Silva return won’t affect Watford – Gracia

Watford boss Javi Gracia has stressed Marco Silva’s return to Vicarage Road this weekend will not be a distraction for the Hornets.

Silva’s Everton are at Watford tomorrow as the Portuguese faces his former employers away for the first time since they sacked him last season.

Watford captain Troy Deeney appears to have stoked things up in advance, reportedly telling a fans’ forum to leave Silva alone, while he and his team-mates do the business on the pitch.

But Gracia said at his pre-match press conference: “It is nothing different than other games.

“We are concentrated on the game, I am concentrated on the game and when we prepare the games we are not thinking abut the coaches.

“We are thinking about the shapes, the players, how we can defend, how we can attack. Not about the coaches.”

He added: “I think they (his players) have the motivation in all the games, not in this (one) especially.

“Always we want to win three points and in the next game we will try to do it as best as possible, but as we usually do.”

Watford axed Silva, who they had appointed as boss the previous summer, in January last year having won once in 11 games.

He was a target for Everton after their sacking of Ronald Koeman in October 2017, and when Watford dismissed Silva they said the “unwarranted approach” the Toffees had made for him was the “catalyst” for their decision.