Walter Mazzarri admitted Watford's defensive performances "need improvement" and said his side had been working hard to improve their leaky backline ahead of this weekend's game at Middlesbrough.

The Hornets are yet to keep a clean sheet under the Italian - in fact, their unwanted record goes back to April 16 at West Bromwich Albion - and have shipped some 13 goals in their seven Premier League games this term, only four less than defensively-troubled West Ham.

But that does not tell the full story; only at Burnley have Mazzarri's side drawn a blank, with just Champions League-chasing Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur scoring in more games, and they have scored as many as both big-spending Spurs and Chelsea so far.

The head coach admitted, unlike many of his compatriots, his philosophy would remain to "score one more than our opponents" - but with the added impetus on remaining composed and capable at the back.

"There are some things we want to improve on,” he said. “We have created many opportunities but we need to improve defensively.

"I don’t want to excuse anything but we have been missing players like [Miguel] Britos and [Craig] Cathcart who are very important to us.

"We allowed too many chances against Bournemouth, and it is definitely something we are working on.”

The change in style the 55-year-old has overseen this season, already scoring almost a quarter of the Hornets' goals from last season in only seven games, has been a welcome one at Vicarage Road.

It has been an especially exciting season for any neutrals fortunate enough to see Watford in action, with 25 goals scored at either end.

To put that into perspective, there were only 90 in the entirity of Quique Sanchez Flores' reign - and the quest for excitement is certainly one Mazzarri shares.

He said: "I’m not that disappointed [in our defending] because I look at the whole game over and watch how we play from the start of the game until the final whistle; the main thing is how we play on the pitch.

"Of course I look at my team scoring one more goal than our rivals, but I want to work defensively too and the goals we have been giving to the opposition have been many because we were not concentrating properly at that particular moment – that is something we have to focus on."