Azaz was the subject of a rejected bid from Southampton earlier this week, having reportedly expressed a desire to move to St Mary’s.
However, the Ireland international has continued to train professionally and Edwards did not hesitate to name him in his starting side at Norwich City.
Azaz responded by scoring Boro’s opening goal at Carrow Road, drilling the ball home at the near post from the left of the box, and while Southampton are understood to be considering an improved offer, Edwards is confident the midfielder will remain committed to the cause.
“I was comfortable making the decision because he’s [Azaz] a really good player,” said the Boro boss. “We’ve spoken and he’s really professional, I think he showed that today.
“It was a fantastic goal and a really good performance from him. There was no doubt in my mind.”
Boro’s victory made it three wins from three in the league so far this season, and leaves Edwards’ side in second place in the table, with only Stoke City above them on goal difference.
READ MORE:
The Boro boss has been urging his players to press aggressively high up the field, and was delighted to see his preferred approach vindicated as both of his side’s goals came as a result of turnovers in the Norwich half.
“I’m really pleased,” said Edwards. “Norwich are a really good team and this is a difficult place to come. I think the game was quite close very early on. They then got a bit of control because we were sloppy with the ball, and we had to make some adjustments.
“Once we did that, we looked a bit more composed and were able to get our pressing right. To get the goals we did from the pressing was brilliant. To go in 2-0 up at half-time was obviously excellent for us.
“We talked at half-time about not giving them any oxygen or belief. We had some big chances in the first half apart from the goals, and you could argue we had a couple of open goals and a couple of one-on-ones that we didn’t make the most of. One was directly before their goal, which is typical football.
“We didn’t take that chance to go 3-0 up which would have killed it, and Josh Sargent is a really good player and he got in and scored. That just made it a bit random and nervy then, but thankfully we were able to see things out.”
