Daniel Farke takes his Norwich City side to Southampton tomorrow night, knowing only too well that the Saints will be desperate to build on a moral building win over Watford on Saturday.
That was their first home win this season, ironically against the Hornets whose only win of the season, so far, was against Norwich at Carrow Road three weeks ago.
The Canaries have had a lift of their own mind, with a win at Everton and then a 2-2 draw with Arsenal that we all know City should’ve won. Were it not for the heroics of the Gunners keeper, Bernd Leno, they probably would have too.
As usual, the City Head Coach gave his pre-match presser at Colney.
The boss is speaking to the press this lunchtime ahead of #SOUNOR… 💬
Updates here ⬇️https://t.co/oPnfQf5Jlk
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) December 3, 2019
In terms of injury news, Alex Tettey is available again although the excellent showing of Ibrahim Amadou against Arsenal, playing for the first time in his preferred defensive midfield position this season, could see Alex start on the bench.
Grant Hanley is still not back in training, which is surely a worry now, isn’t it? Farke hopes he will be back next week. I’ve no doubt that his continued issues will contribute to Farke looking to strengthen his central defensive options in January. With Timm Klose out for several months yet, another injury to either Zimmermann or Godfrey could spell disaster.
Josip Drmic is still slated to return in January.
Talking about what to expect in the game, the City head coach thinks that this will be a close game and he expects Southampton to start aggressively. It will be up to City to withstand that and try to impose their own game plan on the hosts.
This is another huge game for Norwich. Having blown the last one, against Watford, here’s what looks like another mid-season six pointer, although it is away from home so the pressure should all be on the home side and as their home form has been so wretched this season, hopefully the home fans won’t take a lot to get frustrated with their team if City can stifle them.
At the start of the season, it looked like City could have a reunion in this game with two former loan players in Angus Gunn and Harrison Reed but Reed went out on loan to Fulham and Gunn, despite starting the season in goal, is currently being kept out of the Saints’ side by Alex McCarthy. I fully expect us to come up against Nathan Redmond though, who always looks dangerous whenever I see him play.
It’s all about us though and if you don’t fancy making the long, mid-week haul to the South coast, you can watch this game live on Amazon Prime.
The retail giant also have the rights to screen every Boxing Day game as well, which means you can finish your turkey sandwiches and then watch City at Aston Villa.
Nice.
OTBC