Oscar Garcia admits preparation for his first game as Watford’s head coach has not been ideal but does not plan to make dramatic changes to the way the Hornets were playing under his predecessor Beppe Sannino.

Oscar was appointed on Tuesday, September 2, following Sannino’s resignation two days previously, but there was no game at the weekend due to the international break.

The Spaniard addressed a large proportion of his squad last week and took the team for a friendly match with Hemel Hempstead on the Thursday.

However, ten first-team players have been away on international duty and returned at different times this week.

The 41-year-old has spoken to most of the players at the club’s London Colney training ground over the last week but yesterday (Thursday) was the first time he had the whole squad together.

Oscar admitted: “It hasn’t been the best week to work with the team because we did not have all of the squad due to nine or ten players being away on international duty but we tried to do our best with the players we had.”

Garcia is a product of the Barcelona academy and worked for the club as a player and a coach. His Brighton & Hove Albion side from last season were renowned for their possession-based football.

But the former Valencia man stated he does not expect there to be noticeable differences to the way the Golden Boys play at Charlton Athletic tomorrow (Saturday).

Watford go into the match at The Valley in second position in the Championship after four wins from their five games so far.

And Oscar said: “I don’t want to change a lot of things because at the moment the team are going in a good way. [But] you can always improve.”

He added: “We will look to make changes slowly because we do not want to give the players too much information too close to a game and we need to be prepared and focused on the game.”

Watford sold-out their 3,200 away allocation at Charlton and Oscar said: “We know we will have great support and I am looking forward to seeing all the fans there.”

“The first game with a new club is always amazing and special,” he continued.

“I would have prefered to play at home but I will be happy when I see 3,000 of our fans at Charlton.”

“I am really looking forward to Saturday’s game, to improve the team and the players, and it will be an amazing season for us,” Oscar said.

Watford will be without Gianni Munari after he went off with a hamstring injury in the last match against Huddersfield Town two weeks ago.

Fernando Forestieri is a doubt due to a hamstring problem and young strikers Bernard Mensah and Uche Ikpeazu are still recovering from long-term injuries.

Oscar said some of the international players will not be fit enough to start, adding: “We need to see how fit the players are, how they are playing and who the opposition are [when selecting the starting XI]. We need to consider all these things before picking our team.”

Charlton are sixth in the table and are unbeaten in the league this season after five Championship games, winning two of those.