It worked very well at Sheffield Wednesday, but the issues with playing a back four returned at Swansea.
Watford have been a back-three team for most of the seasons, and the odd flirtation with a change of shape hadn’t delivered a great deal until the 6-2 romp at Hillsborough.
It was, therefore, understandable that the Hornets stayed that way in Wales, but very quickly it was apparent it wasn’t working anywhere near as well as it did just a few days earlier.
“It’s a dilemma that I’ve got, because when we play a back three people automatically think it’s a negative and defensive system,” said Tom Cleverley.
“That’s not the case at all, and when we play a back three I actually think we’re more attacking and set up in a more attacking way.
“We’ve gone to a back four and got carried away on Saturday, and then this evening I feel like I didn’t give us any tactical edge to go and create and win the game.
“So I’ll look at myself for this one for sure, and take responsibility.”
The shape of the team had a large part to play in the winning goal.
“That’s the issue when we go to a back four,” said Cleverley.
“You saw earlier in the season it’s something we need to improve, even with a back five, is defending our box.
“When we lose the extra defender and go to a four it’s something we really need to be more alert to, and stopping it at source because the ball comes in for the goal too easily.
“It’s about knowing where your men are and doing all the basic defending.
“So it was a disappointing goal to concede but I can have no complaints about the result.”
With six defeats from eight on the road, is Watford’s bigger problem performing in away games or achieving the consistency which means they shift from the ‘good game, bad game’ pattern?
“For me the problem is consistency, but I think that is tied into the environment of away games which does have an impact,” said the head coach.
“We always let the opposition have the first punch and you can’t do that.
“But that goes back to us being consistent, and not only did Swansea play the better football for the first hour but they were also first to every second ball.
“They were winning every duel, and that goes back to our inconsistencies.”
Not for the first time, the Hornets spent most of the first half time skipping backwards round the ring while the home side threw all the punches.
“We must, as a team, learn very quickly that you can’t feel yourself into any half of football,” admitted Cleverley.
“You get yourselves no rhythm and end up with too much to do.
“What we did today was too little, too late.
“Earlier in the season we’ve got away with it and come back a couple of times but against good outfits like Swansea you’re just giving yourselves too much to do.”
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