Roy Hodgson is hoping to stifle Aston Villa's attack and make the most of spaces in their defence as Watford head to the midlands in search of three points tomorrow.

The Hornets haven't claimed a win in their last 11 league matches and are yet to score since the former England manager's arrival, but remain hopeful they can turn things around, starting with their trip to Villa Park.

While Hodgson is wary of Villa's attacking threat, he believes he has plenty of that in his team, but knows defensively, his team will have to be on top of their game if he is to come away from the match with anything.

"What's required is the same as what is required every game we play," he said. "Firstly what we're going to try and do is to make certain that we know that they are a very lively attacking team with some dangerous attacking players.

"They were like that last season before they added Coutinho, Buendia and Digne, so we know that's going to be a question that's going to be asked form them and they're going to put us under some pressure defensively. They can get crosses in and they can be dangerous in and around the penalty area with the quality of the players they've bought.

"The first thing I suppose we have to do if we want to get a result is to try and stifle that. And then I think we've got players in our team who've got pace and ability up front.

"We are hopeful, if we succeed in stifling those threats, when we get the ball ourselves, that we get the ball into those front players and give them the freedom and the licence to take players on, to make runs behind defenders and hopefully take advantage of any space that we might get as Aston Villa move forward and try to put us under pressure in our half."

Following last weekend's defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, Hodgson received praise from one of his former players, Danny Murphy, who said the manager's ability to stay calm under pressure could be a great asset for Watford in their battle with relegation.

Hodgson said remaining calm was not a difficult thing to do, if everyone he is working with is pulling in the right direction.

"I think it's easy to stay calm if you appreciate what the players are trying to do," he said.

"They might not be playing as well as you would like them to be, they might not be playing well at all. But at least as long as you can feel that they are on the same page as you and they want to do as well as you want to do yourself, I think that becomes a little bit easier.

"What we're talking about in terms of calmness is making certain that you don't get too battered by the outside wind and noise and that if you keep to your path that you can control to some extent and have an influence on, there's a much calmer, more tranquil environment, where really you just concentrate on what matters, i.e. How are we going to become a better team? How are we going to defend better? How are we going to attack better? How are we going to get the most use out of our players.

"The wind from the outside and all the noise, that's what unfortunately can take away some of your calmness or some of your resoluteness because you get affected. And I suppose I think that maybe what Danny was alluding to.

"If you were really to talk to Danny I think he would probably tell you that I'm not a particularly calm person."