Claudio Ranieri insists Watford cannot play any worse this weekend than they did in their home drubbing to Liverpool, but is still hammering home the message that he needs to see a big reaction from his players.

The Hornets hoisted the white flag early on against the Reds, who cruised to a 5-0 victory in the new head coach’s first match in charge.

This weekend gives them their first chance to atone for their dismal display and Ranieri wants to see a reaction, not just to last weekend’s defeat, but to any mistakes made during the game as well.

“It wasn’t a good experience,” he said of the heavy defeat.

“It wasn’t a good show, it wasn’t good for my first match at Watford, but we have to react.

“We can go down [in a match], but I want the players to react immediately. We can lose but I want them to react.

“I think it’s very important - the players can do well or badly, but you have to maintain the same balance in life. Now, we lost a match and we played so badly – to play worse than this it’s not possible. We must improve, of course, and I hope we can do a very very good match.”

Ranieri suggested his players may have been nervous in their first outing under a new head coach and is after a much calmer approach to the fixture this weekend.

In particular, he is after a much improved defensive performance throughout his entire starting lineup.

“I spoke immediately with them [after the defeat] and said okay it was my first match, do you want to show your quality to a new manager, you were nervous against the big teams," he said.

"Now we have another good team to show our calm and our qualities. If Athletico Madrid can concede three goals [against Liverpool], that’s why Watford can concede five.

“Of course I don’t want to concede goals, I love when we maintain a clean sheet, but we are working for this reason about this. I tried to improve my defensive squad, not only the defensive line but all the team must defend very well.”

One element working in the head coach’s favour this week is that he has had a full week to prepare with his whole squad.

Ahead of the Liverpool match, a number of his key players were away on international duty and didn’t return until two days before the match.

He believes this week’s build up has been much more effective and has allowed his players to better understand what he expects from them.

“It was much better because against Liverpool I met all my players two days before and this week I worked well with all my players,” he continued.

“I think day-by-day they can understand much better my ideas about football.

“Of course we will make some mistakes but I think match-by-match we will improve.

“It’s important to improve and make as few mistakes as possible.”

While the head coach is expecting it to be a tough job this season, he believes in his own ability to move on from difficult moments and to get the best out of his players.

He predicts that the Hornets will achieve their goal of staying in the top flight.

“It’s difficult, but it’s a job, it’s my job,” he said.

“I’m concentrating on improving every single player, all the players. In this way I can improve all my team.

“I’m very sure, at the end, Watford will be safe.”