Slaven Bilic: Watford not strong enough to cope with two games a week

Slaven Bilic returned to English football after spell coaching in China

Watford boss Slaven Bilic says he does not believe his squad are physically or mentally strong enough to cope with the demands of two games a week.

Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Millwall was their third in the past four matches and left them 15th in the Championship.

Former West Ham and West Brom manager Bilic was appointed last month after the sacking of Rob Edwards.

“The couple of wins we’ve had came after a week of training,” the 54-year-old told BBC Three Counties Radio.

“Every time we have a game two or three days later, we are not on the level that is required. We have to fix it as soon as possible.”

The Hornets had beaten Norwich on Saturday but Tom Bradshaw’s hat-trick in the first 33 minutes settled the issue at The Den.

“You play one good game, one great result and then bah. You want to build on that as a manager.

“We are not back to square one but [it is] one step back, which is frustrating,” said Bilic.

Watford were without a number of players because of injury and lost midfielder Imran Louza early in the game with an ankle problem.

“He is the guy, and we don’t have eight of them – he is the key player when it comes to bringing the whole team together in the final third. We don’t know how long he’s going to be [out],” Bilic added.

Watford are next in action on Sunday, when they take on Luton – who are unbeaten in seven games – at Vicarage Road.

They then have a six-day gap before their next fixture away to Wigan on 29 October.

Apart from their defensive frailty, Bilic was also unhappy with Watford’s performance going forward against Millwall.

“We didn’t create anything concrete until the last couple of minutes – at both ends, we were simply below par,” he said.

“Second half, we were in a good situation a few times but we were simply wasting them.”