Walter Mazzarri has been praised for instilling a “winning mentality” at Watford by a player who contributed greatly to the Italian’s second victory as the club’s manager – Juan Camilo Zúñiga.
Zúñiga restored Watford’s lead in their 3-1 triumph over Manchester United on Sunday, lashing a drive past David de Gea just 53 seconds after coming on as substitute with the score at 1-1 and United looking the more likely team to score next.
It proved an inspired substitution by Mazzarri and his side wrapped up all three points via Troy Deeney’s 90th-minute penalty. Watford fully deserved the win, and coming on the back of the 4-2 victory over West Ham United, has provided they and Mazzarri, who replaced Quique Sánchez Flores at Vicarage Road in May, with real momentum.
“That is the mentality from our manager, a winning mentality,” said Zúñiga. “We don’t need to look at the name on the shirts against Manchester United or Chelsea or Arsenal, we just try and do our best. That is what the manager wants, he wants a winning mentality where we go on to the pitch we don’t ever look at the name on the back of the shirt, we do our job the best we can and that is the manager’s opinion on how to play football.
“The manager has told us to be humble but play and give everything. At the training ground we do what we do on the pitch, we are humble and go game by game.”
Zúñiga played for Mazzarri at Napoli and moved from them on a season-long loan in July. The 30-year-old, who has 62 caps for Colombia and can play in either full-back position, has come on as a substitute in each of his four appearances and his hope is that he now gets a chance to feature from the start.
“When I come on I want to give everything, against Manchester United or any other team. When I go on the pitch I am professional,” he said. “It was a long time since I last scored, I can’t remember when. I had an injury before and this is the first goal after the injury. The injury was a long time ago and I’m fine now and try and help the team when I get a chance to do it.”
