Norwich City: PinkUn podcast on Canaries

Host Connor Southwell was joined by Adam Harvey, Samuel Seaman and Paddy Davitt, for episode 608.

With the Canaries' excellent recent form halted by the latest international break, the panel discuss whether it is too early to rank Johannes Hoff Thorup's squad as promotion contenders.

They also assessed the injuries to Marcelino Nunez and Angus Gunn, and why Josh Sargent is the one indispensible player they need to return unscathed from international duty.

Plus a heads up to a exclusive, wide-ranging interview with City's head of recruitment, Lee Dunn.

Here is a flavour of the hour-long discussion below.

CS: International periods are always an anxious time for anyone associated with Norwich City. We have already seen Angus and Marcelino pull out of squads, while Jose Cordoba travelled but will not feature in Panama’s two friendlies. The first one is against Sargent's USA.

Is he the one City player they simply could not replace? There may be different midfield options in terms of Nunez, if as expected he is ruled out for a period, but striking options there's not really many.

PD: No and because of the previous injuries in that area of the pitch, no out and out striking options. Which is why they went and did Emi Marcondes. Straight away you're starting from a point of, ‘We’re probably not that well covered in terms of attacking options.’ And then if you drill into that little further into an actual number nine and there isn't another one in the squad, not a senior one.

We saw it Crystal Palace in the League Cup when they didn't go with Sargent it was Ante Crnac tried down the middle. And to burden him, really, I think, at this stage of his Norwich career, when he's just trying to establish himself on the right hand side of an attacking three, he's got enough on his plate as it is.

I thought we're starting to see signs of his link up play in recent games and he was involved in that lovely, flowing team goal against Hull. It certainly wouldn't be the ideal scenario to have to play him down the middle, and take on board the responsibility that comes with that, the link up play with Borja Sainz or the general link up play with the midfield. Sargent brings all of that before you even get into assessing his effectiveness inside the penalty box.

What is it now? Seven goal contributions in nine league games, off the back of last season's numbers. He was the difference why David Wagner’s squad got in the top six, either side of his four months out with ankle-related issues. There's no doubt he is the most important element in this group of Norwich players.

Kaide Gordon has caught the eye since his loan move from Liverpool (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

CS: Talking of Sainz, that was a pretty easy decision to name him Championship player-of-the-month for September. My challenge, and mine alone, is can he get to a ‘double double’, in terms of goals and assists this season? If he can do that then basically you have proven you are ready to take the next step. Gabby Sara did it last season.

Emi Buendia and James Maddison further back. That's when you into talking about moves for serious money. Adam, I wonder how big that moment at Derby could become for his first goal, when Sargent’s cut back was clearly over the line? Now it is about consistency, because we've seen bursts like this before.

I think we had a period around the turn of the year last season where he seemed to score that similar type of goal every week, when he would cut in and bend a strike into the corner on his right. This does feel a little bit more sustainable, because of the type of team that Norwich are which show Norwich were creating basically the best value shots in the division, in terms of expected goals, which means they're effectively producing the best chances in the Championship.

Now it's up to him to go and prove that he can become a player who can post those numbers.

AH: I felt coming into this summer there'd be more pressure on his shoulders to try and produce goals and assist. If you take Sara and to a lesser extent, Jonny Rowe, out of the team. It was only a couple of weeks back now, we were talking about spurning chances at Swansea so the consistency point is valid. You mentioned the first goal against Derby could prove a springboard.

He now looks a player full of confidence. He missed an early chance against Hull but it did not affect him. I think he could be one of the leading lights in the division, in terms of top goal contributions this season, particularly playing with Sargent. Those two feel like a partnership that's really starting to blossom.

And we've seen in previous Norwich Championship success stories they tend to typically have a partnership of an attacking creative player and a striker. Whether it was Teemu Pukki or Buendia or Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan.

Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup has plotted some big Carrow Road home wins (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

CS: I think we all felt this could be a transition season when we gave our pre-season predictions. Sam, you might have gone with the highest mid-table prediction. Did you expect Norwich to be here after nine league games, where people are genuinely beginning to get a little bit excited about what could be possible?

SS: Absolutely not. I think you could tell from my prediction, the expectation around it was a transitional season, and I was fully committed to that prediction.

I'm still reluctant to completely commit to saying that I think they're going to now be a big part of the promotion race, or that they'll definitely get in the play-offs or anything like that, but you Johannes was optimistic in pre-season when he said there will be loads of teams in the Championship who feel they have a chance of promotion, and he was absolutely sure Norwich would be one of those.

There's things that could be out of their control, like the injuries, but if you could distil that Hull performance and take it every week to every ground in the Championship, and at Carrow Road, then you'd say this is a team that will absolutely be competing for those top two places, let alone the top six.

I'll leave it for a few more weeks to actually judge where I think it will finish. But right now, they're definitely on course to make us look silly.

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