Johannes Hoff Thorup knows Norwich City are on the right track because his squad have found their voice.
The Dane has plotted three Championship wins from four, and had Borja Sainz been in the same goalscoring form of late at Swansea that could well have been a full house.
But Thorup is looking beyond results to the underlying factors that have set up another intriguing test of his strategy, ahead of Tuesday’s Carrow Road duel with Daniel Farke’s Leeds.
“The belief is there because we are already at a level where we discuss details and the guys are chipping in,” he said. “Against Derby at half-time the guys are discussing and suggesting how we can make small adjustments, and we also have a culture now where people can raise the arms and say, ‘I'm sorry, guys, it was my mistake on this goal’, and that's how we want to be going forward, that we can be honest with each other, because that's, as I see it, the only approach to develop actually.
“One where we can go hard on each other, but it comes from respect, or comes out of respect, which is so important. We should not be too carried away by results, because at Swansea we could have scored and we didn't, and then it was mostly negative. We scored the three goals (at Derby) and then it's mostly positive.
"I had to go back, look at the performance and make sure that we can continue with this, and make sure that we are hopefully even better when we play against Leeds.”
City’s resolve was tested in the period between a controversial opening goal, and Craig Forsyth’s equaliser, for a home side fuelled by a sense of injustice at the officials missing Josh Sargent cut back from beyond the byline for Sainz’s first.
“We also spoke about that, that we should stay as calm as possible, and we should see if we could create a game picture that was a little bit like the last 20, 25 minutes of the first half, where we were dominant on the ball and we did a lot of passes and got ourselves into good areas,” said Thorup. “We tried to avoid too many duels, too many fouls.
"I don't think we succeeded that well with that in second half. It got too open, it got too busy for us in terms of defending and getting ourselves into duels and so on. But I have to mention that’s also important for us, and we cannot only win games with passes and offensive movements. We also have to put in the hard fight when it's needed.
“If we have to see it from another angle, then these moments where Derby invested a lot of bodies in the box and so on also gave us a game picture where it's one or two passes and we can create a very dangerous moment on a counter.
“We have to defend with all it takes, and then it's just about finding that one or two good passes so we can actually go on the counter and see if we can score another goal. It's that mindset we have to bring.”
Leeds have won four of the last five, but Thorup admitted on Monday at Colney he would be counting the hours to kick-off.
“I appreciate it would be difficult to play at 12:30pm on a Tuesday, but it will be tough to have to wait until the evening,” he said. “It is exciting. That is why we are all here. I can feel it everywhere I go in the building. People are excited about this one.
“Leeds is a strong side. I like the way they play, the way they can keep possession, the way they can attack in different areas and variations. They have pace up front, they can find good positions in between the lines and they have players who can accelerate in those one versus one duels. A strong side, and we have to make sure we do our best in every phase of the game.
“But I like these games. This is where you see what we are made of, and what we can do, and that will be our approach. We have to try and dominate as much as possible, accepting there will be moments in the game when we will have to defend and stick together and support each other.”
Left-back Ben Chrisene is ruled out for Leeds and Hull City’s visit as part of concussion protocols, after taking a blow in the closing stages of the weekend’s hard-fought win at Derby. Thorup reported no other fresh fitness concerns from those on duty at Pride Park.
“Ben suffered a mild concussion towards the end of the game,” said the City boss. “He blocked this cross from the side and was hit to the back of his head. We just have to follow the protocol here, and it will rule him out for the for the next two games.
"We actually saw it towards the end of the game, I think there was one minute or two minutes left, and he had this ball to the back of his head, and you could see that he was actually a little bit shaky in that moment, and then felt some headache afterwards.”
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