Pukki Blinders

That Aarons yellow card is one of the most ridiculous decisions I’ve seen this season. Absolutely brilliant challenge, get’s all of the ball and yet just because he makes the slightest bit of contact with Joao on the follow-through it’s a free kick and a yellow card? Shambolic. It’s a contact sport ffs.

😍😍😍 God I love this team, what an amazing season. Imagine the atmosphere at CR tonight if we could've been there. Now let's go and teach Bournemouth and Watford a footballing lesson over the next few days 😁

Yeah I'd back this side to beat the 18/19 one. We feel like we have so much more control and can manage games a lot more effectively nowadays. The players who were part of both teams; Buendia, Aarons, Krul; are better than they were 2 seasons ago, Pukki perhaps the exception? Even so he's got 25 goals so far and could well match or beat his previous record of 29 so if he has downgraded it isn't by much. If I had to actually match them up player to player I'd say: (Current team on the left, obviously) Krul > Krul Aarons > Aarons Hanley > Zimbo Gibson ~ Godfrey Giannoulis ~ Lewis Skipp > Trybull McLean < Mario Buendia > Buendia Dowell < Stiepermann Cantwell > Hernandez Pukki ~ Pukki Mario for McLean is perhaps harsh as Kenny has been excellent this year, but with the moments Mario produced I think I had to edge him. The back 4 (apart from Aarons) were really hard to call, as Zimmermann and Godfrey were brilliant as a pairing and Lewis was very good too, but the fact is we are a hell of a lot better defensively this season that we were in 18/19. The depth of the squad is a lot better too I would say. But I mean it's less about the individuals and more that the system and way we manage the game now is significantly better and less erratic than it was two years ago.

Yeah they worked really well together I thought. Holty genuinely had me really laughing when he was talking about Huddersfield's keeper and defender high-fiving at the end when they were 7-0 down 😂

Emi for me. Maddison was great and obviously is still great, but I just think apart from maybe taking a corner that beats the first man, there's nothing Emi can't do. I genuinely think he's destined for a move to a Real Madrid or PSG in a season or two. As fantastic as the likes of Hucks and Wes were, I think in terms of pure, footballing ability, Buendia's the best player I've seen play for Norwich in my lifetime.

There just aren't enough superlatives to describe that performance. Sublime, dazzling, majestic, irresistible, etc etc. That first half has to be one of the best ever displays from a Championship side over 45 minutes. Not just the goals but the quality of the link-up play and the ruthlessness of the finishing was on a different level. Don't get me wrong to call Huddersfield crap would be kind but we put them to the sword absolutely emphatically. Emi Buendia, Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki were all a complete joke. They were literally like the year 11s who had come down to play football against the year 7s. You could tell how much they were enjoying themselves and it was every bit as enjoyable to watch them. Just in general nobody put a single foot wrong tonight. Beat Derby on Saturday and if Brentford or Swansea drop points then that's promotion sealed! With the way we played tonight though and the advantage we have it's completely inevitable now, and has been for a while. All in all what a great night, just wish we could've been there!

So, so, SO undeserved. Can't imagine any side in the league has claimed as jammy a result this season as Preston have there. Battered them from start to finish, they offered absolutely nothing all game only to score off a sh*t deflection. Seen a few Preston fans on Twitter saying how they never give up and keep going to the end, but it wasn't down to that at all, it was sheer luck. Such a shame given the effort we put in with our depleted squad. The fact is though all the time it's 1-0 you're at risk of something like this happening. I know Pukki's just played 3 games on international duty but he simply has to score one of the chances he has. He does that it's game over. I hope that despite the costly deflection coming off him that Omobamidele still takes a lot of confidence from this performance. He was absolutely excellent. He needs to bulk up a little bit but there's no doubting he's a really talented centre back, and he really didn't deserve that bad luck right at the end. Mumba and Quintilla were also great. Sorenson was decent in midfield too. Emi Buendia though, particularly in that first half, was on another planet. Really hope we can take our anger out from this performance on Huddersfield. Obviously we still have a massive advantage and are 11 unbeaten now in the league, but we don't want to be dropping any more points against far inferior sides like Preston and Blackburn. A few days off now to let some players have a rest, so we should be nice and refreshed for Huddersfield on Tuesday.

