David Moyes has said Christian Norgaard is ‘probably a bit further away’ than expected in terms of match fitness.
Norgaard endured a difficult debut off the bench during the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea last weekend, in his first appearance since arriving from Arsenal in the summer.
The Dane arrived with minor injury, but setbacks meant he missed the entirety of pre-season and the opening games of the campaign.
Norgaard struggled to get up to the speed of the game against Chelsea, and conceded possession for a Chelsea chance moments after his introduction. The visible rust has meant Moyes will re-think the 32-year-old’s introduction into the side. Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Norgaard’s former club, Arsenal, Moyes said the midfielder had apologised for being off the pace.
“It actually wasn’t a difficult decision to bring him on, because he’s trained. I was trying to see if I could get him the final 15-20 minutes of the game because it would have been another little bit of game time for him,” Moyes said.
“But I think when we brought him on we realised he’s a little bit further away than we hoped. But we also expected that, we didn’t think he was going to be back fully firing until probably after the next international break, because he’s had no real pre-season with us. He’s probably had 7-10 days of training, half a game (behind closed doors) but we’d seen enough to suggest – and I wanted to see if I could get him 20 minutes, the game time he needs. We tried it and it showed he’s probably got a bit to go.
“Christian was the first one to come to me and say he was sorry about it and he’s realised he’s probably a bit further away.”
“There was actually part of me last week that was half considering starting him, and I’m glad I didn’t. I saw bits in training which made me think he was getting ready but maybe also things just went wrong. He got a couple of loose passes which he had to deal with and tried to tidy up.
“He’s training great, he’s a brilliant character behind the scenes for the players, so we’re just hoping to get him back into full condition.”
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