"Cost us" - Shane Duffy drops brutally honest Norwich City claim after Sheffield Wednesday loss | OneFootball

A frustrated Shane Duffy refused to blame a lengthy Norwich injury list for their midweek defeat against Sheffield Wednesday

Norwich City defender Shane Duffy cut a frustrated figure after his side went down 2-0 to Sheffield Wednesday in midweek and had a message for his teammates after the defeat.

The Canaries' struggles were highlighted by the fact they named a rather youthful-looking bench amid the absences of Ashley Barnes, Kenny McLean, Onel Hernandez, Marcelino Nunez and Josh Sargent among others.

Those big-name absentees were certainly sorely missed at Hillsborough, where two first-half strikes condemned Norwich to back-to-back defeats, meaning their winless run now stands at five matches as they've lost ground in the promotion race.

It's that mounting injury list that most Canaries fans will point to for last night's defeat, but Duffy insisted post-match that injuries weren't to blame for Tuesday's defeat, and that his side perhaps need to look a little closer to home for the root of their issues.

It's a problem that won't be going away any time soon, so Norwich will need to quickly find a remedy for it, or they risk being cut out of the promotion picture in what looks set to be a highly-competitive race.

Duffy laid into some of his Norwich teammates

Duffy pulled no punches in his assessment of his side's performance on Tuesday night, and while he accepted injuries haven't helped, he was keen to reiterate that Norwich's main issues are on the field in a message to his teammates.

Johannes Hoff Thorup has previously cited that his Norwich team are "too open" and that's a sentiment Duffy echoed after Tuesday, as he lambasted Norwich's inability to keep the ball out the back of the net.

"It's what you have a squad for, and it's up to others to step up. It's been difficult this week, but we cannot keep giving goals away. It's not about the squad or none of that - we gave really bad goals away, and that is the fact," Duffy told the Pink Un.

"We were dominating the game early on, but one ball from the halfway line, and we're one goal down. Then they swing a ball in, and it goes in. It's frustrating.

"We cannot really say that is down to a lack of squad - it's individual mistakes again, and it's cost us.

"The people who are in there are the ones that aren't happy when they're not playing, so this is a chance for them to step up and not complain. This is what football is all about. Everyone knows there are going to be injuries during the season to our key players, but it's opportunities for others.

"That's what we have a squad for. We have to keep building on that. The reality is that this is us going forward for a while."

Duffy's claims are backed up by the stats

Since Thorup took over at Norwich, he's brought in a total football approach that, while has led to the Canaries being one of the top scorers in the league, has also left them susceptible at the back.

That's something they felt the full force of on Tuesday but is part of a wider theme this season, where they're among the most frequent conceders and the sides with the fewest clean sheets.

It's an issue Norwich will quickly have to address this season if they're to sustain a promotion push, but up to this point they can be thankful for the form of Borja Sainz, whose 11 league goals have made the picture look a lot prettier for the Canaries.

Without his goals, who knows what position they'd be in, but as Duffy cited that conceding cheap goals is the primary issue, Norwich would be wise to focus their efforts there rather than hoping Sainz continues his purple patch.

The international break, therefore, may be coming at a good time for Thorup, who not only has a chance to get some faces back into his squad, but will also have two weeks to work on some defensive shape on the training ground.