Ivić: “My Players Must Show They Want To Win”

Watford may be facing their toughest fixture yet according to Vladimir Ivić as the Hornets travel to a first-placed Reading team which boasts three Championship wins from three so far.

A home win against Barnsley sandwiched between successful trips to Derby County and Cardiff City have got the Royals off to a flying start, but Ivić thinks his players can be victorious at the Madejski Stadium as long as they want it more than the hosts.

“Reading is the first team in the Championship and we respect what they’ve done until now,” said the Head Coach.

“They have a lot of good players, a good team and a good coach and it will be very difficult, maybe the most difficult game we’ve had so far. Our target is the same as every time, we will go to play the game and fight for the three points, this is our target.

“We need to think about our game, about ourselves, how we’ll be in this game and what we want to do with the ball and without the ball. My players must be ready, they must be hungry and show they want to win more than the other team.”

Three league games into his Watford career, Ivić has not been surprised with what he’s seen from Championship football and wants to prepare his players to deal with the physical nature of the league.

“You have a lot of teams with similar quality, and similar style of the game. The systems are not very different. There is a lot of direct football, fighting for the second ball and duels,” he said.

“This is something I knew before I came here, but now in this short period of two months, three games in the Championship, I know you need to be ready for these types of games, and ready to ask from your players something different if you want to do something different.”

Ivić and his players have coped well so far, picking up seven points and keeping three clean sheets, but he knows there is room for improvement as only two goals have gone in at the other end.

“We can improve for sure,” he continued. “We haven’t conceded a goal yet and that’s positive. We work like a team. The mentality of the group is good, and this has been very important.

“It’s not easy when a team has been relegated and in the beginning you only have 10 or 11 players. My job is to do my best with the players who want to be here, want to fight and want to do their best.

“A lot of these players have helped me to create one atmosphere, one group, to work all together day by day and practice our game. These guys have been positive and worked 100 per cent and want to win every game, and this is very important to me.”