The next key step towards the current Watford squad starting to hit form that regularly fulfils their potential is getting all the players to peak fitness together.

That is the opinion of head coach Valerien Ismael.

Jamal Lewis has only had two halves since he joined, Tom Ince is now getting a run after missing the start of the season and Ken Sema has been ruled out for a couple of weeks.

“The first thing we need to do is get all of the players on the same level of fitness,” said Ismael.

“At the minute you see Jamal Lewis will be very important for us, but he’s not able to play 90 minutes.

“Jeremy Ngakia cannot play 90 minutes at the moment, Tom Ince has come back very strong but he’s not able to play 90 minutes.

“Ken Sema will come back but he won’t be able to play straight away.

“So we need to get the fitness back in all the players and at the same level.

“After that when you start the game with your strong side then it looks different.

“But it is a thing you need to deal with, it’s not an excuse. It’s just in our process we have to deal with all these situations.

“We have enough players, and we have enough quality in the squad to cover all the positions.”

With that in mind, Ismael is expecting the remaining games before the October international break to be very important.

“I think we need that block of games until the international break,” he said.

“But we need another week to work with the players, and now it is all about the recovery for the next game.

“Every game we can make with all the players will be better for us.”

Ismael Kone started a league game for only the second time this season against West Brom.

“Finally I think it was important for him to step up,” said the Watford boss.

“We knew the qualities of Ismael, but so far he has trained well but was not consistent in his performances.

“We have a lot of quality players in his position, and they know exactly how they have to perform if they want to play.

“Tonight I think it was a much, much better game than when he started against Blackburn.”

Matheus Martins took his goal tally for the season to three with Watford’s second last night.

“He is still a young player so it is about the consistency now. At the minute he is scoring goals, he has a great attitude and we are pleased,” Ismael said.

“If you’ve seen the games so far everyone has performed and wants to do the right things, but at some point you need to get rewards and win.

“At the minute we are just getting the same picture, week in week out.

“Everything is good but one mistake and the opponent gets that feeling they can maybe win, they think if they are patient we will make a mistake and they can punish us.”

The second-half weather conditions were atrocious, but Ismael said that wasn’t the reason why Watford couldn’t get a firmer grip on the game after the break.

“The conditions were bad but you have to deal with it. They were the same for both teams.

“We had chances, West Brom had chances, so it was more open in the second half.

“I think we lost control in the second half because we made simple mistakes in the build-up. Ten metre passes to the opponent, and then it will be difficult because you have to go and get the ball back.

“We didn’t get that balance in the second half. Some situations were really good, but only when you get the control.”