Borja Sainz must keep his cool to become the Norwich City player Johannes Hoff Thorup is tipping him to be.

Sainz notched his third Championship goal of the season in the 4-1 romp over Watford, after spurning a number of big chances the previous week at Swansea.

The 23-year-old’s ‘cupped ear’ goal celebration at Carrow Road may have reflected the criticism he received from a small section of the travelling support in Wales.

Thorup is urging the winger to take such frustrations in his stride to reach his full potential.

“For him to improve, it's about the emotions in the game, because he needs to accept that he plays in a position where he will miss a lot of chances,” said the Dane. “That's part of the game. It happens to the best strikers in the world. It's about how you react to that, and how you respond to that, and how you only focus on the next action.

“He can still do some improvement in that area of the game, but he's working hard. He's working hard for the team. He creates so many dangerous situations, and he's a great finisher. So I'm looking forward to see where he will go in one or two years time. Because he's a player really taking some steps.”

Thorup hailed a first home league win on his watch at the weekend, but altering the ‘passive’ mindset at 3-1 up that invited too much late Watford pressure is now a top priority in the build up to Derby.

“That's going to be the main point for me, going into this week with the team, that we have to go up the field and see if we can score the next one and not be passive,” he said. “It was more this period where we scored the third with a beautiful goal there was a little bit too much sitting back, instead of doing even more of what we're good at.

“But that win was for the staff members. It's for the players, I think actually mostly for the players, because I've kept telling them, Monday after Monday, we are doing well, and we're doing also more than enough to win more games than we have done.

"But also to keep showing them that we are on the right track, and that we are doing the things that we are supposed to do.

“Of course you don't have an unlimited amount of time. At some point you need to pick up some wins. So it was actually very important for the players to get that three points based on a good performance, and it means we are ready to take the next step.”