Farke is reaping rewards of putting faith in youth
REX it takes a brave manager to send out a team with four players aged 21 or under in the championship.
Yet daniel farke has committed to reducing his team’s average age and his faith in Norwich city’s young charges isn’t misplaced.
As a German, farke’s progress will inevitably be measured against compatriots Jurgen Klopp and david Wagner. And, as Norwich recorded their third win inside eight days thanks to teemu Pukki’s second-half winner at Queens Park Rangers, moving them into the top half, forward steps are being taken.
‘in general, when i judge our wingers at the moment, Jamal lewis is 20 years old, todd cantwell is 20, Max Aarons is 18 and Emiliano Buendia is 21,’ said farke.
‘our average age is around 19 and probably no other football club in western Europe has such young wingers on the pitch playing as professionals.
‘that is a sign of our way, the way we want to go and complements a really good performance.’
farke saw star players James Maddison and Josh Murphy leave in the summer but didn’t get to reinvest the proceeds immediately, hence the focus on youth.
one player farke managed to bring in for nothing was finnish striker Pukki, whose 71st-minute goal at loftus Road, chesting in from Marco Stiepermann’s deflected cross, was his eighth of the season.
‘our situation was that we were not able to spend millions of pounds for some quality players so then you have to be smart and perhaps find some solution on loan or with free transfers,’ said farke.
‘We finished last season in mid-table and sold two of our best goalscorers in Maddison and Murphy. i followed Pukki for several years since he played in Germany with Schalke and we got the feeling from year to year he was improving.
‘We had some hopes when we signed him and he was able to pay us back.’