When an away team has 58% of possession, successfully completes 376 passes – 159 more than their hosts – but the stats also show they didn’t achieve one accurate cross in the entire game, then something is going wrong.

And although Watford had 10 attempts on goal at Stoke on Saturday, only three of those were on target.

The ratio was even worse seven days earlier, when just three of 21 goal attempts against Plymouth were on target.

Notwithstanding the well-known lack of options in the No.9 position, those numbers do not make encouraging reading when it comes to turning possession into points.

Head coach Valerien Ismael was very quick to answer when asked what was going wrong in the final third.

“Decision making,” he replied. “We were hectic in the final third.

“I don’t know how many times Ryan Andrews got blocked. In the last two games every time he comes in the opponents’ penalty area he gets blocked.

“So that is decision making and he needs to learn. He is a young lad and 18 years old. But he needs to learn something, because we start to see the same pattern. We will work with him.

“The positioning in the box is another area of clear decision making.

“At least in the last half an hour on we saw actually where we are. This is us, this is how we want to play, this is what I want to see from my team, but it’s not enough to just play 30 minutes or 45 minutes if you are going to win a game.”

There was a feeling that Watford might have deserved a point, but it wasn’t something Ismael subscribed to.

“I think what we deserve is the criticism that we didn’t perform for 90 minutes,” he said.

“The result at the end is always the performance that you put into the game. There are no guarantees though. Last week we played very good against Plymouth and we drew, but should have won.

“Today we lost and we lost because we didn’t perform. Stoke wanted it more than us in some periods of the game, especially in the first half.

“So then you have to accept it. But it is only matchday number three, and we have a long, long journey in front of us.

“But the guys need to learn, and they need to learn quickly. Today was a comeback down to earth, and shows we have to work on the basics like attitude, mentality.

“When these are right we have chances to create opportunities to score goals.

“That is what we have to do, learn from this game.

“It’s tough in this league but that’s no surprise. The season won’t be an easy run for anyone, and we have to make sure that we are ready to compete in every game.”

With so much change over the summer, in terms of personnel, tactics and approach, one thing Ismael does feel positive about is that he has already seen signs of the squad understanding what he asks, and being able to deliver it.

“I think we saw already that we are able to gel. The first two games and even the cup game was everything right with the performance,” said the head coach.

“Even in the second half today, after we conceded the goal, we saw what we expected from our team.

“The first half was a setback, a part of the process unfortunately. It’s more that the opponent can do everything they want against us – there’s no excuse, we have to be ready to compete.

“In the first half Stoke showed how it is when you have the desire to win the second balls and to stay disciplined. Then you need players who take risks and take ownership and are brave with the ball.

“That is what you need to do to compete. If you compete better then you create more chances, and then there is more chance that you score a goal.

“You have no guarantees that you will win a game but at least you get the feeling you are under control, and in the first half we were never in that position.

“It’s the basic tools, they are non-negotiable. We know that we will lose games along the way, but the basics are just not negotiable.”