Flores hopes Watford learn lessons from disappointing defeat

Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores hopes his players learn lessons from their “disappointing” 2-1 home defeat to Stoke City.

Jonathan Walters put Stoke in front after just 18 minutes at Vicarage Road and Joselu doubled the visitors’ lead shortly after half-time with a fine lob over goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Troy Deeney’s header with five minutes to go sparked late Watford pressure but the hosts could not find an equaliser and they have now only won twice in 13 Premier League matches.

“We are not happy with the performance of the team,” Flores told Sky Sports. “We talked at half-time about what we had to change because we had a lot of problems with Stoke City. They worked very hard since the beginning, from the first play.

“The reality is that if we don’t play in a high level it is difficult for us in the Premier League, so we know that. Of course, we want to take a lesson from today and try to improve for the next time.

“I think they had more intensity, more energy, more velocity and more focus in the match than our team. At the moment we are not able to complete our plan.”

He continued: “Stoke City played very well, very fast in the first half and didn’t stop. We didn’t play like a team in the first half and the second goal changes everything.

“We didn’t play good, to create a lot of chances. Maybe in the last 20 minutes we played better, but we are not happy with the match. We started really slowly, we did not concentrate completely like our team would normally play.”

FA Cup semi-finalists Watford have slipped to 14th place due to their poor form but they still have a 12-point cushion to the bottom three and Flores insists he is not concerned about relegation.

“We are not worried with the future of the team in the Premier League but of course we want to win four points as quick as possible,” he said. 

“We are a little bit disappointed with this kind of performance and we know that for the first 45 minutes this is not our team. The way we played was not in the way we planned.”