Emi Marcondes will kick on now his full Norwich City debut is out of the way.

The Danish attacker was a surprise selection to replace the injured Marcelino Nunez in the midweek 2-2 Championship draw at Preston.

The 29-year-old recently joined on a free transfer, after City suffered a spate of injuries to forward-thinking players.

Thorup initially cautioned Marcondes would need time to get upto speed following no pre-season and only 17 senior appearances in 2024.

But with Nunez now sidelined for at least the next fortnight, Marcondes is set for more minutes against Middlesbrough on Sunday.

“He's definitely not there yet, but we also have to give him the minutes to make sure that he can be there soon for us, because he's an important player,” said Thorup. “Especially against a team (like Preston) where they man mark so heavily.

"Against those sides we need runners, and we need players that are able to run in behind them and run on the backside of their defensive line, instead of showing too much to feet, and he's good at doing that.

“Obviously looking at the physical numbers, some players are actually better when they can just continue playing, because that's what their body is used to. And there are some we have to protect, and just be a little bit careful. But I don't expect too many changes, maybe one or two changes.

“This is also the game where, in terms of days to lead into, is actually maybe the best one for us out of these three. Stoke, we had only had one day of preparation, then on to the next one, Tuesday night, and Preston.

"But here we've actually had a couple of days, so hopefully this will be, in terms of preparation, the best.”

Thorup got the answers he expected from his players to a Preston debrief at Colney that covered both the sloppy start, and the stirring fightback.

"I think after a game like that, it's the culture we try to build here, where we can be open and honest and critical, because no one in the room was satisfied with that performance," he said. "We were satisfied with the response, and we got a point, and we showed great mentality in some really decisive moments, but performance-wise, we were not satisfied.

"That was also the feeling I got from the players after the game, and also the feeling a couple of days after. It is important for us that we can look at it with critical eyes, and we can go into detail and say, ‘Okay, the start was not good enough’.

"But also some moments after we scored that second goal was not good enough, where we opened up the game too much again and there was possibilities for us in the game, but we really didn't take care of it, and we were not playing with enough quality, both individually and collectively.

"As a football team and as a coach, it's something that happens. It will also happen more times this season. We just have to make sure that we take everything from a learning perspective out of it, so we can clarify for everyone what went wrong here, and what is it exactly we have to do better."