Norwich City have no new injury worries ahead of a tough looking test at Brentford on New Year’s Day.
Talking to the assembled media at Colney on Monday lunchtime, the City Head Coach gave an update that was thankfully short on headlines, which makes a change from recent weeks.
We are, of course, still missing Moritz Leitner and Emi Buendia (expected back late January) and Jamal Lewis (hopefully back for the West Brom game) due to injuries. All three would be certain starters in any formation, so to have them all missing at once is a big blow.
In terms of what was discussed by Daniel Farke today, he was gushing in his praise for his squad. Yes, we ended the year on a defeat but there surely can’t be a fan amongst us that wouldn’t have taken being in second place at Christmas, if you had a crystal ball back in the summer.
“Never too high, never too low” has to be the mantra as we head into the new year with away games at West Brom and Leeds to come. Not losing those two games would be great and getting anything better would just be a huge bonus.
That’s all in the future though. Don’t forget that we have another tough test away at Brentford tomorrow.
When they came to Carrow Road last autumn, I thought that they looked a very decent passing team. They were among the better sides to visit us this term and still have the DNA of former boss, Dean Smith about them.
They have just gone three games unbeaten and have conceded only one goal in that period, unlike our good selves.
They have one of the division’s best goal scorers at the moment in Neal Maupay, who has 15 goals and 6 assists. He is, in fact, tied with Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp and our own Teemu Pukki on 15 goals as joint top-scorer in the league.
Maupay was substituted after 60 odd minutes of Brentford’s 0-0 draw with Birmingham on Saturday, having been booked and looking in danger of getting a second due to some rough treatment from the Blues’.
What we will no doubt see is two teams that like to control the ball and “be the protagonists” as Herr Farke would say. It is likely to come down to who can be the best at that, as to who wins the game.
Rotation is a regular consideration at this time of year but with the next league game 12 days away after this match, Farke hinted that the players will have time to recover then. That leads me to think that there won’t be too many changes, if any.
As I wrote yesterday, a response to that crazy Derby defeat is all important now and getting back to winning ways as soon as possible needs to be the goal.
OTBC