Claudio Ranieri has said he wants to stay and fight with Watford after their humiliating 3-0 defeat to Norwich City.

Questions were asked about his the Italian's future following the abject performance in which the Hornets conceded three goals at home to their relegation rivals.

With no wins from their last eight league matches now, things are far from rosy at Vicarage Road.

However, Ranieri insists that a shift of mentality from his players is what is needed now, rather than a change of head coach.

"No no, I don’t go away, I want to continue because I'm a fighter," he said. "I never give up in my career, this is a good team, but they must change the mentality. Some players have to follow [Moussa] Sissoko and [Tom] Cleverley the two captains.

"The players don't play for me, they play for the club, they play for the fans, for everybody. But the more important thing is they have to play for the squad, not in an indiviudual way, not selfish.

"I speak every day with the board and we work with passion, we are in the right way and we have to react."

Asked why he felt his squad were playing selfishly, he replied: "I don't know why. After the Newcastle performance, I wanted to see the same squad spirit but I didn't see this, everyone wanted to resolve the question alone and that is not right.

“Norwich gave us a right lesson, they played as a squad, they played together, they fight together and they won.”

Ranieri apologised to the Watford fans for the defeat and said his goal now was to try and raise his players' spirits.

"I want to say sorry to our fans for the defeat," he said.

"I asked the players to light their fire and the first half was so so, not good, not what I expected and the second half, after the goal we disappeared. Maybe we played better with 10 than 11.

“Now my goal is to pick up the players who pick up with heart, as Sissoko and Cleverley, players with heart, the right mentality Premier League is a tough league and only those who want to fight and play for the squad can continue in this way.”