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Quique Sanchez Flores interview: Watford challenge and Manchester City 'knockout'

Watch Watford vs Chelsea live on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday; Kick-off 5.30pm

Quique Sanchez Flores took over from Javi Gracia in September

Ahead of Watford's clash with Chelsea on Saturday, Quique Sanchez Flores tells Sky Sports about a tough start to his second spell at Vicarage Road, why the 8-0 loss to Manchester City was like being lost at sea and why, in spite of it all, he is optimistic about transforming their fortunes.

These are not easy times for Watford, bottom of the Premier League table and without a win in 10 games this season, but on a crisp, bright afternoon at their Hertfordshire training ground, Quique Sanchez Flores, the man tasked with turning it all around, is showing no signs of stress.

The Spaniard, impeccably groomed and stylishly dressed, as ever, spends an hour fulfilling media duties ahead of Saturday's clash with Chelsea, even pausing midway through to pose for photographs with a group of visiting fans. He is amenable, easy-going and generous with his time.

It's clear that he feels at home again here, three years on from his first spell in charge, during which he steered Watford to a 13th-placed finish in their first season back in the Premier League, but while the surroundings are familiar, the job is an altogether more difficult one this time around.

"Tough," is the word he uses to sum up his first two months in charge as he settles back into his seat in the club's media room. "It has been a lot of work, trying to get everybody together, to make sure the boys understand our predicament and the difficulties that can affect a team in this kind of situation, and to give them confidence and find solutions to problems."

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The search for those solutions is ongoing.

Flores inherited a side low on confidence as well as points when he took over from Javi Gracia in September and while there have been signs of improvement, there has been no immediate upturn in results. His only win has come against Swansea in the Carabao Cup, a competition Watford exited with Tuesday's 2-0 loss to Everton.

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A relegation battle is new territory for Flores, a former Real Madrid defender who has managed Valencia and won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid, but he is up for the challenge and he rejects any suggestion that he has taken on a more difficult job than he anticipated.

"When we assessed the situation before we came, we knew that the first games were going to be against Arsenal and Manchester City, so we knew there wasn't much margin for immediate improvement. We knew those games would be very demanding, but we also saw them as a good way of assessing the team and getting to know the squad."

Ben Foster
Image: Ben Foster is dejected during Watford's 8-0 loss to Manchester City

The squad has undergone huge changes since Flores was last here - only six players remain from his first spell - and while they were able to fight back from two goals down to draw with Arsenal in his first game, the humbling 8-0 loss to City in his second, in which Watford shipped five goals in the opening 20 minutes, laid bare the scale of the task ahead.

"It was unexpected," he says. "I had never experienced anything like that before but what I could see is that it was like the players were knocked out. That was my feeling. It was a very early and very quick knockout. It was like the players were outside of their bodies, not totally aware of what was happening to them and unable to come to terms with it.

"It was like being in the middle of the sea, in the middle of nothing, isolated and lost. That was how it felt. In those first 20 minutes, it was just blow after blow after blow. I couldn't even react because there wasn't any time to. It felt like a total knockout. We just had to wait for the storm to pass."

The result underlined to Flores just how much, in the space of only three years, the quality of the Premier League has increased.

"This club has changed a lot internally, in terms of its structure and the infrastructure we have around the squad," he says. "The training ground has improved a lot. The facilities for the players have improved and obviously the quality of the squad is higher as well.

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Quique Sanchez Flores discusses Watford's search for a goalscoring solution

"But when we talk about the quality of our squad, we have to talk about the quality of the rest of the Premier League, because the other teams have improved as well - not only Watford. The quality is very high. All the teams are well organised and well coached and that makes it tougher as well."

Fortunately, in the wake of that humbling afternoon at the Etihad Stadium, Watford have begun to look like a more organised proposition too. They are still winless in the Premier League, of course, but they have kept more clean sheets in the last four games than in the previous 19 and Flores believes their mindset is changing.

"Football is a constant lesson, not just the City game," he says. "But it was important to see how we reacted after an experience like that. Three weeks later, we had a game against Tottenham, who have a similar level to City, a similar approach and similar players, and afterwards in the dressing room we were angry because we had drawn and not won. That shows the evolution of the group. It shows how things are changing."

Oliver McBurnie of Sheffield United battles for possession with Etienne Capoue of Watford
Image: Watford have only taken five points from 10 games this season

The priority for Flores, as agreed with Watford's owner Gino Pozzo when he took the job, has been to tighten up their defence and make them as awkward to play against as they were for so much of his 2015/16 season in charge, when they conceded the same number of goals as Liverpool.

"I want to see something similar to what we had four years ago," he says. "I want to see a team which is committed, a team which is clear about how it plays, a team which our opponents do not look forward to playing against. I want a team that makes good decisions and repeats good habits."

Watford's continued attacking bluntness has been a source of frustration for fans, some of whom grew tired of what they perceived to be conservative tactics during Flores' first spell, but he believes the goals will come once the belief returns. Until then, he says, what's important is to have solid foundations in place at the other end of the pitch.

"The most important thing is to find defensive balance, and we have to work on that constantly. We can't just do it for a few days and then think it's done. I don't think we are a team at the moment which is confident enough to be able to score two or three goals to win games every Sunday.

I want to see a team which is committed, a team which is clear about how it plays, a team which our opponents do not look forward to playing against.
Quique Sanchez Flores

"We are in a situation where we might score one goal - maybe two - so the key is to work a lot defensively in order to not concede. Of course we are also working on the offensive side, but with the understanding that the creative side of the game depends more on the players themselves.

"We can make suggestions, we can try to create scoring situations for them, but it's down to the players to relax themselves and try to make better decisions in the offensive zones. Because recently we have created a lot of openings, but then made the wrong decisions."

Troy Deeney has been ruled out for "several weeks"
Image: Troy Deeney is due to return after the next international break

Troy Deeney's impending return to fitness should help, and while Watford have lost Danny Welbeck to a long-term injury, they will at least be boosted in January by the arrival of Brazilian striker Joao Pedro, who has been granted a work permit for his move from Fluminese. He is unlikely to be the only arrival either, with Flores admitting he is already holding meetings with the Watford hierarchy to discuss transfer plans.

He is approaching it all with optimism and he has enjoyed slotting back into London life too having spent time in charge of Espanyol in Spain and Shaghai Shenhua in China in the intervening years.

Flores is still holed up in a hotel for now - he moves into his own place next week - and while an Achilles injury suffered while playing football with his sons in January means he is not yet able to resume his favourite pastime of jogging around Hampstead Heath just yet - "ten minutes is my limit at the moment," he says with a chuckle - he has plenty more to distract him from the pressures of a job which can feel all-consuming at times.

"I always work a lot of hours, spending all day at the training ground from 8am and then going over things again at the hotel, but it's important not to over-think things. I am a believer in focusing on what you can control. My injury means I can't do much physical stuff but I have a lot of hobbies. I read, I play music, I watch films, I watch Netflix, I love other sports and I love London."

Watford's plight is such that he may need those distractions in the months ahead, but as he prepares to head back to his office to continue his preparations for Saturday's game against Chelsea, he gives off no sense that he is worried about what the future holds. "This is a new challenge for me, a difficult challenge," he says with a smile, "but I am optimistic."

Watch Watford vs Chelsea live on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday; Kick-off 5.30pm

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