Manchester City v Norwich City Saturday 2nd November 2013 3pm Kick off At last! One of the fixtures we have all been looking forward to! Norwich City head north, to Manchester, for the second time in 5 days and must be hoping to not return feeling as bad as they did following the first visit. Tuesday's lack-lustre performance can be perhaps put down to the number of changes made for the League Cup tie at Old Trafford, and even maybe having poor Mark Bunn between the sticks created an un-necassary feeling of nervounsness in the defence, but it can also be put down to a lack of depth to the squad. To compound matters, horrible looking injuries to Robert Snodgrass and Nathan Redmond, added insult to injury (as it were), making the game one that Norwich City could have well done without. So, what will Chris Hughton, the under fire manager (fropm some of the fan-base) do this weekend? Will he keep the midfield shape and try to play some attacking stuff, or will he adopt the Cardiff City policy from last Saturday and play with 11 players in the box? Will the aim be for damage limitation? I personally think it should in this case, and although some may think Norwich should go to the Etihad to try and repeat May's stunning performance, it is unlikely that Man City will be on holiday this time round. Norwich City's record, when playing Man City, home or away (but especially away), is nothing short of woeful, and there appears to be no real logical reason, that this weekends fixture will be any different. Add to this, the recent fortunes of a non free-scoring record, the chances of getting a result do appear to be more than just a little against the odds for the Norfolk based team. Other than Robert Snodgrass, the team is likely to pick itself, seeing a the return of Olsson and Martin in the back line, and probably Hooper to start the game in place of Elamander. The big question is what will CH do about the role of 'Snoddy', now the team is reduced in wide midfield players (with 3 currently in treatment). Man City also face a bit of a dilemma - do they drop Paul Hart, the anti-teflon kid! and throw Costel Pantilimon in to his PL debut? Will they play most of the team that endured 120 minutes at Newcastle on Wednesday night, in their 2-0 League Cup win? In fairness, they probably wont need to, as Man Utd demonstrated the night before Man City have been in reasonably good form again this season, and are not surprisingly in the clutch of teams leading the way in the PL, but have lost 3 away games, Cardiff (god knows how), Villa, and Chelsea, While Norwich have produced one away win in the league this season, with 2 goals in 4 games. Strap yourself in guys, bumpy ride ahead but at least we can take some comfort from knowing that manager Chris Hughton is not under any real pressure this weekend.
Thanks for that, definitely worth the wait , who watched the Man City game last night?, I thought they looked a bit flat, but I suppose they weren't playing their strongest selection.
Blimey Thai, I didn't realize Paul Hart had come out of retirement to become a goalie! Other than that, old friend, take a bow for a mighty fine effort!
Didn't want to put you all to shame Maybe next time, now I have learned some whizzy new tricks (if the forum will accept the code)
Might as well be Paul Hart between the sticks, would possibly be better, come to that even Ian Harte would possibly be better
Which means either Fer or Howson (or both ) will have to be much more defensively minded than we've seen of late. Leading to yet more solitary confinement for whoever is unfortunate enough to play as the lone striker
Johnson was pretty crap against united, not sure what's up with him lately. Man City seemed a bit lack lustre when I watched them play Newcastle, for parts of the game Newcastle were way better.
I'd go for the straight swap BJ 4 AT we've played others who are out of form partly out of necessity/ partly to help them find it. I imagine if AT is gonna be out for a while it will be very important to give BJ a chance to find his form again. Bah!
Given that few of us would expect any points from this fixture, there could be a kind of freedom in that. I wonder if CH might decide to move Olsson forward to the left wing and move Pilks to the RW, as both have played those positions before, with Josh Murphy on the bench as an impact sub if needed. I'll settle for a good whole-hearted performance with the kind of commitment Rusty was describing in his presser today: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...hard-working-Norwich-can-improve-on-last-year
I could easily see a "6 defenders" look with Whittaker and Olsson as the wingers, and us just trying to stifle Man City and try and grab a point. Johnson holding too, with just Fer, Howson and a striker given any real license to get forward.
I often feel that BJ is one of those players who performs to the level of those around him - he plays well when others do, badly when others do. This mid-week match will have done wonders for his fitness if nothing else - I'm confident that his style can easily slot into the team with Tettey's absence and I actually think he's better defensively than AT, which, to the chagrin of many I'm sure, is actually the way we should go for Man City away. Johnson had a stormer last time we were at the Etihad... As long as BJ keeps it simple, he actually doesn't hurt us too much in possession, and while his execution is poor, his vision I think is quite good so he does often spot a good run and at least go for it. The much-maligned Garrido is the same- when we are poor he is abysmal, but when we play well he can actually look quite good and his delivery is undoubtedly one of the best in the squad. That said, I'd rather we have Olsson left back with Pilks ahead, Rusty Rb with Whittaker ahead.
The only sides to get anything at the Etihad are the adventurous ones who have a go like you did last year Come to defend it will be a rout
To be honest with you Paul, I think most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing short of a miracle will stop this being a rout whether we attack or defend... With our luck, injuries and form it's about as close to a foregone conclusion as football gets. I get what your saying, but it's actually fairly obvious that, statistically, teams are much more likely to get points off the big boys with well-organised defences. While I'd love to see another five goal thriller, it really isn't a long term strategy to survival. And yes, it does feel like regularly when teams sit back you thrash them, but I think you'll find it's actually that you just regularly push teams back and regularly thrash them... Chicken and egg... Ironically, the best way to get points off us is to sit back and let us play pointlessly on the half way line, scoring on the break, just like Hull, Villa, Arsenal and Chelsea have all done. I don't imagine you'll do that though.
