David Wagner is not driven to prove his Norwich City critics wrong, after guiding the Canaries into the Championship play-off mix.

Wagner spent weeks batting away questions on his own Carrow Road future, during a late autumn downturn, but has taken 50 points from the last 26 league games ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday.

Only Leeds and Ipswich, who sixth-placed City beat 1-0 in Saturday’s thrilling derby, have taken more points in the Championship over the same period.

“This is the world we live in, everything has to be new, everything has to get changed. You don't try to save something. 'Oh, it doesn’t work, so change it',” he said. “I'm too long in this business that it really affects me. I don't speak about football managers, I speak in general.

"It might be a mobile phone, whatever, but you won’t try to fix it. At the end of the day, and it's up to the guys who make their opinion, we didn’t play well. We didn’t have good results.

“You can sit there and know why, and I think there were enough reasons why this happened. Now we can say, ‘Okay, was it the manager? Or are there maybe five, six, seven other reasons, which are much bigger than the manager, as to why the team was not able to perform like they've done before?’

"But at that time maybe everybody said it's because of him.

“Now the team performs quite well. So it's the same. Is there a reason for it, and is the manager the biggest reason, or are there four or five other reasons? From my perspective you have to not only see the performance or the result.

"For me as a leader, it's all about giving the direction and making sure everybody is calm, does their job and believes in what we are doing. And this is exactly what the players have done.

"67 points will not be enough to end in the play-offs and maintain the chance for promotion. And this is how I judge it. Moments like (Ipswich) help to keep the plate spinning. Great day? Yes. Great result? Yes. Great performance? Yes. But 67 points will not be enough to come into the play-offs.”

Wagner knows what it takes to guide a team to the Premier League via the play-offs, but insists there are some major points of difference with his previous Huddersfield success.

“Huddersfield was totally different because everything from more or less day one, until the last day of the season, was positive,” he said. “This season is totally different. Many more issues to solve. All the atmosphere, expectation, criticism of the board, criticism of the sporting director, criticism of the owner, criticism of the manager, this was totally different this season.

"But what is the same is the togetherness of the dressing room, and a dressing room as I said who is so tied together can achieve something special.”