We are gonna **** this league

[Canary dwarf 221]

We are ripping it up , and with injuries too otbc , auto promotion deffo .

[Midlands Yellow 4,682]

We will win this league, best team, best manager.

[Alex Moss 2,167]

I think I read earlier that Bournemouth only have 1 player of note missing from their squad right now. I would love to see how their squad would manage when the injuries really stack up, and that could still happen of course. Not as well as us I’m sure. If we win the league this season then I reckon it’ll possibly be an even bigger personal achievement for us than maybe even the 18/19 campaign.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

Lets not get ahead ourselves, yes we won a game with an injury crisis.... but Sheffield Wednesday are bottom of the league and have scored 9 goals all season, not much more than 1 goal every 2 games.

Brentford, Stoke, Bournemouth all strong sides (Stoke notable for choosing to go into this season with a lot of depth all over the park, rather than their quality, it could be an excellent decision). We'll be in the mix, but desperately need our injury crisis to ease and that may not necessarily be the case... it could get worse.

Who knows what teams are going to lose players to covid or injury.

We will see. I'd absolutely love it if Farke was the first manager ever to win the second tier twice with Norwich, and for us to win promotion and make Gibson and possibly Xavi permanent.

But we're only an injury to Pukki away from struggling again. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by TeemuVanBasten

[Alex Moss 2,167]

9 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Lets not get ahead ourselves, yes we won a game with an injury crisis.... but Sheffield Wednesday are bottom of the league and have scored 9 goals all season, not much more than 1 goal every 2 games.

Brentford, Stoke, Bournemouth all strong sides (Stoke notable for choosing to go into this season with a lot of depth all over the park, rather than their quality, it could be an excellent decision). We'll be in the mix, but desperately need our injury crisis to ease and that may not necessarily be the case... it could get worse.

Who knows what teams are going to lose players to covid or injury.

We will see. I'd absolutely love it if Farke was the first manager ever to win the second tier twice with Norwich, and for us to win promotion and make Gibson and possibly Xavi permanent.

But we're only an injury to Pukki away from struggling again. 

Fair points as always, Teemu, but worth remembering Sheff Wed, despite their position, technically have more points than that, the deduction they received should be taken into account, and I believe they’ve not conceded more than 1 goal in a match for a while either, so they’re no mugs. Our quality in the final third for the 2 goals was a good example of what rival managers fear in this league because we have the players to do that - and I’ve been waiting for us to show that, as I’m sure we all have.

As an aside, if you want a laugh, read the Brentford message board. I quite liked them in recent times but despite not managing to get promoted in any of their past good campaigns, their fans have become about as arrogant as they come. The general consensus seems to be that they’re still going to p155 this league. But I would like to know based on what makes them such favourites over us, Bournemouth and Watford? All clubs that have pedigree regarding getting out of this division, especially us. Where’s the players in their team that have proven they can cut it in the Premier League? They haven’t even got 1 have they? They seriously think way too much of themselves, and I think they’re deluded - there are better sides in the division, with far better squads.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,328]

6 minutes ago, Alex Moss said:

As an aside, if you want a laugh, read the Brentford message board. I quite liked them in recent times but despite not managing to get promoted in any of their past good campaigns, their fans have become about as arrogant as they come.

Londoners, its in their DNA. Same with QPR fans. 

That said, I've always found Charlton fans OK. Perhaps most humble in East & South East London! 

Edited December 7, 2020 by TeemuVanBasten

[Six Pack 105]

3 hours ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Lets not get ahead ourselves, yes we won a game with an injury crisis.... but Sheffield Wednesday are bottom of the league and have scored 9 goals all season, not much more than 1 goal every 2 games.

Brentford, Stoke, Bournemouth all strong sides (Stoke notable for choosing to go into this season with a lot of depth all over the park, rather than their quality, it could be an excellent decision). We'll be in the mix, but desperately need our injury crisis to ease and that may not necessarily be the case... it could get worse.

Who knows what teams are going to lose players to covid or injury.

