Finishing has Watford gaffer Tom Cleverley ‘fed up’

PUZZLED: Cleverley

Watford boss Tom Cleverley has been left puzzled that his side’s performances are not translating into results after a 1-0 defeat to Oxford United.

Siriki Dembele’s curled effort in the 82nd minute condemned the Hornets to defeat at the Kassam Stadium.

Minutes before the goal, defender James Abankwah was sent off the visitors after receiving two quickfire yellow cards.

Cleverley was left perplexed after the game as to how his side were on the receiving end of another defeat.

Conundrum

He said: “I’m a little fed up, to be honest.

“I don’t feel my team are playing as poorly as the results showed.

“Why are we not winning the games we are in full control of?

“Oxford, Stoke… It’s a conundrum I need to solve: how do we turn all this control and good play into wins?

“No-one wants to see a team that is playing great football but not winning.”

“I thought we handled the conditions really well.

“It wasn’t a pitch that you can play the football we normally do, but we saw out the first 20 minutes and the wind affecting the play, and I thought we were in absolute complete control.

“If I can aim any criticism at the lads it’s that we weren’t clinical enough – 16 shots and none on target in the second half.

“That’s why we’ve not won the game, we’ve not been clinical enough.

“If you give me that collection of chances on another day, I’d say we would score one or two normally – Moussa going one v one, Francisco’s header and five or six half-chances.

“We have the quality to do better.”

On Abankwah’s red card, Cleverley said: “In that area of the pitch I was surprised to see a red card.

“The second yellow was soft, but James will learn.”