Former Norwich City star Simon Lappin is of the view that David Wagner is willing to risk discontent from the Canaries faithful by playing unfashionable defensive football in pursuit of results.
Despite a slow start to the season, Norwich have managed to climb up the league table and are sitting in seventh place with 51 points from 33 games.
Their win against Cardiff City on Saturday at Carrow Road has extended their unbeaten run at home to ten games and they have only lost one game out of the last eight league fixtures.
Lappin thinks that during their poor run of form early in the season, Wagner decided to take a step back to focus on the basics and make the Canaries a compact side who will be hard to play against.
He thinks that for the sake of getting results, the German tactician is willing to risk fan discontent playing an unfashionable style of football.
“When they were in that poor run and they were too easy to play against, it is almost David Wagner stepped back a little”, Lappin said on BBC Radio Norfolk.
“We are going to be harder to play against; we are going to be much more compact.
“Teams are not going to play through us; open us.
“But what that has done is give them a platform to build on because, when you are losing games of football and you are getting picked off, it is very difficult to build any confidence.
“So sometimes you have to go back to the basics. We are going to be harder to beat; we are going to shut up shop and if we nick a 1-0, great.
“If it does not please the fans because it is unfashionable, it does not matter because it is stopping the rot; it is getting us three points on the board.”
Norwich are keen on getting into the top six this season and it remains to be seen whether Wagner’s style of football will be able to take them to the playoffs.
