Watford are set to sign Chilean centre-back Francisco Sierralta on loan from Udinese for the season (a penny for Ian Holloway’s thoughts). On the face of it, it looks like a classic Gino Pozzo move of he’ll do, but I prefer to have a more positive outlook on it. Whilst Sierralta doesn’t exactly standout when you look at his career trajectory or the fact he’s 23 and hasn’t made more than 53 senior starts in his career; there is some promise when you look at his skill set. Vladimir Ivić whilst at PAOK and Maccabi Tel-Aviv most of the time played it out from the back – something Sierralta is comfortable doing with his 92% pass completion. He’s not afraid to carry the ball forward and spray passes to wide areas. Ivić is also known to sit on 1-0 leads and take control of games – whilst forcing his opponents to cross the ball, which again the Chilean is more than capable at dealing with, with his 6’4 stature and 68% aerials won.
Sierralta has also played at right back and as a #6 – but the less said about that the better. Whilst he’s not the slowest defender, given his build – his recovery speed isn’t the best and at times can get caught for being too aggressive, which is odd considering he’s more of a calm centre back when approaching duels. So much so Parma head coach Roberto D’Aversa singled out his performance against Torino by completely taking Alex Berenguer out of the game through being conservative and “showing his skill in the passing game – it was essential.” In that game, he was deployed on the right hand side of a back three. He doesn’t have the cleanest technique – but as you can see, he offers something none of our other centre backs do (bar Wilmot) in the possession game.
Being 6’4 and physically imposing, you’re obviously going to be a threat on set pieces and capable of dealing with big target men. What I have noticed is that Sierralta has his own unique heading technique in where instead of heading the ball high into the air – he actually try’s to turn it into a pass quite frequently. It’s a sort of headed down with legs forward giving the ball spin and power. The odd thing about it is he doesn’t do it when attacking set pieces. Watford have lacked that dominant centre half for a while now, and whilst I’m not sure about whether Sierralta can be THAT man for us – he certainly has the attributes to be. A player that’s played for the Chilean national team in the last year next to Gonzalo Maripan is no slouch. Udinese still have high hopes for him, but a serious knee injury held him back in his development. At Empoli and Parma he’s shown glimpses of what he can be, but I’d argue Italian football just isn’t suited to his style of defending. Italy is a slower pace, more tactile and less aggressive. Whereas in England; being good on the ball, and quite big can get you so far – just look at Harry Maguire.
To conclude – is Sierrelta good enough for Championship football? Definitely. Is he better than what we have? That remains to be seen. The underlying numbers, the glimpse are certainly encouraging. As is it seems Gino Pozzo has selected a player that fits what the head coach prefers to have in his team. Given Sierrelta landed in England, and is also staying at Sopwell House as of yesterday morning, it’s important to get these players integrated into the squad quickly given the season is just around the corner.
Watford FC 
Excellent and clearly well researched article.
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