Nordin Amrabat admits Watford need to make amends against Bournemouth after Burnley defeat

The Hornets slumped to their first away loss of the season at Turf Moor on Monday night after a desperately poor performance.

More than 1,400 Watford fans made the long trip to Burnley for the televised match and Amrabat was apologetic after the team produced their worst display of the season.

The Morocco international said: “It was a long trip [for the fans] and we feel sorry for them.

“When they come from far, the supporters, losing 2-0, then they travelled back home and we feel sorry for them. I think everybody wants to say sorry for the result and the game but hopefully we can make it good with them on Saturday.”

Amrabat continued: “For us it was not a good game. We didn’t play good and sometimes s**t happens. We will try to look forward now to Bournemouth at home and I think it’s an important game to win. We need to take three points and I think all the lads were disappointed about Monday but now the focus is on Saturday.”

Watford’s final game before the international break is against the Cherries this weekend and Amrabat knows the importance of a positive result, especially off the back of their last game.

The 29-year-old said: “It’s really important. When you do that [win] you know you can forget Burnley but if you don’t take three points the negative feelings stay a little bit.

"But if you win, everybody forgets Burnley and is happy again. You go to the national team and you come back and you focus again to win games and go higher in the table.

“They [Bournemouth] play good football and are really organised. They try to play football and I think for us it’s better against a team that plays football. Then you have two teams that want to play football and the better team with better quality players are going to win.”

Amrabat continued: “If you win then you do good business, and the international break comes then so you keep up the good work so it’s really important we win.

“If we win on Saturday then the start’s OK because we had a difficult start. If we win, we have ten points and it’s not bad if you see our start against Chelsea, Arsenal and United. We had a difficult programme.”

Mazzarri recently described Amrabat as the most improved player since the Italian took charge of the club this summer.

The versatile attacker is having to adapt to a new role as a right wing-back this season and believes he is slowly getting to grips with the new challenge.

Amrabat said: “It’s nice to hear when a new coach says this [biggest improvement in squad] because at the beginning I was thinking wing-back is not my position and I didn’t know what to do and how to defend.

“I didn’t even know how to attack because it’s different because you start a little bit wide and down and from there you need to attack. I was listening a lot and trying to do what he wants.

“Slowly it gets better but I try to improve every day in both an attacking and defensive phase. I’m looking forward to help the team and that’s the only thing in my mind at the moment.”

Amrabat struggled to make an impression after joining from Malaga in January, making only four league starts last season.

He has already matched this during the current campaign and believes there is a lot more to come from him.

“Last season I didn’t play a lot,” he said. “When you come in it’s difficult to do something for the team because the tempo is really high. When you get 10 or 15 minutes it’s difficult to adapt when the tempo is high.

“When you play in the first XI you can show more as you have more time. I played a few good games but I think I didn’t show myself exactly what I can do. I can do more.”

Reflecting on his new position this season, Amrabat said: “I never played defensively as a right-back or something. But I try to do my best and with my speed and power I try to stop the attackers with the help of the team.

“It is getting better but I need to improve my defensive work. I can explain it because I’m now 29 years old and I’ve never played there.”