Philippe Clement applauds the Norwich City travelling support after a 5-0 League Cup exit at Manchester City (Image: Matt Wilkinson/Focus Images Ltd)
Philippe Clement applauds the Norwich City travelling support after a 5-0 League Cup exit at Manchester City (Image: Matt Wilkinson/Focus Images Ltd)
Philippe Clement hailed the spirit of his Norwich City side but admitted holders Manchester City cashed in on ‘naivety‘ in a 5-0 League Cup rout on Thursday.
The Canaries kept the Citizens out for nearly 30 minutes but Floyd Samba’s glancing header opened the floodgates, after Daniel Grimshaw was unable to get a touch to Nico O’Reilly’s floated cross.
Clement felt his much-changed side were also guilty of self-inflicted blows for the hosts second and third goals, either side of the interval
“It's hard to take five goals from six shots on target, and five goals. Those are not good statistics,” he said. “In the end, so we didn't give away a lot, but they're very efficient, and those are really good lessons for my own group of players.
“We were really disciplined at the start. I felt after 20 minutes that you could sense Manchester City getting a little bit annoyed on the sideline next to me, and on the pitch because they could not create anything in that moment.
"But then you get the first goal against you where we need to defend better, and we need to do better on that cross for us to take this cross out of the air, I think with Grimmy, and then dealing better in the box.
"So you go 1-0 behind and then on a transition moment we get a second goal where we're a little bit naive with young players to step forward instead of running backwards. So, good lessons to take.
"We had several good opportunities to to get a three against three, or a four against four, and a two against two, but without really creating something. That part was better, second half, we were more dangerous in our transition moments, and we scored the goal, but just offside, and it was an offside also.
"But during all the game everybody kept on working, fighting, was disciplined, worked hard for the team. So I saw several really good individual performances also from players. But it was also a lesson in how to finish, how to keep calm in those decisive moments in the game, because that's what football is about."