The physical and mental shortcomings of the Watford squad that have been painfully highlighted in his time as head coach are two things Chris Wilder says must be put right this summer.

Five times in the 10 games that Wilder has been in charge, the Hornets have led only to end up drawing or losing.

While that clearly brings into question the attitude, mindset and mental strength of the players, Wilder says their physical performance – while less obvious – has been equally detrimental.

“I’ve talked a lot about physical elements of the group not being where they should be in my opinion. That then affects a lot of things,” he said.

“People talk a lot about the way I spoke honestly after the Luton game and the Cardiff game, and there’s emotion involved of course – but there’s also a lot of facts involved in it too.

“How many winning positions have we been in, and not been able to hold on? Why is that? Is it a physical thing – definitely. Is it a mental thing – definitely.

“We try to be possession based but we try to have a good structure as well so we’re not easy to break through.”

Last weekend at the Stadium of Light, Watford worked themselves into a 2-0 lead only to concede a goal almost immediately which then led to an air of inevitability about the home side going on to get an equaliser.

“Tactically and technically we’ve not been good enough, but physically and mentally are two equally massive parts of the game and you saw at Sunderland we couldn’t get up to the ball at the end, couldn’t get out to them and that’s a conditioning issue. That has to be so much better going forward if you want to win,” said Wilder.

“From a mentality point of view, the five or 10 minutes after you score at a place like the Stadium of Light in front of 45,000 people you have to quieten everyone down.

“I’m sure if we had done that, we’d have come away with a win. But we didn’t and you have to look in-house for that, and how we deal with adversity is something that will need to be addressed.

“When I came in, the conditioning aspect of the group was quite difficult to fix. We were playing Saturday/Tuesday.

“There’s two parts to it though. You want the players to run and you put sessions on that makes them better physically, but there is also the attitude element.”

That begs the question, has the attitude in training been part of the issue when it comes to putting the conditioning problems right?

“In a way, yeah. There are levels,” said Wilder.

“It might look to a fan that the players are turning it in. I’m sure they’re not doing that, and we’ve not had real capitulations where we’ve conceded five or six.

“But the levels of really digging in when it’s needed, when you need to go that extra bit and get out of the comfort zone – yes it is possible to improve that in training and that conditions you to be better on matchdays.

“But we haven’t done it enough, all season long. We haven’t turned losses into draws and draws into wins. We’ve gone the other way, and turned wins into draws and draws into losses. If you do that then you’re not going to get the points you need to be successful.”

In terms of the line-up for Monday’s game with Stoke, Wilder is not ruling out seeing Joao Pedro involved despite the likely announcement of a move to Brighton – and he is also more confident of being able to involve younger players.

“Joao Pedro has been around the place this week, so we’ll wait and see on Monday. I’ll take my lead off the powers that be in terms of what they want to do,” said Wilder.

“Jack Grieves and Adrian Blake have trained with us this week. It’s been disappointing as I would have liked to do more but as I said, Sunderland wasn’t the right time for them.

“There’s been a few hurdles and obstacles in the way for them, but I chatted with Jimmy Gilligan and Richard Johnson during the week and I’m really impressed with the work they are doing with the Academy.

“You’ve seen with James Morris and Ryan Andrews playing, and Blake, Grieves and Tobi Adeyemo coming through, it’s definitely a route the club need to go down.

“The club will do what it needs to do, but from my point of view there’s no good investing in the Academy if there isn’t a pathway.

“The players have to be good enough, and these boys will be with us for the next few days and they have to earn the right to be start or be on the bench.

“I’m not just going to hand out appearances for sentiment. I’m not going to play a youngster because it might make me look better. They have to earn the right, in the way Ryan has recently.”

Although Monday’s game is the archetypal dead rubber, Wilder insists the players need to do all they can to end on a positive.

“A big finish and a big result in the least these players can do at the end of what has been an extremely disappointing season,” he said.

“We want to go and win. The players need to finish on a high, and that’s what the supporters want too.

“They come to support, they don’t come to see the team lose or under-perform. I’ve said this all along, myself and the coaching staff will go right to the end, right to the last kick of the ball.

“There has to be pride every time you pull the shirt on, not just the last day of the season. You have to give your best and do what you can do, individually and collectively, to win a game of football.

“I’m a massive believer in that. Whether it’s a pre-season friendly, a cup final, a play-off game or an end-of-season game.

“There will be reflection after Monday. There’ll be big reflection for the club I’m sure. And there will be big reflections on the season by the supporters because they are the main people that the club is about.

“Everyone will have their own views on the season, but I think there’ll be a lot of consistency in those views too.”