Experts often refer to muscle memory or an ingrained mentality when explaining why professionals in all walks of life often revert back to ways of working that had seemingly been dispensed with some time ago.
Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Hull City felt and looked very much like many of the home games the Vicarage Road faithful endured before Tom Cleverley took over.
A first-half where the Hornets appeared to spend – and waste - 45 minutes sussing their opponents out, displayed a little more intent after the break before finally showing some desire to go and take the points in the last half an hour.
Following on from the very tepid goalless draw with Preston two weeks earlier, it was concerning to see Watford not grasping the nettle and going for their visitors from the off.
After all, it was the penultimate chance to end the winless run at Vicarage Road which still stretches back to November 28.
“I’m not aiming this just at my group of players, it’s the same everywhere – you have to constantly remind people of the need to make things happen,” said Cleverley.
“Bad habits can be easy to fall back into.
“In my first two games we took the lead in the first half against Birmingham, and then took the lead in the first half against Leeds.
“In our home games since then against Preston and Hull, we’ve waited for something to happen without being the real driving force behind that.
“It’s a mentality that we will be on at the lads to develop, and put right.
“We huffed and puffed away in the first half and I don’t think we had any real intent.
“We certainly didn’t show the intent that we did in the last half an hour, when we attacked with a purpose and an intent to go and win the game.
“The challenge for us now is to keep the team motivated and to do that from minute one all way through to the end, especially at Vicarage Road where we are so desperate for that home win.”
It wasn’t like Watford didn’t have chances either.
“With the quality we have in the team, on any other day we score two or three,” Cleverley admitted.
“I was pleased with the big finish and the desire to go and win the game, and we’re playing against teams with probably bigger motivation than ours.
“So that desire and will to win was pleasing.
“I’ve been impressed with that for seven games now. We’ve played five of the top seven and we’re making every team we play against work as hard as possible to get points against us.
“But the key now is turning these draws into wins.”
One key stat was that of the 17 goals attempts Watford mustered, only two were on target.
“I’ll have absolutely no finger pointing on that,” said Cleverley.
“On other days our defenders might make a mistake and our strikers pull the game out of the bag.
“Over the course of the season your level is your level as a player, individually and as a team.
“So I want no finger pointing at our forwards today for their strike rate.
“They are quality players who will work hard to put it right, and I’m sure they can do.”
One comment Cleverley did agree with was that for the first hour or so, Watford attempted to be trying to score the ‘perfect goal’ rather than having a shot when the opportunity arose.
“Yeah, until the subs came on,” he said.
“I thought Ken, Jeremy and Mileta gave us a real purpose and a bit more killer instinct when we did get in those areas.
“We were either finishing with a cross or a shot or an attempt of some sort.
“Before that we were very much showing good play in good areas without really having that killer instinct.”
An extremely pernickety performance from referee Ben Toner, who seemed to dislike any form of contact, meant the game was punctuated with a lot of needless free kicks and consequently disrupted any pattern.
The official also didn’t award Watford penalties on two occasions when they appeared to have valid claims.
“He was a bit stop-start, and he got in the way a couple of times, but it is what it is,” said Cleverley.
“The ones I am disappointed about are firstly the handball in the box, because their player’s hand definitely wasn’t by his side although he was trying to get it there, but the ball catches his hand when it’s raised.
“And then the other one is the clip on Yaser Asprilla.
“That is promoting players to have go down to win a penalty. He’s tried staying on his feet as he’s an honest lad, and he’s not got the foul for it.
“Having said that, we’re looking at ourselves. We’ve not been hard done by like we were last week at Southampton.”
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