Norwich City: Johannes Hoff Thorup's pre-season decisions

Although the swathes of changes and out-of-position players can be somewhat cumbersome when attempting to forecast the upcoming league season, the lack of jeopardy brings its own value.

Fans can look for hints of long-term prosperity, highlight minor changes and speculate on tactical intentions without worrying about the unyieldingly omnipotent nature of the scoreline. Players can operate freely and nervously knowing there's no league table to charter their every success.

In many ways that's applied more than ever to Norwich City this summer. The Canaries have a new head coach with new ideas, they've got promising young players hoping to make their mark, and they've got a long-term project that means there's time to develop.

But after four weeks of niceties, nonchalance and new optimism, the dial is beginning to shift away from that summer time bliss. Johannes Hoff Thorup has made no bones about it: this week's Austrian training camp is about making decisions.

It's about consistency, building relationships, thinning his squad and zoning in on August 10's trip to Oxford United. It's about ditching the stakeless easiness of pre-season and testing his players in a high-pressure environment.

At the end of it will be judgements, findings, results for the Dane to present to sporting director Ben Knapper. Decisions.

Sporting director Ben Knapper will work with Thorup to improve Norwich City's squad (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

But which decisions? That's the key question going into a key couple of weeks for those players somewhere between surplus to requirements and guaranteed starters.

Perhaps the biggest one, in terms of volume at least, is the choice of who to cull from the glut of centre-backs currently vying for squad places. Seven, including the versatile Jacob Sorensen, were included in the matchday squad as City were beaten 1-0 by Magdeburg last Friday, and they will need to be sorted through.

Sorensen, Shane Duffy, and Grant Hanley are almost certainly safe. They've got decades of Championship experience between them, and boast the seniority Thorup likes through the spine of his teams. Jose Cordoba is both a new signing and extremely highly rated behind the scenes, so he'll be a vital part of things.

That leaves Brad Hills, Jaden Warner and Emmanuel Adegboyega, all of whom enjoyed successful spells on loan in League Two last term.

Hills has appeared in the most senior sides of them this summer, pairing Duffy in defence at Northampton as a tone-setting move. Warner, on the other hand, has the most second-tier experience, and stepped in to good effect when needed last term.

Adegboyega feels like the outside choice, and featured for City's under-21s during their pre-season. But his talent is clear to anyone who's watched him play, as well as bringing the ability to play at right-back. It's a tough choice for Thorup to make, but the sort that head coaches love to be faced with.

Thorup has a wide variety of centre-backs at his disposal (Image: Martyn Haworth/Focus Images Ltd)

Another distinction Thorup has to make is who operates as his holding midfielder. With Knapper's transfer focus on filling the left-back hole in the squad, the addition many fans have wanted for several years looks unlikely to be filled this summer.

Perhaps it's no surprise that Sorensen is included in multiple debates given his polymath status at Carrow Road, but he looks perhaps the most natural 'number six' in the squad. With his presence often required in the back line and his injury history troubling, however, he faces competition.

Chief among it is Kenny McLean, who was often the most disciplined in David Wagner's engine room. He's got the work ethic, reliability and stature to play the role, if not the traditional positional screening abilities.

Then there's Liam Gibbs, who's desperate to enter the conversation after a frustrating spell under the German. He's looked the part in previous outings there, but instinctively labels himself an 'eight' and likes to roam forward.

Even Kellen Fisher, whose City career up to this point has consisted of right-back postings, has looked a promising midfielder this summer. Whether he possesses the requisite strength is the question, and in truth he too looks more like a driving box-to-box player.

The cons attached to each player highlight why many supporters have been crying out for a new signing in the position, but part of Thorup's remit is making the most of the resources available to him. It's incumbent on him to turn someone into the holding player he seeks, but also to pick the right man to do that with.

Up front there's usually little debate, and under Wagner there certainly wouldn't have been; Josh Sargent was the man who saved City's season, and his presence was vital in any success.

But a change of coach means a change of tactics, and therefore different attributes from the players in the system. Sargent was perfectly suited to Wagner's football, his physicality key and his running behind the defence vital.

But Thorup's aims are entirely different, and if all goes to plan things will look very different. Movement inside the box will become far more important, hold-up play less so and the ability to win headers decreasingly relevant.

That's why there's still a debate over whether Adam Idah could start at the Kassam, given his typical 'fox in the box' characteristics. Of course, there's an argument that good players can adapt well, and again it's the new boss' job to make that happen.

But with Sargent still yet to play under the 35-year-old and Idah in good form, it's not a foregone conclusion.

In any case, the amount City still have to work out is clear, and less than two weeks from launch there are plenty of concerned fans. But that's the object of this trip, and by the time they return and St. Pauli arrive in Norfolk, a lot of the big questions may well have been answered.