Having won their first trio of league games, the 4-1 drubbing at Norwich today made it three without a victory and head coach Tom Cleverley said he now faced his biggest test as a coach so far as he battles to turn things back around.
Watford were in fine form as they scooped up nine points in the opening three fixtures, but since then they were poor in defeat at Sheffield United, were second best for 45 minutes against Coventry and today were bossed for most of the 90 minutes at Carrow Road.
“My biggest test as a coach is certainly how we respond to this, and how we get better from it,” Cleverley conceded.
- Norwich 4 Watford 1 – how the game unfolded
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“I’ve always operated in high-pressure and high-stress environments, and I know exactly how to respond to a setback.
“The obvious place to start is the start of the game again.
“We’re coming to a team who possibly had a slow start to the season, and yet we don’t give ourselves a chance to let the environment become fragile and unsettled.
“It is something we have to keep working at to put right.”
With the Canaries breaking the deadlock after three minutes – and it could have been even earlier had Josh Sargent not been denied by Dan Bachmann – the longest Watford have held out from kick-off in their last four Championship fixtures is a paltry four minutes.
“It’s something we are going to have to look long and hard into,” admitted the head coach.
“I’m preparing this team, from a logistics point of view, in the same way as when I played 180-odd times for the club.
“It is something that is happening on the field and we will continue to work hard to put it right.
“We won’t stop until it does.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before. It’s very strange.
“It’s not just goals in the first 10 minutes, it goals in two or three minutes. They could have had one before they actually scored today.
“There is something that needs to change in preparation and/or game plan for the first 10 minutes.”
It wasn’t just the first half either, as any hopes Watford had of getting back into the game largely evaporated nine minutes after the restart when Norwich scored to make it 3-1.
“Yeah it is concerning because last week we could have conceded straight after half-time as well,” said Cleverley.
“It’s a big concern, the way we are approaching the start of halves.
“Me and the staff, and the senior players, have to go and look at it, and then put it right.”
Other than being dreadful in the first few minutes of each half, what else did Cleverley identify as being major issues?
“Game management is a big part of where we start to dissect this,” he said.
“Key moments we’re just not managing well enough and certainly the second goal is the one where, without having watched the game back, I can start to know clearly where we can put it right.”
On his full debut, striker Daniel Jebbison missed a chance from almost on the goalline in the first half.
“Yes those moments we aren’t managing well enough, whether it’s pieces of quality, whether it’s cool heads or whether it’s inexperience.
“The big moments in games we are just not managing well enough.”
To cap a truly miserable day there was also the very rare sight of two substitutions inside the first quarter of an hour as first Francisco Sierralta and then Bachmann left the field.
“Both look like muscular issues, and with those we need to wait a couple of days to see how bad they are,” said the Watford boss.
