Johannes Hoff Thorup has backed Kellen Fisher to cash in on his big Norwich City opportunity.
It's been a whirlwind seven days for the youngster, who produced an impressive performance in their 4-1 win over Watford before putting pen to paper on a new four-year contract earlier this week.
Fisher has been forced to show patience but has established himself as a key member of City's squad since arriving from then-non-league Bromley last summer. Despite that progress, the 20-year-old's start against Watford was only his fourth in the Championship.
He spoke openly about his struggles since moving to Carrow Road and how they've helped him become more confident, and Thorup believes those experiences will help improve him in the long term.
"We should never underestimate with young players that they need tough or difficult moments throughout their career to prove they can overcome it," the Dane said.
"It's actually very good learning for young players. If you see young players who take the next step and then the next step, and it's linear, then it becomes difficult when they take that step into senior football.
"It's good for me that he has had a bit of a struggle because it's so good learning.
"Now it feels like it's the time for him. He's playing with confidence and with the intensity in his game that we need. It's about time for him to play.
"Even though he is young and there will be games where he is not performing to his standards, that's how it is, but now it's about the next step in his career."
Fisher's opportunity came ahead of experienced campaigner Jack Stacey and was handed to him due to a want to change their structure tactically.
Thorup handed Fisher minutes in pre-season as a midfielder with the knowledge it would aid his role when he stepped into the side.
"The reason we did that in pre-season is because we saw that when he will cover that right back position for us, it will be in a more inverted role," Thorup said.
"To give him these minutes in pre-season as a midfielder, it could prepare him even better for this role. I should not take the credit for that because it's him that's performing well from day one here, making sure that, even though he wasn't playing, he was doing everything in training to push and create that competition which is so important for us.
"It was a decision that we took because we thought it was about time for Kellen and that he was ready."
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