Norwich boss Daniel Farke hopes addressing the “elephant in the room” head on can help his side kickstart their Premier League campaign.
The struggling Canaries host bottom club Watford on Friday night having collected just one point out of the six matches since beating Manchester City.
During that wretched run of form, Norwich have shipped some 14 goals and scored only twice.
Farke knows if those damning statistics do not improve quickly, then the team which won the Sky Bet Championship title last season on the back of a free-flowing game is only heading one way.
“I think it’s important as a coach to face reality, you can’t make jokes and have fun, you have got to address the elephant in the room to help them regain confidence,” the German said.
“I don’t punish my players, it is about helping them improve and believe in themselves.”
Farke said in quotes published on the club’s official website: “You could see in the last few games, conceding a few too many goals, even attacking players have tried their hardest to get back and help defend.
“The player’s have to concentrate really hard on passing, even the easy passes.
“We need to have more physicality, but it’s a fine balance between that and sticking to our game.
“It’s normal for young player’s to struggle with confidence, but a result would help.
“You always have to improve the smaller details, and those tough times will come, but I think we have prepared well and can get through them.”
The current atmosphere around Carrow Road is in stark contrast to that which embraced the new campaign – and saw Farke’s side demolish Newcastle before producing a memorable victory over last season’s Premier League champions.
Farke, though, is not about to throw in the towel just yet, with Norwich’s injury problems slowly improving.
“The results are not nice. It’s difficult to face different moods during the season,” he said.
“Right now is a tough place to be in with moods and confidence of players, but we’re looking much better.
“We’re the underdog in every game, so we cannot expect to win each match.”
Farke added: “It’s always good to win home games, we really need to be successful tomorrow.
“There probably is more pressure on Watford than us, they are in a worse position than us and it’s not easy, they are meant to be an experienced Premier League team.
“Even tomorrow we are probably seen at having less than a 50 per cent chance of winning the game – but we need to keep fighting and get as many wins as we can against the bigger clubs to survive in the Premier League.”
Teemu Pukki was on target for Finland twice during the last international break, but has not scored for Norwich since the win against City.
Farke said: “He is an experienced striker and knows these times of struggling to score will come – but he knows we all trust him to get those goals flowing again.”