We will see. I'd absolutely love it if Farke was the first manager ever to win the second tier twice with Norwich, and for us to win promotion and make Gibson and possibly Xavi permanent.

But we're only an injury to Pukki away from struggling again. 

Sorry to change the subject - agree with most but I don't get how some fans see Gibson & Xavi as more than what they actually are - average ! Gibson has an England cap I was told - exactly how good do you need to be to get an England cap ? Yes he passed the ball to Vrancic that resulted in Martin scoring - so that goal was instigated by him. But we expect more - absolutely no attacking threat whatsoever at corners, set pieces  - an England international would have at least 2/3 by goals by now ! Windass is a very good player but if Gibson had cleared that ball on Saturday he would have made a statement ! Xavi has no pace resulting in us being toothless on attack down the left when he plays. He's also not good at defending. From what I've seen so far neither Gibson or Xavi are upgrades from the two we lost so making these two permanent do not excite me.

[The Real Buh 3,765]

They need to rename it the Norwich City Championship. It’s our league. It belongs to us.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

I was trying to evaluate whether this season's Championship is stronger (as far as the genuine contenders go) or weaker than that of two years ago when, after WBA fell away, we seemed to just be ensconced in a three horse race ... Leeds, Blunts and us.

I await correction with this.

This time it seems that the 'parachute' clubs and one or two other 'wealthies' make up quite a contingent of genuine prospects. I know little of Reading's finances, but, having watched a couple of their games recently the view that they are in a false position is a fallacy,  and I do not even consider them to be amongst our main rivals for the automatics.   

Old Benjamin Button's view that the parachute clubs are inevitably a class apart seems to be taking shape, but there are others that look pretty good on occasions too and I have yet to come across an Ipswich fan who has anything good to say about this 'reward for failure' after all. Well they missed the boat big time, didn't they 😁😁

I'll wait until after the Xmas binge to assess our fate this season as I consider that injuries will play a much more significant role in deciding things than usual. and for obvious reasons.

Let's hope that we have had our bout, that others have theirs to come at that we benefit big time when they do.  

I think that we need a class striker in the new year in order to seal the issue. We rely far, far too much on an overloaded Pukki. I have lost faith in Hugill's ability to significantly fill the role (want to be wrong). Idah perhaps needs more time than anticipated and the situation with the youngsters confuses me. 

Can't we get old Mbokani to fill the role for the rest of the  season. I liked him and he would create havoc in his own inimitable way in this league ... serious suggestion 😉

Edited December 7, 2020 by BroadstairsR

[cambridgeshire canary 7,797]

Please don't get cocky and make us look like morons..

[dylanisabaddog 6,131]

The standard of this league has dropped significantly in a very short space of time. Let's face it, we haven't played particularly well yet but we're still top. When we do hit top form with a fitter squad we should walk away with it.

But we'll struggle again when we do go up. We just don't have the money required to turn this team into one capable of staying in the Premier League, let alone competing in the top half. 

The only new signing that looks like a potential Premier League player to me is Sorenson. The others are just very good Championship players. That's not a criticism of the management. I think they've done an extraordinary job with the funds available. 

[seanthecanary 168]

14 minutes ago, dylanisabaddog said:

The standard of this league has dropped significantly in a very short space of time. Let's face it, we haven't played particularly well yet but we're still top. When we do hit top form with a fitter squad we should walk away with it.

But we'll struggle again when we do go up. We just don't have the money required to turn this team into one capable of staying in the Premier League, let alone competing in the top half. 

The only new signing that looks like a potential Premier League player to me is Sorenson. The others are just very good Championship players. That's not a criticism of the management. I think they've done an extraordinary job with the funds available. 

I've watched a lot of football this season be it Premier League, Champions League, Championship etc and I think the overall quality has dropped somewhat in all those competitions.  There are still flashes of brilliance from good players but you can see that teams in the Championship and in European competitions that are playing twice a week are being effected.  Add in the lack of a proper preseason and pointless internationals meaning that a lot of players get no respite, it's easy to understand why. 

