Valérien Ismaël shared his thoughts following Watford’s 0-0 draw at home to Plymouth Argyle, as the Hornets extended their unbeaten start to the 2023/24 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Covering a range of topics, including the Hornets’ overall performance and individual displays, read what the Head Coach had to say below…
On the positive takeaways:
We are really pleased with the overall performance today, and I think it was another sign that we are moving in the right direction. We spoke before kick-off about putting in the right performance and showing the right mentality and attitude, and that’s what we saw. We were just not ruthless enough, and we made a few too many mistakes.
Why the mistakes? I think it’s mostly about fatigue. This was our third game in the first week, after seven weeks of intense pre-season training. We haven’t rotated a lot, so there is a lot of tiredness, but I told the guys that I’m really pleased with all of their attitudes. You can’t win every game, but at least we know we tried everything again today.
For sure we want to win games - I play to win - but I know that things aren’t always straightforward in football. If you don’t score and you make mistakes you have to accept a 0-0, and we’re obviously happy to have kept a clean sheet.
On missed chances:
We should have been ahead at half-time, but we were not clinical enough. Again I think that’s partly down to tiredness - we haven’t rotated a lot and maybe we lacked sharpness. We created a lot of chances which was good, we just didn’t finish them off.
[Vakoun] Bayo is disappointed to have missed some chances, but it’s important he keeps believing in himself and keeps going because he’s doing a lot of good things. He worked hard for the team, he tried everything today and he was tired after another 90 minutes. We’ll keep helping him with that fitness and rhythm, and he will keep improving.
On Plymouth:
We made mistakes, and the longer that goes on the opponents maybe start to believe they can get more than one point out of the game. I think at half-time we were in control, and if you’d have asked the opponent then they would have been happy with a point. At some points later in the second half there were chances at both ends, so if either team scored that could have been the winner. They played well and are a good side, but we knew that all along.
On Daniel Bachmann:
It’s been a difficult week for Dan - he didn’t train for four days because of his knee, and only came back to full training yesterday, so he was out of the rhythm. Dan is an amazing keeper who can make the difference in games. Now we’re trying to add something else to his game, but of course we have told him that his first job is to stop the ball going into the net.
As long as Dan keeps trying to do the right things I’ll be happy. That’s my expectation, and if he makes mistakes because he’s trying to do the right thing then that’s on me. We’re working very closely with our goalkeepers and the coaches and you’ll continue seeing Dan and Ben [Hamer] doing these things, because that’s the style we’re asking for.
I’ve said to all of the players to be brave with the ball, and not to worry about making mistakes. If they make mistakes doing the right things I have to accept responsibility. I try to take pressure off the players - I want them to play in that certain way because it plays such a key part in allowing us to take control of games.
On the quadruple substitution:
I felt that at the end of the first half the energy levels had decreased, especially in our press. At some points the opponent had the possibility to play more, especially at the start of the second half, and we wanted to keep the intensity high and bring freshness back in key areas. I’ve done it before in the Championship so I know the kind of impact it can have, and how the crowd can lift tired players. I thought the players who came on did a really good job.
On Yáser Asprilla:
I thought Yáser had a really good game when he came on. During the week he gave us a good feeling that he’s recovered from the Under-20 World Cup - he came back later than most of the other players and now he’s in great shape. It was important for him to show up today and show he’s on the same level as the other players, and I thought he had a big impact.
On Wesley Hoedt and Ryan Porteous:
Both of our centre-backs put in great performances today. We’ve got quality both out of possession and in possession, and we showed we’re comfortable keeping the ball and then playing it. Everyone across the pitch is important in our system - we attack together, we defend together and we stick to the task together.
