Unbeaten in five, three clean sheets and a point taken off two of the top three in the Championship – but Tom Cleverley is hungry for more.
He now wants to go and win at Southampton on Saturday, but admitted he may have to rotate his squad again in order to achieve that aim.
“We’re putting small markers down: the draw against Leeds, the draw away at West Brom and now the draw at Ipswich,” said Cleverley.
“Now we want to put one big marker down and win away at Southampton. That’s the challenge.
“There might be changes to freshen it up a bit on Saturday.
“We’ll have a night less to recover than Southampton but we should take a lot of belief there having played Leeds, West Brom and Ipswich, and gone unbeaten.”
With a tweak to the formation at Portman Road, one player who missed out was Emmanuel Dennis.
However, Cleverley said that was part tactical and part physical.
“It wasn’t a massive change of shape,” he said.
“Obviously we’ve kept the back three and the wing backs, still had the two in midfield, but we tweaked the front three with only one No.9.
“Dennis has had this groin issue that meant we thought it was too big of an ask to play Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.
“I thought Giorgi came in and did well, and that gives us nice selection problems for Saturday.”
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It was obvious Cleverley was extremely happy with his side’s performance at Ipswich.
“The things I’m most pleased with are the fight and the spirit, and they are the absolute bare minimum,” he stressed.
“That’s sometimes been a question asked of this group of players, even when I was a player.
“What isn’t questioned is the quality and ability we have, and if we can combine the two then I think we have an exciting time ahead.
“It was a really pleasing performance, and as a coach you know if you have a solid base at the back to work from you’ve got a strong foundation.”
Quite clearly three clean sheets in five games is, indeed, a strong foundation – but Watford have also failed to score twice in a row.
“We’re still trying to find the balance of the team, and in the last two games we’ve probably not been as threatening as we’d like – but we’ve been solid.
“We were expansive against Leeds and West Brom, creating chances and then in the last two games it’s gone the other way a bit – so it’s our job to find the sweet spot in the middle where we’re doing it at both ends.”
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