Abdoulaye Doucoure has urged his Watford team-mates to forget about the table and just be themselves as they face a crunch match with fellow strugglers Norwich City tomorrow.

The French midfielder admitted the players were still suffering with low confidence ahead of a hugely important run of fixtures, but suggested that focusing on their own game is the best way to turn around their current situation.

“The confidence is not the best at the moment, it’s a little bit low,” said Doucoure.

“But we know we need to be confident and ourself on the pitch to forget a little bit about the table and to play as much as we can.

“We know the importance of the game tomorrow, we know we need a result, we know we need a win. It’s a massive, massive game, it will be very tough there, but we need to be ready and to take the result there.

“We have three or four games coming that are very important for the season, I think it will decide for the rest of the season so we know they’re very tough games. The first one is on Friday and we need to be ready and to fight.”

After an impressive season that saw the Hornets reach the FA Cup final and almost push their way into Europe, Doucoure admits it has been difficult to adapt to life in the relegation zone.

Nevertheless, the midfielder sees himself as one of the team’s more experienced players and believes he is someone who needs to step up to the plate in order to help the team turn things in Watford’s favour.

“I think it’s hard to take because last season we had a great season,” he said.

“Of course at the end, we struggled a little bit and we carried on the same way in the beginning of this season. Now we want to change things, to go out from the relegation zone, that’s it.

“I’m not the only one but of course I’m here for a while now, so I need to help my team-mates. I have to. I need to take care of myself as well, to be the best on the pitch and of course if everyone’s together, we can do something.”

Life in the relegation zone is not the only thing Doucoure has had to get used to this season, as new head coach Quique Sanchez Flores has deployed the Frenchman in a far less attacking, but more defensive position.

However, the midfielder believes he is more than capable of performing well in Sanchez Flores’ new set-up and said the players were all still firmly behind the coach’s plans.

He said: “I can adapt myself very easily because I can play defensive midfielder, I can play holding, I can move a little bit forward, so for me it’s nothing, I just need to adapt and to play my best football and that’s it.

“We need to stay focused behind the manager, we know the first people to go out is the players, it’s not the manager and of course you need to be good on the pitch. After that, you will see what happens.”

Looking ahead to the trip to Carrow Road, Doucoure was delighted to see captain Troy Deeney and his midfield partner Etienne Capoue among a number of injured players to be returning to the first-team squad.

“We are all happy Troy has come back, he said. “We know he’s a very important player for us and for the club.

“It’s very important to have everyone back, we will have Etienne back as well, for tomorrow, so it’s good to have all the players back.”