In our case, you have to ask whether the injury crisis will have more of an effect beyond just having players unavailable? We have the option of rotating a centre back or a midfielder, beyond that most of our players are clocking up 90 minutes, twice a week, week in, week out.  That has to take some toll eventually and the sooner we get some players back fit to help lighten the burden the better.

[HazzaJet 267]

I wouldn’t get too optimistic quite yet - there’s nearly 2/3s of the season left to play, we’re only in the automatic promotion slots by 1 point and only in the top six by 4 points, both with inferior goal differences. Considering how well we’ve done in comparison to our injury list you would expect us to do well this season, but there’s no guarantee it will turn out well - when we got relegated in 2016 I think we got off to a good start then slowly broke down.

Anything can still happen - when Alex Neil arrived in January 2015 I think we were just inside the top half and we ended up finishing 3rd, so maybe a current mid table team might change their manager in the next 4-6 weeks and finish in the playoffs.

I’m not saying we won’t get achieve promotion whether it be automatic or even via the playoffs, but I’m not saying we will either. I just think that we need to give it a bit more time first - Watford are now outside of the top six but they’re only 4 points behind us with a superior goal difference.

[seanthecanary 168]

4 minutes ago, HazzaJet said:

I wouldn’t get too optimistic quite yet - there’s nearly 2/3s of the season left to play, we’re only in the automatic promotion slots by 1 point and only in the top six by 4 points, both with inferior goal differences. Considering how well we’ve done in comparison to our injury list you would expect us to do well this season, but there’s no guarantee it will turn out well - when we got relegated in 2016 I think we got off to a good start then slowly broke down.

Anything can still happen - when Alex Neil arrived in January 2015 I think we were just inside the top half and we ended up finishing 3rd, so maybe a current mid table team might change their manager in the next 4-6 weeks and finish in the playoffs.

I’m not saying we won’t get achieve promotion whether it be automatic or even via the playoffs, but I’m not saying we will either. I just think that we need to give it a bit more time first - Watford are now outside of the top six but they’re only 4 points behind us with a superior goal difference.

Agreed it's still early days.  I said in another thread that this may be the tightest Championship season ever with maybe below average points totals getting you a promotion or playoff place.  The constant barrage of matches is going to cause clubs injuries or at the very least force them to rotate and it's going to further level the playing field in a league that is renowned for it's competitiveness.  I don't think we will see 2/3/4 teams separate from the pack at the top as you normally do.  I think it's going to be tight all season.

[lake district canary 4,823]

I'm not buying it. Saying we will walk the league is just bravado.  We are top and we have it in us to win the league, of course, but we need everything to align as much as it did before to do it again.  Not getting too many injuries, luck, people stepping up when needed (like on Saturday), togetheress, refereeing decisions etc.  And it is a bit jingoistic imo to dismiss the merits of other teams when every team in the league has the ability to put up a good performance (and it could easily have got away from us on Saturday as it did against Luton).

Such small margins, but it's true that if we can do what we did on Saturday enough times - that is find a way to win against the odds - then we will do very well. Walk the league?  Na, but we might win it if we do everthing right, keep our feet on the ground, not getting ahead of ourselves and believing we can do it. 

So belief we can win it, yes....walk it?   No, it will be a lot tougher than that.

[sonyc 6,144]

Nothing wrong with the optimism on this thread, especially after the SW win. It was a result that gave me renewed hope. My problem is I keep comparing us to the 18/19 season. I keep reading sentences such as "when we got into top gear" but what if we have already seen our best gear? It is only a few games where injury has severely affected us.

Thinking we will smash the league will only lead to severe disappointment if it doesn't work out that way.

It's a marathon not a sprint and as yet I remain convinced we are a top two team. I have liked the play of Brentford, Bournemouth and Reading....And less convinced by Swansea, Bristol City & Watford of those up there.

Can we win it without showing what we are all believe is in us, our class? I think it's possible. But I wish I felt we would walk the league like a few of you do.

One good indicator is that the teams in the top two in December usually have great seasons and finish the job (statistically). 3 points against Hughton please.

