Watford chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury is optimistic the Hornets can add to their Premier League squad in January, and says the club is already well aware of players it will be targeting come the transfer window.

The Hornets have enjoyed a great start to the season, sitting eighth with 15 games gone and the majority of their summer signings - and Richarlison and Kiko Femenia in particular - having settled in already.

There are clear gaps which still need to be filled; the Hornets' defence is plentiful in numbers but lacking in fitness, and once Stefano Okaka's protracted departure is finally completed, there will be a vacancy in attack too.

Duxbury told the Evening Standard: “We are already identifying targets for January and next summer. We don’t stop. The window is almost a misnomer for us. We tend to scout all year round. 

“We like to get our business concluded very early, otherwise it is inefficient and inflationary. We have had a quick evolution from a Championship squad (in 2015) to a Premier League one."

The personnel problems at the back are not lost on head coach Marco Silva, who previously said it was "not a coincidence" there were regularly so many defensive injury problems at the club.

"Maybe we are the team who has the most defenders in the Premier League," Silva said. "We have seven central defenders and four full-backs, that might be the most.

"We need to see [whether we will add another defender] - we've been unlucky with some of them this season, we had the same thing last season with some of them. Our focus now is to work to improve what we can improve.

"That's not in December, not in January, every day. We want to progress with the players we have and improve as soon as possible."