Bethnal Yellow and Green

That’s not Normann’s or Glimour’s preferred positions.

According to WyScout, PLM failed in 7 of his 8 defensive duels against Leicester. He was constantly bypasses by the Leicester midfielders and caught out of position a number of times. Gilmour only missed one defensive duel, which was the one that lead to the goal unfortunately, and made more interceptions than PLM. Lees-Melou is a good player, but like many, has been a little caught out by the speed of the Premier League.

PLM has really struggled so far with the intensity and physicality of the league. Think he’s most at threat.

That’s true, I was responding to the comment saying we need someone capable of winning the ball. Norwich have that in a couple of players. Skipp wasn’t great at covering spaces and being in the right position when he first arrived at Norwich, Farke mentioned this when everyone was getting hyped about him early on. Gilmour can certainly learn those skills as well - will be interesting to see how it goes against a team that isn’t Liverpool or Man City. Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world for attacking on the transition, it is how their whole team is designed. The fact still remains that the players being targeted aren’t players who sit deep and sweep up trouble - if that is what people are expecting to arrive before Tuesday evening they will be disappointed. Norwich seem to be looking at all action, all rounders.

PLM had one of the highest successful tackle rates in France last season for Nice and McLean really improved on this last season as well as he played a more defensive role - he made and won more tackles that Skipp for example. The system change means the defensive roles are spread across all the midfielders. While Norwich need one more in that area as the first backup is Rupp, who is a good passer and intelligent player, but doesn’t have the legs to motor up and down the pitch at great speed. Players like Normann and Billing have been targeted as they can go box-to-box - not just defend.

Dave Freezer is saying it’s a loan, but that is probably just because there isn’t much money around and clubs can’t afford too many permanent deals. Would be a surprise if he plays for Norwich again, even if the worst should happen this season.

Wouldn’t be surprised if he got a loan as well, but the ongoing issue with his recovery might mean no one will take him on right now. With Rashica, Tzolis, Cantwell and Dowell there are plenty of options in those positions. Add in that Idah and Sargent can also both play there means it is a really crowded area.

The return of McLean will make a big difference to the midfield. He was excellent against Bournemouth. The midfielders the club are targeting are more like McLean than Skipp anyway.

Onel off to Boro. Good move for him and them. Scott already making suggestions…

Normann is Rostov’s best player and until a deal is agreed they will keep playing him. Bremen and Norwich had actually come to an agreement that Sargent could play for them even after a fee had been agreed, but the player himself then said he didn’t want to as he felt he couldn’t fully focus on the game. I think the Carvalho stuff is purely driven by his agent or Betis - there is a real desperation for him to get a move and very little interest. Reporting that Norwich made an enquiry is a good was to smoke out others - especially among teams who might consider themselves in a relegation battle against Norwich. Farke seems super confident something will happening, which is reassuring. It may be there is a plan B (or C) out there that they can push a button on but want to keep pushing for their plan A first.

Martin Olsson used to dislocate his shoulder, have it popped back in and then carry on playing. Normann is still expected to link up with Norway next week.

He was bad bad last season, not just bad for a Tottenham sized team. Maybe Xisco can get something out of him.

Can't work out if this is a good signing or not... £5m seems a good price, but Sissoko hasn't really been good for a while, certainly feels like a backwards step from Will Hughes.

Carvalho isn't a physical, tough tackler. He is more of a playmaker with great passing range but very little mobility.

Why would Farke lie about it?

Sky will run with it until Carvalho signs for someone else, regardless of any truth in the story. Wonder if he is the back-up plan for Norwich if Normann can't be prised out of Russia - but suspect he is someone the club made an enquiry about but moved on from a while ago,

Happens again in the January and March international breaks as well. COVID is still impacting international fixtures unfortunately and Sargent will cover a lot of miles this year with USA duty.

The US have 3 games in 6 days over the international break, the last one finishing in Honduras about 48 hours before Norwich kick off against Arsenal. Due to injuries in their squad Sargent will be their only experienced striker and likely to play the majority of all three games, even a minor problem now could become a big one after 270 mins of football over 6 days in three different countries.

Was only ever going to be on the bench anyway. Bigger worry is Sargent who also has a muscle problem and will have 3 USA games over international break, can see him being shot by the time he gets back.

Farke has never said ball winning midfielder, he has just talked about a defensive midfielder these two things are not necessarily the same. Gilmour and Skipp are both 'defensive midfielders' but are very different players. It seems the system Norwich are going to use will be the two box-to-box players (McLean and PLM) will be expected to do most of the ball winning. That is what Normann does for Rostov, he wins tackles all over the pitch, and has one of the highest rate of interceptions for any central midfielder in Europe. Whether he can translate that from the Russian league is the issue.

Good analysis here; https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/mathias-normann-2020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics Basically, he is good at a bit of everything, but isn't a player that will just sit deep and screen a la Skipp. But that never seems to be the profile of player Norwich have been looking for (Billing and Carvalho aren't that player either).

Don't think you have to be 'ITK' to work that out.

He's dropped to 3rd/4th choice at Betis so is keen to leave, with no firm offers on the table I wouldn't be surprised if he did rock up at Fulham, especially under a former manager he knows well.

He is already out of the Portugal team. He was taken off after an hour against Germany with a pretty awful performance and that looks like it will be his last appearance. Fulham's manager was Carvalho's at Sporting, so there is an obvious link.

Or using Fulham's interest to panic Norwich? Or just stirring up interest to get anyone to bite.