Rhys Healey was pleased to get his first minutes in a Watford shirt in the second half of the Hornets’ 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, and can already see signs of Head Coach Valérien Ismaël’s philosophy in the style of play.

The summer arrival from Toulouse came on for former Les Violets teammate Vakoun Bayo on 55 minutes and looked lively in attack, enjoying the process of settling into his new surroundings.

Having missed the majority of 2022/23 with a knee injury, Healey feels he has work to do to “get that level back”, but was pleased with the team’s performance against tough opposition, with Ismaël Koné grabbing the opening goal before Marquinhos equalised in the second 45.

“It felt good!” Healey smiled. “It was difficult, playing with new players in a new system, so it’s about getting minutes in the legs and understanding what the new manager wants us to do, getting our match sharpness up.

“It’s always good playing against that calibre of player to see what level you’re at, we did really well and both teams had chances. It’s only pre-season so the scoreline doesn’t matter but we played well.”

With the group returning to pre-season at the end of June and Healey arriving shortly after, the striker can already see a marked improvement from the start of Ismaël’s time working with the squad.

“It takes time but you can see we’re more fluid now compared to the first week,” continued the 28-year-old. “The more training sessions and games we have, the more you’ll see an improvement. Each game you can see those patterns of play.

“I’m still coming off the back of last year being injured. I’m still a bit behind compared to many of the other players from a game-time perspective but it doesn’t come easy, the main thing is to work as hard as I can to get that level back. I felt good today.”

With just under a month until the Sky Bet Championship kicks off at home to Queens Park Rangers [Saturday August 5, 3pm KO], Healey is looking forward to seeing how the team further progress in building cohesion in training and matches.

“It’s exciting,” added Healey.

“The philosophy we’re looking to implement is one of the toughest for players but the most rewarding at the same time so if we can play the way we want to play, we’ll have a lot of joy and it’s really exciting to get into the season now, but we’ve got a lot of work still to do.”

Watch Now

SEO Image