Valérien Ismaël shared his thoughts following Watford’s entertaining 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion, as goals from Tom Ince and Matheus Martins earned a share of the spoils at Vicarage Road.
Covering a range of topics, including familiar mistakes, the key to finding the team’s top form and Ismaël Koné’s display, read what the Head Coach had to say below…
On whether he felt a point was fair:
Not really, because I think we started the game well - like we expected – and we should have kicked on and won the game. I think we were especially strong in the first half, we scored the early goal but we were unable to keep the opponent out. I think we did a lot of good things and created a lot of chances, but if we want to be a top, top side we have to cut out the mistakes and be more ruthless.
On what’s key to taking the next step:
It’s the same picture as what we’ve seen before - we made our own mistakes and gave the opponent the chance to stay in the game. They were very clinical – they had two quick chances and scored two goals. Up front, we know we create a lot of chances, but at the minute we’re taking too many chances to score goals.
It’s a process, and when you work with young players you know that you have to be patient. On the other side we want to win games, and tonight was a home game where we wanted to take all three points. In the Championship you know the opponent can always come back, and I think today we could have avoided West Brom getting a point.
We need this block up until the next international break to get up to our top level. The first thing we need to do is get all the players on the same level of fitness. At the minute the likes of Jamal Lewis, Jeremy Ngakia and Tom Ince are not able to play 90 minutes, and we have a couple of players out too who won’t be fully fit when they’re back. We need to get all the players back to the same level, and then things look different. There’s no excuses though – it’s part of the process to deal with every situation.
On Ismaël Koné:
It’s important for him to step up. We know all about Ismaël’s quality, and until tonight he’d trained well but hadn’t been consistent in his performances. He plays in a position where we have a lot of quality, and all the players know exactly how they have to perform. Tonight I think he did really well.
On Matheus Martins:
He’s still a young player, so it’s about consistency now. At the minute he’s scoring goals, he has a great attitude and we are pleased.
On Tom Ince:
I’m really pleased for him because he was out injured for a long time and he’s worked really hard since he’s been at the club. The goal will give him a lot of confidence, and it adds to the assist he got at Coventry.
On Ryan Porteous’ withdrawal:
I don’t know [how bad his knock is]. I heard Scottish guys are normally strong, so we will see tomorrow and assess the situation. He came back very tired from the international break last week, so we will see.
