Norwich City chief Alex Neil is leaving no stone unturned in Newcastle inquest
Norwich manager Alex Neil and his players have watched the worst bits of a 6-2 Premier League defeat at Newcastle United. Picture by Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
Alex Neil insists the inquest into Norwich City's Premier League hammering at Newcastle will start very close to home.
The Canaries' boss suffered his heaviest defeat since taking charge at Carrow Road in a 6-2 televised loss at St James' Park, and Neil aims to leave no stone unturned to prepare City for West Brom's upcoming visit this weekend.
'I have to look at everything. The decisions I made and the team I picked and then how the players performed and if they merit their place this week,' he said. 'I wouldn't say it is a test of character. It is one of those where we have to see how they respond. It is a case of what has happened there, how do you deal with it, put it to bed and move on. We have been successful since I came here and we have had setbacks along the way so that is nothing new and we have moved on from those games.
'I don't think this one has any bearing on West Brom just as Sunday had any bearing on the previous game. It is individual games and getting things into perspective. We have started the season reasonably well, our performance level has been reasonably good and we have lost a game and conceded six goals. No-one is happy about that and we need to address that.
'We need to re-group and make sure we defend a hell of a lot better than we did (at Newcastle). As a group, not just defenders, we were really poor. It's not that we couldn't deal with the counter-attacks but our starting positions were poor as well. We scored twice from counter-attacks but they defended better than us one versus one.'
• Norwich City's development squad will look for a winning finale to the group phase of their Premier League International Cup campaign at Leicester City on Tuesday evening (KO 7pm).
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Dmitri Halajko's Under-21s beat their counterparts from Villarreal last time out and know victory at the Foxes could secure a quarter-final spot. City can field three over-age outfield players under the rules of the competition, which may offer Alex Neil the chance to give Youssouf Mulumbu a run-out after returning to full training last week following early-season foot surgery.
