Tom Cleverley likes to break the season down into blocks of games, which are conveniently formed by the international breaks – and his assessment of the most recent set of results was ‘average’.

The Hornets played five league games, winning two, losing two and drawing one, while they also gave a very good account of themselves in the Carabao Cup at Manchester City.

“If you sum up the second block of games I’d say it’s an average points return,” said Cleverley.

“Some people may hear the word average and feel it’s a negative, but I’d say it’s slap bang in the middle of where we should be.

“When you get seven points from five games and you’ve played Middlesbrough, who will be top six, Coventry, who I think will eventually be top ten, Sunderland, who are top of the league, and Norwich, who have won their last four, then I feel like seven is not the worst points return the block of games.”

What has emerged from block two of the season are a pair of key areas that now need attention.

“We’ve really identified our away form as a problem, having fixed the issue we had with the first five minutes of games,” the head coach explained.

“The away form is an issue, as well as the fact that 14 goals conceded at this stage being too many.

“Those two areas have clearly become areas to address.

“Now, when I am talking about 14 goals conceded I’m saying that as a team. I’m not looking at the back three or the goalkeeper – it’s a team issue.

“They are the two things we need to now look at, but if you’d told me a team tipped for relegation at the start of the season would bring in and spend what we did in the summer and be top six after nine games, then I would have taken it.”

The major disappointment in recent weeks was the extremely poor performance in the 3-0 defeat at Preston, a match where most would have expected Watford to collect something.

“It’s dangerous, as you know, to try and predict because each game has its own challenges, but I was really, really disappointed with the approach to the game,” Cleverley admitted.

“We didn’t play and approach the game like a team that has ambitions of being in the top six.

“We were waiting for things to happen rather than going and making them happen.

“I don’t think we were roughed up, but whereas at Vicarage Road we play with a real demand to perform and be front footed, we’ve not shown that same demand.

“That may be because we haven’t got all our supporters there demanding it of us, but we have to approach away games in a much better way. We need to show a more mature approach.

“There is a fine balance between setting up not to concede and becoming too negative.

“We just had no ambition to control the ball at Preston, and we were lack-lustre in all areas.”

Cleverley has talked recently of the Hornets taking a step in the right direction but then being pushed back a step.

“It was so disappointing because we had beaten Sunderland and taken a big step forward, but then we get knocked back a step,” he said.

“Now we’ve taken a huge step forward against Middlesbrough, who for me are the best team we’ve played this season.

“We have to back that up now. Four of our next five games are away from home, so now more than ever we need to address that problem.”