Surfer

Of three of our next four opponents, one lost at home 5-0, another one just lost away 4-0 and our “banana skin” opponent lost at home 1-0, so we are already above 2 of those 3 as it stands: and this league is supposedly tough? 😎 Pah!

I’m prepared for the possibility we will lose all our next 4 games, and if we lose at home to Newcastle, I believe will will lose all four. However with a win v Newcastle, I can see us beating West Ham and drawing with Chelsea, the latter after all are managed by Lampard who is playing Mason Mount for goodness sake. No, I’m more concerned about our injuries and selection against Newcastle as Brucie did a good job frustrating us at Carrow Rd only a few weeks ago. So prediction : either 7 points or zero.... either way I’m confident we’ll get our season up and running with our returning CBs and new DM.

Yes agreed. However it was encouraging that a 4-1 loss still lead to us being out of the bottom three by the end of the weekend.

Well according to Mark Lawrenson : 1 -3 The Big 3 4 - 6 The other Big 3 7 - 20 Who cares?

My apologies if I was being negative in my comments, and I really appreciate your extensive report above. I think we all knew from last year's campaign we had defensive midfield frailties and that Hanley would be considered our 4th choice CB, and lots of tactical details to be absorbed by everyone, not just our defenders. An expectation Klose or Zimmermann will come back in, and our new DM signing will replace either Trybull or McLean as soon as possible still seems probable to me even given DF's loyalty to the person with the shirt. I'm totally on-board with how we play, and a strategy of playing that way even if we find ourselves back in the Championship, and to hell with the Lawrenson's - they only state the obvious that if we concede 4 every week we'll be relegated; well duh Sherlock, no kidding. OTBC - lets get the points total rolling with a nice 3-1 win over Newcastle next weekend.

I think McLean is on pretty solid ground with DF for some reason, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Leitner and McLean against Newcastle, with Hanley given a chance to respond to his Liverpool performance. However I expect to see Klose and Amadou in for Hanley and one of the midfielders a.s.a.p - we especially need a more physical presence in midfield to help the back four.

Before the game I had posted I thought our team would settle down as: Fahrmann Zimmermann Amadou Godfrey Aarons Lewis Leitner Buendia Cantwell Roberts Pukki Subs: Krull, Byram, Klose, Vrancic, McLean, Hernandez, Drmic I may change my mind about the goalkeeper ... super game from Krul and Godfrey, but the midfield of McLean and Trybull just not up to the quality needed for me, and the sooner Hanley can go back to 4th choice CB the better IMO for our PL hopes.

Well all I will say is we won't play Liverpool every week and we won't play Hanley every week either.

Hanley won't be in the team as soon as Zimmerman is fit, Farmann may well replace Krul, and we bought Amadao for reason, so let's just get through this game and hopefully score one or two ourselves.

Well Hanley is showing the way - he is our weak link and we know that so no major surprise.

Absolutely. For me, the biggest issue this pre-season has been not getting a powerful DM in earlier so we can integrate him into the team. Everywhere else I’m pretty pleased with the “perfectly adequate” players we already have and the “perfectly adequate” players we brought in. Clubs like ours don’t need superstars we need stars - and several of them. interesting the new DM can play centerback, I’m going to hazard a guess we may try “5” at the back when the early feet finding is over. Fahrmann Zimmermann Amadao Godfrey Aarons. Lewis Leitner Buendia. Cantwell. Roberts Pukki. Subs: Krull, Byram, Klose, Vrancic, McLean, Hernandez, Drmic

I can see Hamley being shipped out in the next 30 days (as soon as Klose and Zimmermann are proven to be fit) Three at the back another option with our new guy as he’s pretty speedy.

I am a big fan of Cantwell, another Maddison-like player with great first touch, good vision and positive movement as soon as he has the ball. But he’s missing Maddison’s finishing ability - add that element and we’ll all be excited to see his long Canary career, but if he does not add that, he’ll become a deep lying playmaker for someone else in the Championship I fear.

None recently, so way back when - Clive Woods (after his Ipswich career) and Justin Fashanu (before his Norwich career) Justin was playing our team off the park at Attleborough and one of our midfielders got so mad he squared up to him, Justin just grinned, he was a junior boxing champion at the time. Playing full back that day was not fun, but I'm glad I did now.

A Liverpool supporting friend of mine just said " 4 " I'm inclined to believe that's the right number of goals, but can we deliver another Leeds-style performance? What a shock that would be if we did. But back to reality, I think it'll be 3-1 to Liverpool.

Depends if Pukki has brought his shooting boots. If yes, 15th, if no, not good.

Well a decent enough start for our fellow East Anglians. Next up the 'game of the season' with sleeping giant, Sunderland. " A game worthy of the Premier League" no doubt.

Didn't help his cause missing that shot in the second half. A clinical finish then would have really been a pointer for Friday.

I’m sure there will be Premier League 1, 2 and 3 by then so they may be promoted to the “new” Championship yes.

Quite literally "Gone for Burton" then? Seriously, we should support them, they are fellow East Anglians, wouldn't want them in L1 for more than a decade maybe?

Good idea to rebuild the TV gantry - we should try that too, Carrow Rd would look much more impressive if the TV cameras were pointed at the South Stand.

Were we tracking this player - if we were I can see why we didn't bite at that price... Derby have signed Poland Under-21 international Krystian Bielik from Arsenal. The reported £9.5m sum paid for the versatile defensive player, including add-ons in the deal, would become a club record for the Rams, to eclipse the £8m spent on signing striker Matej Vydra from Watford in 2016.

If that were so, what would be the point of that - for example do we have a DM target in mind that we can’t bring in because of that issue?

The Brexit thread is clearly football related as it is the freedom of movement agreement of EU membership that allows most of our Germans to play for Norwich City. Throw that out as part of a no-deal Brexit and most overseas players will have to apply for work visas. In our fist team squad, Buendia, Hernandez, Stiepermann, Leitner, Heisse, Zimmerman (maybe Vrancic)may not qualify for a work permit as they are not full internationals. Add in any new oU23 players to that problem as well. Of course any arrangement works for the big boys as they usually buy international players.

Re Hanley, ten minutes for Godfrey just to keep him ticking over and continue to build teamwork?