Call it a lack of confidence, call it a mentality issue but David Wagner has identified a key issue holding back Norwich City’s Championship progress.

Wagner has plotted two wins, and endured two league defeats on his watch ahead of Hull City’s Carrow Road visit on Tuesday night, but there is a common thread that needs to be eradicated within his squad.

“The last five games have shown that we get too affected by either scoring a goal or conceding a goal. The range in between our performance is too big,” he said. “We have to be stronger, because conceding or scoring is part of the game.

"It cannot affect how you then deal with a situation, or perform for the next 10 or 15 minutes in the game. We have to be more clear in our head, more calm, more relaxed, have more trust in ourselves and believe that however the score is we always have the quality and the capability to perform.

"Our performance shouldn't get influenced from scoring or conceding. You are not a better player, or a less good player - because you score or concede a goal. This is where we have to work on it.

“(Is that a mentality issue?) For sure it looks like, yes. But I'm not interested what happened in the past. If we speak about the five games we played together, it was clear and obvious that when we scored, or when we conceded, it affected our game.

"I understand we are dealing with human beings, and that can be the case, but the range in our game is too big. First and foremost it is my job to make clear that whatever the scoreline you are the same player with the same qualities with the same strength. You have the same idea and the same gameplan to follow.

"We believe in ourselves, we believe in our strength as an individual and as a group. Every experience you have, or which you had in the past, every game, every training session, will help you grow to the point where everything, more or less, happens without thinking about it.

"And sometimes in our bad periods of the game, we have too many situations where we have to think about it.”

Wagner was critical of the lack of ‘intensity and energy’ going forward in a 1-0 weekend defeat to Bristol City. The City chief admitted on Monday at Colney they are basic requirements to deliver his brand of football.

“This is why I got hired. There is a clear idea of football which we like to play with this football club, where everybody commits to, and it's up to us that everybody understands it,” he said. “Once they understand it then everybody has to follow and to show it.

"If we speak about the intensity, to be clear, the intensity in ball possession against Bristol was not how it should be - we didn't speed up the game, we didn't move forward when we had the opportunity. Defensively, I think we really wanted to press them higher and we forced them to hit long balls.

"Unfortunately we had too many turnovers, when we gave the ball too quickly away. Then we didn’t look solid defensively, because of our offensive game again. And this was why I wasn't happy with the intensity in our offensive game.

“The players, I think, like this style. They train very hard, they’ve worked very hard to get used to it. And obviously, it isn't natural after five games or four weeks, five weeks, that this becomes second nature. They've had very good periods, and we have to make sure the consistency is there.

"We shouldn’t underestimate in the good periods how well they have done – how many goals, how many entries in the final third, how many clear chances.”

Christos Tzolis is back in contention for Hull's visit after missing the Robins’ reverse to work on an individual fitness programme.

The Greek international had an injury-hit loan stint at FC Twente blighted by a knee ligament setback. Arsenal loanee Marquinhos is again absent on Tuesday night, with the club still assessing his muscle problems.

Wagner reported no fresh fitness issues around those on duty at Ashton Gate as his squad look to get back to winning ways by implementing the German’s vision of ‘full throttle’ football.

“First of all everybody has to know his role, and what he has to do,” he said. “And then it's all about the belief, trust, and as well the desire to show, ‘I'm this type of footballer, I have this character and this quality’.

“At Bristol in the situations where we had the chance to be brave, to attack, to go forward, we slowed the game down too often. This is part of how you create intensity and energy.”