Watford boss Tom Cleverley makes 'harsh' claim and Coventry City prediction
Tom Cleverley reckons Coventry City will be “in and around” the play-off mix come the end of the season after seeing Frank Lampard’s men beat his Watford side 2-1 at the CBS Arena.
The Hornets’ boss has seen his players hit a patchy spell of inconsistency just as his old England teammate has begun to stamp his mark on the Sky Blues with a positive run of results. Asked if it was a bad time for his players to catch Coventry, now seemingly on the up, he said: “Yeah, they seem to have got some consistency with a system that is working for them. They look solid at the back and he’s (Lampard) found a shape where they can get two of their strikers – and he’s got great strikers to pick from – and he’s found a system to that’s working for them, to get both of them in.
“For me, it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing at the minute, just what version of us turns up because we seem to show our best against the best teams and have been really quite flat against teams down near the bottom.”
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He added: “They (Coventry) are in a good moment. I think that’s three wins on the trot now and they’re a squad that has quality, and even quality when they are missing Mason-Clark, Haji Wright and Ben Sheaf. So it’s a good squad and one I expect to be in and around he play-off mix come the end of the season.”
Picking the bones out of the two goals his side conceded, the first from a Jack Rudoni cross that was hit home by Victor Torp from six yards out, he said: “Yes, that goal disappoints me. I thought we had enough players at source to stop the cross and enough in the box to defend a bit tighter than we did, so that goal disappoints me.”
As for the second, an arcing free-kick over the wall, he disputed the fact that the referee moved the set-piece forward five yards to the edge of the D after a first kick was judged to have been handled.
“The second goal seemed very harsh,” he said. “I have not seen it back but to blow up for handball, I feel he blew his whistle before it even happened.”
He added: “I don’t think we were that solid in the first half when we gave up too much territory to them, too many corners and we are going through a feeling out process at the start of games. And at this level you just can’t do that.”
