Norwich City manager Alex Neil says his side will hope to take advantage of Southampton’s Europa League exploits on Sunday afternoon.
Saints welcome the Canaries to St Mary’s on Sunday looking for their first Barclays Premier League win of the campaign, while Neil’s men are hoping to build on a positive start to their first campaign back in the top flight.
Neil, speaking at his press conference ahead of Sunday’s game, said: “I think they are a great example of a club that have come from the Championship to the Premier League and established themselves.
“The fact they’ve been in Europe shows how well they did last year. It’s going to be a tough game and they will be looking to try and get a win under their belt as well. It’ll be tough.
“Any advantage helps and I think it has been common knowledge that teams playing in the Europa League find it a bit tougher when they come back and we certainly hope that is the case.
“We’re hoping the guys who will feature against us will have had another 90 minutes on Thursday, but Southampton have a good squad, a big squad, and they are well equipped to compete.”
The Norwich boss has also been impressed with the style of play Koeman has introduced at St Mary’s since his arrival at Southampton last summer.
“He has brought that Dutch mentality with him in the way they play,” Neil added. “They keep possession and when they aren’t on the ball they get after it.
“They’ve got good energy in their team. We have to make sure we match them and hopefully impose ourselves on the game.
“They’ve done exceedingly well to get into the position they’re in. Improving on that can be the hard bit.”
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