Those were the words of Norwich City head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup going into Saturday’s 1-0 win over West Brom, and in many ways he delivered on his promise.
Nearly 25,000 Canaries supporters left Carrow Road having seen the sort of moment that inspires people to become football fans in the first place. Those who hadn’t tried to get ahead of the traffic, anyway.
They saw their team arrest a winless run of four games to defeat a side that had been seven places above them in the Championship table at kick-off, upsetting the odds and tentatively re-opening the play-off conversation among the gleeful masses streaming out of the stadium.
But much of the assessment of whether Thorup did indeed deliver on his aims depends on your definition of them. There was undoubtedly a “good feeling” among the City faithful, but they hadn’t had much of a “good experience” in the drab 93 minutes that came before Josh Sargent’s superb deadlock-breaker.
Albion boss Tony Mowbray’s summary of the game was hard to disagree with. “They weren’t near our goal or threating us,” he said. “They had two decent chances through pieces of brilliant play, because they’ve got some brilliant individual footballers, but generally we dominated.”
Perhaps that’s simply the game, and there’s no doubting the love that any fan has for watching “brilliant individual footballers”. Which Championship supporter wouldn’t enjoy seeing Sargent play every week?
Individual moments aren’t what Thorup’s footballing philosophy is based on, however, and they aren’t the sustainable means by which Norwich are hoping to return to the Premier League promised land. By the Dane’s own admission, Saturday’s tactics were an abandonment of what he holds dear.
It’s true though that on rare occasions pragmatism is needed. The lack of it is what many put City’s top flight struggles down to, as Daniel Farke’s idealistic system failed to stand up against the country’s best opposition. Only once before had Thorup compromised to a significant degree, and that was in December’s injury-hit 0-0 draw with Portsmouth.
But multiple candidates for the next use of this system are already on the horizon. Sunderland visit NR1 next week, and trips to Burnley and Middlesbrough both come before the end of the season. There are only seven games left, and going defensive for all of those fixtures would mean doing so in half of City’s final eight.
The drawbacks of that are clear: the message of the project would be confused, older heads would be preferred to youngsters and players would be flexing proverbial muscles they’re unlikely to use going forward.
Maybe that’s justified, though, when considering what’s on the line. The play-off dream had looked dead and buried for Thorup’s charges, and now at the very least it’s part of the discussion again. Their campaign has a hint of purpose where previously it had none. Ultimately promotion is the aim, and a tiny opening to it has emerged.
The judgement that needs to be made is whether that’s worth all of the sacrifices being made for it. It comes down to a matter of opinion, but the results will likely be seen in the 2025-26 season.
In many ways Thorup’s current dilemma highlights the delicate balance he’s had to strike since taking over last May. Attempting short-term achievement while addressing big picture concerns is an unenviable task, but for now it seems that the pendulum has swung toward the former.
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