Marco Silva said he had 'not lost his focus' when questioned over the future of his job at Watford.

Silva was understandably talked up as one of the brightest young talents in Europe earlier in the season, masterminding an excellent start to the campaign which took the Hornets to fourth in October.

But their self-desctruction since that day has been like a car crash unfolding in front of the club's collective eyes, and despite sitting 10th they could be three points clear of the bottom three if Southampton upset the odds against Spurs tomorrow.

Silva has taken the majority of the blame for proving stubborn with formations and for his infamously vague comments about the Everton job in November, which burned bridges with the club's fanbase he simply doesn't have the toolbox to rebuild on their current run.

"I am not losing my focus," he said. "I know what our goal is, and what our focus is, and what the board asked me to do when I came in, to develop the players individually and collectively.

"I have confidence in our team and it’s my job to work hard and work together with my players and improve the club. They know my opinion about everything.

"The Premier League is 38 games. Our form is not good, but we need to fight and work hard in every match to take three points every time.

"We have some reasons for our form, yesterday we lost two players - Gomes and Cleverley - and we have a very large number of injuries. We’re talking about seven or eight players, and most of them are ones who would start.

"It’s not only our team, but the best ones in the league without 5-6 players will be very different. Everybody works hard, I have confidence in the squad, but they’re important players."