Head coach Slaven Bilic was asked after the 1-1 draw with Blackburn if he felt it would be harsh to judge him and his team over the next three games.

The Hornets travel to league leaders Burnley on Tuesday, then host ninth-placed West Brom (his former club) before a home game with second-placed Sheffield United.

However, chances are he will still be nursing back into action key players who have spent a long time out with injury.

“Yes you can look at the next three games, but there are 15 games in all,” he said.

“If you look at the teamsheet today, all the players are there – but for some they are still not back to their top form.

“If we bring them in for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 25 minutes, they have broken the ice. Logically in the next game they will do better. They are more suited and not raising question marks in their head.

“But we have to bring them in as soon as we can, and they and we are determined to do that. We have to hope that those experienced players go straight to the level we know they are capable of.”

It would be tempting to look at the league table, see the top two are disappearing over the horizon, and start planning for the play-offs.

“I don’t think about that,” said Bilic.

“We have our plan and we work game by game. Every game brings you the chance of three points and every point is valuable.

“You try to win every game or at least take something from every game. If you do that, then you can only find yourself higher than you were.

“The level of motivation and determination does not alter. We want to take as many points as we can until the end of the season.”

With Pedro playing his second game after injury yesterday, and Cleverley, Sema and Louza all being involved in the second half, Watford now have a far larger squad to pick from.

But Bilic stressed again there is a balance that needs to be struck between putting them straight back in to try and get results, and pushing them too far too soon and risking new injuries.

“We do have to be careful as these players come back, but also this isn’t pre-season. There has to be an element of calculated risk,” he said.

“Those players that are coming back, even when not 100% fit, make a difference.

“Someone like Sema is a player who has played at the top level, knows what to do, knows how to play that position. He has physicality, he can cross a ball, he has an understanding of the game.

“We have been lacking what the players who are now returning add to our game.

“When you have players like those in the team for a long time you almost take it for granted. You look and think ‘ah, we can do that no problem’. But not having them is a major problem.

“We picked the best 11 today and then we made the changes. Let’s take Imran Louza for example. We didn’t put him on for 10 minutes just to get minutes. That was a bonus. We put him on to rule the midfield and to try and play a bit behind them.

“I’m not concentrating on how people judge me. I’m concentrating on the guys on the pitch. We have players returning, we have a few new players and we have some extremely young players in the team.

“We knew those young players would be great for the club in the future, but we also need them to be great now. With some of those players it goes quicker, and with some it goes slower.

“The two centre backs today could come in and play straight away. With other younger players it will be a bit up and down.

“The Joao Pedro we see now is not the same Joao Pedro that first came to Watford. That is how it is with young players.”

With those three big games in the next two weeks, what does Bilic feel his side need to do in order to take as many points as possible?

“We have some good patterns of play, but we need to be more clinical and just generally better in both boxes.

“Every goal you concede you can analyse and find ways you should have stopped it, but the Blackburn goal was just too easy.

“And then we have to better in the way we construct clear-cut chances. When we are in good positions we have to make a better cross or have a better touch.

“We had five or six times when we had the ball in their box in a good position. In a Championship game that should be enough to score more than one goal.”