Daniel Farke: Our offensive players need the ball to their feet

The Canaries boss wasn’t happy with his team’s long ball approach against Leeds United last weekend.

“We were focused this week on how to approach the next part of the season,” he said in his pre-Brentford press conference.

“We have to improve the quality in both boxes and we need to return to our normal DNA, dominating the ball better in possession. Against Leeds, we had too many long balls.

“Our offensive players need the ball to their feet and into the space. The opponents won’t make this easy for us and perhaps it’s not as easy to do this as on Championship level, but to find this balance is always important.

“You need to find the right balance between being pragmatic and effective and not losing your DNA.

“We chose to play the ball long too early. We don’t have the players to fight for second balls or win headers. It’s important to stick to our beliefs and I want to bring that into the players heads.

“Don’t lose too much confidence or think too much about the table. Concentrate on what is important for the game.”

For this game, City face a Brentford side who have started the season well with good results against the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool.

“Thomas Frank has done a fantastic job with Brentford,” Farke said. “They are on 12 points and deserve all the praise. Nevertheless, we want to win the points.

“They are strong on counter-attacks and set-pieces, so we need to keep them as far away as possible.

“A Premier League season is split into three parts. The first part is the first ten games and we wanted to start as strong as possible. Just two points is nowhere near to our target, so not good enough.

“The upcoming 20 games are the main part of the season where the table is made. After 30 games, you should have 28 or 29 points and we’re heading into the second part of the season with the pressure on us to win 25 points during this period.

“It’s a big ask for a team that has won two points, but this is the situation.”