There will always be degrees of change when a new head coach takes over a football team, and on Sunday the obvious switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation was one that caught the eye.

That meant no wing-backs, Hasane Kamara and Mario Gaspar played as regular full-backs, Ken Sema and Ismaila Sarr were able to get wide and Keinan Davis was the lone striker, a role he told The Watford Observer he likes to play only two weeks ago.

Bilic said that the reason for changing formation was very simple: give the players the best chance of being successful.

“What we did was put the players in a shape that suits most of them,” he said.

“What’s the point of playing 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 if you don’t have the wing-backs who can go up and down the flank? We don’t have an Ivan Perisic in our squad! You can still play those shapes but you’re going to struggle.

“We played a shape where the players feel most comfortable, and gave them the chance to give their best. We put players in positions where I, and they, think they can give Watford their best.

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“We wanted to put everyone, particularly our best players, into their best positions so they can influence and improve our performance the most.

“We showed them a few patterns, how we want to defend and attack, how we open play up, how we close the opponents down. There is always enough time to make a few little changes.

“Unless it’s the start of the season or you have enough time to get in players that fit your shape, then you have to adapt.

“There’s been no big change. As I said last week, this is a good club and Rob Edwards left me a squad in good shape. This group of players weren’t disillusioned or disorientated. We changed little bits in terms of things that every new manager probably brings, but it didn’t need major surgery.

“We have a very professional squad of good players who are in good shape.”

Bilic said that when he joined Watford, he took time to study the players at his disposal, watch tapes of their most recent games and then decide how best to utilise what he has.

“You can force players into positions they aren’t fully comfortable with, but that’s not for me. I saw the squad of players and looked at games, I saw who our best players are and I know I want to put them there, there and there.

“I’m not saying that we won’t ever play five in midfield or three at the back in some moments of games, or maybe for a whole game, but if you have players like Sarr and Sema, if you have full-backs like we do, and if you have players who are a natural number 10, then you find the formation to make the most of them.

“The formation is a good cornerstone for the players. It’s a reference point or a blueprint, but football is a game where things can be hybrid and you need to be fluid. You start with a formation that you want to play but your opponent can counter it and mark you, so you need to be able to change and make them think again.”

Bilic shared an example of how he helped to give the players a platform from which to work from while also enabling them to express themselves with freedom on the pitch.

“Let's tlak about Sarr. I told him ‘when we are in these positions on the pitch, you can go where you want’. I want to give him that freedom.

“But I also showed him that his starting position has to be there. If you start there, it’s good for the team, it’s good for our right back, it’s good for our Number 10. And it’s good for Sarr because that is his point of reference and then he also has the freedom to express himself. I am giving Sarr a few options, but brilliant players like him, when they are out on the pitch the best option is the one they see.

“You can give great players a framework, but you also have to allow them to express themselves and make their own choices.”

Bilic admitted that while a 4-0 away day romp was pretty much the most he could have asked for, there were still weakness in the Watford performance.

“It was the ideal result but it wasn’t the ideal game,” he said.

“There were a lot of mistakes in the first half, a lot of opportunities that we didn’t take. But we had enough time to make little changes.

“When you are asking players to do things they have done before, maybe not last week but six weeks ago, six months ago, a year ago, then it’s always possible you can get a reaction like we did."