The 2019-2020 season.

For non-medical people like me:

"Tears of the menisci are a common injury. They often happen when you play sports. When people talk about a ‘torn cartilage’ in their knee they usually mean a meniscus injury."

Curious that it happened in the off-season. Being young and fit, he should recover reasonably quickly.

 

Bullcrap, they are scared of further defeat and shame

Bah!

 

City hoping Zimbo will be back for the Newcastle & Chelsea games albeit without any preseason matches under his belt

https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/spo...immermann-to-miss-start-with-injury-1-6152163

 

That's a disaster. Missing pre-season can effect a players whole season

 

That would be immensely risky - Klose is an adequate and competent replacement so I have no fears but obviously wish Zimbo as speedy a recovery as possible.

 

Klose is used to playing on the left and has a good understanding with Lewis and he'd be a good partner for either Godfrey or Hanley. This is where our squad depth really proves itself, so I also hope Zimmo isn't rushed back.

 

Timm played right side CB his first season with Norwich in the PL, so that shouldn't be a problem. It's unfortunate that the 3-at-the- back option looks less likely until Zimm is ready to play. Like you, Rick, I think 3 CB's would be a strong option for us.

 

I don't see why 3 CB's is not an option. As long as we have 3 if it's the preferred system, play them, if an injury occurs we adapt with 2. Why play 2 to protect one if it's not the right system? Players can get injured just as easily in training as in a match, so if it is Farkes plan A, Zimmermann being out stops nothing unless Hanley is not fancied to be able to adapt to it.

Bah!

 

Sone VERY wise words from Iwan - You have to accept that sometimes you are going to get beaten and beaten heavily - it's how you bounce back from those heavy defeats which will be the main reason why you will survive in the Premier League.
Full article here - https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/norwich-city-survival-lessons-cardiff-1-6152666

Edit - Anyone else going to either of the friendlies??
I know you're off on your hols Dunc!!

 

Iwan also gets to the heart of it with this:

"Cardiff averaged the lowest amount of possession (39.1 percent) and the worst pass completion rate by quite a distance, an average of just 63.9pc, last season according to WhoScored.com. They were quite direct. They were forced for the first five or six months of the season to play Callum Paterson up front, who's good in the air but had been brought in as a right-back. One of the criticisms that I threw their way was that they didn't use the ball well enough and when you look at the way Norwich play, the football they played last season, that's the type of game you need to play to be successful in the Premier League. It's a similar style to Wolves last season and the season they went up: quick, counter-attacking football, keeping the ball."

That's the difference between DF's team and our teams in the PL before. Cardiff tried to play Championship football in the PL whereas we played PL football in the Championship. That should make it easier from the start as we're playing the right way and we've brought in top flight players to extend what we already have. Our squad depth also means that we can handle injuries as players coming in fit in seemlessly to the Farkeball we play. The pre-season games will give us some idea, but Liverpool will be the real test.

 

Interesting take by Rick Waghorn on the sources of City's success last season and how that may play out in the PL:

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...ment-but-its-a-story-thats-already-been-told/

While the big clubs continue to spend big and the pundits (and Karen Brady) keep telling us to do the same, SW calmly sticks to his approach of doing the opposite because the numbers just don't add up. First of all, we don't have the money to spend, but more importantly it isn't the way he works. It's the underlying numbers that picked out Buendia from the crowd in the Spanish second division, as well as picking out the likes of Pukki, Leitner, Trybull and Vrancic in spite of appearances that they had lost their way. The same could be said of Roberts, Drmic and Fährmann last season, but the underlying numbers suggest differently. If they turn out as well as their predecessors, we could really be on to something.

 

The U23's squad for pre-season has been announced: https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/city-confirm-u23-pre-season-plans-1-6154329

Several players are omitted:

1. Aston Oxborough - training with the first team presumably ahead of a loan, no point having 4 first team GKs.
2. Rocky Bushiri - called up to the first team after Zimbo's injury? Not clear
3. Timi Odusina - same question
4. Charlie Gilmour - rumoured to already be on loan in the Netherlands
5. Anthony Spyrou - likely also heading out on loan
6. Jon McCracken - the wantaway goalkeeper isn't included either.

Included is Miguel Mussel Quintais, a triallist who was most recently at the same club as Bushiri.

 

The trialist, Miguel Musset Quintais, looks to be a prospect.

 

The most astonishing thing to me about that article is that Waghorn thought it was worth writing. Does he really think the Moneyball story has to be drawn to our attention? And is he really so unaware of what has been going on at Brentford and other clubs for years? How long ago is it since The Numbers Game was published for heaven's sake?

 

Column inches must be filled even in the off season!
Moneyball is a good film though

Bah!

 

That may be true for those deeply immersed in the machinations of the 'numbers game' in sport, but not for the vast majority of fans. When SW first arrived, he described a methodological approach to recruitment even while loads of established players were being released.

He spoke with conviction, but it seemed that we were embarking on a long-term reconstruction. His first season was hugely disappointing as we slipped to 14th place and he now admits even his faith wobbled at times. Many of us wobbled as well.

Last season though, it finally all came together after a rocky start. Relatively unknown players like Pukki, Buendia and Aarons were suddenly producing unexpected results and then a very unexpected promotion as champions.

While Brentford applied quite a mechanical version of the numbers game, Webber focused on the numbers initially, but then on a common vision and spirit throughout all aspects of the club and that is what he produced and is still producing in combination with Farke. The comparisons with Moneyball are appropriate because of the focus on undervalued players being turned into Champions. Brentford didn't manage that. SW and DF did.

 

Biggest pile of scheisse MFW has churned out in a fair while.
Leave it to people who can write properly, Wafflehorn.
I mean, who the fook talks like this in this day and age
"It is not long before the big boys come a-calling."

 

There was a MFW article the other day essential bemoaning how the club use the "self-funded" excuse for everything and if they aren't careful the fans will turn on them and want rich owners.

I essentially wrote a line-by-line dissection of it, but it got lost in their spam filter because it contained a link to a chart. Won't make the effort in the future.

 

Yes, I read it - Stewart Lewis, as I recall.
I bet if you took a straw poll of NCFC fans, they'd all rather see us
do things the Webber way than simply blast money at it like Fulham last year and Villa this.
At least if the worst happens, we would still have the nucleus of a very good squad rather than a collection of over paid ego-ridden journeymen with massive relegation clauses to entertain.

 

I'd like a mega rich person to take over and have Webber spend it to make us an unstoppable force.

Bah!