Aston Villa attacker Emiliano Buendia has been identified as the one former Norwich City player who would be a perfect fit in Johannes Hoff Thorup’s Canaries side.
The Argentine international spent three seasons at Carrow Road, spending two of those campaigns in the Championship and one in the Premier League.
Buendia quickly established himself as a key player for Norwich, and was fairly unanimously regarded as one of the best attacking players in the Championship.
After suffering an ACL injury that sidelined him for the entirety of last season, the 27-year-old is now hoping to make his long-awaited return to Aston Villa’s starting lineup this season.
But what was it that made Buendia so good at second tier level? And just how much of an impact could he have if he was part of Thorup’s current Canaries side? Football League World investigates…
Buendia is one of Norwich City’s “best ever players”
FLW’s Norwich City fan pundit, Zeke Downes, believes that Buendia is the type of player that is missing from Norwich’s side at the moment, citing the departures of some key players being significant contributors to that creative void that he would fill.
Downes said: “One player that I think would fit very well in this team would be Emiliano Buendia.
“It makes me very sad because, obviously, he’s one of our best ever players. But, he would do the role that we’re sort of missing, of that attacking midfielder.
“Just getting assists for fun, but also defensively he is very good. He tracks back, and when he loses the ball he’ll run after it, and that’s something that we would need.
“Also, he often was on the right wing as well, which now that we’ve lost Jonathan Rowe and Abu Kamara, it’s a position that we’re a little bit weaker in.
“But, I think Thorup would absolutely love to manage Emi Buendia.”
Buendia was as good as they came in the Championship
There aren’t too many Championship wingers who get close to notching 20 goals or assists in a single season, Buendia was fractionally close to doing both in his final campaign as a Norwich player.
His 15 goals and 16 assists in 39 Championship appearances during the 2020/21 season meant Buendia was directly involved, as in either scoring or providing an assist, in 31 of those matches he appeared in.
| Buendia’s Norwich career stats (league only), per FotMob | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| 20/21 | 39 | 15 | 16 |
| 19/20 | 36 | 1 | 7 |
| 18/19 | 38 | 8 | 12 |
Therefore, it’s of no surprise to learn that no Championship right-winger in the 2020/21 season had more goals, assists, shots (111), successful passes (1,486), created more chances (122), had more touches (2,879) or played more accurate long balls (138) than Buendia did that term – per FotMob.
But as Downes made reference to, it was the defensive side of his game that perhaps got overlooked due to his brilliance in attack.
Indeed, no Championship winger in 2020/21 won more tackles (53) or made more interceptions (41) than Buendia, whilst his 271 duels won, 33 blocks and 229 recoveries all ranked him in the top 97.7%, 98.4% and 97.7% in those respective categories among second tier right-wingers – per FotMob.
Whether it was defence-splitting passes, crosses put on a sixpence for his teammates, or having the ability to score any type of goal, Buendia was a magician with an endless bag of tricks.
Pairing him up with Josh Sargent would provide Thorup with one of the deadliest attacking duos in the division, and would provide the creative firepower to massively boost Norwich’s promotion credentials.
What Canaries fans would give to see him strutting his stuff at Carrow Road once again, and how thankful supporters of the other 23 teams in the Championship are that he isn’t.
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