Building a team

When I was approached about the possibility of coming to Watford, I immediately felt a special connection.

I knew what the club represented, their history and the loyalty of their fans. And when it comes to English football, there is no doubt about it – today it is the best in the world. The best players and coaches are there. All in all, it is a stage I really wanted to be a part of. When you become a coach, you dream about it.

My managerial career started in 2017, as a player-manager. It is a dual role that is well known in English football, but not so much in other countries. I was ready to end my playing days, but despite having a modest career I didn’t want to leave it at that. The board at my club in Uruguay, Montevideo City Torque, made me a proposal: “Do you want to be in charge of the team as player-manager for the last four games of the season?”

I agreed, but it didn’t turn out to be four games – in the end, it was just the one. That was because, in the first match, I made the most important substitution of my life. I took myself off with 10 minutes to go, and we equalised right at the end. I never played again.

Why didn’t I play again? Honestly, I don’t think being a player-manager works. Among many things, it is impossible to meet all the demands of being a head coach while also having to worry about playing. You have to do one or the other. That is why I accepted the job to manage Montevideo City Torque, although I soon realised that it would be the most difficult decision of my career.

“I knew I couldn’t afford to fail”

After the end of the season, I had to make some very tough decisions before starting the next one. I let go of 14 teammates. These were people I’d had barbecues with, and we’d shared good times and bad. Suddenly I had to tell them that I wasn’t counting on them. I went to each of them personally to deliver the news. I wanted them to hear it from me, along with my reasoning. Some understood, others didn’t. But at that time, I was not judging them as people, even if separating the personal from the professional is very hard. Put simply, their style didn’t fit with what I wanted to build.

I believe I handled it with the utmost respect, with the help of an experienced coaching staff that I put together on day one. I knew I couldn’t afford to fail, so I studied what could hinder me as a young coach. The mistake would have been to think that, just because I was a player, I already knew everything. So I surrounded myself with qualified people who had a very clear vision.

We achieved our objective in my first year as coach, to go up to Uruguay’s top division, the Primera División, playing good football. The board of directors had set a plan for promotion in two or three years – it was more of a longer-term project. We achieved it in the first year, with games to spare.

After that experience and the group management work I did at Montevideo City Torque, I had the opportunity to manage Liverpool Fútbol Club – also in Uruguay. I kept some players who were considered ‘difficult’ – even after a warning from the president, who told me it could be a tough dressing room. But I was confident in my ability to manage it, and wanted to take on the challenge.

The two years I spent working at Liverpool were incredible. We led the club to victory in the Torneo Intermedio, a mid-season tournament held between the two stages of the Uruguayan Primera División. It was an unprecedented achievement in the club’s history. We also changed the whole structure of the youth academy and radically transformed the identity of the team. That was priceless. It wasn’t just about winning, but also how we did it.

That is what I sought to achieve with Pachuca when I joined the club in 2020. The Mexican league is really demanding, and I was out of my comfort zone. It was the first time I’d left home as a coach. Sure, I’d done it before as a player, having been to China and Spain, but being a coach is a whole different thing. You know that if the results don’t go your way, you’re gone. That’s how it is, even if you’ve got a contract.

“For me it was not enough to win promotion”

Pachuca was a team with real pedigree. From day one, our goal was to impose our playing style and work intensely on tactics. It was a big challenge, with a strong focus on player development. We boosted young talents like Kevin Álvarez, Chiquito Sánchez, Luis Chávez and Roberto de la Rosa. That was our hallmark: developing young players and generating revenue through a good transfer policy. Results-wise, we did really well, too. We made it to the playoffs in two different seasons to compete for the championship.

What I experienced afterwards at Cruzeiro was completely different from my time at Pachuca. In Brazil, you play nearly 70 matches a year, so there isn’t much time to focus on grassroots – a lot more is about the day-to-day. It also demands a more flexible coaching methodology; less time on the pitch, more video analysis and low-intensity tactical reviews before each game. The relationship with the players is also different because the squads are very large. You are managing more than 30 players.

Playing that many games in such a short time – sometimes 15 matches in two months – means you have to rotate your squad if you want to hit your target in a competitive and high-pressure setting. Cruzeiro had been in the second division for two years, so going up wasn’t just a goal. It was a must. We are talking about one of Brazil’s biggest fanbases – 10 million supporters and 60,000 people in the stands every game.

For me it was not enough to win promotion, though. We wanted to impose a model of play that many thought impossible in that league. High-intensity, dominant football, even on waterlogged pitches, as is common in Brazil’s second division, where they play in areas where it rains a lot. We broke all barriers, securing promotion six games before the end of the championship – a record early promotion in the history of Brazil’s most challenging division, featuring clubs like Grêmio, Bahia, Vasco da Gama and Chapecoense.

