Valérien Ismaël spoke to the media ahead of Watford’s Sky Bet Championship clash at Rotherham United tomorrow (February 17, 3pm KO).
Read what the Head Coach had to say below...
On the tough run of results:
Sometimes it is relentless, the Championship. We were unbeaten in January with a good feeling and close to the play-offs. Three weeks later we struggle to win a game.
Our focus is to make sure we do the right thing and have the right mindset for the game [with Rotherham], another tough away game. We need to do the basics right to give us the chance to compete and to stay in the game.
On searching for a complete performance:
I think it is the story at the minute from our team. I think we can see and feel the potential.
When we do the right thing and everything is right it looks really, really good. But the consistency of performace is missing, the consistency of winning, the consistency of playing a full game for 90 minutes.
It is actually what we are fighting for, to get that consistency and make sure we’re giving us a better chance to win. Norwich was a perfect example, we came back into the game at 2-2 but we dropped again. We are missing the consistency, the decision making to be more ruthless. It’s always a process with the team and on top of that the schedule is relentless and didn’t give the players the chance to recover properly.
On the threat from Rotherham:
It's another tough away game as Rotherham are fighting to survive. It is clear what we have to expect and we have to be on it, to be ready, to compete and do the basics right. We have to put us in situations to score a goal and we have to take our chances.
On team news:
[Vakoun] Bayo wll be out for two weeks. Hopefully if everything goes right he should be back for the game against Millwall.
The good news is that Jeremy Ngakia will play with the U21s tomorrow [against Notts County B], his first game since his injury so he will be closer and more ready. Ryan Porteous is suspended for 10 yellow cards but the other players are available.
On Ryan Andrews:
He’s not been injured. After every game we assess the numbers and the data. Full-back is a special position and with Ryan Andrews we saw that every game the data was going down, down, down. He was not able to push anymore so it is a sign of fatigue. It means we needed to manage him, this is his first complete season. My job is to manage the workload.
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