“I thought it was tough for him” – Dean Smith offers Gabriel Sara verdict after first start v West Brom | OneFootball

After signing for Norwich City this summer, Gabrial Sara has been waiting for his debut having been on the bench throughout the season so far due to arriving at the club recovering from an ankle injury.

The midfielder earned his place in the starting line-up for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with West Brom although he was substituted off in the 60th minute.

Given this was his first start against a tough opposition, he did well although manager Dean Smith has urged him to build off it now and get going on the other side of the international break.

Discussing his performance, the Canaries boss told the Pink Un: “I thought it was tough for him. I thought it was tough for all our midfielders. I thought the only one bright spark in that game was AJ [Aaron Ramsey]. He had a little bit of creativity, a little bit of awareness and made things look likely to happen. Other than that we didn’t create an awful lot.

“Gabby is a really good forward runner who can get up to the players really well but it was hard for him to do that, apart from the one shot that hit the top of the bar.

“It was obviously difficult coming in with an injury. We had to assess where he was at and now we feel he’s in a good place to play football games. We nursed him into it slowly just to find out where he was. But he’s up to speed now, and that period has given him the opportunity to have a good look at what we do, and how we do it.”

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Chris Martin

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The Verdict:

The start of his time at Carrow Road has been a bit of a tough one for Sara so far, due to the fact that he arrived with an injury and has since had to try and force his way into the side.

Despite only staying on the pitch for 60 minutes at the weekend, the fact the midfielder was picked shows that what he’s doing so far is impressing his manager and getting him more game time.

He will have to continue to work hard going forward and make sure his appearances count, and he will be hoping he can kick on after the international break,