The contrast between the win at Norwich and the defeat at Swansea was pretty accurately summed up by Slaven Bilic after the game at Carrow Road.

Having questioned the commitment, passion and attitude of some of the Watford players in the 4-0 drubbing at the Liberty Stadium, Bilic said his players showed they were willing to “die for each other” against Norwich.

“I had some discussions following the game at Swansea,” admitted Bilic.

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“To be fair, most of the players tried and were fighting that night. Not everyone to the same level, I agree, we had two or three players that went missing.

“What I said was we were lacking. We weren’t dying for each other at Swansea. We were fighting but not dying for each other.

“The situation we are in requires that you are ready to die for each other. We can’t rely only on quality, we needed that attitude. And that is exactly what we showed against Norwich.”

With the Championship table so compacted, one result can move a team up or down several places.

But Bilic pointed out that nobody is forced to look at the table and it was better to just focus on individual games.

“We are in a position that we don’t have to look at the table, we just go game by game with the same aim in every game: get three points,” he said.

“You know it will be difficult and that you have to concentrate, but if you do that then you are going to be in a good position at the end of the season.”

There is a break in league proceedings as Watford travel to Reading in the FA Cup Third Round on Saturday (12.30pm kick-off), and Bilic conceded that the usual desire to rotate players in games such as this is not a luxury he currently has.

“Normally in the FA Cup you plan to play a mixed team or a second team, but now we don’t have a second team. We just have a team!” he smiled.

“But let’s be positive. This situation has to improve, some of the players we will be back very soon hopefully.

“Against Norwich, though, we showed that even when the situation looks impossible, things are still possible. The only way you are ever going to get anything is with maximum effort and if you are positive. Otherwise you have no chance.

“Some games journalists write or managers say that it feels like more than three points. The win over Norwich is one of those.”