ALEX Neil is targeting an improvement when his Norwich City side visit Queens Park Rangers in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday (3pm).

Having previously enjoyed an excellent September, the Canaries have found things more difficult of late, taking a single point from their past four league matches.

The most recent of those games saw a late 3-2 reverse to Leeds United at Carrow Road a fortnight ago, and the City boss knows more is needed ahead of facing a Rangers outfit boosted by the arrival of returning manager Ian Holloway.

"We need to make sure we improve, certainly defensively," Neil told Norwich City TV on Friday.

"We've conceded too many goals so have done a lot of work in terms of our shape, recovering into our shape and breaking from our shape. We don't want to be too exposed from open play.

"This season, we haven't really struggled to score goals. However, we need to start keeping more out so there is a balance to be struck which hopefully we will find.

"It's about repetition, as much as you can; putting the players into uncomfortable scenarios as many times as we can. We're hoping they make the best and right decisions more often than not.

"With the quality we have in the squad, we would expect that. Unfortunately we haven't really produced that in the last few games, which we're looking to improve."

Neil believes the recent international break came at a good time for his team, serving as a cut-off point which has allowed recent struggles to be put behind them.

"We had a really good spell where we played well and won a lot of games," he added.

"We then had a really poor spell, where we haven't played well. What we need to do now is respond.

"The biggest thing we can do now is continue to work really hard. We'll try and put three points on the board in this game.

"I believe it's down to how we perform that will dictate how we do in the match. We're prepared and ready."

ALEX ON QPR: EXPECTING MUCH BETTER

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