Oscar Garcia has told Watford fans he plans to play attacking football – just like he insists he did with Albion.

The former Seagulls boss has spoken for the first time since taking over at Vicarage Road.

And he has hit back at suggestions he encouraged a conservative playing style at the Amex.

Oscar said a shortage of fit strikers hindered him last term.

He said: “It is good for me to work with strikers because last season we struggled in this position because we had a lot of injuries and it was difficult for us.

“That is the reason we tried to keep the ball more because we knew it was difficult for us to score goals, because we had a lot of chances in all the games but to score was so hard for us.

“But now I think, at this club, with the strikers we will have, I want to think about improving other things.”

Oscar lost Leo Ulloa for much of the first half of last season while Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins were also long-term absentees.

Oscar added: “I think we played attacking football last season but, obviously, when you don’t have a striker to put the ball in the net, you can play a lot of attacking football but if you don’t score it looks like you don’t play like this.

“I came from a philosophy to always play attacking football.”

Oscar will be joined by coach Ruben Martinez, who was also with him at Albion and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

They face the Seagulls on October 4.

Oscar said: “I have a lot of friends there (at Albion) and we had a full crowd at every game.

“We played good football and achieved a place in the play-offs.

“It’s not easy to get into the play-offs two seasons in a row but we did that. I am very proud of the job we did there.

“What we want to do is to win the game. After that we will shake hands but that will happen only after the game.”

Albion have cut ticket prices by £5 for Bronze and Young Seagulls Plus members for home games against Middlesbrough and Wigan in the coming weeks.

Young Seagulls accompanied by an adult can buy tickets for the Boro game for £1.

Full details are available at seagulls.co.uk