Watford’s Tom Cleverley makes point to Ronald Koeman amid Everton struggles

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Everton could do with a player of Cleverley’s energy and dynamism in the centre of the park – shame Koeman sold him to Watford.

Its three years since disgruntled England ‘fans’ created a petition calling for Tom Cleverley to be banned from Roy Hodgson’s 2014 World Cup squad. Flash forward to the present day, however, and it would not raise too many eyebrows if Cleverley was handed his 14^th cap for The Three Lions – and his first since 2013.

That is how impressive the 28-year-old has been for Watford this season. Though most of his work goes unnoticed, tidy passing and hard work off the ball hardly making for an exciting highlight reel, Cleverley got the focus he deserved after slamming in a stoppage time winner against Arsenal at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

With former club Everton struggling at the wrong end of the table, lacking any sort of identity and game-plan in the centre of the park, Toffees fans may now be questioning why the club let him go.

Misused

Or, indeed, why manager Ronald Koeman could not get the best out of a player who once looked a real star of the future when emerging through Manchester United’s academy.

“I’ve got to be thankful to the manager here that he’s seen my best position and he’s playing me in it,” Cleverley told the Hertfordshire Mercury of former Watford boss Walter Mazzarri, who played the midfielder in a more advanced role when moving to Vicarage Road in January – a position he has retained under Marco Silva.

“He’s given me the chance to show where I’m best playing, but one side Watford fans will have seen to my game this time around is that I have got that defensive responsibility if called upon as well.

“I can make tackles, I can cover people, but I like to play in central midfield with a license to get forward as well.”

Koeman, meanwhile, either didn’t play Cleverley at all or tended to ask him to ‘do the dirty work’ in a deeper role. With Everton lacking energy and dynamism in the centre of the park, however, this version of Cleverley is showing his former employers what they are missing.