Kellen Fisher is in the running to fill the large hole in the Norwich City midfield left by the suspended Kenny McLean. Johannes Hoff Thorup insisted all options are in play with the Scottish international and Marcelino Nunez (hamstring) ruled out for Saturday’s Cardiff awayday. Fisher has been a revelation at right back in recent weeks, but was tried in central midfield during pre-season and in the closing stages of a 3-3 draw against Middlesbrough.
The 20-year-old's cross was shovelled over his own line by visiting keeper Seny Dieng to cap an improbable Carrow Road comeback last weekend. Fit-again Jacob Sorensen and Amankwah Forson are the other leading candidates to come in. “Kellen can play a lot of positions.
He also played as a midfielder towards the end of the last game,” said his Danish head coach. “So he has the technical skills to do it. Of course, he's in-form at the moment.
He's really doing well. It can also open up for Jack (Stacey), who is doing everything he can to get into the team again. "Definitely an option for us.
Every day we take these decisions when we put in a team that's about to play on a Saturday, we have to consider, ‘Okay, if we move him from this position, do we actually get the best out of him? "Do we open up the door for another good player to come in, or do we need to keep him in this position?’ And it goes for every player on the pitch. If we put him in here and he can play with this guy, do we get the best out of them then? "And that's for us to see in training and in games and then from week to week try to put the best possible team on the pitch. But it's all the questions that we ask each other on a daily basis.
“We have to have an eye on we play again on a Tuesday night, and we play the Saturday after that. So it's a puzzle and we have to look at every aspect, every possibility for us to make that puzzle. "But also he's (Lunghi) a player who will definitely have minutes, and we have to find out when it's going to be.
” Thorup is wweighing up whether to alter his settled base formation. “When you come in as a new coach everyone needs to understand the principles before we can start opening up that door,” he said. “We have seen so far that we can do these changes in half-time or leading up to a game.
It's just about finding the right timing to when we can start to also do it in games. “We are 12 games into the season here, so there's still a lot of way for us to go in terms of more variations (in the formation). "I would like us to be a team where we can do even more rotations and variations, so it's not something we change at half-time, or it's not something we have to change from game to game, but we can do it after 20 minutes with the same players on the pitch, but change a little bit of structure, or positions, to see if we can change the momentum of the game.
” McLean has until Friday to respond to an FA charge of improper conduct that could land him a longer ban than three games for his Boro dismissal. "You know the rules and of course, we follow the rules, and have to listen to that," said Thorup, speaking at Colney prior to news of the additional FA probe. "But three games for a situation like that, where, 'Is it red, or is it yellow? It's maybe somewhere in between'.
I will do everything I can to let the refs know that if a tackle like that happens in some of the future games, then it needs to be another red, because there needs to be a line drawn on this. "When difficult moments happen it also opens up the door for opportunities, and there will be opportunities for some of the other players. They have to now step in and take that leadership role and take the responsibility in the team.
"So I'm also looking forward to this, because now we are really going to see what the team is made of, and whether some of the young guys are ready to take that next step, which is so much of how we want to build the team.".
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Fisher in running to solve McLean problem
Kellen Fisher could be a midfield option to replace the suspended Kenny McLean at Cardiff for Canaries boss Johannes Hoff Thorup.