How Hernandez Makes His Presence Felt Off The Bench For Norwich City

Johannes Hoff Thorup hopes to be the latest Norwich City head coach to crack the Onel Hernandez conundrum.

The Cuban winger has been somewhat of an enigma for the last two City coaches owing to his direct playing style, but is undoubtedly a threat when unleashed in the correct Championship circumstances.

Thorup is attempting to find the best role for the Cuban winger to affect matches most effectively, and admitted that may come as more of a finisher rather than part of his starting line-ups in the foreseeable future.

“That is sometimes the issue when you are a player like Onel where he’s sometimes even better when he comes on in the last 20 minutes against a tired full back and a tired defence where he can really go at them.

“It’s also a player where we can see that, with the playing style that he has, it’s sometimes difficult for him to go for 90 minutes,” City’s chief said.

“It’s always a conversation for us. Do we want him to be in for the first 45 or 60 or actually put him on for the last 20 or 30 minutes to see if we can open up the defence or create some more situations that are a bit simpler?

“Like we could see at Swansea, when he does come on, something happens. It’s for us to use that weapon in the right way.”

In the short-term, there are concerns over Hernandez’s fitness heading into the weekend after he limped off just seven minutes into his second half cameo in their 4-1 victory over Watford.

Hernandez makes his presence felt off the bench for Norwich City.

Thorup was confident that was just a precautionary measure, but further assessment of the winger is set to happen throughout this week.

“He felt something and with where we sensed the game was, it was about who will score that next goal, we didn’t feel it would be good for us to have a player on the pitch you could see was struggling,” said Thorup. “You could see that he would not be able to accelerate to full power.

“But I spoke to him after and I think it seems like we picked it up early, so it’s nothing too serious, but there was definitely something. And I think, again, like some of the other cases, we decided to go with low risk.”