Well-travelled United wary of Hornets’ buzz

ALL in all, it has been a good international break for United.

Jose Mourinho’s players have not had an easy start to the season, but should return to the Reds with more confidence.

Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba impressed for their countries, while underpressure defenders Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof got game time away from the pressure at United.

The only player to report back with any concern was Luke Shaw, who suffered a nasty head injury for England and is a doubt for United’s game at Watford tomorrow. In contrast to the Reds, Watford have enjoyed a good start to the season with a settled side that has won all four games and sit third in the league.

But good form is not the only reason United should worry about facing Javi Gracia’s side.

While the Reds had 12 players leave Old Trafford on international duty, Watford had just five.

Centre-backs Sebastian Prodl, Craig Cathcart and Adrian Mariappa, along with full-back Daryl Janmaat and midfielder Ken Sema are the only Hornets players who represented their countries in the past two weeks.

Of those, only Cathcart and Janmaat could be considered first-choice options for Gracia.

That means Watford’s stand-out players Etienne Capoue, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Roberto Pereyra, Andre Gray and Troy Deeney have all had a two-week rest from action – so United will be facing a much fresher side.

Three Reds also had long-haul journeys – Fred and Andreas Periera represented Brazil in the US, while Eric Bailly was in Rwanda for an African Cup of Nations qualifying win with Ivory Coast. United players recorded 1,264 minutes of game time over the international break – three times as many as their Watford counterparts (408).

Watford’s start to the season means United would not take them for granted anyway, but the higher exertion of Jose Mourinho’s players this week will make tomorrow’s game just a bit more difficult.

Meanwhile, Harry the Hornet, the Watford mascot, has stood down from his role at Vicarage Road two days before the game.

Gareth Evans, the man in the hornet costume, announced his decision after a controversial career at the Premier League club.

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson was left seething and warned the mascot not to ‘provoke the crowd’ after he dived on the pitch to mock Palace forward Wilfried Zaha over allegations of diving in December 2016.

“If you’re asking me whether Harry the Hornet, who I presume is the mascot, should dive in that way, I think it’s disgraceful,” he said