Watford target former Bayer Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt to replace Walter Mazzarri
Exclusive: The 50-year-old is the new target for Watford who are impressed by his aggressive pressing football and immaculate English
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Your support makes all the difference.Watford are targeting Roger Schmidt to replace Walter Mazzarri as their new manager.
The Pozzo family have identified the German coach, most recently with Bayer Leverkusen, as the man to revive their team after a disappointing 17th place finish in the Premier League this season.
Watford want Mazzarri’s replacement to play attacking football and to speak English, two of the main criticisms of Mazzarri. They were interested in Hull City’s Marco Silva but Schmidt also fulfils both of those criteria and Watford have already started speaking to him. Schmidt himself is interested in the role.
Schmidt has been very successful in Germany and Austria playing an energetic high-pressing style that is increasingly fashionable in the Premier League. He won the Austrian double with Red Bull Salzburg in 2014 before moving to Bayer Leverkusen, guiding them to finishes of fourth and third, establishing them in the Champions League. Schmidt was dismissed by Bayer Leverkusen in March this year but has long been interested in moving to England.
“We play intense football,” Schmidt told The Independent last October ahead of Bayer Leverkusen’s game with Tottenham Hotspur. “One of our main points is a good organisation against the ball. We try to win the ball very early, very close to the goal of the opposition. We try to be very fast to the ball, and switch to the offensive. It is a little bit similar to Tottenham.”
The Pozzo family do not mind appointing coaches with no experience of English football, as neither Mazzarri nor his predecessor Quique Sanchez Flores had worked in England before. They want a manager who has proven himself in a top league, as Schmidt has in the Bundesliga, and who can be seen as an upgrade on the man he is replacing.
Watford have already targeted Hull's Silva this month, as he has a break clause in his contract triggered by the side's relegation. But he is more interested in either Southampton or FC Porto, both of whom have been in touch. Leonid Slutsky is another candidate for the Watford job although he is thought to be more keen on managing the Hornets than they are on appointing him, at least for now.
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