It has been a competitive week in training for Norwich City ahead of the trip to Manchester City this Saturday, according to midfielder Todd Cantwell.
The Canaries started the Premier League season with an opening day defeat to Liverpool at Carrow Road, but on the back of a performance that the team could take plenty of positives out of and an almost fully fit squad, Todd says the mood in training has been positive and that the sessions have been competitive.
“Yes, the mood (in the camp) has been really good,” he said. “With the greatest respect, you can lose a game to Liverpool. You can lose a game to some of the best teams in this division, but if we are giving it our best and we can see that we were close or that we weren’t far off, and that we are looking to try and get results against these teams, then you can accept that you are going to lose and there is no point dwelling on that. It is all about the next game and that is exactly what we are focusing towards.”
“Training has been competitive which it has to be,” he added. “There is a lot of competition for not so many spaces, and I think that is healthy. If you don’t have anyone competing for your position, then you are going to be too comfortable and you are not going to be playing at your best levels. I think it is really good that there is that hunger and there is a lot of people competing for those starting places."
Some of those players competing for the starting positions have been new arrivals this summer, with Angus Gunn, Milot Rashica, Pierre Lees-Melou, Billy Gilmour, Christos Tzolis and Josh Sargent all joining before the first game of the season. Todd says the new players have settled in well.
“I speak for all of them when I say that they have all settled in well,” he said. “I think it is a good group of lads. I think it is easy for the boys to settle in off the pitch, with the players that we have in the changing room, but on the pitch as well they looked sharp.
“We are looking forward to playing together a little bit more and getting a better understanding on the pitch. Really you can only get that through playing games, so it is just about playing those games now and picking up points and getting the results that we want to get.”
Todd scored the last time Norwich City beat Manchester City in the Premier League, when the Canaries won 3-2 at Carrow Road in the 2019/20 campaign. He says the side need to show the same ‘anything can happen’ mentality at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow if the team are going to get a positive result.
“I think (in that game) we were a great example that in football you can’t really predict it, because we were probably written off before that game,” he said.
“I think we have got to look at Saturday’s game with the same mentality and same attitude. Football is a bazaar game and we know if we are right on our game and their not, then we can definitely get something.
"Equally if they are at it and we are it, then we would like to think that we can give them a game as well. We are excited for it. The camp is a ready. We want to go into every game trying to get points. We want to try and beat the best teams, that is why we are here. Everyone is looking forward to it and we are looking forward to what we can do.”