Philippe Clement praised Norwich City’s performance as the Canaries secured a 2-1 victory over Birmingham City under the Carrow Road lights on Wednesday evening.
Oscar Schwartau and Papa Amadou Diallo put City two goals ahead in the first half before Birmingham pulled one back after the interval, but Norwich held on to claim another important Championship victory.
“It was good interaction between all of us because we knew this was a tough game,” Clement said.
“Birmingham is a team that didn't lose yet this season. It's a team that won the most headed duels. They are very direct, with a lot of fights, so you need to be tough in the duels.
“If you don't do that against them, they run over you. So the team did that really well.
“Also in the set pieces, long throw-ins, corners, free-kicks, we defended really well there.
“Pity of the goal that we concede, but we had the best chances in the game and we scored two really good goals. It could have been more.
“Their goalkeeper made also some amazing saves in the second half.
“So, a well-deserved victory, and that's important that the team shows also that face.”
Clement was pleased with the contribution of several players who have been carefully managed through the club’s busy run of fixtures, with Jovon Makama making his return and Papa Amadou Diallo making his first start.
“We have Jovon back also for some minutes, another positive,” he said. “Papa, who started for the first time, is 45 minutes.
“Ante also playing minutes and coming back. We could have rested more today also, after three intensive games for him.
“So a lot of positives after this evening.”
The head coach believes Norwich showed an important quality in matching Birmingham physically as well as displaying their ability on the ball.
“If you want to be ambitious in the Championship, you need that, because otherwise there are teams who can destroy you in that way,” he said.
“We need to show both faces: to be good on the ball, but to win the duels also, and to win in a clean way the duels.
“This is a step forward for all the squad today, and it will give even more appetite towards the next coming games.”
Clement also explained why Mo Touré was left out of the squad, with the club’s data-led approach to managing player workloads continuing to play a key role.
“I would love to be in a situation not to do it after the run that he's been making, but the reality is that Mo is 22 and never played at the level of the Championship before in his career,” he said.
“Before in his career, he never played three games in a row with that short turnaround between games. We did that for the first time last week.
“You see also in his blood values, for example, that it rises and it becomes risky business in that moment. He's a very explosive athlete, that's also different from players who are more endurance players.
“It was a good decision not to play with him today, and that is fresh for the next week to come.”
Clement insists such decisions are now essential given the increased intensity of the modern game and Norwich’s young squad.
“If I would do that now, then we come back in a situation of last season that you have 12 players injured,” he said. “So nobody won that. It's bad for the group, for the team, for the results.
“We need to manage that really well and make good decisions and work closely with the players, looking how they recover, how they train, and to test them a lot with blood markers, but also with their heart rates and specific exercises that we make them do to see if there's tiredness or not.
“When it becomes risky business, you need to make decisions like this. It's normal where the club is now, with a lot of young players who never played in this intensity.
“Their bodies need to get used to that, but in six months we're going to make another step again with these guys when their bodies get used to this kind of intensity and running speeds every two days.”
Clement says the approach has been clearly communicated to his players and is one he has used throughout his coaching career.
“We explain that everything before the season, and it's also simple,” he said. “People who don't understand that moment, they're not in the right project because they're going to get injured. It's clear scientific evidence around that.
“But you talk now like I do something special here. It's not the case. It's what we did in Monaco, it's what we did in Bruges to keep players available and have availabilities of around 90%.
“That's what you need and it's what the top clubs in the Premier League are doing also. They don't play the same player every three days, 90 minutes long. Those days are gone.
“The game is so much faster now and there's less time to recover, more games also than in the past, so you need to do it this way, otherwise you make stupid decisions.”
Asked about his own involvement in a collision on the touchline, Clement joked that there was still work to do on his side of the game.
“I didn't know I was clearly not up to that because normally they don't smack me down like that in the past,” he said. “So I need to work on things clearly.”