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News Report: Cleverley’s EXPLOSIVE Revelations on Southampton Loss Will Leave You Speechless
Despite initially rallying from a two-goal deficit, Tom Cleverley addressed the media following the Hornets’ 3-2 loss away to Southampton, which they conceded in the 99th minute. See what he said in the section below.
Regarding the performance: It’s quite challenging to accept. Even though I didn’t think we played at our best today, we still created a ton of opportunities and demonstrated true grit away from home against a top team.
We don’t intend to be behind every time, but this was the first time we had fallen behind during my term as manager. We have returned with true character, but it is a terrible pill to swallow that we did not win any points, and we feel incredibly unfairly treated there.
Regarding the delayed start: I won’t offer the players any justifications. We changed the system, and they got out of the blocks faster than we did. After that [first goal], I was immediately concerned, but it took us a little while to start applying pressure in the high press.
After a couple of our successful ones, they started to become concerned, and we didn’t really grasp the situation until we fell down 2-0. We grasped the rules of the game, began to create opportunities, good opportunities, and then launched ourselves. We had a strong second half with some good moments here and there.
Although I acknowledge that it is difficult to achieve at the best possession team in the league, I need to see more consistency and a drive to control the game’s possession.
Regarding Southampton’s strategy during the second half: They are in a nervous position. They still have the power to advance. We actually made progress, but you never know why they were flat in the second half—the weather, the midweek game, etc.
James Morris was great when he came on, and as I mentioned earlier, it gets difficult as a coach when you are still finding so many positives in the game, but we aren’t winning, so I have to keep instilling the belief that this run of results will eventually end with a victory at home.
Regarding his replacements: Since I’ve taken over, I’ve been concerned about Tom Dele-burnout Bashiru. He has played every minute of five games in sixteen days, so that one was forced. Sadly, he recently experienced a minor flare-up of his Achilles tendon, and he burned out a little bit today.
We needed and desired that enthusiasm from the three young guys that came on, and we were getting into fantastic crossing positions but couldn’t get the game-winning pass. James Morris, in particular, had excellent play in the last third, Matheus Martins gave us momentum, and [Ismaël] Koné scored, so I’m happy with how the substitutes contributed to the victory.
In his tenure as acting head coach, he has: We are perhaps a touch too eager to continue and score the winner at 2-2 as we don’t deal with draws. Our primary goals are to win the upcoming game and instill confidence that we can make a serious run for promotion the following year. Five times out of six, we have failed at the first, but we have unquestionably succeeded at the second.
About the players’ personalities: I am unable to raise any doubts regarding the players’ character in any of the six games. “Watford have got nothing to play for” will be a simple statement for observers to make. We appeared to be a squad that was eager to
