Football
Norwich City ace Kenny McClean has backed the Canaries to impress under new Danish boss Johannes Thorup’s attractive brand of football.
Norwich City’s Kenny McLean expresses confidence in new manager Johannes Thorup's vision, aiming for Championship success after narrowly missing out on Premier League promotion last season.
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Thorup replaced German coach David Wagner in the Carrow Road hot-seat in May after the club narrowly missed out on Premier League promotion last term.
The Canaries reached the Championship play-off semi-finals, but after a 0-0 draw at home to Leeds in the first leg, they were then thumped 4-0 in the return fixture and missed out on a dream trip to Wembley.
However, midfielder McClean is confident the Norfolk-based club can go one step better this time around.
“The way that he (the new manager) sees football played is the way everybody wants to watch I think,” McClean told SportsBoom.
“It’s really good to be part of learning new things, even at 32 it’s good to be hearing new things from someone else and learning from someone else.
“I’ve tried to do that from every manager that I’ve worked under – to take things on board.
“He can definitely help me and the team, he’s given us fresh ideas and it’s about everybody buying into that – and we’re definitely doing that.
“I think the main thing for us this pre-season was working with the new manager and learning his ideas and his philosophies.
“It was really about taking on board what the manager wants from each individual and what he wants from us as a team.
Progressively during pre-season we got better and better, which I’m sure was satisfying for the manager because his ideas were coming to fruition on the pitch.
Kenny McClean
Missing out on Promotion
McClean capped a fine campaign by winning the club’s coveted Player of the Season award last term.
But the experienced 42-cap Scotland international admits missing out on promotion to the top-flight took the shine off his achievement.
“I did pretty well last season, but a personal accolade like that is nice, but when there’s no team prize at the end of it, well it’s disappointing,” added McClean, who has just been named in Scotland’s squad for next month’s Nations League games against Poland and Portugal.
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“We came up short against a better team, but these things happen in football.
“Things had to go our way on the day we went to Elland Road, but we went there with a draw and it was obviously going to be tough for us.
“But they performed, probably, the best on the night. They’ve got some quality players.
“We hold our hands up though, we could have done a lot better in that game, which is probably the only disappointing thing.
“But listen, you have to say we had a good second half to the season and we still have a lot of the players from last season, so we can use that and really take it into this season.
“We’ve got some new ideas from the new manager and new players coming in, so it’s an exciting season to look forward to.
“Everything behind the scenes is set up for us to be really successful, so it’s about the players on the pitch doing the job now.”
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.