Slaven Bilic pulled no punches this morning when he discussed the need to be ready to play at the tempo he requires, saying: “If you are not fit then basically you are useless.”

The Watford head coach has referred to the need for fitness levels within the squad to be improved since he arrived at the club, and has always had one eye on the World Cup break as an opportunity to spend some quality time working on that.

However, in the interim, he and his staff have tried to eke out extra from the players despite a crowded run of fixtures.

“Football is not all about tempo, but if you lack tempo you do have no chance,” he said.

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“If you’re not fit then you have little chance even in a slower league than the Championship.

“Every game goes through phases. There will be a calm period and then it’s five or 10 minutes of huge runs, making the pitch big, one v ones. For that you need to be fit, and only when you are fit can you make proper use of your quality on the ball, your sharpness, your craft.

“If you are not fit then basically you are useless.

“We are improving in terms of fitness, both visibly and statistically. And that is a good thing.”

Bilic gave the example of Dan Gosling, who stepped into midfield at Cardiff on Wednesday night after a run of games at full-back, and gave a performance that majored on being able to cover the ground for 90 minutes.

“Dan ran the most, and his numbers are top of the list,” Bilic pointed out.

“Maybe sometimes people don’t notice him as he’s not on the ball as much as Kayembe.

“He was precious for us on Wednesday night. Technically he may not do spectacular things but he was always where we needed him to be.

“His numbers in terms of running were exceptional. I believe he covered more than 11km, and that is top, top stuff.”

The performance at Cardiff was gritty and determined but didn’t have the fluidity and style of the Luton game. However, both Wednesday and Saturday at Wigan showed the Hornets know how to ‘win ugly’.

“Sometimes you don’t play great and you still get the points,” said Bilic.

“But at Cardiff, apart from the first 20 minutes, I was pleased with how we played. If you talk about the 60 or 70 minutes between the bad start and when they were throwing bodies forward at the end, I thought we did well.

“We passed the ball well, our passes were crisp, we showed a willingness to play forward. We had 16 attempts at goal. The only thing I wasn’t happy with was our quality in the final third. To be fair, the most difficult thing in football is to have quality in that part of the pitch.”

The Watford head coach admitted that his side still need to defend set plays better after conceding from an early corner at Cardiff, but there was marked improvement from the debacle at Millwall.

“We have to improve in defending our six-yard box because in every game you will face opponents who have the ability to threaten you from set plays.

“You can’t nullify the number and variety of set pieces a team will have: throw-ins, corners, free-kicks. That means there will be 10, 15, maybe more situations where you need to defend your box in each game.

“Of course if your opponents have good delivery and big players and they combine the two, then credit to them. But you are never happy when you concede from set plays.

“The goal the other night was a free header. If your opponent outjumps you, the timing is great, the delivery is great, then ok. But the goal we conceded against Cardiff their player was absolutely alone.

“It’s a question of determination and willingness to defend. We are not bad at that but you want to be 100%.”