The Watford coaching staff have tried to develop a culture to allow the Hornets’ creative players to express themselves within the needs of improving the team's performance, Nigel Pearson has explained.

The Hornets boss was asked about Gerard Deulofeu, who scored his fourth goal of the season to set his side on their way to the 2-1 victory over Wolves, and he said it is important the Spaniard knows he his valued.

Pearson said: “He’s a really talented player, he’s a great lad as well by the way. I might have made a mistake taking him off.

“He’s played a lot of football for us but the thing with creative players is you’ve got to give them the framework to work in. As long as he understands what we need when we don’t have the ball, and he does work really hard, players like him need the freedom to go out and express themselves and that’s one of the things that we’ve tried to do with our offensive players, give them the freedom to go and play.

“I think all players need to understand what’s expected but he also needs to know that he’s valued by the coaching staff. Players all bring different things to the team and one of my favourite lines is to say you are selected for what you can do rather than what you can’t do, that’s something I’ve always talked to players about.

“In a squad of players they all have different attributes and they can’t all do the same thing, but collectively we can defend better as a team and collectively we can attack better as a team and that’s what we’ve tried to work at. So the overall feel of what we’re trying to do as a group allows the individuals to shine a little bit more.”