Daryl Janmaat has said he wants to stay at Watford after returning to the first-team from a difficult period out of favour on the bench.

The Dutch defender struggled to get into the starting line-up at the beginning of the season, despite his side struggling at the back.

His contract expires at the end of this season, but he said he is hoping to remain at Vicarage Road beyond that period after earning his place back in the side.

“It was really difficult,” said Janmaat. “Of course you want to be used, I was fit all the time, but the coach made some different changes and you have to accept that.

“I’m happy that I was back in and hopefully I can stay now. I want to stay and hopefully I can sign a new contract, but we will see.”

Janmaat was part of the team that claimed the Hornets’ first league clean sheet since February last year.

The 30-year-old said that working with Quique Sanchez Flores has helped the club defend better, but that there are still vast improvements to be made. 

“We worked a lot on the defensive line and I think that’s really important for now,” he said.

“I can’t really clarify everything, but we know it’s not good enough, we have to do better, that’s one thing for sure and I think everyone is really understanding that we have to change something, so hopefully we can change it on Saturday.

“Obviously we had a good game against Arsenal, especially the second half was really good. Then we had a really bad game against City and last week was probably not the best game, but we could take some positives from that.

“We kept a clean sheet and we have to build from that I think because it was really important, our first clean sheet in 19 games, so it’s something hopefully we can build on, we know there’s a lot of things to improve but you have to start somewhere.”

In regards to his own position, Janmaat said he is happy to play as part of a number of different systems, but that deploying him as a wing-back puts him within his comfort zone.

“I don’t really mind to play in a three, a four, or five,” he said.

“I am used to playing there [wing back], I played there with the national team a lot, here with Mazzarri and at Newcastle.”