Javi Gracia happy for opportunity to give fringe players a run-out
Posted Thursday, August 30, 2018 by PA
Watford head coach Javi Gracia expressed his delight at being able to give his fringe players game time in the comfortable 2-0 victory at Championship Reading in the Carabao Cup second round.
A goal in each half was enough for a much-changed Hornets outfit – Gracia made 11 changes – to cruise past a poor Reading side.
Isaac Success opened the scoring from close range in the 36th minute, with Domingos Quina securing the win with a 30-yard piledriver just past the hour mark.
“We have good news with the result, which we enjoyed with players who don’t usually play in the Premier League,” Gracia said.
“Tonight they had the chance to enjoy the minutes and I’m very happy for all of them.
“The players tonight didn’t have to show me anything different than they usually do on the training ground.
“They impress in all training sessions, they are very good professionals.
“The only change today is that they have the opportunity to play.
“It is very good for the group to keep playing in this competition and to enjoy more minutes in it.
“Now we have Tottenham on Sunday. It will be a difficult situation for me.
“With the players, I will try to pick the best options for that game.
“But I know that my decisions will be not fair with some players because I can only pick 18.”
Reading manager Paul Clement was unhappy with his team’s limp display.
“Watford deserved the victory,” Clement said. “They played better than us.
“I’m disappointed with my team because I think that we’re capable of playing better than that.
“I’m disappointed that the game wasn’t tighter and that we weren’t in it for longer.
“We made a lot of mistakes tonight, especially a lot of technical errors when we would expect the players to be doing much better in some of the more simple aspects of the game.
“The basics, the fundamentals, like passing and control. That let us down a lot.
“A lot of those errors were unforced errors. You’d be expecting the players to be doing better there, it’s frustrating.
“But if you’ve got five or six players who are not on form, it’s always going to be difficult.
“The margins of our defeats this season have been fine, very tight. We’ve not been battered by anyone.
“We’re not damaged goods and we’re not far away from getting some good results.”
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