Last Wednesday, Norwich City’s head coach did something remarkable in remarkable times. He left Teemu Pukki, Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell on the bench for Everton’s Premier League visit.
It was a game Norwich could not afford to lose if they were to give their survival hopes a fighting chance. Daniel Farke hoped in a tight game, the trio’s eventual introduction would prove a match-winning one. The added benefit would be some freshness for Norwich’s first FA Cup quarter-final in 28 years.
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Pukki had never appeared on a Norwich bench for a league fixture before last week. Farke’s side are still yet to win a league game without the involvement of Buendia since he arrived two summers ago. But Cantwell? You would have got good money 12 months ago on him being the third part of that vital trio.
It is Norwich’s great success story this season that the 22-year-old has taken such positive strides forward. His equaliser in Norwich’s eventual 2-1 extra-time defeat at home to Manchester United was his seventh goal of the campaign and Norwich’s first since March. Only Pukki (11) has more than Norwich’s No 14. In the Premier League, no one else has scored more than once.
Since first being courted by Norwich aged eight and then signing on to their development programme two years later, Cantwell has made a habit of defying people: those who felt he was too small, too soft, too mothered.
What is playing out now is Cantwell’s rise as one of Norwich’s most effective forward players.
His goal on Saturday, Cantwell’s first in professional football from outside the penalty box, was a strong, controlled right-foot effort that swept away from Sergio Romero’s dive. Watching through every shot he has taken in the past two years, you see the improving ratio of such measured strikes against more enthusiastic but inaccurate attempts.
He has the most shots on target per 90 minutes (0.67) of any Norwich player besides their strikers. It is worth remembering he has 72 professional appearances. His 29 starts this season have doubled his starting tally and he remains an inexperienced footballer, even for his age.
Farke’s decision to play a 4-3-3 formation in possession — 4-5-1 out of it — gave Norwich a greater balance between solidity and counterattacking threat but did not affect Cantwell’s specific role much from the forward-left position.
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What did was the introduction of Onel Hernandez on 64 minutes, resulting in Cantwell’s switch to the No 10 role of a 4-2-3-1. He was already influencing the game; now that influence was growing as it stretched. The spaces Cantwell picked up in front of United’s back four caused them problems until abductor muscle cramps ended his afternoon in stoppage time at the end of normal time.
Those who have watched Cantwell’s rise have always hoped to see him given the chance in a more central position. Farke had began to toy with it before football’s suspension, in the latter stages of Norwich’s 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United. Cantwell got another go as the supporting striker in their restart preparations: a 2-1, 120-minute friendly win at Tottenham.
Those two performances failed to convince, especially contrasted to how involved Cantwell has become as he drifts from his starting position on the left. But Saturday felt different.
Cantwell’s goal was the first scored by anyone playing in the central role behind Norwich’s striker this season — something Ondrej Duda’s loan from Hertha Berlin was designed to rectify. It also showcased Norwich’s fluidity given Buendia, then playing on the right of Cantwell, was tucked inside his left as he threaded through the assist.
“As a kid, you have your favourite positions and that was definitely mine but playing as a left winger in this team isn’t too much different,” says Cantwell. “You’re asked to come inside and I’m given the freedom to do that.
“I’ve been working a lot on finishing and the boys are always pushing me to have a shot. I’m just thankful to the manager for putting his trust back in me. I wasn’t fantastic against Southampton (Norwich’s first game after the restart). He has given me another chance and I had a knife between my teeth throughout the game.”
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Cantwell expects to be fit for Wednesday night. While the Norfolk-born star loves playing for his hometown club, there has always been a soft spot for Arsenal. An empty Emirates Stadium is still the Emirates Stadium.
“He’s been pretty consistent, especially in the first half of the season,” Farke tells The Athletic. “The recent weeks, he was sometimes struggling as it’s not that easy when the whole team is struggling to create chances.
“We spoke pretty long about how important it is after a good season to go further on with lots of work load, investment in terms of discipline, commitment and desire for the team — and that’s what he did.
“Once he worked that hard for the team and not thinking too much about your own performance, you also deserve then some luck and that’s what he had in his finishing situation. He showed a really good performance.”
Such words — and Cantwell’s attitude — emphasise how important his future also becomes. With Norwich looking doomed to a swift Championship return, few would have as solid a claim to remaining in the Premier League as Cantwell.
His contract runs until the summer of 2022, with the club holding the option for a further year, which gives Norwich a degree of power.
Sporting director Stuart Webber went on record a matter of weeks ago to warn Norwich’s young stars not to search for a move away too soon. There is a desire to see Cantwell stay as a foundation in Farke’s bid for a swift promotion back out of the Championship.
Those close to Cantwell see some of those things in the same light. There is an appreciation that he has less professional experience than some of his peers. He has featured in every round of the Premier League and started all bar five. There was no move last summer that Cantwell could have made to achieve such exposure.
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But it will also be hard for his value to be ignored if another club wants to push hard enough. Being a young, bright, articulate and marketable English attacking talent makes Cantwell as valuable as any player currently on Norwich’s books. David Ornstein revealed in February that Liverpool have been particularly impressed by Cantwell’s performances in the Premier League, while Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham all hold an interest.
If relegation does arrive and the transfer market is not as suppressed as many fear, Cantwell will be among those courted and Norwich will find serious advances hard to resist.
With Buendia continuing to channel a drifting work-rate with his emotional knife-edge, those conversations from Farke will not have been solely for Cantwell’s benefit. Buendia can claim another assist but he is yet to rediscover his creative spark and is still to score his first goal of the season.
Talk around Buendia becoming Norwich’s first £40 million sale has fallen victim to the pandemic and the narrative of a campaign.
As for Pukki, it is hard not to worry about his current confidence levels. There was little to help them from the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United. The situation is not lost on those at the club, who are desperate to help their key striker return to form.
Norwich have been good to him. The Finland international has been well-loved and well-rewarded, while Norwich have always seen his value coming from his length of service to the club rather than a future profit from selling the player.
There will be no pushing to get away from Norwich if the club are relegated. Pukki is a proven talent in the Championship, his family is settled in Norfolk and his wife, Kirsikka, is expecting their second child. None of that will stop clubs assessing their attempts to lure Pukki away from Norwich in the summer. There is already an expectation there would be options elsewhere, if Pukki wanted to explore them and Norwich were so inclined.
But of the rested trio crucial to the here and now, it is Cantwell who is shining brightest. His rise to prominence has been remarkable. Maybe he is now set to take centre stage. Either way, Norwich will hope there is still much more to enjoy.
(Photo: Joe Giddens/Pool via Getty Images)
