“Way better” -Johannes Hoff Thorup identifies Norwich City element that he’s

“Way”better”—Johannes Hoff Thorup identifies Norwich City element that he’s

According to Johannes Hoff Thorup, Norwich City needs to be “way better” in the first minutes of games after losing to Preston North

End twice in the first twelve minutes on Tuesday.

After falling behind 2-0 early in the match at Deepdale, the Canaries set themselves up for failure. In the first five minutes of the game,

a simple ball in behind led to Emil Riis Jacobsen being pulled down in the box by Norwich goalkeeper George Long. Sam Greenwood

then stroked home the penalty.

Six minutes later, Kellen Fisher was caught on the ball in his own half. Preston’s lead was doubled as soon as Duane Holmes

transferred play.

City managed to get themselves back into the game and take a point away from their trip to Lancashire, thanks to goals from Borja

Sainz and Shane Duffy, but it could have been more if they had started the game better.

Johannes Hoff Thorup unhappy with part of Norwich City’s performance

The Danish boss has stated that his players must improve upon their performance from the beginning of Tuesday night’s match. He

was pleased with his team’s comeback and thought they would have had a chance to win the match following Duffy’s equaliser, but he

acknowledged that they can’t afford to give up such simple advantages when playing away from home.

According to Pink Un, he said, “To be 2-0 down after 10, 15, minutes, when you know we are coming to a difficult place,” before the

final whistle. We need to strive to be far superior to that.

“On the other side, pleased with the mentality in the group, pleased with the dominance which we showed, especially in the first half,

and it was important we got the goal just before half-time.

“But overall, just the energy and the team spirit within the group I think is fantastic. There was a great belief that we could turn things

around and that we can actually get three points when we spoke in half-time.

“That’s the most important. We know traveling away from home it’s always difficult, and it’s always very, very hard, and we made it

even harder with these first 10 minutes.

“We have to look at (the start) from all the angles without being carried away. Because, of course, you can concede goals in football.

That’s how it is. So it’s not like we have to change our rhythm or preparation or stuff like that, we just have to make sure that it’s clear

for everyone what to do and how to start a game.

“I think it’s everything from our kick-off to our decisions within the first couple of minutes that are not good enough. So it’s not only

the goals. There’s more into and we have to look at that start with critical eyes. And then, like we always do, make sure that we make it

clear for the players how we should handle this first part of a game for the next time.

“I believe that even if we were behind 2-0 at halftime, the players’ enthusiasm and belief would have remained the same since we could

see that they were talking to and encouraging one another on the pitch.

The instance where we give the ball away during our build-up and Ante (Crnac) runs back fifty meters and tackles on the box’s edge to

retrieve it is the one I want to draw attention to. We want to see precisely that, and I made sure the boys knew it during halftime.

There is such a positive attitude in the group and a strong belief that we could change things, so I don’t think I needed to say anything.

Norwich has everything it takes to be a competitive team.

Norwich may have been in grave danger if Gabriel Sara, Jonathan Rowe, and Abu Kamara hadn’t left on the day of the deadline. Hoff

Thorup didn’t appear to be in the same position to succeed as the other managers in the Championship, but he has managed to make it

work.

Given their recent start, they are now barely outside the play-off spots, and their objective is to at least duplicate their performance

from the previous campaign under David Wagner.

2024/25 Championship table (as of 22/10/24)
	Team	P	GD	Pts
1	Leeds United	11	11	22
2	Sunderland	10	11	22
3	Burnley	10	12	21
4	Sheffield United	10	7	19
5	West Brom	10	6	18
6	Blackburn Rovers	10	5	18
7	Norwich City	11	6	17

They are definitely capable of achieving that objective. They still have quality pieces at the back and appear ferocious while attacking.

They might be a more formidable team than the play-off contenders they are now once injured players return.

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