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Farke reveals the method behind his Buendia ploy
Emi Buendia delivered the reaction his head coach expected on his Norwich City recall in the win over Leicester City Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
Daniel Farke’s mind games got the desired reaction from his Norwich City gem Emi Buendia.
The 23-year-old justified his recall to the starting line up in the 1-0 Premier League win over Leicester City after some brutally honest words from his head coach.
Farke had spent the previous few days outlining where he felt the 23-year-old needs to improve to reach his full potential, but there was method behind the German's public prompting.
"Believe me when I mention something in public I know exactly what effect it is going to have on him," said Farke. "Emi paid back exactly what I wanted. I was so happy with him.
"He was struggling a bit to get back on his best level. But in this game we saw what he can do with the ball but also how important it is that he is sharp against the ball.
"The lads were brilliant. We are playing against one of the top sides in the league. To produce a spirited and committed performance was well-deserved."
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City's morale-boosting win over the Foxes was tempered by wins for relegation rivals - notably Watford's stunning 3-0 home victory against Liverpool on Saturday.
Hornets' chief Nigel Pearson pulled off a memorable great escape at Leicester in 2014/15, when he plotted seven wins from the last nine, and Farke knows Norwich have entered similar territory.
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"I definitely remember it. Fantastic," he said. "Even if no-one had managed this feat before we would still go for it because we are in this business to create something special. We know it happened before in several seasons.
"I am pleased with our path, our direction but we have to keep going. Now we have to concentrate on the next task. When you work with unity and fighting spirit and the right tactical approach then you have a chance.
"We are not even speaking about winning seven out of 10. We can't judge our players and our situation on relegation. We can't say if we were to go down it is a disaster and if we stay up it is a big success.
"For us we must judge our players in a realistic way.
"That we work hard, we show tactically smart behaviour and we are at the top of our game, so everyone can say we gave everything.
"We were self-critical after Wolves and for me it was about getting back to the previous level and not about the league table."
