Daniel Farke has no new injury concerns ahead of the final game before the next international break, against Stoke City at Carrow Road on Saturday.
Daniel Farke is about to speak to the press ahead of tomorrow's home game against Stoke City. #ncfc
Live updates here ➡️ https://t.co/Fripla1Ff8 pic.twitter.com/naBfESMyW6
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) October 5, 2018
There is further good news regarding Onel Hernandez, who is back in training but not yet ready to play a full ninety minutes, as you might expect. Assuming training goes okay today for Onel though, he will be back in the squad to face the Potters and should be fully ready after the break.
Ben Marshall will play for the U23s again today as he looks to regain full fitness, meaning that Hernandez is set for tomorrow’s bench ahead of Marshall.
You would imagine that there is not much need to change the match day squad or starting XI, given the excellent run that the club currently have going and that’s something that Fake alluded to. The City Head Coach spoke about having found a good balance in recent weeks and that he didn’t want to upset the rhythm of the side. He’s certainly managed to find the “rhythm” and get the team playing winning football.
As I wrote earlier in the week, the squad still has strength in depth with some injured players and those that are on the sub’s bench yet to get much of a chance. Tom Trybull, Louis Thompson, Ben Godfrey and Jordan Rhodes would walk into plenty of Championship teams and that’s before you consider the likes of Marshall, Hernandez, or Kenny McLean either.
You may have read earlier today that Farke missed out on the “Manager of the month award”, thereby avoiding the “curse” associated with winning that mantelpiece trophy. Teemu Pukki also missed out on the player’s award.
The City boss was keen to play down not winning and congratulated West Brom’s Darren Moore on his win, citing that his sole focus is on winning with the team and he raised a smile by saying that if he wanted solo praise then he would play tennis.
There was also praise for former Canary, James Maddison on his England call-up and for the attitudes of his squad, name-checking Jamal Lewis and Max Aarons for their international call-ups as well.
One thing the boss did point out several times though was the closeness of the league table at this time, describing it as “too early to judge” although naturally, he’s happy with the points we have achieved.
Stoke City have some very good players at this level but have clearly not yet hit their stride in the fledgeling weeks of the season with their results being a bit unpredictable. You would imagine that the consistency they will be striving for is likely to click into gear at some point but fingers crossed that it’s not just yet.
📝 ICYMI | Gary Rowett has no injury concerns to contend with ahead of this weekend’s clash with in-form @NorwichCityFC.
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— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) October 5, 2018
Stoke also have no injury concerns ahead of this clash, which Gary Rowett reported to the media on Thursday. Having beaten Bolton 2-0 in mid-week, the Potters will be keen to build on that and try to get back to back victories for the first time since January 2017.
It seems as though Saturday is going to be a rainy day, so best bring your brolly too.
OTBC