Yahoo Sport 
'Players have the ball for 2.5 minutes: what are you doing for the other 92.5?'
In an age where so many professional players enjoy and share their highlights on YouTube, the question coaches have to ask them is what are you delivering during the rest of the game?
Tom Cleverley talked more today about what he wants to see from the likes of Kwadwo Baah and Rocco Vata if, as many hope, they are to become permanent fixtures in the Watford line-up.
The duo combined for Watford’s equaliser at Hull on Wednesday night but they have only been on the pitch at the same time for a total of 88 minutes this season.
“We’re talking about two players with incredible potential when they have the ball at their feet,” said Cleverley.
“It’s normal for a young player to not be perfect out of possession, or maybe not put as high a value on that.
“That generation of player has grown up in the generation of YouTube highlights.
“I don’t know the stat perfectly but it’s something like every player has the ball for 2.5 minutes in every 95 minutes – so what are you doing for other 92.5?
“I’m not hitting them with the same old stick because they are matchwinners, the pair of them.
“But my job is to improve them in the other 92.5 minutes, and then we really do have something that looks like a complete football player.”
The Hornets head coach drew on his own recent experience as a player to explain further.
“As a player, I gave myself completely to the team and sacrificed myself completely to the team,” he recalled.
“I’d never ever want to take away the match-winning part of the game from our players, and I’m not asking them to be up and down, up and down, and be tired when it comes to match-winning actions.
“But there is a balance somewhere in the middle.
“For example, from 60 minutes on Wednesday night we looked exciting and a team that’s more likely to score, but we conceded eight chances in 30 minutes.
“That is the balancing act that I have as a coach: we looked more dangerous but so did Hull.
“And so that is where I need to try and make us meet in the middle somewhere.
“When you’ve lost six out of nine away games, that plays a part in my thinking.
“I never, ever want my team to be a boring team to watch, and that will never be the case.
“But sometimes you just have to be a bit smart.”
Cleverley stressed that a team full of players like himself would be very solid and strong, but lack that bit of magic which wins games.
“My job is to improve players in areas where I feel they can be improved,” he pointed out.
“I was a player that never had that match-winning moment in me. At Premier League level certainly I didn’t have that match-winning moment.
“I fully understood that you couldn’t have 11 of me in the team, you had to have two or three that can produce that spark.
“We’re lucky enough to have those, and my job in terms of development is to improve the areas of their game where I can see they can improve.
“When we do that with our younger match-winners, I feel like they can be very complete football players.
“These are good professionals and good people. They want to do well for this football club.
“It’s not a case of laziness or being oblivious to it, it’s just me giving them an understanding of that part of the game.”
