Yesterday’s second-half substitute appearance took Emmanuel Dennis’s total number of minutes on the pitch for Watford since returning on loan to 79 in four outings.

However, despite Vakoun Bayo limping off after a minute against Leicester with a hamstring injury – the severity of which is not yet clear – don’t expect to see the Nigerian get his first start on Tuesday night at Norwich.

“No, not at the minute,” was the reply from Valerien Ismael when asked if Dennis might be able to start at Carrow Road.

The striker punished an awful error from Leicester’s Harry Winks to pull a goal back, and found himself playing through the middle, something Ismael was asked about in his pre-match press conference.

“I know we talked about Dennis and he is able to play each of the three positions up front,” said Ismael.

“But at some point when we are trying to build a player up, some positions are very demanding.

“If you let him play as a No.9 as his first game then the injury risk will be bigger because he needs to run much more than in the wide positions.

“Our game plan before the game was for a lot of running in behind, which is what Bayo gives us.

“With Rajovic he is more of a No.9 who has to secure the ball, so he is more of a link-up player.

“When we put Dennis on, it was again our game plan to play more in behind, and he gave us that possibility.

“It’s a challenge we have at the minute. We don’t have the player 100%, and we need to manage him.

“I think it was excellent he stayed behind this week to have a build-up and now we see he is getting more and more in the right direction.

“He will give himself and us big confidence with the goal he scored, and now it’s about keeping pushing while protecting the player.”

One surprise in the starting XI was Tom Dele-Bashiru at right-back, and the Watford boss singled him out for praise.

“For me Dele-Bashiru was excellent in the right back position, he understood more that he brings something for us in the build-up.

“Our centre backs were brilliant. They were very aggressive which was what we needed.

“The players gave their best, it wasn’t enough in this game, but with that mentality we know we have got the desire to win games again.”

One of the frustrations was the number of times Watford got to the edge of the Leicester box and went sideways or backwards, rather than getting a shot away or trying to pick a pass to open up the defence.

“You feel what my job is like now!” Ismael smiled.

“We know what we are able to do but in some situations around the edge of the box you just want someone to get a shot on target.

“We just have to keep working with the players, it’s a process.

“There are a lot of games still to go and I know at some point we will have the breakthrough, and we will get the rewards and start to fly again.”

The quality of delivery of Watford’s set pieces wasn’t good.

“Our corners could be better today, yes,” the head coach conceded.

“Some of the delivery was not on point of what we expected, but this is the first time in Giorgi’s career that he has played so many games in a row.

“We need to understand why he was not that clinical and didn’t have that spark today.

“Our set-up is much better though, we are more dangerous and we’ve tried to find some good solutions defensively as well.”