Holebas’s views have often landed him in trouble with managers at club and international level but the 34-year-old remains determined to have his say

He says the word smashed, as in smashed to smithereens, quite a lot when asked to think about the last time that Watford faced Liverpool. Javi Gracia’s team lost 5-0 in March. It was humiliating but it will not happen again, not today when the Merseyside club travel to Vicarage Road.

“That was really too much,” José Holebas says. “I have never really lost a game like this before. It’s still in me, I’m thinking still of it. We had no chance, we didn’t know what to do, we didn’t stick to the plan, everybody was on his own, we didn’t act like a team, we were smashed. It will not happen again.”

A better plan, he says, is for his team to be bold.