Norwich City head coach Dean Smith can sense a growing belief and confidence within his first-team squad following Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“I’m really pleased,” he said. “It was a better performance than it was last week against Southampton. We probably picked up two points more than we should have against Southampton, but lost two that we should have got today.
“There were moments when we controlled it without the ball but we had moments of good control with the ball as well, which is something that disappointed me last week.
“When I first came here, I said that we needed to stop giving away big chances against us and we did that today, restricting them to very few. I can’t remember Tim making too many saves.
“We want to go and create big chances at the other end and on another day Teemu probably scores a couple, but the big moment for me was the goalkeeper making a big save from Max in the first half.
“Rupp had a really good chance as well, and he did well when he came on for Mathias, but I’m really pleased with the overall performance and there’s a growing belief and confidence within the group.
“We wanted to hunt the ball. It’s easier to go and hunt it from a goal-kick because you’re in set positions, so we’ve got good trigger points from that and we pressed the ball really well and won it back in their half.
“It’s a little bit harder when they move the ball a bit quicker and you have to get the shift, but we made sure we kept the ball in front of us and our two centre-halves dealt with Jimenez well because he’s a really good player.”
Smith made one change to the team that started last weekend’s win against Southampton, Josh Sargent starting ahead of Todd Cantwell.
“Sarge came in at half-time for Todd in that game and helped change it, getting on the front foot,” Smith said.
“I thought it was tough for our two wide players in the first 15 minutes of the game today. Their tens got too much of the ball so we tweaked it and went with a flatter midfield three, allowing then Sargent and Milot to get into the game a lot more.
“The Sarge has come in and done well again and he got 65-70 minutes today.”
Rashica caused plenty of problems for Wolves throughout the game, carrying the ball well and getting into dangerous areas.
“He certainly did,” Smith said. “He caught the goalkeeper off guard once as well when he dragged one past the near post. If it was on target he’d have scored because the keeper didn’t see that coming.
“He set one up for Ruppy as well and his pace will cause problems for the opposition.”
Lukas Rupp came on as a first-half replacement for Mathias Normann, who was forced off with an injury.
“I think it’s a recurrence of his pelvic injury that he’s had,” Smith explained. “He said he was feeling pain there so he had to come off and I’m aware that he’s had an injury there before.
“We’ll assess him and see how he goes. The good thing is we’ve got a fairly healthy squad and they’re all pushing for places at the moment, so it’s really tough leaving players out, such has been the application and quality in training.”
Norwich will now turn attention to Tuesday night’s trip to Newcastle United, the December schedule presenting a quick turnaround for Smith’s side.
“These players have been used to it with the games in the Championship,” he said. “The intensity of the Premier League games and the quality is higher.
“They know how to turn themselves around and get ready. We’ll have a look at the players tomorrow, have a good recovery and then train before we travel up on Monday.”
Smith was also keen to highlight the support from City fans, who got behind their team from minute one in some unpleasant weather conditions at Carrow Road.
“They were terrific today,” he said. “I think we’re generating that atmosphere with the performance levels at the moment.
“The lads are working hard for the shirt, their teammates and the supporters. It’s reciprocated from the stands at the moment so we’re in a good place but we need to keep getting points to climb out of the area we’re in.
“Hard work and togetherness will do that.”