The Canaries have failed to win at Craven Cottage since 1986, in a wretched run that also included a painful Premier League final day exit back in 2005.
Marco Silva guided the Cottagers to an impressive mid-table finish last season, on their return to the big time, and Wagner warns the visitors the Whites will not take his injury-hit squad lightly.
The German has pledged to make wholesale changes following the 6-2 Championship mauling at Plymouth, for a League Cup third round away tie.
“I expect Fulham to go strong, to be fair, because a Premier League side like Fulham will really aim for a cup run,” he said. “This is a competition where a team like Fulham can make something special. Obviously a team like Fulham, who is quite established in terms of their squad, whoever is on the pitch will have top quality.
“But this is something we wanted – to have this challenge. We want to have a cup run as well. Now we have had two wins away from home in this competition, but, unfortunately, we have another away game against the Premier League side, against a very good side.
“It will be a challenge, it will be a tough challenge. But we will be there, and we will try our best.”
Wagner views a testing top flight environment as another chance to assess his fringe players. The City boss offered up Polish international Przemyslaw Placheta as a perfect case study, after his match-winning intervention at Bristol City in the previous round.
“If we take the example of Placheta he used these cup games to grow in confidence,” he said. I think he played another decent second half as well (at Plymouth), on the left sided like he had done against Leicester.
“On one side it’s good to see them, the young faces, in games like this as well. But on the other side, you have to make sure that you manage the workload for the other players who have now played a lot of minutes.
“Especially the guys who are internationals, who played a lot for their country as well. We really have to be careful in this situation, where we are with so many injuries at the minute.”
Wagner made his feelings known to his under-performing players, both during and since the debacle at Home Park, but changes in personnel do not mean a change of approach.
“We stick to our idea how we like to approach the games. In how we play out, in our build up and how we like to defend us well,” he said. “This will not change because of injuries to key players. This is exactly what the team does, where everyone knows what to do in certain situations.
“This is one of the super strengths of this team, they know exactly what they have to do when they are on the pitch. And this doesn’t mean they have to start, or they come on, everybody knows exactly what to do in the different periods of the game.
“Now it’s only different names, different faces, but we try to execute this approach as well as we can. A lot of things will be decided by the right mindset and the right desire and passion to do what we like to do.”
Wagner is leaning heavily on his data and sports science departments to navigate a hectic schedule, and a growing injury list.
“Of course you prefer to have the squad together so you can give everyone a rest when we think it’s needed,” he said. “Or give everyone a starting shot when we think it makes sense because of tactical situations, where we think maybe this player suits what we want to do against this opponent a little bit more, and if you have different options obviously you can use them.
“When you are limited, and we had situations like this as well in the past, it’s always very difficult. This is for sure the case.
“In these periods you get a lot of the messages across to the players in the analyst meeting rooms, in the individual meetings, which are mostly video based as well; meetings with different groups of defenders, strikers, wide players, whoever. I think this is a tool which we use a lot to be fair, and something we do in this very busy period.”
Wagner reported no fresh fitness issues from those on duty at Plymouth after Saturday’s humiliation. Ashley Barnes (knee), Josh Sargent (ankle) and Grant Hanley (Achilles) are longer term absentees.
Danny Batth is cup tied while Jacob Sorensen (pelvis) and Marcelino Nunez (ankle) are also unavailable for Wednesday’s tie, which will go straight to penalties if the sides are level after 90 minutes.
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