Norwich City’s players are not the only ones proving they can respond positively to adversity.

That challenge David Wagner set a few weeks ago - namely for his new group to react in the right way to setbacks - was emphatically answered at Millwall.

Given the nature of the opponent, given how strong the Lions had been at home in the league for months, and given the gift Norwich served up for Tom Bradshaw’s opener it was some riposte.

Both in the imagination that underpinned City’s set piece salvo, in the majesty of Gabby Sara’s technique, and in the robust manner they repelled Millwall in those closing minutes it was a box ticking exercise of note.

From here the path ahead looks paved with opportunities not pitfalls. Norwich might fall short in their immediate objective to get to the Premier League, but under Wagner each game peels away another layer to reveal a head coach who understands how to extract the most from available resource.

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One who can maximise that talent through his evolving tactical approach.

But it is very easy to forget, or dismiss entirely, that it is not only this squad who have something to prove.

Wagner himself arrived back in England after some bruising managerial experiences with Schalke and then Young Boys.

You could go back even further to the bumpy nature of his Huddersfield exit, midway through that second testing Premier League season, which would eventually end in relegation.

Give or take a week and it was four years since Wagner’s Terriers exit to his reunion with Stuart Webber at Carrow Road.

Wagner has since spoken about when the call came from the club’s sporting director he knew instantly it was the type of club and the type of invitation he was waiting for.

Nevertheless he would also have realised some would have questioned whether he was the same operator who previously led Huddersfield on a memorable ascent to the top flight via the Championship play-offs.

Every time Wagner speaks since arriving in Norfolk he emphasizes the collective. In that regard his public pronouncements echo some of his Norwich predecessors, like Paul Lambert and Daniel Farke.

But he would also surely have realised that what he was walking into at Norwich needed a spark and a figurehead to rally around; which inevitably meant after what happened in Germany and Switzerland he would be in the spotlight.

“From every experience, you learn, and from every experience you get a better manager. Let's say the successful ones, where you get a lot of praise, and let's say even for the less successful ones,” he said. “For me personally, it's always important, first of all, to have your own explanation what happened.

"Take the season at Schalke, with Covid, with all the changes in the board, the owner changed, the sporting director, the marketing director, the finance director, everything changed. Injuries, everything came together. And you've seen now, after three years, how difficult it is for this football club to come back to their routine.

"But I totally know which part I played in this story.

“Young Boys was different, because this was financially the best year the football club ever had by reaching the Champions League group stages, and we won five points in the group stage.

"There was a big, big focus on this Champions League season and then we sold £20m of talent when four players left in the winter.

“That is a board decision you have to accept, and then you have to take the consequences. I can totally live with both experiences.

“You always hope to win titles or compete in European competition (at such clubs). This is not always the case, and you learn from it. I learned a lot, especially managing in Germany, where I come from, then managing in Switzerland, another different country.

"Those were big experiences, not only as a manager but a person as well. You get challenged, and through those challenges you improve.”

The early signs would suggest Wagner has returned to England a better head coach than he left. More rounded, more experienced and better equipped to navigate this City squad through the adverse currents he inherited.