It was a key partnership last season – but now Tom Trybull knows where his Norwich City competition lies.
The deep midfield block of Trybull and Alex Tettey was behind a lot of the initial positives in Daniel Farke’s first season in charge – albeit a campaign that too often flattered to deceive.
This term however has been a completely different story for City, underlined by Saturday’s 4-0 win at struggling Bolton that returned them to the top of the Championship with 13 games remaining.
It’s a similar scenario for Trybull, who found regular starts hard to come by in the first half of this season – but has now started six successive league games as City’s primary defensive midfielder.
And if there were previous doubts over Trybull’s ability to perform in the role at this level, the 25-year-old’s efforts since the turn of the year have arguably put those to bed.
“I think Alex and me showed together last season some very good performances, but for me it’s not a surprise,” said Trybull, who also admitted he was not happy with his outing in the midweek defeat at Preston.
“I work always hard, I know what I am capable of doing and this is my job; I have to do it – it’s not always shiny but I try to help the team with my performances. Now I can play this role and it’s an important position, I try to give it my best.
“I’m very happy I’m back in the team and especially in these important games, which we have had in the last few weeks. I showed some great performances I think, and that is what I have to do.
“I was very patient. Because the lads had done very well, there was not a really big reason to change. But then you have to wait for a chance and you want to try to take it as much as possible.”
Norwich now find themselves in a wonderful position to turn a fantastic season into a successful one, but with a lot of football still to be played – and the prize on offer is not lost on Trybull.
“When I was 17 in my first professional season, at the end of 2011 we got Hansa Rostock promoted from the third tier in Germany to the second, which was very nice – and after that season, I left for Werder Bremen,” recalled Trybull.
“It was a very nice season and that was getting to the second tier in Germany. But this year we have the possibility maybe at the end of the season, to get promoted to the Premier League – to the best league in the world.
“Especially at Bolton, it was the reason we all showed we were disappointed with the last result at Preston and it was our task to show a big reaction, big character.
“If you have a chance like this, if you want to go to the Premier League, then you have to show character and better performances than Preston – and we did. This is what we have to do.
“I think probably not only for me – it’s for most of the other lads. There are not so many players with Premier League experience, so everybody has the one dream.”
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