'Freshness through the door' will help lift Watford says Cleverley
Tom Cleverley agreed fans would be right to question why Watford only went on the attack late in the 1-1 draw at Cardiff – but said the reasons behind it will be helped greatly if new players arrive.
Vakoun Bayo’s 87th-minute equaliser was the Hornets first on-target goal attempt of the night, and one of only four efforts at goal in the entire game from the visitors.
The head coach said he would have no problem with fans asking why it took his side so long to start contributing to the game, but also explained that the run of recent defeats and lack of options within his squad forced his hand.
“The first half certainly wasn’t the best game you’ll ever see,” he conceded.
“The second half was a bit more exciting and the last 15 or 20 minutes we really gave it a go.
“That will lead many people – and rightly so – to ask why don’t we go for it a bit earlier.
“But I think the last five games have been the reason for that.
“If we commit bodies forward we just have too many vulnerabilities at the back.
“We’re in a moment where I would agree that freshness through the door will certainly help us.”
Cleverley had said before the game that keeping a clean sheet in an away game – which tonight’s result means Watford still haven’t done since April 11 – was a key aim.
Little surprise, then, that the Hornets weren’t expansive: however, they took it beyond the realms of reasonable by offering next to nothing going forward.
“Approaching the game we knew that to get a foothold in it and give ourselves a chance was the main priority,” he said.
“Now we had all our focus on that and forgot to do the things we’re good at.
“I take some responsibility for that because of the way we approached the game, but when we see the same pattern over and over again in the last five games then I had to change drastically.
“I didn’t enjoy watching us in the first half and if you’re going to go down in a game, you’d rather go down fighting.
“It didn’t sit comfortably with me, that first half.
“It does give us a better chance of keeping clean sheets but I don’t think it gives us a better chance of winning football matches.”
With Cardiff scrapping down at the foot of the table, it all combined to create the footballing equivalent of root canal surgery.
Cleverley felt, though, his side had the quality to rise above it but failed to.
“I think we’re better than that in transition,” he reflected.
“When we’re sitting a mid to low block, we have players like Baah and Chakvetadze to really hurt teams.
“We can hurt teams in transition, but tonight we couldn’t put one or two passes together or couldn’t get away from our men.
“We didn’t show any of our qualities really with the ball, so I changed a little bit to go more aggressive and then a lot more aggressive when we went to a four.
“The moment we’re in, when I do that we lose our defensive stability and that is the state we’re in at the minute.
“We can’t fully commit to being something and expect to be better than the others.
“We have to really and try to get that balance in between and, with a lack of confidence in a few players, we’re going through a bit of a patch.”
