Philip Zinckernagel wants to contribute more to Watford attack

The Danish winger had to be patient to get his first starts in the Championship, but on the back of two wins from his first two starts, he is now looking to kick on and make himself more of an asset.

The differences between the English second tier and the Norwegian Eliteserien are very noticeable for the 26-year-old, who is having to adapt his game to a faster tempo and greater physicality than he has grown accustomed to.

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However, the differences in pitches are not helping him a great deal, as he is used to playing predominantly on more reliable artificial surfaces.

"The biggest difference is, the duels and the physics," said Zinckernagel. "I think sometimes the tempo gets a bit high, maybe too high, in this league but that's because the teams force each other to play fast and at my old club we used to have the ball all the time, so of course it's a bit different.

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"I have to work more defensively and work harder now. The tempo and the physics are the biggest difference. And then of course you get into some variation of the pitches. When you play at home it's nice and good, but sometimes when we've played against teams like Millwall and Blackburn, it has been really difficult because the pitches are a bit bumpy, while in Norway almost all of the games are on astroturf so you can count on the surface."

One thing that is helping Zinckernagel is the system currently being used by head coach Xisco Munoz, who changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 last month.

It is a formation that the attacker was used to playing in during his time at Bodo/Glimt and is helping him get used to his new surroundings, although he felt that Watford could have better utilised their attacking talent during their 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

"I think we play better when we play this 4-3-3 system," he said after the match. "I think we can control the game a bit better and keep the ball more and I think it suits us better.

"We have to play this way so it's been good to work on a new system and I'm actually used to playing in this system so that's nice.

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"Last season in my old club we played very offensive, maybe even more offensive. We could sometimes play with maybe five offensive players and then a few more defensive.

"We didn't really manage to get all the offensive players to shine today but in the end we get three points and it was more about hard work today. With a lot of offensive players I think we did quite well in the defensive part, so that was pretty positive."

Zinckernagel is aware that he still has a lot of adapting to do, but he also hopes that his teammates can adapt to having him in the team as well.

He believes that if they can learn to play to his strengths, he will be able to make a greater impact on the Hornets' prospects going forward.

"My teammates have to learn to find me in good positions," he said. "While last season everyone knew each other so well and I knew if I went into a good position I would get the ball and I was able to turn and force the goal and set up my teammates. It's an adapting period for me, but also for my teammates.

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"Today maybe I had to hold on a little bit and be more defensive, but with more time and more minutes I will be able to be more offensive and set up maybe some of the strikers."