Having been brought up at a club where the ‘hairdryer treatment’ was a well-known way for the manager to let his players know about anything he felt they’d done wrong, Tom Cleverley has seen some unique styles of man-management.

The Watford head coach comes across as a very calm and generally mild-mannered individual, although he admitted to being “animated” in the dressing room at Preston on Wednesday both during the half-time break and after the game.

However, is he the type to get in players’ faces himself?

“You’d probably have to ask the players!” he laughed.

“I don’t think I’m someone who kicks tactics board in half and throws football boots at people.”

Of course, that begs the question . . . have you witnessed such behaviour as that first hand?!

“Yeah, I’ve seen it down the years!” said Cleverley with a grin.

“I expect the players to know that I was very disappointed both at half-time and full-time on Wednesday.

“We try and address that in a strategic manner but sometimes I’ll be fairly animated, and if you spoke to the players I’m sure they’d agree.

“I think they would tell you that they totally understand how disappointed I was on Wednesday.”

Having beaten league leaders Sunderland only a few days earlier, Watford were almost unrecognisable at Deepdale.

“I don’t expect 8/10 or 9/10 performances every single game, but your bottom-end performances have to be 6/10, not 4/10,” said the Watford boss.

“As a team we chucked in a 4/10 on Wednesday.

“Anywhere between 6 and 8 would be nice and I’d class as consistent, but we cannot chuck in a 4/10 like we did at Preston.”

The Hornets starting XI on Wednesday night included seven full internationals, another couple came off the bench and the squad featured a number of players with Premier League experience.

Knowing how badly they played and that hundreds of fans had made a long and expensive trip north to support them, was there palpable embarrassment in the dressing room afterwards?

“I can see disappointment in the dressing room after a game like that, but where I need to see something is their reaction to it on the field,” said Cleverley.

“On Wednesday, for one reason or another, we didn’t react.

“The players feel accountable and I can see they are disappointed that they’ve let themselves down and let the club down.

“I don’t want to blow it out of proportion though, because they have also made themselves and the supporters proud on plenty of occasions this season and I expect tomorrow to be another opportunity to do that.

“But Wednesday was just a case of everyone being really disappointed at missing an opportunity to really solidify ourselves in the top six.”

Despite the all-round disappointment from Wednesday, the Hornets still sit eighth in the Championship table and a win tomorrow could take them into the international break in the to six.

“There has been a shift in expectation,” Cleverley pointed out.

“I think internally we had our own set of expectations, but the bookmakers and some supporters didn’t agree – and fairly so, given we finished 15th last season and lost a lot of talent in the summer.

“But my expectations were always a lot higher than that, and they still are.

“If anything, from what I’ve seen, it’s reaffirmed my view on where we should be aiming for and now it’s all about consistency.”