Watford had to use a less-than-fit Kwadwo Baah in the second half of Tuesday’s defeat to try and increase their attacking threat.

He and Giorgi Chakvetadze have consistently shown the ability to unlock opposition defences.

However, do the Hornets run the risk of becoming over reliant on one or two individuals?

In the past, players like Joao Pedro or Ismaila Sarr often appeared to be carrying the team creatively, making Watford predictable and easy to stop.

“That is never how I will coach the team, no. You can guarantee that,” said Tom Cleverley.

“There will be a process to how we score goals and it will never ever be a case of just picking a team and hoping that one of our best players produces a bit of magic.

“I will always create a process and a game plan to help the players win the game as a team.

“We want to get players like Giorgi on the ball as much as possible, and we want to get Baah one v one as much as we can. That’s part of it.

“But it will never be a case of me just hoping.”

A win against Oxford later could send Watford into the international break in the top six with almost a third of the season gone.

“I’m pleased with where we are,” said Cleverley.

“Have we got much more improvement in us? Yes. Can we be more consistent? Yes

“I’m a winner, so even if I had the lowest budget by far in the league I’d still want to win every game.

“But on reflection of who we lost in the summer and where we finished last season, then we’re going in the right direction.”

Of course, that direction could change if the Hornets fail to beat Oxford or, worse still, lose their unbeaten home record.

“There is a lot of significance on this game, and it’s probably the tipping point as to whether it’s a good week or a bad week.

“On reflection the last two games sum us up a little bit, with a really good second-half performance on Saturday and then quite flat on Tuesday evening.

“It’s a characteristic of ours that we need to grow out of very quickly.

“The improvement, in midweek, is that our flat performance wasn’t one where we can say the players haven’t applied themselves properly.

“There was just no real spark or confidence on the ball, which I expected there to be after the second half on Saturday.

“We didn’t sort of throw the towel in on Tuesday and end up getting beaten by three or four, but we were nowhere near our levels.

“Our bottom-end performance had a baseline that was higher than against Luton or Preston, so if I can take any positive out of Tuesday then that would be it.

“I would have taken six points from these games before they started, but we have a tough game ahead and we will be all out to get three points.”