Quique Sanchez Flores wants Watford supporters to believe in his system and insists it is the best way for the club to change things around.

A chorus of "you don't know what you're doing" rang around Vicarage Road last weekend as, with 20 minutes remaining and his side trailing by two goals, the head coach decided to make a like-for-like switch, changing full-back Daryl Janmaat for Kiko Femenia.

However, Sanchez Flores wants supporters to understand his philosophy and why he is playing defensive football in what he described as a "period of transition".

He explained how adding an extra defender has, in his opinion, helped solidify his team and cut out some sloppy mistakes they were making before.

"When you analyse the matches, you realise that many of the situations we are able to fix or to solve during the match it's because we have one player more," he said.

"If one player makes one mistake we have another one close, so we are solving with this system just in defence, we are solving the situation.

"It's like a part of the process trying the players that feel a little bit more safe because what I saw and what I feel after the draw against Arsenal, after losing against City, after losing against Wolves and analysed is that the corridors in defence were really easy for the other teams. We didn't know how to defend the corridors.

"If we are not able to cover the defence with five, it's difficult to think that we would be able to defend the corridors with four.

"If you need to cover, you need to cover quicker, they aren't covering quicker, they're slow because they're stiff because, they feel drained because they don't have the mood in high morale, they have low morale, so all I want right now is to make up a defensive five with this kind of move, but of course it's a period of transition."

Sanchez Flores admits that his defensive style has blunted Watford's attack somewhat, but said when the time is right and his players look more solid and ready to defend better with only four at the back, he will change the system.

"The problem is we look a little bit weaker in offence because the moment you take the ball you need to change the shape," he said.

"And we need to incorporate the backs, we need to incorporate in attack and it should be completely different.

"I love 4-4-2, I love 4-2-3-1, I love this, this is my system. But everything I try to do, I try to make up something in the period of transition. This is the message for the fans right now. It's an explanation.

"This is a period of transition, but we don't want to be very very defensive. If we don't look much better in offence it's because we're not interpreting well this change from when we defend and when we attack."