In a new feature and in a break from the normal reporting of such things, we have another fan’s eye view of the latest pre-match press conference given by Daniel Farke ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Birmingham City.
Vital Norwich Forum stalwart, FC Bears takes us through it:
Well, we have a home game against Birmingham coming up. You’d hope confidence might be high after a late win at Rotherham and we can beat them but I am still not 100% convinced with this Norwich side.
I think Zimmermann will miss out again meaning there won’t be a specialist defender on the bench (risky). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Skipp miss out as he was limping after the game, which would mean Tettey would probably start (so all our central defenders would be playing)!
If Xavi get injured in the game what happens?
If Aarons gets injured during the game what happens?
If a CB gets injured in the game what happens?
This is what Daniel Farke had to say:
Oliver Skipp is okay for tomorrow.
DF says no rotation is needed so it will be the same for tomorrow – There you go Brum, you now know our lineup and set up already.
Zimmermann isn’t fit enough and will hopefully back for Wycombe.
Todd Cantwell is fit and available for selection.
DF says that his side are still working on opening up opponents. He adds that Adam Idah wasn’t playing as a left winger against Rotherham but as a second striker. I get the feeling that DF is wanting to accommodate Idah in the team, so he has moved him to a left winger. DF says that Idah offers something different on the left to what Hernandez and Placheta do.
Is DF talking about a different Norwich City here?
‘Because we were in the premiership Norwich are the team to beat and everyone is aware of the threats. That’s why we have to be flexible and have different styles of play.’
Different styles? It is always 4-2-3-1 and the same mentality etc.
DF doesn’t like people questioning Teemu Pukki:
‘More or less all alone, he brought Finland to the Euros. He nearly scored double figures in the Premier League in a struggling side. He won us the game at Huddersfield this season with the assist for Adam. He won the point against Preston with the equaliser. To doubt Teemu’s value to us would be really crazy. He’s played more games than anyone else in English football in the last two years and scored close to 40 goals.’
DF says that we can’t play with three up top because Liverpool, Man City and Barcelona don’t.
‘Liverpool always have just one central striker, as did Man City before (although sometimes they play without!) It’s the same with Bayern or Barcelona, so we can’t play all three together.’
DF says that team spirit is very high.
‘We all remember Millwall 4-3 and 3-3 against Nottingham Forest, or 2-2 against Sheffield Wednesday. When you see the celebrations like Tim Krul being upfront, it says a lot about the team spirit.’
‘Everyone would have been delighted with a hard-fought away win two years ago, whereas now everyone judges that we should have blown the opponent away. The lads know the expectations are high and we have to create a spirit of us against the world.’
Hanley
Gibson
Xavi
Rupp
Stiepermann
Emi
Hugill
This is the side that I would pick:
Krul
Aarons
Hanley
Gibson
Xavi
Skipp
Rupp
Cantwell
Emi
Placheta
Hugill
Thoughts on that? Let me know in the comments below.
OTBC
I would retain Stiepermann instead bringing in Placheta who could make an impact coming on from the bench if required. Stiepers showed flashes of his old self against Rotherham and his strength may be required against Birmingham.