Marco Silva broke his silence on Troy Deeney's three-match ban to say the Watford captain needed to set a better example to the club's younger players.

Deeney was given the retrospective ban after an FA panel found a charge of violent conduct proven, after he put his hands on the face of Joe Allen during Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Stoke City.

The 29-year-old is one of the eldest members of the Hornets' regular starting line-up, with only Heurelho Gomes and Jose Holebas in their 30s, something Silva thinks he should be using to pass on to the team's younger players.

He said: "I believe, and he knows, that as our captain and an experienced player he knows the Premier League and that he needs to be calm and pass it on for the younger players. He knows what I think about the situation.

"The style of play Stoke played did not make it the best to watch and so it’s not easy [to stay calm], but scoring is what we should be doing and we do not like this solution.

"I believe, and he knows, that as our captain and an experienced player he knows the Premier League and that he needs to be calm and pass it on for the younger players. He knows what I think about the situation."

Silva did not comment publicly on any of the injury-time incidents which have earned both sides a charge of failure to control their players after the game, but today eluded to another incident - apparently involving Andre Carrillo and Xherdan Shaqiri - which went unpunished.

He said: "I know the panel decided a three-match ban, I think after seeing the match not in the same way but something happened more during the match for the other player to be banned as well, when I saw one player push our player that could be a ban too.

"They try to make an example of everyone with Troy and we accept that."