Daniel Farke pledged to fight on after Norwich City slipped deeper into trouble following a 2-1 Premier League home defeat to Leeds United.

The Canaries now sit eight points from safety after another losing effort at Carrow Road that left Farke batting away fresh questions on his own future.

Sporting director Stuart Webber made it clear ahead of the game Farke’s job was not on the line, but the Canaries remain rooted to the bottom with two points from 10 matches.

“If you can’t handle criticism or pressure from the outside then you cannot do this job. I am not worried. I just want to protect my players,” he said. “I am not thinking about my future but working with these players.

"I still believe in my squad and what we are doing. I said it before, there are just 20 jobs at this level. There is lots of pressure that comes with being in this league. But we will not crack.

“(Are you right man for this job?) Yes, of course. I am disappointed but I also know our situation. For us, as a club there will never be a guarantee immediately after promotion we can definitely stay in this league.

"If we cannot spend what others can spend you will not hear us complaining. This is my job to improve us on the training pitch.

“Stuart did a top class job in the summer but we have not signed players who have played 100 Premier League games.

"I accept the quality in both boxes is not good enough right now to stay in this league. We have to be transparent and self critical. We are not happy.”

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City’s experienced keeper Tim Krul was deceived by Rodrigo’s dipping long range effort to seal the win for Marcelo Bielsa’s visitors.

“I do not want to criticise my players publicly. They do not deserve it,” said Farke. “Everyone who has watched the game can judge it.

"We can all see what happened. It is even more difficult when our leaders are not there with their best performances. When I speak about Tim, he has done so much for this club.

"He has been outstanding and he is probably the most disappointed person in the dressing room. He doesn’t need me to publicly criticise him because what he has done in recent years was fantastic.

"Perhaps it was Tim in this game, in other games it has been other players but we need to be better in both boxes.

"I cannot fault the effort, or what my lads are showing in terms of the unity, but we have to find that bit of quality in both boxes to give us a chance to win these type of games.”