Cardiff manager Steve Morison praised “football geek” Romaine Sawyers after the midfielder’s debut winner sealed a 1-0 victory over Norwich.
Sawyers’ 25-yard strike got Cardiff off to a winning Sky Bet Championship start, with the midfielder having arrived from West Brom earlier this month.
Morison said: “Romaine might not like it, but he is a bit of a football geek. He loves the game, he loves the tactical side of it and understands it really well.
“He is an organiser when he is out there. He really does get it. I had to show him exactly what he wanted and he asked me questions and I had to be able to answer them.
“I showed him exactly what we wanted from him. It simplifies the game for him and allows him to go and have moments like that.
“We spoke at half-time about how our two number eights didn’t get high enough up in the first half to be able to get into the box to score a goal.
“So it sounds like he decided to just get the ball a little bit further out and just hit it, rather than run into the box. It was great for him and I thought it was great for everyone involved.”
A bad-tempered affair in the Welsh capital saw both sides reduced to 10 men in the final quarter.
Cardiff lost Perry Ng to a second bookable offence and Norwich captain Grant Hanley was red carded in similar fashion 12 minutes later.
“I believe we are on the right path and a work in progress,” said Morison, who signed 13 players this summer and gave seven of them their debuts against Norwich.
“We had that one moment, they didn’t. Now we need to make sure we back it up with a performance next week.”
Norwich boss Dean Smith bemoaned his side’s lack of creativity following their relegation from the Premier League and felt Sawyers’ strike was a fluke.
Sawyers played for Smith at Walsall and Brentford and the former Aston Villa manager said: “I’ve worked with Romaine a long time and he’s gone for the pass without a shadow of a doubt.
“The lad’s made a run and it’s gone off Andrew’s (Omobamidele) calf. I think he got one in training from that distance for me!
“We lacked quality in the final third that cost us the game. But the least we should be leaving here is with a point.
“There were some pleasing things in the game, but it’s not a good start to not get any points.”
