Massed ranks of travelling fans deserved chance to see best players
It was still 2-1 on Thursday night when Watford were preparing to bring on Giorgi Chakvetadze and Kwadwo Baah.
But as the Hornets were loading their big guns, the home side sunk their battleship by scoring a third.
At 2-1, there was a chance that the pace, power and threat of the two subs could retrieve the situation. At 3-1, it was much less likely.
Did Tom Cleverley consider not making those two changes in the wake of Fulham adding a third goal?
“Yes, is the answer to that,” he replied.
“Do you risk your best players for a game that seemed like it was out of our grasp?
“It was a decision I had to make but there’s risk attached with everything in football, from every training session upwards.
“Our supporters, who had travelled in massive numbers, I felt deserved to see our best players, so I stuck with my decision.”
The plan was quite clear – try to be close enough to the home side that when the flair players were introduced they had the chance to make a difference.
“It was a little bit like the Man City game in that we were trying to stay in the game until the deeper minutes, and then bring on fresh legs that could really be effective when you’re playing a transition style of game,” said Cleverley.
“To concede two and three, and then the game be out of our hands going into those later minutes, was disappointing.
“I thought the game plan was executed perfectly in the first half and then the 20 minutes into the second half after half-time killed us.”
While causing an upset and progressing to the Fourth Round for only the second time since the 2019 FA Cup Final would have been nice, that has to be put to the back of minds with a crucial league game at Cardiff on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate that all our hard work we’ve put in during the first half of the season doesn’t unravel,” said Cleverley.
“So first and foremost I think this FA Cup game has been a nice break from the league, to get that little bubble of negativity we were in put to one side.
“We were able to reflect a little bit as a group – a group which was tipped to be in the bottom six at the start of the season based on where we finished last season and the players we lost in the summer.
“Now, as a group, everyone’s expectations have raised and maybe we can burst into the top six.
“We have come a long way and had a little period to reflect on that, and now it’s all about rolling our sleeves up, staying together, trying to improve our squad in the market and attacking the second half of the season.”
