Josh Murphy needs some TLC to grab a starring role at Norwich City.
Murphy is poised for his 100th senior appearance for the club this weekend against Reading, after breaking his personal goal drought with a midweek Championship equaliser at Barnsley.
The 23-year-old has admitted his form had been up and down this season – with Daniel Farke again deploying the academy product in a central attacking role for an hour at Oakwell – but the head coach is convinced Murphy is on the right track.
'He was there with some really good performances but you need this goal to find your confidence,' said Farke.
'It is also important he gets the support of the fans and his team-mates, so he has that belief that we feel he can do something special to score a goal. I am really, really pleased for him.
'In the second half he was really, really good.
'For young attacking players it is always important to score.
'He was 15 games without a goal and that is not good for a striker.
'When Josh was playing as just a winger it is easier for him to play his natural game.
'Now when I ask him to play in the centre he has to adapt to this role. In the beginning maybe he was struggling a bit with his back to the opponent's goal but he has improved a lot in this topic.
'He will have games when he plays as one of two strikers or maybe even a lone striker and that is the challenge for him to show that flexibility.'
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City responded to fresh adversity on and off the pitch against the Tykes, to cancel out the prolific Ollie McBurnie's opening goal.
'We spoke about him a lot and we were not awake enough,' said Farke.
'We spoke in our preparation that McBurnie always has this movement at the first post from the winger position. He has scored six goals and he has been crucial for them.
'For us, it was more like we then started to play with our style and a bit more risk.
'In many games with this approach we have been better.
'We changed it around in the second half and I wanted to give the players a sign we needed to be more brave, when we brought a defender off and put a striker on.
'Even after Alex (Tettey's) injury we brought another offensive player in Wes Hoolahan, with Mario Vrancic and James Maddison in the holding positions. We still wanted to win.'
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