Javi Gracia wants to hold onto the bulk of his squad to ensure Watford can improve next season.

The head coach has already spoken to the owner about making sure the club builds on its successes, but admits that some departures may be out of their hands.

However, The Spaniard does believe that retaining some of his star men is not dependent on his side playing European football.

"In this moment I don’t think it depends on playing in Europe or not," he said.

"I would like to keep the players we have and try to improve the squad. I’ve spoken with the owner and I have spoken with him about that, try to keep the players we have and try to be stronger in the next season and we’ll see what happens.

"Sometimes it doesn’t depend on my opinion, sometimes if one important club decides to buy a player from Watford, it’s difficult to stop them. But I think we will have a better squad for the next season."

It is still too early to know whether or not any players are destined to leave Vicarage Road in the summer, but Gracia insists his side have to do better in the future if they want to remain competitive in the Premier League.

In particular, the head coach focused on his side's form against the sides from the top six this season and said they have to improve their results.

He said: "We can improve and we have to improve and to have that mentality. We’ll see first of all the squad we have and with the squad we have, we know we don’t play alone and we have to compete against the other teams and you can see the level of other teams.

"Some of them are winning in Europe and being the best teams in Europe and now the level of the teams is really high. You have to know, if you want to compete against these teams, you always have to improve your level and this way I’m sure Watford can be in a better position in the future.

"We need to be more aggressive in the next games to defend and attack and, as I said in the last game against Chelsea, I think we dominated the first-half, we had more possession, created good chances and we didn’t take them and if you don't do it, there are different moments playing against these teams when they score.

"We have to be more demanding because in my opinion we did in that game many things well, but it wasn't enough to get the points and then I think it's the same because, by improving little details, I think we could get better results playing against these teams, like Arsenal, Chelsea, United, we need to improve and be more aggreessive."