By Richard Lee - 07/10/2009

Half-Time

I often get asked about what actually happens at half-time.

The management team will always spend the first three or four minutes in their own room away from the dressing-room, which leaves the players to bring up anything they want to between themselves.

There are some lads, in the past I can think of, who while they're nice and loud aren't always particularly helpful with the content of what they're saying.

The perfect world is, of course, where 11 players are all taking collective and individual responsibility and all contribute to the feedback during half-time.

Then the manager and coaches will come in and give their thoughts. Of course this can vary wildly from positive to some negative stuff but it's very rare you'd find any manager come in and dig out an individual because there's another 45 minutes to go - so it's obvious that doing something like that will be totally counter-productive.

Managers I've worked with have been very wary of that. And in fact, I've experienced times when we've been well behind and the manager's half-time talking is really positive and upbeat.

It doesn't have to reflect how the half has gone. The hair-dryer treatment and teacups against the wall scenario really doesn't happen very often at all.

The best managers know how to work this break to their advantage. Take the Leicester game when we were 2-0 down. Now that's the scoreline, but the balance of play suggested it wasn't really deserved.
So it was a case of the staff making the adjustments they felt were needed and the comments they thought appropriate to get us going again and believing there was still something for us to take from that game.

The wrong choice of language is crucial; it's quite a raw time and what's said can have a huge impact after the break.

It's a strange time during matchday. Tactics are important, of course, and they will have been worked on during the week with a brief reminder before the match. But half-time is all about keeping the minds focused. All the technical information in the world will go in one ear and out the other if the player isn't in the right frame of mind to accept it at that moment.

This is when the great man-managers get the best out of their players. There's a lot to be said for making players believe in themselves at this point; getting those extra ounces out of people can make all the difference.

We've got a really good bunch at Watford right now, I have to say. There's some big characters in our group who - and I've seen it already this season - can really lift someone else when they're down.
Players don't play badly because they're not trying or don't care; that's extremely rare in professional football. So if they're not having a good time, the last thing that's needed is a load of stick.

The boys here are very supportive and, if you wanted some evidence of how it can have a tangible effect on a game, I suppose the Leicester come-back is the most obvious example.

There are other factors always, I accept that, but the behaviours we see in our dressing-room are consistent with a squad that wants to stick together and get behind each other.