Everyone at Watford must react to Preston game – Cleverley.
Failure to take big chances, lack of competitiveness against the physical challenges the home side posed, poor marking in their own box and – worst of all – too many individuals having a bad night at the same time meant the Hornets finished well beaten by a team who had only scored one goal at home in the league before last night.
“As the coach of Watford, I’m focussing on that we need to compete much better when we come away from home,” said Cleverley.
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“If you don’t win the battle then you have to absolutely dominate the ball and we didn’t do either of those this evening.
“Everyone in the club has to react and luckily we have a game in two days and a chance to do exactly that.”
After a fairly even first half, North End went up a gear in the second 45 minutes, and Watford failed to match them.
“It’s going to be a competitive game when you come to Deepdale, we all know, and that’s not being disrespectful to them because they played some good stuff as well,” Cleverley pointed out.
“But they’re a team that values that side of the game, and I didn’t think we were aggressive enough or intense enough this evening.
“If you don’t do that you can still win games – you make it difficult for yourself but you can win games by being busy on the ball, and everyone wanting to take the ball.
“We just didn’t show enough character in possession.”
The Hornets had a glorious chance to take the lead when Kwadwo Baah was sent clear but hit his shot straight at keeper Freddie Woodman.
“Big moments swing games, and there was that one and a chance for Ebosele just before half time that was a bit more of a half chance,” said Cleverley.
“They’re key chances, and we missed key chances at significant times.
“That shouldn’t mask what we need to address though, as it was a generally poor performance.”
Vakoun Bayo, who started the game on the bench, was presented with the perfect chance at 2-0 to lift the cloud that has hung over him of late, but with only Woodman to beat he shot wide.
“That’s a chance I don’t want to dwell on,” said Cleverley.
“Missed chances are not the reason why we’ve lost the game.”
Having been soundly beaten at Norwich in their last away game, this was a great chance to put that behind them – but the Watford players didn’t ever seem in the right place to do so.
Was there a problem with mindset going into the game?
“Obviously that starts with me, and so I’ll evaluate how I’m setting the team up away from home and the balance of the team, the mindset and the game plan,” said the Watford boss.
“It all needs addressing now because it’s not good enough away from home.
“I’ll watch the game back and re-evaluate it all.”
