Watford manager Walter Mazzarri has said Odion Ighalo has been professional about his omission from the starting line-up last weekend.
The 27-year-old Ighalo enjoyed a superb season for the Hornets last term, scoring 17 times, but he has not yet been so prolific during the current campaign, with just two goals to his name so far.
And he was left out of the starting line-up last Saturday, as Mazzarri successfully altered his formation for a 2-1 defeat of Leicester.
But Mazzarri said he has told the Nigeria international to be ready for action when his chance comes again.
“What I do is watch my team during training, I study the next opponent, and then make my decision on what is the best thing, considering all these factors,” said Mazzarri.
“Ighalo has been professional and accepted the decision. When he played, even when he didn’t score, he played as well as the whole team has done.
“When we lost and we played badly, he played badly with the whole team, there is no difference.
“I tell him he has to be ready when his moment comes.”
Watford have made a good start to life under Mazzari and lie eighth in the Premier League standings after their win over last year’s champions.
Mazzarri’s new formation for Watford does not work out for everyone
But the manager said there has been no lingering over that victory and that, as per his instructions, the focus immediately switches to the next challenge.
“If you remember what I said at the beginning when I arrived, I said that we only have to think about us, we don’t think about the other teams,” Mazzarri added.
“We need to do the best on the pitch, game by game, and improve every day in training and in the games. We don’t have to look at what position we are in but just concentrate on the following game.
“Believe me, you can even ask my players if you don’t, what I want to teach the players and what I’m trying to do is give them the mentality that, immediately after we win one game, we forget about it and think about the next one.
“We are already thinking about Stoke. They are a good team, not only strong but technical as well, and we are only thinking about them now.”
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