Troy Deeney could be fit to feature in Saturday's Watford squad to face Liverpool, but head coach Marco Silva has hinted he may not use Andre Gray's arrival to switch to a two-man attack at Vicarage Road.

The few question marks over Gray's arrival have largely revolved around the future of fellow striker Troy Deeney, given Silva's preference to play with a lone striker during spells with his previous clubs.

And while he did not rule out the possibility of a partnership between Gray and the Hornets' top scorer last season, the head coach was a long way from giving guarantees over including both in his starting line-up.

He said: "Troy Deeney is progressing well. He’s not 100% with the team, but yesterday did part of the session with us and today was part of the group. In the next few days he should be ready to start full training with us.

"It was not a serious operation, and when he comes back he will be in good fitness and we’ll see if he’s ready for Liverpool, we have another session tomorrow.

"Of course we work during pre-season with one system and it’s the system I’ve played during my career. We have one idea. Even if we play only one striker it’s impossible to prepare for a season with two strikers only, we need more strikers in our squad.

"It’s important come injuries and I want competition in the training sessions to make me make a decision. There are a lot of games in some months as well and we need solutions."

On the plus side for Silva's 29-year-old talisman, the head coach confirmed he will remain as captain for next season - and, amid speculation during the summer, is hopeful of keeping him at Vicarage Road come the end of the transfer window.

He said: "Of course I see him staying. He’s our player, our captain, and so I hope we will keep him in our squad, and I hope we can keep him. I’m confident in him staying in our squad.

"Troy will be our captain. Last time I spoke, because my English is not the best, and I said I didn’t have any reason to change. He’s our captain, like Ben Watson is our vice-captain and so is Heurelho Gomes, and I have no reason to have any changes with that."