The logical step would have been to stay at Cruzeiro and enjoy the experience of managing a giant in the top division. However, I am a coach who makes decisions with my head as well as my heart. After promotion, there were internal changes and we knew it wouldn’t be easy. So I informed the club that I wouldn’t continue, but I did so with the utmost respect for the management and the fans. That is why I decided that I would stay until the end of the Campeonato Mineiro – the state championship. That gave the club enough time to find a new coach without rushing.

The situation was urgent at Real Valladolid, however, when Fran Sánchez, the club’s sporting director, called me. I had met him two months previously when he visited Cruzeiro to see how we worked. He liked our methodology and thought of me when the head-coach position became vacant at Valladolid. Ronaldo Nazário, owner of Real Valladolid, also supported the decision. I’d had offers from Mexico, Brazil, the Middle East and South America, but when a European club calls you, with an owner and director who have confidence in you, you can’t say no.

“We did what we could, not what we wanted”

The proposal was two years, no matter what happened. When I arrived at Valladolid, roughly midway through the 2022/23 season, the team wasn’t in the relegation zone, but the schedule was extremely tough. The internal situation was also very complicated and the dressing room was down. The target was to reach between 39 and 41 points to achieve safety. We managed to get 40. In most cases, 40 points is enough to avoid relegation in La Liga, but this time it wasn’t. We played good matches but didn’t win the crucial head-to-head battles to stay up. That made all the difference.

I knew the 2023/24 season would be very challenging after relegation. Financially, the club was hit hard. That meant we didn’t have one of the strongest squads in the Segunda División. From the outside, Valladolid looks like it should be a powerhouse due to its history, but the reality was very different. Still, I stayed. It was a long, tough year, but an amazing one in which we achieved promotion with two games to spare.

Just like Cruzeiro, once promotion was achieved, things weren’t easy. A significant financial penalty impacted our planning, which meant we couldn’t bring in some of the key signings we had in mind. In the end, we did what we could, not what we wanted. And that makes a difference when you’re competing at the highest level. The model had to be adjusted.

Nevertheless, the team made a good start to the 2024/25 season, back in the top flight. We performed well in some matches, even if results didn’t go our way. Honestly, I think we lost points that we should have taken. The summer transfer window was due to close and we hadn’t made the expected reinforcements to our squad. Then Enzo Boyomo left for Osasuna. His departure affected us a lot, because of what he contributed and what he got out of his teammates. It was a forced sale due to the economic context, but it weakened the team. From then on, everything got more difficult. In December 2024, after a series of bad results, we had to leave the club.

Without coaching to fill my days, I used the next six months to travel to England. First, to professionalise my English, taking private lessons with my friend John, an excellent teacher based in Manchester. I spent about 15 days there each month. I also watched many Premier League and Championship matches, attended training sessions and games, and travelled to London, Manchester and nearby cities.

At the same time, I reconnected with people from the City Football Group (CFG), owners of Montevideo City Torque, where I had started my career. Thanks to CFG’s Joan Patsy, I attended Pep Guardiola’s training sessions, sharing meals and unique moments with Pep. It was a privilege and an enormous learning experience. For me, he is the best coach in history. Beyond the results, I have never seen a team as dominant as his Barcelona side.

“As a coach you manage everything – players, egos, emotions, decisions”

My playing model is based on one thing: players who give 100 per cent. Then you adapt the idea to the players you have. It doesn’t matter if you can apply your model 100 per cent or 50 per cent, but that there is an identity and it is all part of the daily work. The game comes late if you didn’t build it before. By that, I mean that you have to do a lot of work beforehand – what to do with and without the ball, being intense, being united. The teams that go up are the ones that play as a unit. That is the basis.

Nowadays, I enjoy watching Luis Enrique’s PSG. They are a solid, admirable team – more of a team than ever. When you get a group with a clear idea, that believes in it and feels comfortable, everything falls into place. That is how you build a real team.

I began with a positional style of play at Montevideo City Torque and took it to Liverpool with some successful variations. At Pachuca we played more vertically because Mexican football is direct. There, the wingers are fast and disruptive. We developed set build-ups, starting from the goalkeeper, that were very effective. In Brazil, with Cruzeiro, we went back to a high block, with positional play and rest defence. It worked. In Spain, however, it was different. We had no speed at the back, so we couldn’t take risks. We looked for a mix, with less possession but quick play on the flanks. In other words, we adapted the model without losing the essence.

But the most important thing is that this is shown on the pitch and within the group. I have always believed in negotiating, convincing, making everyone believe that this is the way forward. That is true management. Since my early 20s I have read a lot of business books. Learning helped me, because as a coach you manage everything – players, egos, emotions, decisions. It is like they are your children. Knowing when to challenge and when to embrace. I love the tactical side, but I also enjoy managing the squad, the dressing room and the staff. You have to motivate everyone, because without good management, no style of play can hold up.

For me, management is 99 per cent of a coach’s role.