The only thing that has really been consistent about Watford in the last couple of months has been their failure to be just that – consistent.

Since the start of September, the Hornets have played seven league fixtures and no two consecutive games have ended with the same outcome: lost, drawn, lost, won, lost, won, lost.

It’s a recipe for frustration and results in exactly the ‘two steps forward, one step back’ issue that Tom Cleverley highlighted last week.

“I can see how inconsistent we are as a team. We’re inconsistent at the basics,” he said.

“I’ve not stopped thinking about the performance on Saturday, and I go back to why can you do it at Millwall but not at Kenilworth Road?

“Two similar environments, two very similar playing styles.

“You go to the Eithad which is a massive challenge and a big psychological obstacle away from home, and give a very strong performance.

“But then at Deepdale, Carrow Road and Kenilworth Road, we’re inconsistent. It’s the basics.

“We were nowhere near it on Saturday.

“Is that the players now knowing about what to expect? Unless they had their eyes closed and their fingers in their ears during all the meetings, no.

“It’s absolutely not the reason.

“On Friday afternoon I sat down with Damon and asked him if I had over-roused the players, and am I about to over-rouse them with what I’m about to tell them.

“We can’t say they didn’t know. It’s just we are too inconsistent at the basics.”

The head coach spelled out what those basics were.

“It’s been a huge part of the inquest into the lack of performance, and at Luton we were outrun, outfought and they imposed their game plan on us, but we didn’t impose on them at all.

“We are inconsistent, and to gain consistency we have to go through a lot of repetition on the training ground.

“And me, as the coach, I have to try and pick the most consistent players in the group.”

As a player, Cleverley was always regarded as a model of consistency, someone you could rely on to be there even if the team as a whole wasn’t playing well.

“Some of my players have got more potential than I had as a player and I’ll openly admit that,” he said.

“I just had a level of the basics in football that I reached every single day.

“You have to train how you want to play, you have to apply everything in every single game.

“When I say basics I mean run, duels, second balls, set pieces, managing the game, managing the referee, communicating, and so on.

“I did those things exceptionally well as a player, and if you look at players like James Milner and Jordan Henderson, they have Premier League quality but they did those basics every day of their career.

“When you do that, it brings consistency to your performance.

“It means that on the days when you’re not at the races, you still are at the races.”

Is it possible to coach and train players to become more consistent though?

“I can make players better at the basics, and that then brings consistency,” Cleverley explained.

“Certainly that is the case with the younger players, by making sure they add value.

“There is no division anywhere in the world where the value of the basics is more important.

“It’s a process, it’s work on the training pitch and in the video room, and it’s the biggest criticism we have to take on the chin at the moment.

“We are not consistent enough to be successful in this league.”