Last week, barely a cross and hardly a shot. Seven days later and within 10 minutes Ken Sema had put the ball on a plate for Mileta Rajovic and Watford were 1-0 up.

It sounds simple and yet last week it looked so difficult to do.

However, head coach Valerien Ismael said it was learning from last week’s shortcomings and finding a way to overcome the problems posed by a team that sits deep and gets men behind the ball which allowed them to quickly get on the right path to what turned out to be a resounding 5-0 victory over Rotherham.

“We learned from the challenge we faced last week and were better prepared,” he said.

“Last week we faced something new, and we worked on solutions all through the week and the first two goals were exactly what we wanted – to get around the block.

“We have to cross more, we have to shoot more, to force the opponent to defend more and to keep pressure on them.

“It’s not only the crosses Ken Sema put in, but the kind of crosses.

“When you’ve got big defenders in the middle you don’t always need high balls into the box. You need flat balls, as they are difficult to defend and they are more 50/50.

“I think today was the perfect example of how we have to play against a low block, or when the opponent really parks the bus in front of the goal.

“When you analyse a game like last week you have to look at the areas where you can hurt the opponent. Trying to go through the middle can be difficult.

“Teams will have either a back four or a back five. They will have either a high block or a lower block.

“It you are facing a team that plays with a back five in a low block then that is difficult to play through, so you have to try and play around it.

“You also have to force the opponent to defend more by getting more crosses into the box.

“We didn’t do those things enough at Huddersfield, but we learned from it, worked on it in the week and how to deal with those situations.

“We got the two goals, the opponent had to change their shape and that opened the game up for us. We had more space to play against a back four.

“I think we scored at the right moments in the game, early in the first half and then towards the end of the half.

“That opened up the game and then you see the opponent changing to a back four, which made it easier for us to find the areas we wanted to attack.

“We worked hard on solving the problems from last week, and every day we could feel the desire to do the extra work to make sure we finished the job off.

“We were unhappy after Huddersfield last week but I said to the guys that was a positive sign because it showed we want more.

“What we needed to do was go out on the pitch and show that. We needed to show our desire and where we want to go, and I think today we showed both of those.”