Before Tuesday night’s cup tie against Manchester City, head coach Tom Cleverley said there were first-team shirts up for grabs for upcoming league games.
The Hornets have had a relatively unchanged league XI so far, but on the back of the drubbing at Norwich and an indifferent display against Coventry, the Watford boss opened the door for some of his squad at the Etihad – and several walked through it.
“I’ve made nine changes and it’s a performance that’s shown everyone in the squad is ready to step up,” he remarked.
“It’s been a very settled starting XI in the league at the minute, but the last two performances have been a little bit under par, and those players that want to show the best version of themselves certainly did that tonight.
“They’ve given me some good problems for the weekend.”
Having lost their early-season shine which had seen them win their first three league games, Watford needed to start doing what they did well in August against the might of the Premier League champions.
“You’ve got no option but to be structured and disciplined when you come to a place like this,” Cleverley said.
“You have to be hard-working and value defending your goal.
“Those were all the things we needed to see in our performance tonight, so I’m pleased.
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“The word we’ve been using is resilient and I think we showed that tonight, and we were disciplined.
“We made it hard for them and when they did break through us by showing their quality we put our bodies on the line.
“I’m proud of the players tonight.”
It was a performance and result that restored belief into a group of players who looked bereft of that quality at Carrow Road just a few days earlier.
“Definitely it does, yes,” said Cleverley.
“Belief, but it also reminds us that the basic art of defending will always be important at every level of the game.
“We just didn’t value it enough against Coventry and Norwich which you could see by the amount of big chances we conceded in those two games.”
It was only the 18th game of Cleverley’s career as a head coach, and he found himself up against one of the modern-day greats in the home dug-out: Pep Guardiola.
“In the 90-minute period you’re sort of so engrossed in what’s happening in the game that I just look after what’s happening with my team,” said the Watford boss.
“But when you strip it back and reflect, this time last year I was managing Watford Under-18s away at Fleetwood Town – and then yeah, it’s a long way that I’ve come in this short space of time.
“I think every young coach is inspired by Pep and how he has transformed football in this country and how dominant his team has been.
“It’s an honour for me to be on the touchline next to him.”
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