The arrival of Paul Robinson as Tom Cleverley’s assistant coach is starting to bear fruit already.
The highly-popular no-nonsense defender never shirked anything during his 252 appearances for the Hornets, and his first game in the dug-out at Luton will have hurt the Watford man more than most.
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He’s now had time to start getting his coaching into the squad, and Cleverley says Robbo will play a key part in getting the away performances up to standard.
“You can create a certain amount of scenarios on the training ground, but one thing you can’t do is build a stadium and put a load of opposing fans in there,” the Watford boss smiled.
“I think the introduction of Robbo, and him getting his teeth into the team, has seen an improvement already.
“He was sort of observing at Luton and Leeds, but now we’re seeing the improvements he has made at set pieces and the defensive qualities he brings should stand us in good stead to make us more hard to beat away from home.
“Robbo has filled the holes in our staff in exactly the right places.”
While formations, patterns of play and set pieces can easily be worked on out on the grass, becoming a better team on the road is something that involves getting into players’ minds according to Cleverley.
“It’s really the mindset approach, and not only away from home but to back up a good result with more good results,” he explained.
“You can’t be in a comfort zone where you come off the back of a win and think we don’t really need to win the next one.
“No, in this league you have to be at it in every single performance.
“Apart from the first three of the season I’m not sure when we last had back-to-back wins.
“We have to be at it again at Sheffield Wednesday.
“Footballers have very short memories and so you need constant reminders, plus a little bit of a different mindset and approach on the day.”
Cleverley saw Wednesday play in midweek.
“I went to their cup tie against Brentford on Tuesday, and they made changes but played in a similar style as they usually do,” he said.
“They have a really good young manager and his team were super organised, and there is no real obvious weakness of where to break them down.
“They’re an athletic team with real pace in some areas of the pitch.
“Barry Bannan is a player I’ve known for a long time, and we know if you let him control a football match then he will.”
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