Out of the squad, but not out of sight or out of mind.

Daniel Jebbison was not part of the team or on the bench at Leeds United on Tuesday night, but head coach Tom Cleverley says he will do everything he can to try and help the striker to find some confidence and form.

The Bournemouth loanee has made six appearances since arriving right at the end of the summer transfer window, but they have totalled only 236 minutes.

He has mustered only four attempts at goal, only one of which was on target, and has touched the ball just 60 times.

Cleverley said he took the striker out on Tuesday to give Mamadou Doumbia a chance while Jebbison could work on his confidence levels.

“That’s the beauty of football, you have every single day to get better and prove your coach wrong,” said the Watford boss.

“When a player is left out by myself it’s not like he’s at the back of my mind or he’s put to one side.

“Every player who is out of the team I will give absolutely everything to in order to help them improve, and also make sure they have a fair chance of getting in the team.

“What you have to give back as a player is 100% every single day.

“We’ve only had one full training session since the game on Tuesday and Jebbison has responded well so far, and we will work hard at improving his game.”

There is always a balance to be struck between taking a struggling player out of the spotlight, and denting their already low self-belief by not picking them.

“It is every coach’s balancing act because a lot of players improve with rhythm and playing minutes, but then you will have three or four players in the same position who would also say the same thing,” Cleverley pointed out.

“It’s a balance that, as a coach, you have to try to get right and we signed Jebbison for many good reasons: his pace and his finishing for example.

“But there are aspects of his game that we need to improve. We’ve identified them and we are working hard with him on them.

“One thing I will give him is he is always trying to improve his game, but he’s just going through a period of trying too hard with a lack of confidence.

“If he keeps doing the right things and showing good attitude then he’ll get out of this patch.”