David Wagner is wary of Przemyslaw Placheta following Adam Forshaw out of the exit door in the closing days of the transfer window - and has reiterated to sporting director Ben Knapper Norwich City’s squad depth is vital.
Forshaw departed for Championship club Plymouth ahead of the weekend’s 2-0 home win for the Canaries against West Brom.
Placheta was again absent from the matchday squad, and last featured in the 1-0 festive defeat at Millwall.
The Polish international is another out of contract at the end of the season, but Wagner is keen not to leave himself short for the Championship promotion run-in.
City have not made any additions this month ahead of the February 1 deadline.
“This is a difficult question because I think we should be very careful not to limit us in terms of numbers,” he said. “At the minute it looks, ‘Yes, okay he didn't make the matchday squad,’ but everything can change in a week. We all together know.
"And this is exactly the competitiveness which I've spoken about which we have in the group, that even Shemy has not made the matchday squad but for the next match maybe it's someone else for whatever reason, tactical reasons or whatever.
"We have to be quite careful. I addressed this already to Ben not to be too short with the numbers - if we are not able to get somebody in - but the window is still open and we will see what will happen.
“(On Forshaw) At the end of the day, unfortunately, we were not able to give him the game time which he expects now Lunghi (Jacob Sorensen) is back with a very good performance on Wednesday (in the FA Cup) to become another competitor.
"I made the decision that it makes sense that he has a chance to go and sign another 18 month contract, which is great for him as well. So it's a good fit for everybody.”
Jon Rowe’s 12th Championship strike of the season to seal Norwich's home win over the Baggies’ underlined why he is one of the hottest properties outside the Premier League.
“I'm long enough in this business that I know everything what I say now does not help. This is why I keep myself calm on this as well,” said Wagner, who revealed at the start of the window any talks on Rowe’s future will take place after the season. “I have no other signs, no other information as well. So I have no concerns.
"I'm quite confident that we will work with him together and hopefully he can consistently perform and produce performances like this. Because he's still young, still a lot of work to do. But he's a good guy.
“Overall a top performance - defensively, tactically and obviously in the first half two good shots as well with his left foot. And he's scored a wonderful goal, the goal in general, was a top goal. He performed on a very high, high level individually. Like, to be fair, more or less everyone on the pitch performed on a very good level.”
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