"I do worry" - Borja Sainz fear raised at Norwich City despite surprising impact | OneFootball

FLW's Norwich City fan pundit has identified which player has surprised him the most this season

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Norwich City are aiming to earn a play-off place for the second consecutive season.

Johannes Hoff Thorup’s team are in the mix for a top six finish, but stiff competition for those final places will make it a real challenge in the final weeks of the campaign.

The Dane will be relying on his top players to produce moments of quality that can give them the results they need to climb over the likes of West Brom, Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers in the table.

While the Canaries are where many expected them to be pre-season, there have still been some surprising elements of their performances this year to get to this point.

Borja Sainz surprise claim after Nowich City hot-streak

When asked which player has surprised him this season, FLW’s Norwich fan pundit Zeke Downes named Borja Sainz.

He claimed the Spaniard has stepped up his game this year, but suggested some further improvements are still needed for him to rediscover his form for the end of the campaign.

“I think despite the last few months, I’d say the biggest surprise was Sainz because he looked like he was pretty good before but he obviously stepped up his game quite a few notches with his goals,” Downes told Football League World.

“I would say him probably the most.

“I do worry that teams have worked him out a little bit and have put more than just one defender on him and maybe that’s why he’s dropped off in his scoring recently.

“I don’t think he’s lost that ability.

“I do worry though that, because of the type of goals he was scoring, that could easily be nullified because a defender could just get tighter and block it.

“So, he needs to improve the more creative side of his game as well to be able to link up with other players better, and his movement off the ball as well.

“Overall, I would say he’s surprised me the most in a positive way.”

Norwich are currently 11th in the Championship table, four points adrift of the play-off places with 11 games remaining.

Sainz’s drop-off has cost Norwich in play-off race

Sainz missed several games through suspension around the new year, and he has yet to really find his best form since coming back.

This has been costly for Norwich because he was sensational in the first half of the year.

If he had kept that form up, then there’s a very real chance that Thorup’s side would be in the top six right now.

But there’s still time for him to turn things around and save Norwich’s promotion push, because he has taken his game up a level this year which was certainly not expected back in August.