Vladimir Ivić is fully embracing the challenge and expectation at Vicarage Road this season and says fostering the right culture is the key to delivering success.
The Serbian has a track record of winning, delivering silverware in each of his four seasons as a coach, including back-to-back league titles in Israel where he went two seasons without losing a single match in 52 games of the regular season.
Although he acknowledges the landscape is very different in English football, particularly the Championship, Ivić is confident he is able to transfer his core coaching principles and beliefs to this assignment and remains unfazed by the pressure that comes with this job.
“The target is to come back to the Premier League,” he said, speaking in an interview that will be available to view on the club's YouTube channel soon.
“This is the target. We all need to work together to achieve this goal. It will not be easy for sure. It's not an easy job in front of us, but we will give our maximum and together with our fans, we can achieve our goal. I don't have a problem with this kind of pressure. I can handle it.”
Twenty one teams have bounced straight back to the Premier League at the first attempt, some more than once – plus Ivić has experience of reshaping a squad at Maccabi Tel Aviv, which he did to such great effect with a raft of young players and loan players.
“It's not easy to come back immediately,” he said. “There are a lot of things we need to do. We need to change the mentality and do things in a better way. The Championship is a very, very tough league and it's a long season with a lot of games. We need to have a big squad to do it.
“Discipline is most important. This is something players must have, on the pitch and outside the pitch and at the training ground. You need to create this. We need to work to create it. Without it, it's impossible to do a good job. When I say discipline, I mean we must be focused on our job, how we can be one system and the system is Watford FC. All of us have a responsibility in our job. It's not easy but day by day, if we work together, and talk a lot, we can do it. The first target is to create this.”
