West Bromwich Albion boss Valerien Ismael has offered his reaction to the goalless draw with Watford on Saturday.
Valerian Ismael said: “We are really delighted with the performance. Everybody bought in to the philosophy, and I think we put the right intensity into the game, and we had the strength to continue that way. We created a lot of problems for Watford, and we won a lot of balls and created a lot of chances At the end for sure it was clear that the strength became less but after we made some changes – and this is a good thing now – that even with very young players we can change completely the team and we can keep the intensity high until the end. We had the chance to score, so I think it is another step closer to where we want to be in two weeks. It gives us a good feeling moving forward in the right direction, and I think we can see that everyone is working hard together. Everyone is committed to the way to play and it is a great feeling for us to produce such a game.”
Albion held the newly-promoted Premier League Hornets at Vicarage Road and showed glimpses of what could potentially be in store for supporters this season. Watford and West Brom both had chances to win the game, but the latter finished the game stronger. Grady Diangana, in particular, was a standout player for West Brom, who are still being moulded into their manager’s image. Ismael spoke to reporters post-match and made two key points in conversation with the written press. He was pleased that the tempo and quality of his side didn’t drop once he made the customary raft of substitutes seen in pre-season friendlies. Ismael also said that he is seeing a ‘buy-in’ from his players as he continues to put his stamp on the squad.
