Norwich City head coach, Philippe Clement, shared his thoughts ahead of Thursday evening's Carabao Cup clash against Manchester City and confirmed the squad was looking forward to the trip to the Ethiad Stadium.
"It's all positive, nothing special to report after the Middlesbrough game.
"The squad is looking good, but of course with this programme of a game Thursday evening then a 12.30pm kick-off on Sunday, I need to consider things because you have a little bit more than 60 hours between the two games.
"It's a really short turnaround.
"I expect the game tomorrow to require the players to lose a lot of energy without the ball, with all the quality on the other side and we have a big game on Sunday in the league, so we need to make smart decisions.
"It's been a really busy few weeks; I looked yesterday at the Liverpool versus Tottenham game in the cup where each team made 10 and nine changes respectively from the weekend.
"They haven't played as many games in the league as us, so you can see it's been a really tight schedule.
"I never want to complain about that though, because I don't want my players to complain; we need to manage that and build a squad that can cope with that.
"It's impossible for players to play every single game or 90 minutes every time; those days are gone.
"The positives are that you can see the amount of players that are fit and ready to play.
"Our physical data against Middlesbrough was impressive too and for the last ten minutes of the game, we were physically the better team."
The Canaries are without a clean sheet so far this season and Clement confirmed he needed more from all of his players.
"We need better defending by being more aggressive.
"Look at all our goals against Middlesbrough; we know the first one is an individual mistake which we have talked about and it's not something that happens with this player a lot.
"The goals afterwards were all goals where we had more people behind the ball than attacking players, so it's not like we are too open but indeed our defending needs to be better in general.
"I know during pre-season we were struggling to score goals but we kept clean sheets, so we need to make that part stronger again and to keep scoring goals.
"With the defending, it's not only defensive players, it's also the reflexes of attacking players and how they react after losing the ball, how their positions were when we don't have the ball.
"For the moment, it's still too inconsistent.
"We live in a result-based business, so if you have nine points people are wondering why it isn't more but you've seen all the games; it could have been six points more now and we could have been top of the league, so those are the small margins."
Having played in and managed a number of high-profile fixtures, Clement described what it takes to face an opponent like Manchester City.
"Where players over-perform, showing a better level than they normally would, you need some moments of luck, you need a goalkeeper who makes a few saves but the most important thing is you need 90 minutes of belief in yourself and your teammates.
"Those are the key things.
"From my side, at the end of your playing career what you remember most are the trophies that you won, the promotions that you achieved, a few good parties after some amazing games and the historical games, where nobody gave you a chance and you won.
"That's the charm of football; David against Goliath where the smallest one wins.
"Those are also the moments that stay in your head forever.
"I've seen positivity, excitement and hunger a lot in the training, so, we now have to do it on the pitch.
"For some of them it'll be the first time playing at this level.
"I remember the first time I played with Brugge in Barcelona; the pitch looked really big and you always felt one or two steps behind.
"We didn't get a result that night but it was an experience where next time you stopped on that stage, you were better again.
"They are one of the best teams in the world right now.
"The game will have a different philosophy for us compared to what we have in the league; we're a team that wants the ball and has the ball a lot, so we have to adapt to that.
"It's a different mindset.
"We have really good, loyal away fans and we want to give them a good game on their travels and I hope they can give a lot of energy to the players."