Walter Mazzarri says any team would struggle with Watford's injury list
Sunday 1 January 2017 17:31, UK
Watford manager Walter Mazzarri blamed his side's crippling injury list for their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur at Vicarage Road on Sunday afternoon.
The Hornets went into the clash missing as many as 10 players, with the visitors taking full advantage as they ran out comfortable winners, with both Harry Kane and Dele Alli scoring twice.
"I am concerned, but you have to understand we are missing 10 players, including five from our starting XI," said Mazzarri, who also lost Juan Zuniga to an injury in the warm-up.
"So any team would struggle and we need to understand and work with this.
"We also had four Under-23s with us today who had never trained with the team before, which says a lot about the current state of the our squad."
Trending
- World Darts Championship: Clemens, Lukeman in action on day five LIVE!
- Transfer Centre LIVE! 'Saudi could offer Rashford way out of Man Utd'
- The Friedkin Group complete Everton takeover
- World Darts Championship schedule: Smith in action on Thursday
- Lawson confirmed as Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate for 2025
- Five years of Arteta: Arsenal transformed but what's next?
- Usyk vs Fury 2: Start time, ring walks, undercard and odds
- Papers: Gravenberch set to stay at Liverpool amid Real Madrid links
- Nunez and Elliott strike as Liverpool battle past Southampton
- Gabriel Jesus is back! Hat-trick for Arsenal striker sinks Palace
Next up for Watford is a tricky-looking trip to Stoke City on Monday as the Hornets look to end a run of four games without a Premier League win.
"I do not know how it will go and on top of this, Stoke of course had one more day to rest, so it will not be at all easy, but we will give everything to get a result there," said the Italian.
Mazzarri was also critical of his players for some of their defending, particularly in the build-up to Spurs' fourth goal just after half-time.
"Nothing went our way, we started the game OK," he said. "But after they scored, congratulations to them, they are a great team and they managed to win, which they deserved.
"Congratulations to them as every mistake we made, we paid the highest price, especially in the first half - they had three chances and scored three times.
"Aside from hitting the crossbar, every chance they had, they managed to do something with it. So congratulations to them.
"Between the first and second halves, we said we need to do a completely different half and after not even one minute, we commit a mistake and concede a goal.
"So now we just have to start thinking about the next game."
