Norwich head coach Daniel Farke has backed midfielder Ondrej Duda to step up following a poor performance against Wolves last weekend.
Farke says that he knows Duda failed to perform against Wolves, but that it was an issue throughout the team and not solely his fault. He also adds how hard Duda is working off the ball, with the distance he is covering in each game.
Speaking to the Pink’Un, Farke said:
I’m totally happy with Ondrej. I know in the last game (at Wolves) perhaps he was not on his best level. If you are honest that applied to the team as well. Generally he has had a great influence. In each game he has covered the highest distance of all the players.
An unbelievable workload, not many players in the entire Premier League are able to cover 13kms a game.
In Germany you would hear some say he plays as a 10 but his workload is not great.
I doubt there is too many other players in the Premier League covering more distance then he did. He was crucial against Bournemouth. He was only denied a goal by the save of the defender, which brought the penalty.
Read Norwich verdict
Farke’s comments show that he has faith in Duda and suggest that he will be given another chance to impress against Leicester on Friday. The German boss specifically mentions the workload he puts in and how he has a great influence on the game, so it would be strange if he then turned around and dropped him against the Foxes.
Since arriving at the club in January, Duda has started all five of Norwich’s Premier League fixtures. In that time, Norwich have picked up four points and he has been directly involved in two goals. He won the penalty to win the game against Bournemouth and played a brilliant ball into the box for Max Aarons to win a spot-kick against Tottenham – with Teemu Pukki converting both.
Duda has recorded a WhoScored rating of 6.86 over those five games, which places him second in the Norwich scored for the season – only Emi Buendia is ahead of him. Norwich’s other attacking midfielder, Marco Stiepermann, has recorded a score of 6.29, which has him 19th in the squad – with the German having failed to score or assist a goal in 18 Premier League appearances this season. This shows why Farke is right to have faith in Duda and potentially stick with the playmaker for the Leicester clash.
