Keeper Rob Elliot also issued a half-time rallying cry at Spurs on Sunday which encouraged his team-mates to overturn a deficit to win for the first time in a year.
McClaren said: "You can be analytical in a serene way, and sometimes you have to create conflict and there was a bit of conflict.
"But the key thing is we are consistent in our messages. When we win, when we draw, when we lose, we analyse it, we review it, we said what we have done right and wrong and we try to put it right for the next game.
"The process was just the same, probably just a little bit more vocal than normal."