Keeping his Norwich City boys happy is Daniel Farke’s biggest headache.

The Canaries have picked up seven points from the last nine, and sealed a glamour last-16 League Cup tie at Arsenal after some early season struggles.

Farke is spoilt for choice ahead of Bristol City’s Championship visit to Carrow Road - but that brings its own problems.

“When many players are injured or not in a good shape you don’t have to take too many hard decisions but then you are crying for more options,” he said. “When you have a lot of options it is not so easy and you have to make those hard decisions and it is about man-management.

“All I can say is with these guys it is quite easy. They have such a togetherness, really brilliant characters. It is not so easy if you have to tell a player we do without you in the starting line up or the squad because they all want to play. That is not possible.

“We have a squad of 27, 28 when they are all fit and just 11 are allowed to start. If you make three substitutions per game then only eight can ever play 90 minutes. That is tough.

“But if you just think about yourself then you have to choose another sport, maybe tennis or golf or whatever. We are here together in a team and when you play for a team you have to accept you struggle and win together. I know whoever I bring on the pitch is there with 100pc fighting spirit. That is the base for our success.”

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Mario Vrancic was left out at Sheffield United before a two-goal return to help sink the Bees.

“I can only compliment the behaviour of the lads,” said Farke. “It is a great pleasure to work with these boys. When you are successful it is always easy to give someone a break, like we did with Mario. Although we had some really good results with him we got the feeling that he was a little bit tired so we gave him a break against Sheffield and although we won we brought him back for Brentford.

“In the beginning when there was some hard results they stood together. When you lose games or individuals are not happy with their performance that is a test to make sure the group doesn’t break down. It is about knowing in the middle of setbacks you can trust each other.

“I got this feeling even after some tough early results that the lads are sticking with our ideas.”