Watford’s Tom Cleverley suggests Ronald Koeman misused him at Everton

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The midfielder is thriving after being handed the freedom to get forward at Watford – a luxury he wasn’t afforded under Koeman at Everton.

There weren’t too many tears shed when Tom Cleverley bid farewell to Goodison Park in January. The player was just happy to be offered a route into regular first-team football with Watford, where he starred on loan in 2009/10, while he hardly left a lasting impression on the Everton fanbase either.

And, as the former England international said in quotes reported by the Hertfordshire Mercury, he is a different player since swapping blue for yellow, Ronald Koeman for Walter Mazzarri.

In just seven Premier League games for his new employers, Cleverley has already produced two assists thanks in part to a freer role handed to him by the Italian manager. In 10 games under Koeman in the first half of the season, usually deployed in a more restrictive role, the former Manchester United youngster contributed neither a goal nor an assist.

“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, who enjoyed the finest spell of his career in a free midfield role under Tim Sherwood at Aston Villa, said in quotes reported by the Hertfordshire Mercury.

“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.”

One criticism that tends to have followed Cleverley throughout his career is that he is a ‘jack of all trades’, master of very little.

Yet, instead of using that as a stick with which to beat the all-round midfielder, perhaps that versatility should be appreciated. Mazzarri, allowing Cleverley to tackle, pass and burst forwards from deep, is certainly seeing far better from the 27-year-old than Koeman ever did.