Daniel Farke was not prepared to criticise his squad after their heavy 5-1 defeat to Aston Villa, instead blaming "difficult circumstances" concerning Norwich's current injury crisis.
It was a protective press conference as Farke looks to support his squad on the back of three consecutive defeats against sides they would have felt they could have challenged for points.
"I want to protect them a bit"
Farke repeatedly pointed to the injuries, despite the starting eleven reflecting only three or four players short of his strongest line-up.
He concluded, "we had a few players using painkillers and one or two players didn’t perform as they should. It wasn’t because of attitude, they tried everything and for that I can’t blame them too much.
I want to protect them a bit because of the difficult circumstances."
The German also suggested that training hasn't been as productive with so many players on the treatment table.
"It’s easier to work on topics with more lads fit and competitive."
But he is keen not to dwell on this performance, claiming, "it’s important not to be too high after games like the City win but also not to be too low because we won’t have this injury situation again."
"Too many mistakes"
However, Farke did admit there were too many mistakes from his side but with another nod to the injury problems.
"We are disappointed, it was a tough day. If I’m really honest we can’t do this on a weekly basis. We had too many odds stacked against us.
There were too many mistakes without a doubt and that is the reason we lost the game. But I thought we created more chances than they did in the first half."
Farke also surmised that Norwich didn't deal with the threat of Wesley and were overrun in midfield.
"We were two against one against the striker [Wesley] for the first two goals and should be winning the ball. My best passers lost the ball for the other goals."
Norwich must unite
Farke, who took the Norwich reins for the 100th time against Villa, concluded, "we have to stick together. There will be difficult periods and I didn’t expect such a situation with so many injured players.
It's quite normal that the fans might criticise but they have good sense. When we went four, even five goals down, they kept signing for us. I totally have this feeling we will stick together."