Although the World Cup being played during the season has meant fixtures have been squeezed in more than ever before, Slaven Bilic says the break it provides is one of the reasons he took the job at Watford.

The head coach arrived 10 games into the campaign, but knew he had 11 games and then could have pretty much a second pre-season.

“If it wasn’t for the World Cup break, we’d be looking at two games in a week, then four more, then a couple more,” he said.

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“But now we at least we all know that we have four games to focus on and then we can rest and we’ll have time to get ready for the next part of the season.

“The World Cup break is a pre-season for us, and that is one of the reasons I took the job. I knew that quite soon after I arrived I was going to have a chance to have a sort of pre-season.

“What we have to try and do is get to that point without too many scars.”

Bilic explained why the constant barrage of matches is a problem.

“Three games in a week is not uncommon, not just for Championship clubs but also for teams in the Premier League as you have the Champions League, the Europa League. The issue is the standard of those three games in a week.

“But when you talk about five games or six games in two weeks, nobody has a squad so big that you can just handle that.

“If you don’t have enough players available to rotate them, if you have a few players that are out, then you are expecting the same group of players to play five or six times in two weeks.

“Physically that is very demanding, but mentally even more so. Games of football drain you emotionally. And if you add to that long trips to away games, less chances to train, then it’s not easy.”

Not only does a midweek game mean an extra 90 minutes of competitive football, it also means that training ground work normally carried out in a blank midweek cannot take place.

“In a week with no midweek game you have the chance to try new things, test out new patterns, you can go back and practise things,” said Bilic.

“That is so important as it helps the players to get those patterns into their memories.

“You have the time to practise, repeat, try new things. But if you don’t have that time then it becomes all about recovery, and perhaps a little bit of set-piece work, plus that little bit of impulse you want to give the players.

“When you are playing so many games in so few days, you are treading on eggshells a little bit with the work in between.”