Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores has said that both Steven Berghuis and Obbi Oulare have a lot to learn if they are to make it at Vicarage Road, after the Spaniard handed both players their full debut in the Hornets' 1-0 win over Newcastle United in the third round of The Emirates FA Cup.
First starts
Both Oulare and Berghuis were signed in the summer of 2015, from Club Brugge and AZ Alkmaar respectively, but neither player has featured much in Flores' plans so far in what has been a largely successful campaign.
Oulare, who is a Belgian striker with immense potential, had not featured until the game against the Magpies at the weekend - perhaps unsurprisingly with the likes of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo firing on all cylinders for the Hornets - but it is clear that Flores has long-term goals for his development at the club.
"We need to teach him everything"
- Quique Sanchez Flores
The Watford boss described Oulare as a "project" and referencing the fact that the striker has only just turned 20-years-old, Flores highlighted how he still needs to "teach him everything" about the Premier League and the system that his Watford side play. Futhermore, the Spaniard insisted that Oulare has already "learned a lot", and as a result is already "closer to playing with the team".
Flores gave him 45 minutes against Newcastle, before pulling him off at half-time, as the Watford boss reasoned that the game will have been a "very tough challenge" and "completely different to Belgium". It is clear, then, that Oulare will need time to develop and earn his place at Vicarage Road.
Future plans
As for Dutchman Berghuis, he was given just over an hour in a game that was settled by a Troy Deeney strike just before half-time. Flores once again focused on the differences between English and Dutch football, suggesting that the "contact, pace and speed of the game is completely different", and that the work he is doing with the winger is a "process".
Further opportunities look likely for the pair, however, as Flores went on to suggest that Watford "need these two players" and that they're "the future". With such a great start to the Premier League season and young prospects waiting in the wings, things could not be going much better at Vicarage Road.
