Abdoulaye Doucoure claims Watford's decision to bring back Quique Sanchez Flores was a mistake

In a doomed campaign that saw the Hornets drop out of the Premier League into the Championship, Sanchez Flores was the second of three head coaches all to be sacked, and picked up just one win in 10 league games during his second spell at Vicarage Road.

In a candid interview with The Athletic, the French midfielder, who departed for Everton during the summer transfer window, said Sanchez Flores's style was too defensive and that bringing him back to the club was something he, and others, found difficult to comprehend.

• For more Hornets updates visit our Watford FC news Facebook page

"I think Quique was the biggest mistake Watford made," he said. "That's why now they're in the Championship because I think if they'd brought in another manager in place of Quique, maybe they could have saved the season. I think we played well, but we played with three defenders so we didn't attack, we just defended. You make a lot of draws, you lose games. This was a mistake, nobody understands this choice.

"Quique did well in the first time when Watford got promoted and everything, but of course they sacked him in the end, so something didn't work. To sign him again three years after, it was the biggest mistake made last season. We lost two, three months with him."

Conversely, Doucoure felt that bringing in Nigel Pearson was a very good decision and that the third head coach of last season was someone who got the best out of his playing squad.

Even though Doucoure was asked to play out of position by the former Leicester boss, he did not mind making that sacrifice, if it got results for the team.

The midfielder believes that a lot of the sacrifices he made last season were unnoticed by supporters, who he feels perhaps did not fully appreciate what he had to offer before his departure.

"This was a great signing because I think a lot of the English players wanted an English manager," he said. "We were in the bottom so of course we needed change and Nigel, I think, was the right person to come with Craig Shakespeare. It was a great duo and of course it was great for me to have a manager who spoke always in English.

"He had a good approach to the game and I think everyone was happy, that's why we worked hard again under him. For me personally, he put me in the number ten position before the Liverpool game and I said to him, I was happy to play there, it was for the team.

"People don't see the sacrifices I made because I heard a lot of things like, 'Doucoure didn't play at his level' and I was quite upset because if I was to talk to them today, I just can say, I played number ten, it's not my position, I made a lot of sacrifices, I was the guy who ran the most kilometres in every game for the whole season.

"You can ask all the players, they'd say 'Doucs, he always gave 100 per cent'. Of course, sometimes I was not good, sometimes I was good, but this is football. At this time, I made a big sacrifice for the team, but we didn't get out at the end."