Breaking with tradition Felix held his press conference this lunchtime. It will be no surprise to learn that Mitroglou won't be available for Saturday - reckon the next Club offer will be "buy a Stoke ticket get free travel and see Kostas wave your bus off". The previous injury cases - Burn, Parker and Karagounis - are all now okay. And Bent is obviously available again. Of the youngsters, Dembele has gone off to the Dallas Cup but Pat Roberts has stayed at home, so he'll will probably be in the squad. Can't see Felix doing other than select the same squad as for Villa with the questions only being about the starting line-up. Unless he springs his usual surprise of course.... please log in to view this image I certainly hope not.
It's Magath bingo. One new surprise starter every week. First Cauley, then Moussa and then Diarra. I reckon it's Hugo's turn this week. Other than that we'll see the same team I think.
He's got to play the 3 at the back formation again. Keep Diarra in for sure. COYW. It's all getting a bit unbearable to be honest. The wait between games is doing my head in.
Just seen the video. he is focused on 3 points. I really do like FM. He has instilled the confidence required. Having said that if we balls it up on Saturday it might take a knock that would be difficult to re-ignite. I hope he sticks with the same team as at Villa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ep7hT-hxdsY Not sure if this will work. C58, can you help if it doesn't.
It was fine Craving. Been waiting to see it before suggesting a starting line-up, just in case there were some clues. As is his norm though, Felix has stuck to his "fighting spirit" and morale boosting stuff. So here goes anyway - and I'm with you on the flexible back three Craving: ...........................Stockdale...................... ......Heitinga...........Hangeland..............Amorebieta..... ...Reither.................Diarra.......................Richardson....... .............Dejagah....................Sidwell.......... .....................Holtby.....Hugo.....
I love the simplicity of "win or die". Unfortunately, Norwich is in the same basic motivation. On paper, I'd say we have the better team, in terms of quality and experience, but on the day the outcome will likely be determined by the team with the most discipline. Hopefully that's us.
Cauley Woodrow has just confirmed on twitter that he's not in the squad due to a dead leg so it's got to be Hugo up top. It's between him and Bent, I'd imagine Hugo wins every time.
Up for the challenge in the middle this week is Mr Dean. please log in to view this image Link to pic: http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608003507627426836&pid=15.1 Yes, another from the Wirral/Cheshire cabal - why are the majority of premier league refs from the North West? And yes, you've guessed it - we've seen him three times this year. The home win against Villa, the home defeat to Sunderland and the away draw at West Brom. Hopefully his fourth game puts him back to the start of that cycle.
Starting XI: Stockdale; Heitinga, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Richardson; Reither, Diarra, Kasami, Sidwell, Holtby; Hugo. Same starting tactics as against Villa then. Expect Dejagah to be introduced at half time, with a shift to a better formation, to try and overrun them in the second half.
Please, no more short corners. Especially when the player receiving the ball then just waits before playing it. Grrr.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Hugo. However that covers the fact we've been disjointed and poor. Get Kasami off, get Dejagah on and go 4411. Maybe bring on Riise for Amorebieta too.
he's doing something right, you guys looked dead and buried not so long ago, now you look like a good bet for safety.
Wow that was hard to watch but we got there in the end.... just! We could have done without Cardiff winning away to Southampton but we've given ourselves a hell of a chance.
Obviously I am pretty upset and I don't want to sound bitter, but a half decent team would not have lost that game today. We are just simply not good enough as things stand, and it hurts. Well done today, and all it will take is 1 more win and you will stay up, as I don't see where we are going to get a win again this season.
You've got to hand it to Felix. I was critical of his appointment but it looks like it's finally coming together, despite the poor performance today. But on the flipside of that, whenever we've played that badly we've been hammered, and I don't put it down to Norwich being bad in any way. Our defense looked organised! Magath is as charismatic as a j-cloth but if he carries on like this he'll be a hero.
Unbelievably happy at the result today, but Dejagah missing that sitter at the end made me lose out on some decent money! Had Dundee Utd -1 and Fulham -1.
Canât put it any better than Felix, âHappy with the points. Not happy with the performance and Norwich were the better team. We were saved by an excellent goalkeeper.â please log in to view this image Linl to pic: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlB2vODCAAAQUZ_.png Although would add, thank goodness for Diarra.
