a session it also helps defenders to work on their defending when being transitioned against. Players tend to like this session because it is really competitive between the defenders and the attacking players. This challenges the forwards to look after the ball and bring in other players around them to go and create and score. The defenders then have the challenge of stopping the counter-attack and defending their goal when overloaded. This session is ideal to use when coming up against a team that is very expansive in its play. It’s a good session if we decide to play deep and drop off the opponent, allowing us to transition on them if we win the ball back. Also this session works if we decide to be more expansive in our play and try to dominate possession, leaving ourselves exposed sometimes to be transitioned on. Our defenders are then used to certain situations and are prepared to defend the initial first pass forward but also organise themselves to defend when outnumbered.”

TRANSITION PRACTICE

“We set up between the two penalty boxes of our pitch with a goal and a goalkeeper at each end. The playing area is coned off to the width of the penalty area and we mark an 18-yard end zone in front of each goal. We’re using at least 18 outfield players. We set up as shown with 6 blue defenders who start in the central zone (with three defending each end). We also set up with 4 red strikers who start in the central zone (with two attacking each end) and 8 yellow midfielders who start with four to the side of the goals at each end. Play starts with a pass from the goalkeeper to midfielder A, who combines with midfielder B. Midfielder B passes forward to one of the two red strikers attacking the opposite end and midfielders A and B both then make forward runs to join the strikers in attacking the blue defenders with a 4v3 overload. The attacking team has just 10 seconds to score once the first striker has touched the ball. The three defending players must stay narrow and try to stop the attack penetrating behind them. Once the first attack is over, the coach plays a new ball into the central area from the halfway line and the two red attackers and two yellow midfielders who have just attacked have to quickly get back in shape to get on the ball and make a second attack on the same end. The three blue defenders who just faced the first attack must quickly get up to the edge of the end zone ready to defend against the second attack. This time there is no 10 second rule, so the attackers have more time to develop the attack. Once the second attack is over, play goes the other way in the same manner with two yellow midfielders combining to play the ball into the two strikers at the opposite end and then join the attack.”

11v11 TRANSITION GAME

“We set up between the penalty area at one end of our pitch and the goal line at the other end. We are using the full width of the pitch and we position a goal and a goalkeeper at each end. We also mark a 10-yard zone across the width of the pitch at the halfway line. We’re using 20 outfield players split into two teams of 11 including keepers. We play an 11v11 game, with possession starting with the three central defenders from the blue attacking team in the central 10-yard zone. The two nearest red forwards in the central zone are passive in the initial phase but the rest of the red defending team must press and try to win the ball back. If the reds succeed in winning possession, they pass the ball from the back into one of their strikers in the central zone, who looks to bring the other players into the game in a counter-attack. Now faced with a counter-attack against them, the blue team can only defend using the three central defenders who can recover from the central zone, with the counter-attacking red team pushing forward to overload in attack. If the red team find it difficult to pass forward when they win the ball, when the phase of play stops the coach can pass a new ball into the red strikers and the transition begins from there.”

COACHING POINTS

What are the key things to look for?

“When attacking, it’s important that we see a quick tempo in passing and movement from the possession team. Accuracy and ball speed of the pass across the ground is also important, as are the quick reactions and movements of players to start transitions. We want to see good timing and the correct speed of runs and passes to penetrate the opposition for goal scoring opportunities. It’s a good session for individuals to practise quality execution in passing, receiving, dribbling and running with the ball skills. It can also be used to practice good intelligent decision making, with players having to select the best option to maximise the overload and score. When defending, it’s important that players adjust from pressing to cover and balance in relation to the ball and the defensive line. We want to see players sliding across as a unit, remaining compact and leaving the furthest attacker away from the ball. Players should demonstrate good communication and decision making as to when to delay, press or deny a forward pass. Players should also make a quick allocation of marking and covering roles and use good concentration and judgement to decide when to leave the man and press ball.”

Would Eustace be a good appointment for Watford want right now? It’s a huge risk, and the only requirement shouldn’t be that you were a legend at the club — but he does fit the mould of what Watford are currently looking for according to The Athletic. A young manager that’s highly thought of, British, and will build something over a period of time like Eddie Howe with Bournemouth as CEO Scott Duxbury said. Personally I’d like to go down this route rather than going for someone you don’t know, which is kind of a copout because you don’t know their ability, but for too long this club hasn’t had an identity, someone the fans could really get behind and say yep, this is our man, this is our leader. You could say he’s too inexperienced, but I could flip that and say look at Roy Hodgson, all the experience in the world yet turns around and see’s an elbow rather than his arse. Every manager has got to start somewhere — look at Liam Manning, Neil Critchley, Neil McKenna, Steve Cooper, Russell Martin. Yes it can go wrong, but what if it goes right? we could have a legend of the club as a great manager of the club, and that thought process for me is why I’d probably have Eustace over anyone currently. Is that naive of me? possibly, but football is about more than results, it’s about connection, it’s about emotion, it’s about enjoyment, and for that I say, Johnny Eustace’s yellow army.