 

[The Real Buh 3,765]

15 minutes ago, sonyc said:

Nothing wrong with the optimism on this thread, especially after the SW win. It was a result that gave me renewed hope. My problem is I keep comparing us to the 18/19 season. I keep reading sentences such as "when we got into top gear" but what if we have already seen our best gear? It is only a few games where injury has severely affected us.

Thinking we will smash the league will only lead to severe disappointment if it doesn't work out that way.

It's a marathon not a sprint and as yet I remain convinced we are a top two team. I have liked the play of Brentford, Bournemouth and Reading....And less convinced by Swansea, Bristol City & Watford of those up there.

Can we win it without showing what we are all believe is in us, our class? I think it's possible. But I wish I felt we would walk the league like a few of you do.

One good indicator is that the teams in the top two in December usually have great seasons and finish the job (statistically). 3 points against Hughton please.

 

I think we got a little indication of top gear at Stoke first half. We will hit a combination of fit players and we will put some teams to the sword. It’s inevitable.

[Jim Smith 2,608]

We aren;t going to **** this league. From what i've seen at this moment in time Bournemouth look the most convincing of the top sides and I think they, Watford, Swansea and Brentford will all be in it for the duration.

However, it certainly bodes very well that despite not playing at our best for much of the season and despite having the injury crisis from hell we are top and in a great position to kick on. I genuinely feel we have a couple of extra gears to go up and if we can get some of these players back over the next few weeks that may give us the impetus to take our performances to the next level.

[Jim Smith 2,608]

1 hour ago, dylanisabaddog said:

The standard of this league has dropped significantly in a very short space of time. Let's face it, we haven't played particularly well yet but we're still top. When we do hit top form with a fitter squad we should walk away with it.

But we'll struggle again when we do go up. We just don't have the money required to turn this team into one capable of staying in the Premier League, let alone competing in the top half. 

The only new signing that looks like a potential Premier League player to me is Sorenson. The others are just very good Championship players. That's not a criticism of the management. I think they've done an extraordinary job with the funds available. 

You say that broadstairs but i think this is a tougher league than last time we were in it. we really only had leeds and Shef u to worry about. The rest of the division was very weak. 

This time Bournemouth have Solanke, Brooks, Cook, King and that other striker who scored against us (whose name escapes me). They are much stronger than Leeds were in our promotion season. Watford have Deeney, Sarr, Murray, Will Hughes and various other young players they picked up in the prem with considerable pedigree. The three sides relagetd from the prem are all far stronger and more stable than they were went we last went up.

Add to that Swansea and Brentford who have both been building for a few years, Stoke coming back into contention, Reading appearing to be giving it a go and even the likes of Blackburn who are a real handful on their day and I think there is more strength in depth in this division this season than when we were last in it and it will be harder to win. 

[wcorkcanary 4,781]

7 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

We aren;t going to **** this league. From what i've seen at this moment in time Bournemouth look the most convincing of the top sides and I think they, Watford, Swansea and Brentford will all be in it for the duration.

However, it certainly bodes very well that despite not playing at our best for much of the season and despite having the injury crisis from hell we are top and in a great position to kick on. I genuinely feel we have a couple of extra gears to go up and if we can get some of these players back over the next few weeks that may give us the impetus to take our performances to the next level.

You ok Jimbo? that post is bordering on positive!!

[Jim Smith 2,608]

38 minutes ago, sonyc said:

Nothing wrong with the optimism on this thread, especially after the SW win. It was a result that gave me renewed hope. My problem is I keep comparing us to the 18/19 season. I keep reading sentences such as "when we got into top gear" but what if we have already seen our best gear? It is only a few games where injury has severely affected us.

Thinking we will smash the league will only lead to severe disappointment if it doesn't work out that way.

It's a marathon not a sprint and as yet I remain convinced we are a top two team. I have liked the play of Brentford, Bournemouth and Reading....And less convinced by Swansea, Bristol City & Watford of those up there.

Can we win it without showing what we are all believe is in us, our class? I think it's possible. But I wish I felt we would walk the league like a few of you do.

