‘GIVE the good players the football’ is Tennai Watson’s approach to his role in the Barnsley team this season.

Many Reds fans would say the right-back is one of the good players as he has completed more than 90 per cent of his passes and earned rave reviews in his six appearances since signing a one-year contract last month.

The former Reading, MK Dons and Charlton Athletic man has been playing behind two of the major creative forces in the team in right-winger Caylan Vickers and attacking midfielder Adam Phillips who also drifts over to that flank.

Watson told the Chronicle: “Give the good players the football. That’s it.

“Sometimes I will get forward but, when you see players with that much quality in front of you, it gives you the ability to not have to get involved every time and cramp them.

“It’s about me learning and refining that ability to pinpoint the good times to go forward.”

Watson’s role is very different to that of left-back Nathanael Ogbeta who has been extremely attacking.

“Clearly we have different instructions and different roles to play within the team.

“It suits both of us, we have different attributes.

“When I spoke to Conor (Hourihane, head coach) before I came here, that was made very clear.

“Different managers want different things.

“I have played similar roles to this.

“I have played in a lot of different positions in my career, one of them being the right centre-back role.

“This is a kind of a hybrid between that, full-back and wing-back at times.

“I enjoy it, I think it brings out the best in the team and also in me.”

Watson signed for Barnsley a week into the season then they had a game every Saturday and every midweek until the international break at the start of this month.

“The break has been nice.

“One, for the body.

“It’s good to have a week to recover. But also on a personal note to try to get a bit more understanding and learning.

“Training is where you make mistakes and try things.

“It’s been real good to build more relationships.”

Although Watson is among the older players in the squad at 28, he says he has learned a lot under Conor Hourihane and his assistant Richard Keogh.

“You never stop learning.

“It sounds like a cliche but that’s the way I look at football and attack it.

“I don’t want to overspeak but I feel Conor and his staff are very similar.

‘They always want to try something that is going to improve us and make the boys learn.

“My two main outtakes are the timing of joining in attacks and the second thing is probably the way that we defend.

“Keesy does a lot of work with the back four and of course the gaffer does as well.

“There are small details in body shape, the timing of when you get up or drop, how they want it to look in certain moments.

“Where are you when there is a channel ball or a ball into the centre-back?

“When I’ve got the ball out wide, where is everyone else?

“I have picked up positional things in the first couple of weeks which have been really important.”