Three days after the heaviest defeat of his fledgling career as a head coach and a trip to face possibly the best club side in the world beckons for Tom Cleverley.
While managers and players always say the best way to get a bad performance out of your system is to play another game, they are not always faced with the monumental task of travelling to face Manchester City.
While a fixture so soon after the 4-1 defeat at Norwich City means focus moves on quickly, could Watford have done with it being against anybody other than the Citizens?
“Yes and no,” said Cleverley.
“I’ve actually enjoyed the preparation for this game because, like you say, it completely wipes the memory of Norwich very quickly and you don’t dwell on that result.
“And it’s not been an ideal preparation for them, and I think they’ll have to make 11 changes.
“They had a massive game yesterday, both emotionally and physically.
“I would assume they will change their entire team, it’s just not physically possible to play a big game against Inter last week, big game against Arsenal, huge game against Newcastle this coming weekend, and to ask their players to go again 48 hours after Sunday.
“I’m not sure if they will load the bench. They could treat it as a complete rest day for the players who have three big games either side of this Carabao Cup game.
“Or he could go strong on the bench, I’m not sure.
“If it’s Under-21s, if it’s fringe players, if it’s first-team players, they’ll all be technically very good and unbelievably well coached.
“Whoever they put out, it’ll be a big test for us.
“Plus you’d like to think our players will up their levels because of where they’re going and how focussed and disciplined we’ll need to be without the ball.
“I think it’s the kind of test we need right now, to show the character required without the ball and that we do have that real structured discipline that we showed at the end of last season.”
With three players who played at Carrow Road ruled out, and a week ahead where nine league points are on offer in seven days, is this a cup tie Watford could have done without?
“No I don’t think so,” said the Watford boss.
“We’ll obviously make changes as well and where our first XI has been fairly settled because of a good run of form, the last two performances have not been as strong.
“There are shirts available to go and grab in our first XI now, and it’s a good test for players coming in tomorrow night.
“It might not be an in-possession game for us where players can flourish and show what they can do with the ball, but if we show grit, determination and discipline then there are first-team shirts to be grabbed.
“I said after Saturday, we have a big week coming up. Weeks where you are playing for nine points are pivotal, and places in the team for those are there to be earned.”
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