Genuinely shocking situation we find ourselves in. Farke said as of the time of the presser that most of the international players hadn’t returned yet, and the ones that had had done so in the early hours of the morning with very litte sleep. The EFL are an absolute shambles for allowing this to happen. Either we play our ‘strongest’ side and risk serious injuries to key players who were on international duty, or we give them a rest and potentially lose a game at a crucial point of the season. Worth noting Preston only had one player away on international duty, and apparently didn’t agree to have the date of the fixture moved (though you can’t really blame them for that, the EFL should have taken it out of their hands). Skipp, Hanley and Krul played every minute of all 3 games over the break, with Pukki also featuring in all 3, Aarons playing twice, Giannoulis and McLean playing the full 90 minutes of last night’s matches. With the exception of Krul I don’t know how it’s possible for any of these players to start tomorrow so soon after their previous game plus all the travelling inbetween, particularly Hanley and Skipp for who it would be their 4th game in 8 days. Add that to the injuries we really are in a spot of bother. Farke hinted at a change of formation to accomodate the absentee’s so maybe something like: Krul Mumba Hanley Tettey Omobamidele Xavi Sorenson Vrancic Buendia Hugill Cantwell Subs: Nyland, Aarons, Giannoulis, Skipp, McLean, Dowell, Stepi, Hernandez, Pukki As I said though I don’t know how Hanley’s really gonna be able to start this game. Might be an idea just to give him and a few of the others a rest and get them fully ready for Huddersfield on Tuesday, and then the rest of the team will just have to do their best to get anything we can from this one. I mean we still have a strong team, especially going forwards, so this game certainly isn’t a right off, but I personally am not expecting much.

Great side. Shame for Rupp to get injured obviously, particularly after playing so well on Wednesday, but it has made the team selection really easy. If that front 4 play even half as well as they have been recently they could have a field day. We'd go SEVENTEEN points clear of Brentford if we win this one. Let's make it 10 in a row please lads.

Absolutely ridiculous. Who honestly cares about international football at the moment? How is it fair on the countries, the players or the clubs that there will be 3 international games in a week and then just one day off before the next round of domestic football. Luckily as well our game the following Monday has been moved for Sky to the Tuesday. TV actually working in our favour for once! All we can hope is that as Finland are playing in a friendly on Wednesday 31st they’ll give Pukki a rest, same with McLean and Hanley. England U21s though have got quite an important game. Fortunately Cuba don’t seem to have a midweek game so Hernandez should be back in good time following his first call-up. I imagine at the very least we’ll be without Pukki, Aarons, Skipp and probably one of Hanley/McLean. I know that at this point it looks a given that we’re going up, but if nothing else though all this unnecessary travelling and extra fatigue for pointless international fixtures must increase the players chances of getting serious injuries.

Forest were pretty crap overall, I certainly expected a lot more of a difficult game, but we were absolutely phenomenal at times tonight. So fluid and purposeful on the ball and had complete control from the 1st minute. Two superb goals as well. The way we defended and managed the game in the second half was excellent as always. Man of the match for me was probably Rupp. I haven't actually been convinced by him in the number 10 and the last 2 games I've been advocating Mario to come back in, but he was brilliant today. 2 assists obviously and so many superb passes and through balls that were cutting Forest to pieces. Special mention to Dowell obviously for the fantastic goal and much improved performance. I also thought Giannoulis didn't put a single foot wrong. From what we've seen so far £6m looks like a bargain to me. Need 6 wins from our final 9 games to reach 100 points, 8 out of 9 to match the points total. Can't remember the last time I felt this relaxed and calm coming towards the end of a season.

Much, much better from him tonight. What a strike as well. Gonna be interesting to see who starts against Blackburn on Saturday. Dowell and Rupp were excellent tonight, and neither of them deserve to be dropped, but you can't leave Emi out the side if he's able to play.

