Daniel Farke has spent his international break drawing up the next phase of Norwich City’s Championship masterplan.

The German head coach engineered a remarkable transformation in the Canaries’ defensive output last month, with a club record five consecutive league clean sheets underpinning a seven-match unbeaten run.

Now Farke is looking for that cutting edge that has eluded them of late on home soil ahead of Hull City’s league visit on Saturday.

“I am greedy to improve in all areas,” said Farke. “After Middlesbrough I said to the lads, ‘Listen, it is not our strategy to control the game without the ball. We want more possession but when you face an opponent who is the top favourite for the title and we had so many attacking options unavailable, then it is quite normal you have to adapt’. When I looked at the statistics they had 60pc possession. I would prefer it the other way around.

“Some games you have to concentrate more on defending, defensive structure, and focus more on counter actions. To win with defending or through set pieces is also a good sign.

“Let’s say we have Nelson (Oliveira) in a really good shape, Alex Pritchard, Steven Nasimith, Marco Stiepermann, Mario Vrancic and Josh Murphy. Then we can bring out our philosophy to control the ball on the pitch. All teams who want an extraordinary season must have these moments.

“I remember when Pep Guardiola was at Bayern Munich he always wanted to have possession but he won a game at Borussia Dortmund with just 30pc possession. It wouldn’t be our normal style, long term, but when you have players out you have to concentrate on other things.”

Farke insists City’s impressive recent progress is no fluke.

“We had some time during the last break to work 100pc on our defensive behaviour. That was so important after bad results last season and the beginning of this,” he said. “Then we had some players come back from injury or others who did not really have a pre-season to work on their fitness. Then you get a good result or two, which helps the confidence, the atmosphere in the team improves and there is a big togetherness. The lads really deserve credit. I think we have a nice balance between the experienced guys and the young, hungry lads.”