Watford boss Tom Cleverley admitted his side were ‘bang average’ despite their win over Sunderland on Saturday afternoon, and praised the Black Cats for the problems they caused through the game.

Cleverley was handed the job on a permanent basis earlier this week after impressing during an interim stint, but admitted the performance was probably the worst since he took charge earlier this year. Still, he was pleased with the defensive resilience his player showed even if he feels they have a lot more to offer in possesion.

“I will always be honest with the media and the players, it’s possibly our poorest performance since I’ve been in charge, and football has got a funny way of working out.

“We played excellent second half against West Brom, excellent second half against Southampton, and only came away with one point, so maybe we have got a little bit of payback here today. I think we started the game well in the first 20 minutes, and then gave away a few cheap fouls that spoiled the rhythm. Then we gave away a couple of chances, and Sunderland had a real foothold in the game. I thought we made too many technical mistakes today and were sloppy in possession, especially in the top third of the pitch.

“On other days we might not be as good at the back, and our front three will create magic to get us out, but the result today was the other way round. Our defence was very good, and we were sloppy in possession. Maybe it is just my high demands of us as a team. I see on a daily basis how technically good we are, playing in small spaces, combining around the box, and today we just couldn’t get it going, we would have two passes, but then with the third it would break down, or someone would try a flick.

“In this league you need consistency and we didn’t have any of that in possession today, so we will work at it, and I won’t stop demanding until we have the complete performance,” he added.

“Sunderland did a really good job at breaking the tempo. They slowed the game down well, knocking us out of our rhythm, a bit like Preston did, and we struggled to deal with that, and they took control of the game for large parts.

“When you are desperate to put three or four passes together to get your rhythm out of the game, you fall down too many times. “I’m a little bit disappointed with that, because I know technically these players are better than they showed today. Sunderland caused us a lot of problems second half, tactically, and technically they are a very, very good side. Good, quick combinations in and around our box, and we showed a bit of grit to see it out, and make it five clean sheets out of eight.”

The result saw Watford go one place above Sunderland in the Championship table on goal difference.

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