Tom Cleverley spoke to the media after the Hornets lost 3-1 to Middlesbrough on the final day of the Sky Bet Championship season.
The Head Coach discussed the game and looked ahead to the new campaign.
Read what he had to say below...
On the defeat:
With the supporters waking up early to travel we wanted to give them a win and a performance to make the travel back a little bit easier. I don’t think we deserved anything from the game to be honest.
It was just the personality in possession for me. If you let teams like Middlesbrough dominate the ball they are always going to give you problems, they’ve got the quality, they’ve got the rotations, they’ve got the athletes.
It’s very difficult to contain them so that means when you’ve got the ball you have to take care with it, you have to keep it, you have to progress and you have to have a purpose. Although I thought our midfielders were two of our best players today, we didn’t really show enough personality.
I think they are genuine challengers for next year and we fell short of that.
They looked like they wanted to be the superior team, and for that you have to have bravery in possession.
On conceding the second shortly after equalising:
We have to look at ourselves for that, managing that little period. It’s always the period you tell yourself, even as a kid - five minutes after they score you need to be more cautious.
It's a disappointing time to concede just as I felt we were having a good spell.
They picked us off. Maybe we should have been a little bit more patient or we were too eager to press. They’ve got good players and today’s the first time where I’ve thought a couple of our recovery runs didn’t have the intensity that I’ve seen in the last eight games.
I won’t hold it against the players, the application has been fantastic but today I didn’t think that was our best.
On missed chances:
As we advanced up the pitch we didn’t show enough composure. I’m not going to summarise the last nine games through today but I’m frustrated.
We had the [Vakoun] Bayo header early on and [Mileta] Rajović going through and he blazed it over.
Second half Bayo was through on goal and there was a last-ditch challenge. We got ourselves into decent situations and just didn’t capitalise on that.
On improving himself:
The first thing I do after a defeat is look in the mirror and say “what could I have done better?”
I have learnt so much in the last nine games, about myself, my players. How we’re going to be successful next year, how important pre-season is to us. I’ll continue to learn as I plan for my first pre-season as a Head Coach.
We just didn't show the same personality when they came after us. When we did we missed that end product. I said to the lads "that's for me to address". I feel like I'm nowhere near unlocking the potential of our team.
On the fans:
Absolutely brilliant. I really have felt the support from the supporters. I’ll repay them with absolutely everything I can give to get the best out of the team.
Ipswich and Southampton in a week, Middlesbrough with a 4.30am start. I let the players know what these fans are doing for them and they appreciate it also.
On plans for next season:
I feel like I’ve addressed the issues that can take us to the next level. It’s now down to us as a staff to start planning on how we can put those things right and that really excites me, to really put my stamp on it and make sure we really hit the ground running come August.
Next week will be all about planning with the different departments with the club to make sure we are streamlined and as well prepared as possible for pre-season which I’m really excited about.
I said to the players I’m frustrated and excited at the same time. I don’t think I’ve been able to unlock our potential in possession since I’ve come in but what excites me is I can see how much scope for improvement there is. I’m going to work as hard as I can to make sure I’m the one who can unlock it.
We’ve got to take that into next season and assemble a squad which is able to challenge next year.
On debuts for Albert Eames and Zavier Massiah-Edwards:
They are players I know really well. They deserve that recognition for their work the whole year.
Hopefully it’s two players we will see more of in the future and it represents what a good place our Academy is in.
We want to make a clear path, these appearances have to be deserved but the opportunities are there.
