Odion Ighalo staying put at Watford - Quique Sánchez Flores

Odion Ighalo is staying put at Watford, says Quique Sánchez Flores

• Flores insists striker will not be sold in January window
• ‘He chose to stay because he imagined something special’


Odion Ighalo’s double sank Liverpool.

Quique Sánchez Flores believes Watford are ready to fend off any January offers for his striker Odion Ighalo.

The manager hailed Ighalo as “completely clever” for staying with Watford in the summer, after going on to score 12 goals in 17 Premier League appearances.

Ighalo’s two goals put paid to Liverpool in Sunday’s 3-0 win at Vicarage Road, leaving Watford with four consecutive top-flight victories for the first time since 1987.

Flores remains confident Ighalo will stay until the end of the season, saying: “I think Ighalo is completely clever, he chose five months ago the option to stay here with Watford. He chose to stay here because he imagined something special for him.

“It’s very clever, he knew perfectly it was the best option for him. I think he’ll finish the season with Watford, after that anybody knows. We have amazing strikers, but we have the facility to score every single match because we create attempts. I admire these players because we create a plan, then they supersede the expectation I create before the match.”

The captain Troy Deeney and his partner Ighalo terrorised Liverpool’s defence and Flores revealed the key to fielding two strikers revolved around challenging both front men to drop into a regimented cordon in defence.

“If you are playing with two strikers separate to the rest of the players it’s very difficult to stop other teams,” Flores said. “If you’re playing 30 to 35 matches with fewer players when defending then you can tire.

“So that’s the key: when we are playing with two strikers and we have the ball we have a lot of possibilities, for good football, counterattacking or playing long ball out of defence. But when we don’t have the ball they come back with the rest of the players and form a compact block. For us it’s necessary to be defending with all our players.”

Watford’s eighth win of the season lifted them to within one point of the Premier League’s top four but Flores is refusing to amend his pre-season expectations. “No, it would be a very big mistake to change our thinking,” he said. “We have to keep the continuity.

“The idea in the club is very clear. We’re just thinking about the need to grow. We need to establish ourselves in the Premier League, this is what we need. We are evolving with this idea, so to lose perspective would be very bad for us.”

Guardian