Daniel Farke sets Patrick Roberts a challenge

Manchester City loanee Patrick Roberts must show Daniel Farke he can light up the Premier League in a Norwich City shirt.

Roberts has yet to start a top flight game for the Canaries, with Farke opting not to include the attacker in his plans since early October.

Farke insisted on Friday he is not interested in cutting the loan move short in January, but insists the ball is firmly in Roberts' court.

No, not at all. That is not something we are thinking about at this moment," he said. "We'll see how it develops in a few weeks but in general I am pleased with Patrick. Of course he would prefer to spend more minutes on the pitch.

"We have to be a bit careful with our expectations of a player from Manchester City. It's not like he won the title for them last season.

"He was out on loan and didn't really play for a side in Spain, who were relegated. That is not easy in terms of confidence to come to a new club and be in your rhythm. He had a really, really good pre-season but then he looked a bit tired, which is quite normal, and now we have a lot of competition.

"He will have the opportunity but he's not 18 anymore. He's at an age where he has to deliver right now and we will give him every chance. I'm pretty confident when there is a chance for him he can use us but it's up to him.

"Patrick won't be 100pc happy at the moment because he didn't play that much but all I can say is from my feeling I am happy with him. His time will come I'm pretty sure, but I can't predict at the moment when it is."

Todd Cantwell's progress and the return to fitness of Onel Hernandez have pushed Roberts' down the pecking order.

"When you bring a player on loan if he immediately played each and every second what does that say to the players who were here before? It would tell them they have no chance to play at this level," said Farke. "It was important to bring him here to add to the competition in the winger position.

"You couldn't predict in the beginning of the season that Todd was able to make so many steps and if I am honest that is because lots of competition meant he had to in order to keep his position ahead of Patrick.

"It is not that easy to play ahead of Onel or Emi or Todd. We can't have four wide players in the squad every weekend. We have two on the pitch and one on the bench. Look at the last game, Todd was on the bench and there was no place for Patrick.

"He has improved a lot on the training pitch. That is where they need to impress me and my coaching staff.

"All I can say he has trained pretty well during the international break and let's see how far he comes in the next weeks."