This injury crisis is starting to become a bit tiresome, to say the least, don’t you think?
Daniel Farke had to be a little creative with his squad selection for the visit of Coventry City as he only had twelve fit first team squad members to choose from. Tuesday night’s excellent win at Stoke saw Teemu Pukki withdrawn in the second half with a hamstring strain and we also lost Emi Buendia to a needless sending off.
That meant that it was a team that almost picked itself. Christoph Zimmermann was the only senior player on the bench and he was joined by five Academy players.
🚨 TEAM NEWS 🚨
◼ Placheta replaces Buendia
◼ Vrancic comes in for Pukki
◼ 5 @NorwichCityAcad players on the bench— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) November 28, 2020
Despite the lack of players, Norwich dominated the ball in the first half, for the most part, and took a deserved lead after Placheta was fouled in the area by Sky Blues’ keeper, Ben Wilson. Coventry’s protestations were waved away by referee, Keith Stroud and Mario Vrancic smashed the ball straight down the middle from the resulting penalty.
It then seemed fairly easy for Norwich at times as they passed the ball around Coventry with ease. Michael McGovern wasn’t troubled much, although my heart was in my mouth when he dropped a simple looking catch from a tame Bakayoko header but luckily the visitors didn’t have anyone on hand to tap the ball home.
The second half was different though, after a quiet start. Coventry boss, Mark Robins made three subs on the hour mark and those fresh legs helped to turn the tide of the game in his side’s favour.
He added two more subs with 15 minutes to go as well, while Farke’s starting XI started to noticeably tire in the face of five new players with full tanks behind them. Coventry hit the post from a free-kick that Mick McGovern got the faintest of touches to and eventually got their equaliser in the 89th minute.
Just before that, Josh Martin had been replaced by Christoph Zimmermann and in the build up to the equaliser, Max Aarons got himself injured in a reckless challenge on Ryan Giles, who just managed to get his cross away before Aarons clobbered him and clobbered himself in the process.
We hope it's not too bad, @maxaarons2! 🤞 pic.twitter.com/8uHEaZN8Vh
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) November 28, 2020
With Aarons lying on the floor, the cross came off Ben Gibson and fell kindly for Biamou, who was played onside by the prostrate Aarons, to fire into the roof of the net from close range.
A draw was a fair result in the end with Norwich having the best of the first half and Coventry doing the same in the second.
Alex Tettey was my man of the match as he rolled back the years with an excellent midfield display. Yes, he had loads of time more often than not but his passing was pretty much faultless. Farke called him a very important player for the squad, last week, and here he showed why that is. His partner in the middle, Olly Skipp was also excellent. Up top, Marco Stiepermann was the stand-in striker but he looked a little lost at times. Despite his height, he’s not great in the air and that limited him somewhat as his movement was a pale imitation of Pukki’s, which is I suppose to be expected. Josh Martin also impressed with his movement, passing and willingness to move infield, from where he played Stiepermann into a one on one with Ben Wilson. He already looks like he has a very promising future ahead of him.
To go on a ten game unbeaten run under such injury crippled circumstances is certainly welcome and fairly impressive although lord knows what we’ll do at Luton in mid-week if Max Aarons doesn’t recover in time.
I can’t help but think that the football bosses and by that I mean the FA, the Premier League and the EFL have created a punishing schedule of games this season. By starting the season in mid-September rather than mid-August and insisting that the season ends in May as usual, they are directly responsible for creating the perfect circumstances for players to suffer injuries. Particularly muscle and ligament injuries.
As a result, and I know it’s the same for every team, we, the paying fans are being cheated out of watching the team at it’s best. The best players should be able to do their thing and entertain us. The five subs rule should’ve been in from the start of the season, as well.
I think that Farke was nervous about throwing any of his young players into the fray with only a single goal lead as the clock ran down, and that’s why he didn’t change things earlier than he did. Opting to try to see the game out which is why Christoph Zimmermann was the first change on 85 minutes. If it was me, I would’ve given Tyrese Omotoye 15 minutes or so at the end. Mario Vrancic had tired and dropping Stiepermann back to the number 10 role may have helped a bit.
Norwich though are still top of the table and unbeaten in ten games. Luton Town at Kenilworth Road will be looking to change that on Wednesday night, with an extra day of rest hopefully helping Max Aarons to make it. Teemu Pukki is also a possibility.
Keep everything crossed.
OTBC