The Canaries have the same squad available as for Tuesday's defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, consisting of young players and some running on fumes. The upcoming international break provides some much-needed respite to get key operators back. Navigating this three-game week has been testing for the City boss, but he has explained why it's been a case of 'together we stand' ahead of the Robins visit this weekend.
"You cannot do what we're trying to do here overnight. Actually, what we managed to do was to find the right balance just before the previous international break. "We got into some good performances; there was a good balance in the team with experienced and young players, but in the situation that we're in, I cannot expect any more from the players than what they're doing at the moment.
"That was also my message after the game. I don't think that we played well in Sheffield, but I will not go hard on them because that is not the time. If we had all the players available and were having the results that we're having, that would be a different approach for me.
I'd be critical in another way, but it's not the time to do that. "It's the time to stick even more together and support each other even more. It's going to be another difficult game on Saturday.
We don't have any new players available. It will be the same team who have to go again and do it one more time. "It will be tough, but we try every day to build a little bit of positivity around the group to try and find som.