The ball is in Matej Jurasek’s court to convince Liam Manning he is ready to be part of his early Championship battleplan.
The Czechia international was left out for the opening 2-1 home defeat to Millwall, but Manning made it clear there was no fitness-related issue.
The 21-year-old, who did a running session on the Carrow Road pitch prior to the game, has appeared for less than 90 minutes in the Championship since his big-money January move.
Jurasek underwent minor hernia surgery at the start of the summer but scored the first goal of Manning’s reign in the opening pre-season friendly against Northampton at Colney.
“Matej was considered to be part of it. It is competition. I can’t pick everybody,” said the City boss. “It is the same for everybody. They have got to come in and work hard and be ready to go. And that’s the same for Matej.
“The hardest part, and the most important part of the job, is team selection. For me, I spend the most time racking my brains on that aspect. I definitely don’t take it lightly in terms of the impact it has on the group and individuals. I spend a huge amount of time thinking about it.
“We‘ve got competition, and we’re going to need that. But we also need to be clear with people if you’re not at it, if you’re not quite at a level, then we will only wait so long before there’s someone jumping behind you to take your spot.”
The likes of Shane Duffy, Anis Ben Slimane and Emi Marcondes were other notable omissions, with Manning previously making it clear City are likely to trim their squad in the closing weeks of the transfer window.
“We’ve had those conversations. I think all the lads are quite clear on it,” he said. “Like I said before, we’ll look after them, we’ll make sure we give them the work, we’ll keep pushing them. If you are under contract and you show the right attitude, the right level of respect and do things properly we’ll make sure we look after you.”
Josh Sargent’s future is still a hot topic, after turning down the chance to join Wolfsburg, but Manning reiterated City are ready for every eventuality with the stand-in captain between now and September 1.
Sargent led from the front against the Lions and was rewarded with a goal.
“He epitomised everything that, for me, we should build our culture around,” said Manning. “His goal spoke volumes, in terms of he’s no given right to score, but his attitude to lead the line and to compete got him that.
“He had a good scrap with (Jake) Cooper, I thought, and probably came out on top, given the number of times he was fouled. I felt for him a bit, because he put in a huge amount of hard work and didn’t receive a huge amount of quality service.
“Not just Josh but for every player I think the best practice is to be proactive with the (transfer) work you do. Of course, yes, with the interest that he has attracted you’d be mad to not do anything behind the scenes to be prepared. We want him to stay, but we also have to be prepared if it doesn’t happen.”
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