Valérien Ismaël spoke to the media ahead of Watford’s Emirates FA Cup fourth-round replay away to Southampton tomorrow (February 6, 7.45pm KO), discussing the Saints, the availibility of Emmanuel Dennis, and how the squad is coping with six games in 17 days.
Read what he had to say below...
On injury updates following Saturday's game against Cardiff City:
This is actually from the weekend the best news, that nobody was injured. We are ready to go again in this relentless schedule. The good news from the squad is that [Jeremy] Ngakia trained with us this morning, and Edo Kayembe will take two or three days more, because we come back tomorrow evening, and midweek he will be back with the team. It is too short for Jeremy, but it is good to see him on the pitch.
On Emmanuel Dennis:
At the minute he is not ready, so that is why he will stay at Watford to train. We will use the week to prepare him more, he needs training sessions. We saw last game he is starting to get in the direction we want to see him, the spark starts to be back but you need training sessions, only the training can give you that.
Next week we have another three games, and we will need Dennis a lot, so that’s why we are using the week to let him work with our staff. No injuries, just to catch up.
On the desire to be more 'nasty':
There is not a training session to fix that, you can only talk with the players and show on the video clip, but it is more about the mentality and desire.
Our young players need to understand now we don’t want to be nice, when you see the goal, shoot, you don’t need to take another touch, or win an important duel to set the tone in the game.
We have to do the thing right and that’s why we need to learn again from that game to make sure we do the right thing to help us to win the game.
On the impact of Southampton making changes:
We are not playing against players, we are playing against a system, and a clear way to play. We play the third time now against them so we know them perfectly and we know exactly that the patterns are the same, the way they want to play, the areas they want to play, so for us you can play against the system, not against the players.
On playing Southampton twice already this season:
It is an advantage in preparing for the game especially when you don’t have enough time between the games to prepare, so it helps us to use our clips from the previous game, and to compare with the last few games they play, and to see if there is something different in the patterns of play. Southampton has an excellent manager with a clear way to play, a clear identity, so they won’t change overnight now for the game.
On going up against a team on a club-record unbeaten run:
I think we were really close to beating them so if any team is able to beat them, then we are the team because I think we played them twice, and we saw we were really close. We created a lot of chances against them, but now it is an away game so something different, but we know how to play against Southampton.
On the busy schedule:
We don’t want to use the schedule as an excuse for anything. We know the schedule now and we know that we will use my group of players, I have almost all the players available. Every player has started at least one game this season, so we will have the choice to pick our players.
It just means when you get tired you still make the simple decision to do the right thing, like stopping losing the ball unnecessarily because then there is another run to do at the back and an another unnecessary effort you have to do.
We have to become more mature with the ball, but we don’t want to take the schedule as an excuse.
On a potential fifth round tie at Anfield:
First we have Southampton, this is the main thing, but it is a cup game so we have a 50/50 situation. This is the beauty of the competition, everything is possible and at the end you have a reward for the players to have a game like that.
On Neil Warnock's return to management:
He is unbreakable! I think he is clearly passionate. Sometimes you become so addicted to the job. Even when I’m home and I switch off for a week I am happy, but after two or three weekends you want to be in the game.
I can imagine you cannot stop yourself from wanting to work, but it is good to have him back, it is always a pleasure to listen to him in his interviews.
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