Vladimir Ivic believes Watford's performance in Saturday's win over Preston showed how quick his players are to adapt to his new formation.

After a drab goalless draw away at Bristol City in which the Hornets had plenty of possession but offered little in the way of attacking threat, the head coach opted to tweak the team again slightly in order to present more danger up front.

Having laboured with a somewhat uninspiring defensive shape containing a back five prior to the game with the Robins, the Serbian decided a back four might allow his team to have more of the ball both in midfield and up front. 

While the trip to Bristol saw them dominate possession with that back four, there was still not a great deal for the home side's defence to worry about, with Watford managing just one shot on target.

Against Preston however, Ivic added a second striker to the formation, changing from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 and it brought with it clear benefits.

Ivic said the progress made in such a short time showed that his players just needed a bit of time to acclimatise to their new system, but that it allows them to be more creative than before.

"We changed a few days ago for the first time the system what we played," said Ivic.

"It was positive, it was good. During the game, most of the part of the game we controlled the rhythm, we created some chances and we could win the game."

After taking an early lead against Preston, Ivic felt his side could have dominated the game further, but said there were still one or two aspects of their game that they need to improve on.

"Today we scored in the right moment at the beginning of the game. After that, maybe in the first half we missed one or two chances more and our opponent there create one of two chances in the first half.

Watford Observer:

"The second half was good for us again after this goal. I didn't see and I cannot speak about how we conceded the goal but, you know, it's not the first time that we have an advantage of one or two goals and immediately after three or four minutes, our opponents scored. We need to work on this."

Despite being disappointed with the way Watford had their deficit halved, the 43-year-old was still very happy with how his team played after the break.

However, he does not want them to dwell too much on the win and instead wants them to prepare for Wednesday's trip to Nottingham Forest.

"The second half was a very good performance," he said. "We don't need now to speak just about that and to think about that, it's passed. It's finished, this game.

"The next game is on Wednesday against a very tough opponent, and first of all we need to recover the guys, and to work from Monday to prepare."