Daniel Farke is urging his Norwich City players to raise the bar even higher after setting a league clean sheet club record.
The Canaries’ 1-0 Championship win at Middlesbrough set a new landmark, with a fifth shut out on the spin in the second tier.
Farke, however, is in no mood to ease up ahead of Saturday’s trip to Reading.
“To be honest I am not so addicted to statistics and beating records,” he said. “Yes, it is a nice record but I was also told conceding four goals in two consecutive away games was a record. I would prefer this record, 100pc. I think it shows when you are there with a big will to work then you can achieve extraordinary things. This improvement is really special in our defence behaviour. To have five clean sheets in a row, and particularly at Middlesbrough, that is a good sign.
“To achieve anything in football it is important to have that base to build from. Football is all about the results and for that you need to be solid. Without this you can’t be successful. That is what we did in the last month. It is a superb improvement in such a short time but it is up to the players. We give them plans, we can work with them on the training pitch in a theoretical way, but they must bring it when it is most important on the pitch.”
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Farke is prepared to keep his squad on the straight and narrow.
“Believe me I have some weapons to keep their feet on the ground,” he said. “If there is any need to do this I will. I said from the first day I arrived I want this working attitude to be about a pride in playing for this football club. To feel a high responsibility for this club because it is a massive club and we have so much support behind us. We stand together with our supporters.
“We should be proud to work for this football club and each and every day we must strive to improve and do our best. Then we can achieve things and have more special evenings like Middlesbrough. This result was for our fans. It has been a bit of a struggle for us at times in the early part of the season but they stuck with us.”
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The City chief gathered his players and coaching staff in a huddle at the final whistle on the pitch at Middlesbrough.
“We have such a good atmosphere and togetherness. Without this you are not able to go to a place like Middlesbrough and win a game like that,” he said. “For that, you need an atmosphere built on trust and everything we speak about in the group is based on that. I won’t repeat publicly what I said but in a relaxed way they were hopefully nice words. I hope I found the right English words.”
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