Friday 9 September 2016 17:42, UK
Watford boss Walter Mazzarri feels he now has a “complete squad” which is capable of holding its own in the Premier League.
The Italian replaced Quique Sanchez Flores over the summer and the club have been busy in the transfer market with the likes of Roberto Pereyra, Isaac Success and Daryl Janmaat, among others, all moving to Vicarage Road.
With plenty of new additions, Mazzarri is confident his side can soon start to move up the league table, having failed to win any of their opening three league games ahead of Saturday's trip to West Ham.
"We can say that from this week the job that I perform can be judged. I like to work with a group that I chose myself, and I'm very happy with this one," Mazzarri said.
"I am very happy, because now we have the complete squad. Now we know exactly what the group is, who makes part of the group. It feels like everything has started now, the training that I want and the group that I want.
"Perhaps we are still delayed one or two weeks of preparation, but now I know we are very competitive and hopefully starting from tomorrow we will start to do a great competition."
Mazzarri also said he was happy that striker Odion Ighalo did not leave the club during the transfer window, despite being the subject of a £37.5m bid from Chinese club Shanghai SIPG.
"The club decides on the transfer market. I am not the one deciding on if a player stays or not. I decide on the team I have, but I am very happy that Ighalo stayed with us.
"Of course, we're all happy that Ighalo decided to stay here and we are all happy that Ighalo is still here because he's an extremely important player for the team."
Watford travel to face West Ham at London Stadium on Saturday where Dimitri Payet is expected to start for the home side and Mazzarri says he is aware of the threat he and compatriot Simone Zaza pose.
Zaza joined the Hammers on loan in August, with a view to a permanent move, after he appeared for Italy at Euro 2016 and Mazzarri says he and Payet are just two of a number of dangerous players they can expect to encounter at London Stadium.
"Zaza, we know him very well. He's a very, very good player," Mazzarri said in his pre-match news conference on Friday. "We would have preferred if he would have arrived later at West Ham. But we know Zaza, we know West Ham.
"They have extremely good players. Another one is Payet. But we are very positive on what we're doing. We are very happy with our job. Yes, they haven't got only Zaza. They have very good players, West Ham."
Mazzarri said there were still a few tests to run on some players to assess their fitness on Friday after they arrived back from international duty during the week, including new £7m signing Daryl Janmaat.
"It's not easy because we need to verify the condition of the players that came back on Wednesday," he said.
"One of them is Janmaat another is [Valon] Behrami, but all of them mainly. Yesterday [we ran some tests], but also today I'm going to do the last test to verify the condition of the players."
