Tim Krul has urged Norwich to draw belief from Leicester’s great escape in 2015 after their survival hopes were further dented by Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Brentford.
The Carrow Road clash between the promoted sides had been dubbed a “must-not-lose” fixture by the respective managers, but a hat-trick from Ivan Toney earned the visitors all three points, with Teemu Pukki’s late effort mere consolation.
It kept Norwich rooted to the bottom of the table and five points from safety with only 11 games left.
It is, though, a better situation than Leicester found themselves in seven years ago when the Foxes were seven points adrift at the same stage of the season before embarking on a superb run of seven victories from their last nine matches to stay up.
A year later they secured an even more remarkable maiden Premier League title win and, if the Canaries need inspiration, they can look to assistant boss Craig Shakespeare, who was part of the Leicester staff during both seasons.
“We all know how huge a task it is, but Leicester have done it before,” Norwich goalkeeper Krul insisted. “Eleven games is 33 points, we know we need to win five maybe six out of those.
“We are still playing a lot of teams around us and we need to drag Leeds in. We still have Newcastle, Brighton and Burnley, so there are definitely games, but it is easier said than done because this was a game we expected to win.”
Before Norwich visit Elland Road on Sunday they face Chelsea at home on Thursday in the type of fixture Krul says could give them the “spark” they need.
The Dutchman added: “I understand that when you have 17 points people like to say, ‘You are already down’, but we know we have got that quality and it needs to fall for us because you can’t give up.
“We need to start looking at ourselves and not hoping for other teams to keep losing.
“If you start winning the pressure is on those teams who are looking over their shoulders. That’s what we need to start doing and Leeds is one of those teams, but we need to win against a couple of teams where we don’t expect to win as well. Thursday against Chelsea is a massive task.
“Those are the games where we might do something unexpected. We are all looking at the teams around us, but to beat a team like Chelsea might be the spark we all need.”
