Norwich City defender Ben Gibson has promised the Canaries’ squad will “buy in” to new head coach David Wagner’s ideas to get their promotion aspirations back on track.
Wagner’s energetic, high pressing style is a departure from what previous boss Dean Smith was asking his players to do and could take some time to bed in.
However, Gibson is confident City can adapt to the German’s playing philosophy quickly and takes his responsibility as a senior player in the dressing room seriously to help that process take effect as soon as possible.
“You buy in to everything that the manager does,” said the former Burnley man, who missed Wagner’s first match in charge due to a calf injury. “As a senior player, pull the others along with you, the senior players are always important when a new manager comes in and things are different.
“You’ve got to make sure that everyone in that squad, everyone in that training ground, buys in to the manager’s ideas because change is there for a reason. It’s because things need to change, it’s going to be really exciting and we’ve got to lift things, we’ll get behind him and buy in to everything he does.
“We need to make sure the messages he wants to get across are really clear for the younger players who have never experienced change before.”
City currently sit in 11th place in the Championship but just one win would be enough to catapult them back into the play-off places.
Gibson hopes City can take inspiration from teams like West Brom and Middlesbrough, who both changed their managers before climbing their way up the table.
“The Championship is just a really strange league,” Gibson told the official Norwich City programme, OTBC. “Ultimately, you’ve got to be aiming for two points a game to get automatic promotion. We aren’t at that, at the minute, and the play-offs look like more of a realistic target.
“I think we’ve just got to put that to the side and focus on performance because if that’s good, at a high standard, and where the new manager wants to be, we know the results will come.
“Take a look at West Brom and Middlesbrough recently, both struggling in 22nd and 21st. The new manager has gone in, changed the way they’re playing and they’ve had a bounce and kicked on and they’re both targeting play-offs and are just in front of us.
“It can all change extremely quickly, as it has recently for us but not for the right reasons, but we are where we are and we really believe that things will change for the better.”
City haven’t won at Carrow Road since October and Gibson admitted they must improve their home form if they are to get back in the promotion picture.
“The last time we got promoted, the home form was fantastic so that’s something that we’ve got to turn around,” he added. “The fans will get right behind us, and right behind the new manager. Football changes so fast, it only takes one game to change everything.
“Winning breeds confidence, doesn’t matter what competition it is, we want to win every game and that has to start now.”
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