Marco Silva is looking to utilise Watford's pre-season tour of Austria to drum his tactical demands into his new players.
Referring to the week-long trip as "the next step" in the Hornets' pre-season, Silva has named a 31-man strong squad to travel to the continent today, with captain Troy Deeney an notable absentee despite several other injured players travelling.
The close-knit nature of an overseas training camp should give the new Watford head coach an ideal opportunity to keep a close eye on how the Hornets players adapt to his ideas, and he cast aside last season's regular 3-5-2 at the first time of asking at Wimbledon on Saturday.
With games against Czech Premier Division side Viktoria Plzen and SD Eibar of La Liga to come during the tour, Silva is looking forward to pitting his wits against some top-tier opposition - and seeing just how how well his instructions sink in.
He said: "The trip is the next step. We need to improve the quality of our opponents as well, they will cause more problems for us and that is good for us, and it’s a good week to work on our tactical principles and model."
Of the nine players to miss Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Wimbledon, only Deeney misses out on the tour.
But after a nightmare spell of injuries last season, Silva is already slightly frustrated with the disruption to his pre-season.
"Of course, with the number of players not the best," he said. "We have had a lot of injured players with injuries from last season, and we need to get them available as soon as possible to train with a bigger squad."
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