Norwich City: Johannes Hoff Thorup's tactics broken down

"They'll be the protagonist in the game, and want to go to win the ball back high and be aggressive and try to entertain and score goals."

Those were the words spoken by Norwich City sporting director Ben Knapper in his first ever interview at the club, a brief introduction on official channels but one unsurprisingly including tactical preferences.

Compare them to Johannes Hoff Thorup's quotes in his FC Nordsjaelland unveiling 10 months earlier, and it's easy to see why they've ended up working together.

"I'm not the kind of coach who wants to park the bus and play defensively," he said. "We should control the ball all the time. Our style is that we have to be good with the ball."

Thorup's philosophy works well with that of Norwich City sporting director Ben Knapper (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

In the ensuing season-and-a-half in charge of the Tigers, he didn't disappoint. They were a free-flowing, goalscoring entertainment machine, notching 138 times in less than 70 games.

But the important piece of analysis for whether that translates to a new club is how, and fans have already started to look for the patterns they'll see replicated on the Carrow Road pitch.

One of them is inversion of the full-backs. Thorup is far from the first to do this, with it becoming a widespread trend among possession-based coaches. Where many opt to add to the midfield, however, Thorup uses his inverted full-backs to create a back three.

One will traditionally attack, often the right-back at Nordsjaelland, leaving the left-back to tuck in and support the central defenders. Perhaps not coincidentally that was Martin Frese, who Norwich have been monitoring as his contract with the Danish club comes to a close.

One of the reasons why Thorup decides against adding to his midfield is that it's already fairly packed in the build-up in his system.

While David Wagner's approach was all about luring the opposition in and creating danger in the final third, his successor's sides attempt to make it easier to progress the ball in the first place. To do so they use three central midfielders, who all provide options when the team is in deep possession.

That's not to say that they're all traditionally defensive or deep-lying midfielders, with Thorup often using more creative and attacking players to take the ball into dangerous areas.

From there things are more fluid, and the interchangeability of Nordsjaelland's attacking players was a big part in the gaps they often found in opposition defences. There are familiar movements that emerge over time, but overall the attack is less structured than Wagner's rigid system.

One thing the two have in common, however, is the effectiveness from wide areas. Both have profited from danger on the flanks, albeit in very different ways.

Thorup's teams have tended to use tricky wingers who can take full-backs on and cut back for strikers and onrushing midfielders to sweep home. He may not be around to work under the Dane for long, but Gabriel Sara's perfectly-timed box crashing would be right at home.

Off the ball City will likely be as pro-active as with it in their new era, given the importance of a vigorous high press under the new man. Nordsjaelland used an aggressive high line not only as a defensive tool to keep opposition away from their goal, but an actively offensive way of coming by chances.

It's no surprise Thorup values hard work as highly as he does. His new players will need it to marry both a movement-heavy possession strategy and a fiercely athletic one without it.

He's described it as a "symphony" when it comes together and it's not hard to understand why. But it will take time, intelligence, fitness and skill to pull it off.