Daniel Farke will take any flak going at Norwich City rather than stick his young players in the firing line.

The head coach insists there is plenty of tough-talking behind closed doors at Carrow Road as the Canaries looks to iron out early season teething troubles.

Farke admits City must tighten up at the back, ahead of Tuesday’s League Cup second round tie against Charlton, but is convinced his injury-hit squad will prove their mettle.

“I am not too angry with the guys because you can put the mistakes down to the load. If you want to criticise someone then criticise the coach. I can handle it, no problem,” he said. “There is a lot of criticism of the players. That is normal perhaps because the defensive behaviour was not good enough at Aston Villa. We know this, we have to be honest. You can explain it. Normally Christoph (Zimmermann) needs a rest and Marcel (Franke) must adapt still, the same with James Husband.

“I trust James, Marcel, Russ (Martin), Christoph. They will fight for us and they know they need to improve. With all the young guys, lads like Harrison Reed, James Maddison and Josh Murphy, they will make mistakes in some games. They have to improve because of those experiences. I am here to work with them, not to doubt them.

“It is important for me to stand in front of the guys and not criticise them too much in public. Each and every fan in the stadium totally understands the situation, when you have so many young lads it is not so easy for them.”

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City’s squad know the Villa Park display was below-par.

“They are very self-critical. I do not have to convince them there were mistakes,” said Farke. “They were in such a bad mood after the game, like the coach. That is not the time to shout or scream at them. They want to get better. We have to do it in an objective way. When you see how poor the mistakes were it is not good for the mood but we have to face it. You just have to be honest, open-minded and objective.

“On the other hand it is important to make sure the guys believe in themselves and their ideas so we spoke about the reaction in the second half and our better physical condition, despite having a day less to prepare than Villa. Of course there will be setbacks but that is normal with young players. We will improve.”