Daniel Farke warns Norwich City need to be streetwise at Carrow Road on Wednesday night to trouble Carlo Ancelotti and his Everton side.
The Canaries’ chief is a big fan of the hugely experienced Italian coach and saw enough in Sunday’s goalless Merseyside draw to know any repeat of his own side’s lacklustre Southampton display spells danger.
“His teams are very well-structured and it is so hard to create chances, so we have to be efficient,” said Farke. “They have so much quality. Look at the players who came off the bench the other day against Liverpool. Huge club, huge potential. Big coach.
“Even a top side like Liverpool was struggling to create chances, and Everton probably had the biggest chance in that game.
“At this level we are not capable to dominate the opponent from start to finish. That is why we need to score when we are on top.
“If not, you must go on without making defensive mistakes, then wait for the moment when you can punish the opponent again.
“Look at when we played Leicester at home. We stayed in the game after not getting our early reward. Then we got a chance with Jamal Lewis to find the breakthrough and everyone speaks about how balanced and patient we were and how it was the perfect performance.
“Against Southampton we allowed them to score from a throw in, where we had an overload.
“Or if I compare the manner of Southampton’s second goal with how they were prepared to make tactical fouls when they needed to.”
Farke has Alex Tettey in reserve to inject some much-needed midfield guile after his watching brief last week.
“When I joined Norwich three years ago there was already this feeling or this attitude that Alex could not play two games a week. We had Wes Hoolahan for the home games and Alex for the away,” he said. “I have tried to bring Alex into a situation that he can play 90 minutes every day.
“But when we start a period with so many games in such a short period of time, and without a proper pre-season, it is difficult for Alex to play twice a week for five weeks.
“He is also our only real cover now at centre back but it’s not that I will keep him only for emergencies.
“He can step up and play and I am sure we will need his physical strength, his leadership and his ability to win tackles.
“We are happy Alex is here for next season because whenever he is on the pitch he brings a solidity. Yes, you sometimes needs to be more proactive to attack a game, and you miss what he brings, but he will still be crucial for us over the run in.”
Fit-again centre back Timm Klose is now the leader of the defensive pack after Grant Hanley underwent hamstring surgery on Saturday.
“It went well. Everything is okay but he now has four weeks on crutches, which tells you everything about the scale of this surgery,” said Farke. “We hope he can spend one or two days a week at the training ground because he is important for us.
“Although he is not allowed on the pitch he is a leader for this group.
“It is great to have Timm back. To play in a crucial game (against Southampton) shows our injury situation but he used his experience and he proved he can handle it.
“Okay, not perfect in his performance but no player in the world would be who hadn’t started a league game in 18 months.
“We have to put him in the ice bath and wrap him in cotton wool because we don’t have that many options.”
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