Vladimir Ivic will wait to see which of his Watford players have recovered enough from Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Bristol City before deciding which formation to use against Preston North End.

The head coach switched formations from 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3 for the game against the Robins and it seemed to produce some benefits with the Hornets dominating possession for large periods of the match.

However, the Serbian said he will use the system that best suits the available players for this weekend's home fixture with Preston, and will need to wait to see how well his men recover.

"We showed that we can play in this formation, good and dominant," said Ivic on the 4-3-3 they used at Ashton Gate. "We played, until now with five players [at the back], it depends on the players now to see how they will react, some of them after 90 minutes after a long period out.

"We need to do recovery, we need to prepare them and see on Friday, who will be ready and who will be available to play."

One player who could be key to Ivic's decision is Kiko Femenia, who filled in for the absent Ken Sema in the left back position.

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While the boss would rather use the full-back on his natural side, he knows he can fill in again if required, with no other left-sided players currently available.

"All of us knows that his natural position is on the right side," he said. "Kiko can play on the left in an emergency case. how it is now.

"Normally we expect from him more things from his natural right position, it is his job. We cannot say we are disappointed because he has worked hard like in the previous game, he did a good job for us again. It's easier for him to play on the right side than on the left side."

Taking Femenia's place on the right against Bristol was the returning Jeremy Ngakia, who was substituted before the end of the game.

Ivic played down any talk of a serious injury however and said Ngakia, as well as Domingos Quina, had both merely been struggling with cramp.

He hopes both will be available again come Saturday, with three players set to miss out on the next three games due to positive Covid-19 tests.

"It's cramps. I spoke with [Ngakia] because he hadn't played for a long period and another one is Quina," he said. "We have some other players who played today after a long period and it's normal that some of them have some kind of cramps and some small problems come in after this period but I believe they will be ready for the next game."