The players within the Watford squad who have let their standards fall over the last few weeks should know exactly who they are.
Tom Cleverley said he has discussed with the group about the level of performances that have led to four successive defeats.
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However, within the squad there are players who have not let their levels slip – but the others who have should, he believes, know it for themselves.
“The club needs a result in the last game of the season, but I need to see who is ready to go on this journey with me,” he said.
“That was my message to the players.
“I know exactly what elite looks like and the last three or four weeks has been far from it.
“When I address the players I have to address them as a group. Some players fall into that category of knowing what elite looks like, and some fall way short of it.
“I think they’re smart enough to know who is and isn’t.”
Does that suggest that some players have not been pulling their weight in training in between the matches?
“No and that’s why I’m disappointed,” Cleverley replied.
“I see a group that train hard, and if I didn’t I simply wouldn’t accept it on the training field during the week.
“But when the lights are on it’s like a boxer – when you’re hit in the face, how do you respond?
“When you’re away from home and you concede at 1-1, how do you respond to that?
“These players show me how good they are in training every day, but we froze in the first half today and didn’t play any sort of football.
“When it’s your off day, do you know how to grind out a result?
“It looks like I’m really going to have to pass on my knowledge and experience of that.
“I said to a few of the staff before the game that the last time we played at Blackburn we were poor but we had enough players on that elite level to win the game.
“I need to pass that knowledge and experience down.
“If you look at a team like Bristol City, before Saturday they had only won one more game than us but they had drawn eight more than we have.
“That shows you on their off days, they are able to come away from games like this with a point.
“We’re just not capable of doing that. If we had nine more draws this season from tight games, when we’re having our off days, we’d be right in the thick of it.
“When we have our off days we just don’t know how to get a result.”
The Hornets have scored a mere five goals in their last eight games.
“We have had a problem with scoring goals for a long time now, and it’s a big ask for young Mamadou to lead the line but he has been doing great,” said Cleverley.
“For a club of our size in his first season in English football, it’s a big ask of him to lead the line.
“Before the last five or six games we were just managing to keep it really tight at the back, but now that’s given way a bit we’re on the wrong side of these defeats.”
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