Valerien Ismael said he can empathise with his Watford players as they struggle to emerge from the current dreadful run of form.
Last night’s draw with Swansea means the Hornets have won just one league game in their last nine, and have still not won at home since November 28.
Only basement boys Rotherham and Sunderland have picked up fewer points in their last six Championship games.
“I was a player and I was in a situation like this at a very good club with very good players,” admitted the Watford boss.
And we had exactly the same picture as now.
“It’s tough. When you are winning games you don’t think, you are just enjoying life.
“When you start to lose games then you overthink as a player.
“In a bad situation you start to blame each other and then it goes completely in the wrong direction.
“We have a lot of young players who need to deal with this for the first time in their careers, a situation like this where you are not winning games.
“It’s a learning process in these situations: stay calm, stay focussed and keep pushing with the game plan.
“But as soon you start overthinking then it will always be difficult.”
While he can understand the situation generally, a run of eight games without a home win is not something Ismael has experienced before.
“No, so much this season is new for me,” he said.
“I’ve never had a run of results like this, or home results like this.
“It is a challenge for me to find a solution, and to make changes if things need to be changed.
“If I can, I need to give that confidence.
“But the best way to heal is to win a game, and we have that chance again on Saturday.”
Emmanuel Dennis once again spent most of the game out on the flank.
“I think we have a lot of possibilities with him,” said Ismael.
“He had a lot of situations where he had chances to shoot, and we put him in some good positions.
“We got the ball to him in the box, and if he had scored one of the three or four chances he had in the second half then everyone would be happy.
“He’s able to play in a lot of positions.”
The Watford boss explained his decision to bring Dan Bachmann in for his first league game since November 25.
“I think when you are in a difficult situation you have to make changes,” he said.
“We change players, we changed the way we played in the first half, we change a lot of things at the training ground like the schedule.
“We just want to make sure the players are aware of our situation.
“I think we need to be able to have all our players. Every player is involved, and the goalkeeper position is, for me, like an outfield player.
“It should be possible to change the keeper just to keep everyone involved.
“Everybody has a part to play in helping the club.”
