Parramatta coach Brad Arthur wants star recruit Anthony Watmough to "relax a little bit" and direct his energy towards fitting into the team's style.
The former Manly second-rower has been critical of his personal form since moving to Parramatta and sought a meeting with Arthur this week to address his concerns.
"At least he's being honest. The last thing we want our players to do is hide behind the truth," Arthur said on Friday morning.
"He's trying very hard and his workrate is high. It's just him trying to fit into the way that we want him to play and what he can bring to the team.
"He hasn't been bad, he just sets high expectations. We all do. And if we're not reaching them, the boys are going to be critical of themselves."
The second-year Eels mentor explained that his veteran forward was simply guilty of trying too hard and has told him to trust his teammates more.
"I just want to see him more towards our style. He doesn't have be everywhere all the time. He can just relax a little bit and do his job and not try and overplay his hand," Arthur said.
"He tries hard. He wants to lead and he wants to dominate and wants to play 80 minutes. But we don't need him to do all those things. We just need him to play his role because we're happy with the blokes that we've got around him.
"He probably doesn't need to try as hard. Just keep it nice and simple. He doesn't have to be everywhere."
Arthur was critical of his side's attitude in last week's 22-6 defeat to the Wests Tigers, and demanded the players up their tempo against the struggling Titans.
"Our style of footy, our brand of football, is high energy. So we need to get back to some high energy football," he said.
"While it's important to complete, we've got a unique style of football. We move the ball around a little bit more and our shape is our strength. Also, we need to make sure that we're making our one-on-one tackles and everyone's accountable in defence."
Arthur also weighed in on the NRL's updated concussion rules, expressing his frustration at the changing of the rules mid-season.
"It is [frustrating], but if the NRL thinks that it's best for player welfare, I've got no problems with that," he said.
In the same week the club was fined $20,000 ($10,000 suspended), the game has moved to ensure players who present signs of loss of consciousness, falling to the ground without taking protective action, seizure, memory impairment, and balance disturbance (ataxia) are diagnosed immediately.
"It' going to be hard to police. But at the end of the day, we're happy with our medical staff and if they say the player can't go back on, he can't go back on," Arthur said.
