Clarity was the most impressive facet of those first two Championship wins engineered by David Wagner.

Both at Preston and Coventry it was not only the result, or the number of goals scored that smacked of precision and uniformity, it was the manner they achieved two uplifting victories.

The same group of players who by the end looked rudderless under the previous management responded to the ‘front foot, full throttle’ football Wagner loves.

There was a freedom of expression and an intensity sadly lacking too often for the first half of this turbulent campaign.

That it abruptly came to a jarring stop against Burnley should not mask the early structural framework Wagner had put in place.

As the head coach himself said in the aftermath of another dispiriting day at Carrow Road, if you make those type of individual errors against a team setting the standard in the second tier the outcome was inevitable.

Wagner had no interest in opening up a philosophical debate, or a tactical deep dive, into why the Clarets had the upper end in that initial 25 minute burst.

Set aside the bigger picture of a Championship play-off quest and what is really fascinating now is how he responds this weekend at Bristol City.

We will learn a lot more about how Wagner operates when the team news drops around 2pm on Saturday, both in terms of the degree of turnover in personnel and whether the Canaries’ deviate from the approach that previously served them so well in his short tenure.

One would expect a high degree of consistency in both.

Wagner clearly is wedding to a particular style of play. Reference his defence of Tim Krul after the first concession, when he reiterated it was not the gameplan that needed to change, it was the decision-making.

It was the bravery in possession when Burnley pressed high, it was the responsibility to sense danger and take ownership of those killer pair of second half corners that rendered his half-time debrief almost redundant.

In stark contrast to how he deconstructed the growing threat from Coventry at the interval during the previous Championship game, quelling the Sky Blues’ fightback through a composed, controlled response that reflected favourably on the head coach and his players.

Albeit Wagner also conceded he had shown his ’angry’ side to get the desired shift in mindset. Do not be fooled by the warmth of character or the all-inclusive thrust of his leadership and public persona. His players will already know where the line is.

There are more subtle differences that mark a departure between Wagner and Smith in how they apply their craft.

Smith spoke intermittently about a ‘Learning Zone’ at Colney and empowering his players to almost shape the strategy for each opponent. The patchiness in results and performances  would suggest there was blockages in the flow of communication, and a lack of understanding regarding what it was Norwich were striving to achieve in and out of possession.

Those core principles Smith spoke about before a ball was kicked this season remain a mystery to those on the outside.

There will be no such ambiguity under Wagner, once he has the time to embed a check list that as you could see watching Vincent Kompany’s Burnley is second nature. The way the Clarets’ manage games is almost intuitive, but Wagner does not have the luxury of time.

When Wagner was asked about whether he favours a similar collaborative approach to his predecessor the inference was, like he demonstrated at Coventry, he detects the problems and with his coaches will provide the solutions.

There is an uncluttered clarity that in the absence of time, and the urgency to accumulate wins, should provide an uplift in the short term.

As he also said upon assuming the wheel he is taking these players on a journey that will induce some uncomfortable days. Burnley was one of those.