Norwich City: Philippe Clement on St Gallen friendly win | Eastern Daily Press

The Canaries moved through the gears in their third summer outing with a defensively resolute display embellished by clinical work in the final third.

Jacob Wright rifled a free kick opener, before Paris Maghoma’s cheeky lob finished a sharp counter, and Ruairi McConville’s looping header from Oscar Schwartau’s cross sealed the victory.

New summer signing Andre Brooks also impressed on his debut at the Kybunpark stadium.

“Yes, a lot of positives for sure. Still things to work on. That is normal now,” said Clement. “I think we have the advantage that we worked together with a lot of the players already last season, and you could see in the second half when the young boys come in, a lot of things are new, and you have less control of the game than we had in the first half. But that's logical also.

“No, I'm pleased about the attitude also in the previous two games (at Colney). I knew they were playing with really heavy legs and we also trained in the mornings. We travelled to Switzerland (on Friday), but the day before we had light training, so they could recover before this game.

"We knew it was necessary because it's an opponent who was second in the Swiss league last year. They won the cup and they play next week against Benfica, so they are a few weeks ahead physically in this preparation.”

Clement had demanded City find that punch in the final third, after a goalless behind-closed-doors outing against League Two Colchester.

“Yes and against a difficult opponent because they're one-against-one marking all over the pitch and that costs a lot of energy and you need to do the right movements to solve that and to find your spaces,” he said.

“We had one training session to work on that, and I have to say the players picked it up really well. There are still things sticking in their heads from last season, and that will be important for the next couple of months.

“We had to create some freshness otherwise against this team they could smash you and that would not be good for the confidence. It's always finding a balance, and because we played on Friday, it meant on Saturday we could do a heavy training session still with all the players.”