Familiar surroundings await Claudio Ranieri and his Watford side this weekend, as they travel to Leicester City in the FA Cup, their second game at the King Power Stadium in two months.
The Hornets enter the competition at the third round stage looking to exact revenge for a 4-2 Premier League defeat in November. While former finalist Ranieri believes in the prestige of the world’s oldest cup, he wishes to preserve some of his players and give gametime to other members of the squad.
Emmanuel Dennis, who picked up a knock against Tottenham last week, is likely to miss out on the game against the Foxes, but will train next week ahead of three games in six days.
“Emmanuel took a kick in the match against Tottenham and I prefer to preserve him for the next matches. It is not too serious,” said former Leicester Manager Ranieri.
“I preserve him, he will start to train with us all week and he will be ready.
“The FA Cup is important, I reached the final with Chelsea, I won the Italian Cup and the Spanish Cup. Of course, I would like to win the FA Cup but now for us it is important to preserve some players for the next matches.
“I’m sure there will be some players who are not used to playing, they will have an opportunity to show their quality and to be part of the Watford squad.”
There may be opportunities for players from Omer Riza’s Under-23 squad. The likes of Vincent Angelini, James Morris and Kamil Conteh have all been on the bench in the Premier League this season and could get time on the pitch to impress the Head Coach.
“Kamil [Conteh] is a very good young player, and also Morris. Morris will play, and Kamil maybe,” he said.
Two players who also may feature are new signings Hassane Kamara and Samir, who sealed switches to Vicarage Road this week. The Italian spoke about the quality brought to the squad by the two new arrivals, and he will assess them ahead of the trip to Leicester.
“I speak every day with the board, we know it is very important to improve our squad,” Ranieri explained.
“I know they have fantastic recruitment and when they told me about these players I watched them and said ‘yes, very good’, I agree with the board.
“I will speak with them [the new signings] because during Christmas they didn’t train. They are involved with the team [in training], and after that I will decide.
“They are experienced players, left-footed and I believe their personality will improve all of the team.”
