Valerien Ismael had high hopes for the second block of Championship fixtures after the September international break.

However, his team went on to collect just five points from 18 before the most recent pause for international fixtures.

The Watford head coach said he and his staff learned valuable lessons from what they did when international players returned last time.

“We learned from the international break after the first block of games,” he said.

“The players who went away came back tired on that occasion and we saw in the games after that the spark was not there. Too many mistakes were made.

“When we assessed the situation we saw it was due a lot to tiredness.

“So we have changed some schedules this time, especially for the players coming back from international duty.

“We gave them some time off when they came back, just to make sure they can be refreshed. Then they had a light session yesterday and today they will be in a full session.

“You can see the benefit of that straight away in the eyes of the players. If I compare when I saw them last time to when they come back now, it’s a big difference.

“I hope that now we can maintain the level of competitiveness and the spark will be there.”

During that last block of games, Ismael tried playing 3-5-2 at home to Middlesbrough and scrapped the tactic at half-time as it was failing so badly.

At Cardiff, he opted to field two more defensive-minded midfielders in an attempt to be more solid.

“Since I’ve been here we have tried things to find things more suitable for the team and the players,” he explained.

“In some situations we took decisions, saw how the team reacted, how the game went.

“We have options and we have a lot of creative players and we also have the ability to be more solid and more energetic.

“I love the idea that we are able to be more flexible in our decision making.”

With only two wins all season, sitting just above the relegation zone and hosting basement boys Sheffield Wednesday, would Ismael sacrifice a performance for a result tomorrow?

“For us it is always performance first. We need to have that intensity, to feel the game, to get energy into our game,” he said.

“At the same time, we have to perform well enough to get the points because that is why we do the job.

“We know that if we put in the performances, do our jobs, make the right decisions, then we have more chance to win the game.”

Since beating QPR on the opening day of the season, Watford have only once scored the opening goal at Vicarage Road. Is a fast and positive start essential tomorrow?

“It’s not just about making a good and fast start, you have to make sure you finish strongly too,” said Ismael.

“We know that we have the quality we need, and I get a good feeling now because everyone is back and I can see that all of them are on the same level of fitness.

“They have all played a lot of games, and we don’t have anyone who has long injury times.

“We have all the players back, all on the same level, that gives us more options and straight away we can focus on the technical side of things.”