McLean’s mission to keep City dressing room together
Norwich City’s dressing remains united despite difficult Championship results, even if Kenny McLean admits it’s hard to convince frustrated supporters.
Eight defeats in 11 Championship matches have piled pressure on City’s head coach David Wagner and raised plenty of questions about the mentality and durability of the squad.
Their 3-1 loss to Blackburn at Carrow Road on Sunday was the latest moment of misery for City supporters, who vented their frustrations at the board of directors and outgoing sporting director Stuart Webber.
Norwich have subsequently made the move to accelerate the arrival of new sporting director Ben Knapper amid their poor run of form.
Ahead of a difficult trip to South Wales to face Cardiff this weekend, Norwich will be hunting for a response to halt an increasingly concerning slump of form.
With confidence low, City will need to dig deep to change their fortunes – integral to that will be remaining united.
McLean understands why some supporters may feel there are cracks among the playing squad given recent results and performances – whilst the City captain rejects that perception, he feels they each need to reflect on their own role in Norwich’s struggles.
“I think so. But it’s easy for me to stand here and say that, we’re not showing it on the pitch so it won’t mean anything to a lot of people,” McLean said when asked if the dressing room remained together.
“We do have a lot of experience in there and the lads right now are disappointed, frustrated and down – that’s normal for how things have been going but it’s about how you react to that.
“We haven’t been reacting well. It’s down for us to put it right. We showed that there is more quality in the group at the start of the season but that is long gone.
“Since, things have gone against us and we haven’t stood up to it. Individually, you have to look yourself in the mirror and ask whether you’re doing enough. I hope all the lads can say that they are.
“We need to come together, work as hard as we can, be resolute and be more nasty – we need that in our game. We need to work hard.”