100% record with Max Aiiruns in the side 😁

Emi looks absolutely knackered. Obviously he’s got through a lot of work in the last few weeks, and they’ve only had 2 days rest since that Brentford game where he looked shattered at the end. If we can get a 3rd I might look to take him off. Either way the 8 day break after this will be welcome.

Lukas Rupp is playing like a man possessed. Some beautiful passing so far.

He really is a class act, don’t think we’ll fully appreciate how lucky were to have him until he’s moved on.

If he's fit enough then he starts for me, in place of Onel. I imagine though it's more likely we'll see him from the bench. I don't want to sound like a broken record because I've said it a few times in recent weeks, but I think Mario is quietly doing a really good job for the team. He will need to be upgraded if/when we go up, but at the moment I don't see any reason to mess with the status quo. Onel has done fine in the two games he's played. If he had more of a run he might build on those performances. But Todd was fantastic in the few games before he got injured, and that pre-injury form earns him a place ahead of Hernandez if he's fit enough.

It works both ways though. Yes, the group are happy because they're top of the league and about to get promoted, but the reason they're top of the league and about to get promoted is because they're a happy, well put-together group of players who get on with each other well, have a good understanding of each other and there aren't any bad apples. That squad harmony is a big part, if not the main reason why we are where we are. The fact is as well, if the squad felt that some of their team-mates were being unfairly excluded, there wouldn't be anything like the level of harmony in the team as what we're seeing. Obviously we don't know all the details, but clearly the players understand why Leitner, Drmic, Trybull were frozen out. Ultimately every decision Farke has made has turned out to be justified. He felt Cantwell and Emi weren't working hard enough in training, so he dropped them, called them out in the press, and since then they've been brilliant, performing as well as they ever have for this club and their attitude has been spot-on. Leitner, Drmic and Trybull have been left out, and we're top of the league without them. Jamal Lewis I don't know if there was any issues, but regardless we sold him for £15m and have replaced him with Giannoulis for less than half that fee, and like the others we're doing just fine without him. Before them there was Oliveira, who we replaced with Pukki. Don't think I need to elaborate on that one.

We now have a run of 7 straight games against teams currently in the bottom half. Obviously there are no easy games at this level, and teams like Luton and Forest who we have coming up are going to be really tricky ties, but with the run we're on there's no reason why we couldn't have promotion basically sewn up by the end of those fixtures. If we can pick up say 16 points (5 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss), that would take us to 89 points with 5 games left, and that would be game over as far as the title race is concerned. Brentford have similar remaining fixtures to us, but Swansea and Watford seem to have tougher run-ins. As said above, Farke won't be taking it as a given, but I cannot see us dropping off from here (famous last words).

Worth noting we now have 7 straight games against teams in the bottom half of the table!

To think people have been advocating him to be dropped, despite his good form and the fact we've been winning games, is just baffling to me. I genuinely don't know why some (the minority admittedly) see him as the weak link. Tonight is the exact reason why he should be in this side, along with Skipp he dominated the midfield. Magnificent performance from a player having a brilliant season.

Agree with this. Gibson has been immense, Aarons really consistent and Pukki obviously is on track to score 25 goals, but these 3 are undoubtedly the standouts.

Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, Ollie Skipp and Kenny McLean, absolute f*cking titans. Won't see a better defensive performance in the Championship this season. One thing I did notice, did anyone else see Max and Emi exchanging words at the final whistle? Watching the highlights on iFollow back you can clearly hear Max scream 'Emi, you f*cking lazy sh*t!' after one of the Brentford chances right at the end, so clearly neither of them are happy with each other 😂 it'll all be worked out I'm sure.

WHAT A F*CKING WIN 😍😍😍😍

Pukki HAS to score that. 2-0 at half-time I don’t see Brentford getting back in. Despite his good form though I don’t think he ever looked like he was gonna bury it, maybe one of those where he had too much time. All in all though can’t complain about being a goal up at half-time. Let’s win this game now.