Norwich City boss David Wagner issues big Leeds United praise and cites main Whites annoyance

Wagner’s Canaries approached Wednesday night’s Championship clash in West Yorkshire having climbed up to eighth place in the table after a good recent run yet a first-half Patrick Bamford header proved the only goal of the game.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Wagner issued plenty of praise for fourth-placed Leeds as a “top team” with “super offensive individuals” but cited how his side’s lack of composure and aggression was his biggest annoyance from the defeat.

Norwich squandered a particularly glorious chance in first-half stoppage time when Gabriel Sara fired wide from close range which Wagner also highlighted but the Canaries boss said his side would learn from the defeat in the face of a particularly hard task away against Daniel Farke’s Whites.

"We should split the summary into two different things,” reasoned Wagner. “One is the result - frustrating yes - and the other the performance. We gave Leeds a real game, games like this will be decided by fine margins.

"We conceded a goal we should defend much better and had a big chance with Gabriel Sara and second half we're not ruthless. This is one of the big reasons why we lost. Congratulations to Leeds, top team, super offensive individuals. I think we kept them quite calm. Their opportunities second half were produced when we were not accurate on the ball. We really pinned them in the final third without having a final punch in the box. We looked good and we keep going.

"The performance I'm absolutely fine with. What annoys me more was the situations before the goal, situations where we have to show more composure on the ball, show more aggression in 50:50 battles. We said two things we'd have to be top, ball possession and the other is being nasty and aggressive in 50:50 situations.

"The players have done it fantastic for long periods but before the goal unfortunately not. We'll learn from it. Leeds away from home is never easy, especially this season with their home record, but we gave them a game. Small margins decide, today they went against us.”