Soccer
Philippe Clement pleased with Norwich’s game management in win at Bramall Lane
Philippe Clement was pleased with Norwich’s game management in their 3-1 win at Sheffield United.
The Canaries secured a first away win of the season following goals from Anthony Musaba, Mohamed Toure and substitute Mathias Kvistgaarden.
Clement said: “A lot of respect towards Chris (Wilder). The way he prepares his teams every time, they’re always full of passion, really direct and it’s hard to handle. So it was important to keep as much as possible control of the ball, not to give it away too easily.
“Although Sheffield United wanted to press us we came out really well several times, so that was an important part of this game.
“Of course, scoring the goals also. We take the lead just before half-time and it’s an important momentum that you take.
“I’m very pleased about how the team controlled the game in the second half and we had the best chances there by far to score more goals. So to do that in an away game, with this crowd, with this manager also and the way he prepares his team, it’s a really positive thing.
“We need to continue doing what we’ve been doing, making it better, integrating the new players, getting players out of injury, creating connections with all the players.
“Praise to Andre (Brooks) today. He came back to the club that he loves. It’s like his family here. So that’s a difficult one as a young player for the first time and he played a really good game.
“That’s sometimes difficult because your emotions are sometimes bigger. But he did that really well. He played good.”
Patrick Bamford was on target for Sheffield United and their manager Chris Wilder had no complaints about the result, saying: “We didn’t deserve anything from the game.
“Disappointed with the last 20 minutes. It really irritated me. It’s not like us. We felt sorry for ourselves.
“I thought we made it pretty comfortable for Norwich. They managed the game well, managed the game better than us. And the goals that we’ve conceded are really, really poor, even though the third one’s offside, which you’ll see when that gets replayed.
“But, you know, even taking that out, I think Philippe would have been disappointed if he had not won the game today. I don’t think we deserve to, especially in that last 20-25 minutes, get anything out of it.
“We never looked like getting back into the game and putting pressure on them and asking them the question.
“We got ourselves back in, scored a good goal, and then I thought from there we wrestled the initiative off them and it was on us. We got the press right, we didn’t allow them to get out.
“The front three especially, in my opinion, one of the best in the division in how they play, we never allowed them to get the ball up to them because we shut that down, we wrestled the initiative back.
“You’re going into 43 minutes and the game is just turned on its head, we don’t get those opportunities to score those goals. They’ve had the opportunity to score the goals.
“Regardless of the offside decision or not, they were better than us in the second half.”
