Philippe Clement will suffer the selection ‘headaches’ to get Norwich City’s machine into top gear.
The Belgian now has the strength in depth and a rapidly emptying treatment room to attack the Championship’s top eight.
Norwich followed up a League Cup at Cardiff with a 4-1 hammering of Burnley and face a Stoke side on Tuesday night pointless under Mark Robins despite a sizeable summer transfer outlay by Championship standards.
Clement is not fooled by Stoke’s faltering start after fixtures against a resurgent Swansea, Southampton and Wolves.
“We are not the only ones with the difficult programme,” he said, speaking at Colney yesterday.
“It's a really good squad. They've spent also a lot of money already in the transfer window until now.
"It shows also the ambitions that they have. They had already a good squad last season, so it's a big game again for us, a difficult away trip. We need to be on our toes to get points there. But like always, we try to get the three points and to do our thing.
“Let's focus on ourselves.
I think that's the most important thing, and not to look at others because Burnley could have said that about us a few days ago (after Millwall). It's what you need to do yourself, and we're purely focused on that, whether it is home or away.
"I heard some people saying this week on the radio it is really important to have a really good home reputation to get the points there, and then to get some points in away games.
"I totally don't agree with those things.
“For me, home and away, we need in every game to try to get the three points and to go full for that. And we've proven in the past also that we can win in away games, so we need to continue that journey.
"But I know Stoke will be a big challenge because I respect the way they play. They have a clear playing style with really good players. (Sorba) Thomas on the side, (Million) Manhoef and (Sam) Gallagher.
"There's a lot of quality there, with their wingers, good striking options, also good players in midfield and defence. They're good team on the ball, so they control the game well. We have several challenges.”
Paris Maghoma trained on Monday after his calf absence but Clement will make a late call on whether to include him in the match night squad. The City boss reported no fresh fitness issues from the Clarets’ romp, but a trip to the Potteries will come too soon for fit-again striker Jovon Makama.
“Jovon is doing also more and more work with the group, but it's going to be too early to take him in the selection,” said Clement. “But like Paris he's also in a good spot. A lot of positive stories.
"Okay, we still have a few injured, but not much anymore compared with last season, and that's a really good sign.
"And you feel also that the group is becoming more and more robust. Players like Darlin (Yongwa) getting stronger, Anthony Masaba getting better, Andre Brooks adapting to everything that we're doing.
"Ante (Crnac) also showing good things when he came on, and you see he came back in a really good way, scoring against Cardiff and doing a good job both defensively and offensively.
"It will give me for sure some headaches the next few weeks and months. But that's what we want.
"It's going to be the best for the club that we can come to that situation because that's what the team needs if you have big ambitions.
"The situation like it was last season is impossible to get good results over the long term. This is down to a lot of people in the club changing things, making things better for the long term to get players fitter, stronger, faster, and to prevent these injuries.
"Clearly everything is on the right track.”
Clement viewed the manner of Norwich’s Burnley performance as a reference point.
“Our organisation, our discipline, our front-foot defending, our transitions, our ruthlessness in the finishing. So many good things,” he said.
“I think that's also the big difference with the West Brom game because for me, still, West Brom was a really good game, and we played also front-foot football and good football creating a lot of chances.
“It was not that the finishing was bad, but there was just one body in between, or a save of the goalkeeper, the small details, and now you have against Burnley in the first minute a ball played into a good space, but the defender makes a mistake and Mo (Toure) is away and in front of a goal, so that's football.
“We took the momentum in that game. During the first half Burnley came back with possession to have some momentum without really big chances, but they have a really good team, really good squad, a lot of individual talent, also a manager with clear ideas.
"I'm convinced also that in the next few months they're going to take more points. But we were on the front foot, and we took our chances and like this the machine starts going.”
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