Watford assistant head coach reveals culture failings

He himself referred to people being late on his first day and how, with his senior group, rules were drawn up that – even last week – players were still falling foul of.

However, assistant head coach Dean Whitehead has revealed just how bad things were and why it is clearly taking time to see the full value of the change the club has made.

“I don’t know how long some of the boys had been at the club, but when we arrived there was a sense of ‘I’ll do my own thing’,” said the 41-year-old former Sunderland, Stoke and Middlesbrough midfielder.

“Players turning up when they wanted to turn up. People thinking it would be alright, hand over a few quid in a fine, and everything would be good.

“But now that’s changed. Now, if you’re late and you were starting, you’re on the bench. If were on the bench, you’re out of the squad.

“You can’t hurt players through their pockets in this day and age. These boys love playing football, so you have to make them understand that if they don’t do what is required, they don’t get to do the thing they love.

“The gaffer understands things can happen. There’s things you can’t help. But when you’re in the building and there’s a meeting and you’re late for that meeting, then that is unacceptable.

“If you’re in the club at 9, and there’s a meeting at 2, then there is no excuse.”

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Getting the players to behave in a way that shows they are committed and understand the club’s way of working was an essential foundation for the rebuild that Watford, under Ismael, is undertaking.

“When you’re trying to build a culture and a mentality in a club that wants to move forward, those things are so important,” said Whitehead.

“At the start of pre-season there were a couple of players who turned up late. People may say that’s normal – but it’s not our normal.

“Our normal is you turn up on time, you get in the gym on time, you’re out on the pitch on time. You’re prepared for whatever it is you need to be doing at the right time.

“Gradually the lads got it. Am I surprised we’ve had a few who have fallen foul of the rules? No, it happens. But nobody has made the same mistake twice either.”

Whitehead also echoed the head coach’s words about the need to pare back the numbers at London Colney, both in terms of players and staff.

More than 20 players were released, sold or sent back to clubs from which they were loaned, while more recently there was the high-profile departure of technical director Ben Manga and his staff.

“When we first arrived, in the first couple of days, there were people everywhere,” Whitehead said.

“There were players, there were staff – I had no idea how many we had of both, but it was an enormous amount.

“Then we started whittling it down and you’d see less and less people, and then you start to see a team and a squad forming, along with a staff group coming together.”

Along with the off-field work at the training ground, Ismael and his staff put the players through a gruelling summer of work.

Whitehead agrees that only now is some of that toil starting to show through on the pitch – not only that, but also in a very empty medical room.

“It was a long pre-season, and a lot of hard work on and off the training pitch, but now I think we are starting to see the benefits of what the club did,” he said.

“Physically we’re strong, we have every player available and that’s not the case with other squads around the division.

“The summer was really tough and intense for the players. Usually sessions twice a day, sometimes three times a day.

“You have to condition your body to play in the manager’s system, and play how we want to play.

“It was really important to have as many players as possible available for most sessions in pre-season. You could see if someone missed one or two sessions then it took them time to get their levels back up.”

Last season was a story of injuries (hamstrings) and backbone (lack of), and Whitehead saw the latter for himself in April when, as Cardiff’s interim manager, he brought the Bluebirds to Vicarage Road.

Dean Whitehead during his time in charge of Cardiff (Image: PA)

“Watford went ahead with a really good goal, but the minute we got level the towel got thrown in,” he recalled.

“We could feel that, and we scored three goals very quickly.

“You’d look around the pitch and see all these really good individual players in Watford shirts, like Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr, and you’d think ‘what could they have been’.

“Now we’ve had the big clear out, and we have got a team. Yes, we still have very good individuals, but we’ve got every player working for each other.”

Whitehead was still at Cardiff when he got the call offering him the chance to link back up with Ismael, who he worked with at Besiktas in 2022.

“What people inside the club see, and what everyone else sees, is pretty much the same thing. That’s him, that’s the manager,” said Whitehead.

“He’s imposing, he’s assertive, he’s disciplined. He is really good at organising and bringing a group together.

“He trusts his staff and he keeps everyone involved. He has given me a lot of responsibility and shown a lot of trust in me.

“We work really hard and we put in long hours. We work with intensity out on the training pitch, and we are the same when we’re working in the office.

“The manager came into a club that needed change. It needed a figurehead, someone who could really grab hold of things – the club and the players – and sometimes make some painful decisions.”

