Alertness the key to stopping the flow of early goals conceded
After the defeat at QPR on Wednesday, Tom Cleverley talked about the need to change approach in away games to ‘how do we not get beat’ from ‘how do we win this game’.
With the next fixture being a home game against Sheffield United, is he considering a change of approach that considers ‘how do we not concede early’?
The Hornets have been behind inside the first 10 minutes of both their last two matches at Vicarage Road, and have conceded a goal in that period four times in total at home in the league.
“It is a really close balance, and I appreciate these are really negative sounding things we’re saying: let’s not get beat, let’s not concede,” he replied.
“I don’t think that’s the attitude which has got us to eighth in the table with a game in hand and showing a real improvement from last season.
“It’s not the mindset I want, but what I would say is that we can be more alert in the way we approach games.
“We had this problem earlier in the season, we got through it and why it’s risen it’s head again I don’t know because we’ve not done anything different.
“From my point of view, I know we can do a bit more.”
Having let in a goal after 10 minutes and then 58 seconds in their previous two games, Watford survived for only five minutes at Loftus Road.
“The first goal at QPR was a big moment,” admitted Cleverley.
“I saw a team that was flat-footed and while I can maybe excuse that in the 85th minute when mental fatigue plays a part, after five minutes to be that flat-footed defending a set piece is a wake-up call for us all.
“If you look at the first goal on Wednesday you don’t see a group of our players that are on their toes and absolutely alert, and that is the mental side of the game.
“If you look back over the goals we’re conceding, in all parts of games, a lot are coming from crosses.
“So we will do a big piece of work in video meetings – we have done some already and we will do more in the hotel tonight.
“When we get more time on the training pitch we will be spending more time on how we defend our box better.”
One thing the Hornets are not protecting now is their unbeaten run at home, which Cardiff ended.
“It means a bit less distraction to be honest,” Cleverley conceded.
“Every game is still worth three points and you try and focus on the individual game plan for each match, but there was a lot of noise around the record on top of everything else.
“Now that noise has gone and we want to create an even better record, and we do that game by game.
“The noise surrounding home games now is just us against them.”
