If Watford were an Olympic sprinter, then all too often their race would be over as soon as the starting pistol sounded.

The season has been blighted by poor starts to games which has meant the Hornets have been playing catch-up early on, or at best have been level when they should have taken the lead.

In both the last two home games the Hornets have gone behind, and with matches running out keeper Daniel Bachmann knows that cannot continue – although he admits he’s been forced to say the same thing many times since August.

“We’ve addressed it multiples times through the season and I’ve said it many times: our starts, all the way through, have been poor too often,” he said.

“Look back at the 32 league games we’ve played and we haven’t started well enough often enough.

“If you look at when we’ve played really well, say Luton at home and Norwich away, both of those we made a good start.

“We have to make sure we’re ready from the kick-off. There shouldn’t be nervousness or any need to feel edgy.

“We have to play with some swagger. We have a lot of incredibly good players and we are a good team, we need to go out and remember that which will allow us to play a bit more freely.

“We have the players to play out from the back, take slightly more risks and just make bigger and better decisions all over the pitch right from the start.

“Most recent games at home we have ended on top with more of the ball and looking the likelier team to score. That has to be how we start too.”

The keeper said that while going behind obviously makes the task of winning the game harder in itself, the opposition can also then afford to sit deeper and be less expansive.

“If you concede early on then obviously the game becomes more difficult because you can see and feel the opposition are happy to get bodies behind the ball,” he said.

“When teams score first, especially away from home, then they are content to sit back and that makes it harder.

“But even when teams have sat back against us we still get into good areas in the final third. We need to be more ruthless and start clicking and scoring.”

And the Austrian said that while the league table suggests it’s very unlikely, Watford have to continue to play for automatic promotion.

“Until it’s mathematically impossible, you have to look at catching the team in second. You can’t just give up and decide it can’t be done,” he said.

“We will believe we can do that until it’s impossible, and then the next target is the play-offs.

“To be honest, with the players we have and a fully fit squad, I wouldn’t want to play us in the play-offs. We have to go out onto the pitch knowing we’re good and that other teams might be frightened of what we have.”