One decision that has divided fans has been the style of play, and particularly the way Watford keep the ball at the back and inside their own half.

It’s been a change that has caused some calamitous moments but also, when delivered well, has enabled Watford to enjoy long spells of possession.

When it does go wrong, the player often left exposed is goalkeeper Dan Bachmann.

“Dan is important to the way we play at the back, and he is going through the change process like everyone else,” said Whitehead.

"It's important that people get behind him. We’re asking him to play a certain way, and we want him to have the belief and confidence to do it – and to do it over and over again.

“Yes, he might make a mistake. That happens. What we need is people to believe in him and support him.”

The other area where Watford have been guilty of self-inflicted wounding is their defending of set pieces, particularly corners – and the use of zonal marking.

“This is a set-up the manager has used for a lot of years, and the problem we have is we have some very good footballers – that’s why we can dominate the ball – but we’re generally quite small,” said Whitehead.

“If we use our big players in the four across the six-yard box, it does leave us light in other places.

“How can we improve it? There are small details we can change in terms of personnel and where we put them, and the reasons why we put them there.

“It’s something we have spoken about as a group over the last few weeks. Our open play XG is second in the league, teams aren’t opening us up.

“But set-plays and second phase we have to be better. The second goal Millwall scored on Saturday was unacceptable.”

Nonetheless, the Hornets are currently unbeaten in four games having suffered a run of three straight defeats which culminated in the dreadful 2-0 defeat at Sunderland.

Ismael locked his players in the dressing room for more than an hour after that game, and later explained it wasn’t the tea-cup throwing hairdryer experience but more of an open and frank discussion about what was going wrong.

Whitehead and the other staff were in the changing room, and the assistant head coach feels that while it was miserable night, it could also be a blessing in disguise.

“At that point we’d lost three on the trot, and while it wasn’t nice it might be the best thing that’s happened,” he said.

“We had a really open and honest conversation in the dressing room that night. All the players spoke, all the staff spoke, and since then we’ve tweaked a few things and are moving in the right direction.

“There were some home truths spoken that night. There were stern words. But there was also a lot of honesty, a lot of solutions, things we could do individually and collectively to move the club forwards.

“Some of it was really interesting, a lot of it was really useful, but also I hope it’s the last time we have to have one of those.”

Whitehead on the training pitch with Valerien Ismael and Omer Riza. (Image: Alan Cozzi/Watford FC)

Eight points from a possible 12, three clean sheets and a lesser-spotted away win later and, while Watford are still nearer the bottom of the table than the top, there have been steps in the right direction.

For some fans, they would like to see more forward steps – literally – on the pitch. Possession football can bring rewards but it can also mean sterile periods where the ball appears to be going backwards too often.

“We didn’t perform well against Sheffield Wednesday but we got what we needed out of the game,” said Whitehead.

“We had moments where we were in possession and we didn’t make a forward pass. For whatever reason we went back rather than forwards, and it was still 0-0.

“But if we’d done the same thing when we were 2-0 up against QPR, everything is fine.

“It’s the same process. The reason why we might go back rather than forward is the same at 0-0 as it is at 2-0. We want to draw them out, maybe go to the other side of the pitch and open up a different space.

“We understand it can be frustrating when you’re not getting results, and sometimes you perform but don’t get the result, other days you get the result but you don’t perform so well.

“It’s important people understand we do things for a reason. We don’t just pass backwards for the sake of it.

“We completely understand lots of possession is no good if you don’t score. But we are creating chances, we are dominating a lot of games, and we know we need to score more and kill teams off when we’re on top.”

Saturday’s trip to Huddersfield will be Watford’s 15th league match of the season, which means almost a third of the season will have gone.

What does Whitehead make of what has gone so far, and what might still be to come?

“Having a stable club where we are creating a good working culture in an environment where players and staff want to come and work is crucial, and we have that now,” he said.

“We play with a good style of football and we have individuals with quality in the group.

“I believe we are moving forward and we want to keep doing that. We know this division is one where you can win four on the trot or lose four on the trot.

“But we want progression and ultimately we want to win matches regularly. We’ll be pushing and driving the players, to keep progressing and to keep winning.

“Then we can see where that takes us.”

• Part two of this exclusive interview with Dean Whitehead, in which he talks about his career, the players he played with, the managers he worked under, and some of the star names he has coached, will be on the website tomorrow (Friday).