David Wagner pledged the goals will come for Norwich City if they can keep the back door shut in the Championship.
The Canaries’ squeezed out a 1-0 home win over QPR at the weekend, with their only recorded shot on target, in a victory forged on a rare clean sheet for the division’s second leakiest squad.
Wagner admitted afterwards the entertainment factor was in short supply, but insisted ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Watford he is not sacrificing City’s attacking threat to halt the decline.
“The offensive situation, and being creative, depends a lot on confidence. And obviously, this is something which we have started to build up again with back to back wins,” said the Canaries’ head coach. “Everybody should be on another level, confidence-wise, than he was before.
"But it isn't the case that we clearly set out to be more solid and stable defensively and this automatically means we can't attack like we've done before.
"No, this is not how we want to set ourselves up. But if you looked on our goals against record it was clear where we have to improve.
“We have to make sure that we keep our defensive stability and that we attack on our best as well. Because we all together have the feeling we are able to score goals, and this is what we need if you'd like to win (at Watford). Basically we want to be more ruthless in both boxes. QPR was a first step.”
Watford will test whether City’s shut out against QPR was a watershed defensive moment.
“It was not rocket science where we had to dramatically improve,” said Wagner. “We are always able to create opportunities and to score and, if you look back to the last game, yes, it wasn't the most entertaining, but in terms of expected goals conceded it was the lowest we had the whole season. This is a big step for us.
"This means we were able to keep a clean sheet, which was big for us as well. It means for us to keep going and improving then what we started in the QPR game is something big; to be more difficult to break down, to concede less chances and try to keep clean sheets as well.
“Now it's all about looking forward and trying to do that even better, because Watford will be on another level to QPR. I think this is pretty clear. To do so away from home is very important as well, while we still try to create to opportunities to be clinical.
"If you do meetings like we've done, where we were really clear and had honest words with the players, and where you really identify what you'd like to work on, and obviously then the next game you perform defensively to keep a clean sheet then this gives even more belief and trust and confidence in what they are doing.
"And hopefully now it's a moment where we can build on this. Now we have to make sure that we keep this at the back of our minds, and over the next weeks some further players will be back to push for competition as well."
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