One good indicator is that the teams in the top two in December usually have great seasons and finish the job (statistically). 3 points against Hughton please.

 

I do agree, I would like to see us just click into gear in a couple of games and put out a bit of a statement. I don't think you can just keep getting out of jail every week. I feel we were on the verge of clicking before the injury crisis really kicked in but that has disrupted us somewhat. Cantwell coming back could make a big difference because i think Placheta and Martin are both raw and are therefore naturally going to be a bit inconsistent. 

[sonyc 6,144]

27 minutes ago, The Real Buh said:

I think we got a little indication of top gear at Stoke first half. We will hit a combination of fit players and we will put some teams to the sword. It’s inevitable.

I see your point there but that was one game I was not convinced! We had a spree of three goals (Pukki back to what he does best) but our last 25 minutes were an unbearable watch and so unlike a Norwich City recent team. Being one down I believe we made 5 passes only after that. How many times does that happen when a team goes from 11 to a 10 man team?  It was so unusual (but allowed!) that we capitulated. A great result that was won by half time but not convincing as we played into their hands. I think the best thing about that match was probably the learning!

We all live in hope though! At least we have FCR back and for now, the fans. It will be  a massive help having the 12th man.

Edited December 7, 2020 by sonyc

[seanthecanary 168]

3 minutes ago, wcorkcanary said:

You ok Jimbo? that post is bordering on positive!!

He praised Rupp and Sorenson on another thread, I'm worried

[Jim Smith 2,608]

1 minute ago, wcorkcanary said:

You ok Jimbo? that post is bordering on positive!!

I'm always positive Corkio. What people sometimes mistake for pessimism is that I think are players are very good and thus I get frustrated when they don;t deliver at the level i think they are capable of. If anything its the opposite of pessimism, I believe that the club is capable of achieving more than we saw last season and whilst obviously you can;t achieve better than being top, I certainly think we can step our performances up a level this season and perhaps make it a bit less nerve wracking once we have a few more players back. 

[Jim Smith 2,608]

I think Cantwell or Dowell in the Stiepermann role might add a level of fluidity to our game which is currently lacking. I like Marco and really thought he was back after his excellent performance at Bristol City but since then his performances have been a very strange mix of some excellent skill coupled with large degrees of lethargy and frustration. 

[Crabbycanary3 994]

C'mon guys, don't get too serious about this post. Of course it is only early December, but take your shackles off a bit more.

We do have a great squad and a very good manager and we are top with a whole (very competitive) teams worth of injuries. 

Other teams are 'good' but most of the top teams still have to come here and they are. no doubt, worried that we are still top and know about our huge injury crisis. Nothing wrong with showing respect to others but let's jump on the wave of optimism, not kill it off with typical British reticence.

There is more than one (currently injured) player, whom I cannot wait to join the party I saw some clips of us against Man City at home from last season, and we still have a lot of those players at this Club. If we get close to that performance, then we'll urinate this League 😉 

Life is great with so much to look forward to. We are football fans after all.

 

[seanthecanary 168]

6 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

I think Cantwell or Dowell in the Stiepermann role might add a level of fluidity to our game which is currently lacking. I like Marco and really thought he was back after his excellent performance at Bristol City but since then his performances have been a very strange mix of some excellent skill coupled with large degrees of lethargy and frustration. 

I think with Steipermann, he has looked a bit spent in recent matches. I guess it's not easy coming back from an injury then playing twice a week, every week with no rotation.  He looks desperately in need of a break to me.

[TheGunnShow 7,376]

Something about pride coming before falls springs to mind when reading through this thread, and if we were to lose a couple it would only lead to equally disproportionate nappy-crapping. I would argue we have the most potential upside, but teams are pretty good at stopping us from exhibiting it.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

I cannot be arsed to go on Bournemouth/Watford/Brentford/Swansea etc forums, but there will be fans of theirs who think they will get promoted and others who will feel very worried about us (knowing we are top of the League/not hit our straps/injuries/played a lot of the top 11 away already etc) so no, don't get your knickers in a twist about being Billy Big Bollo8cks, it's obviously bravado. No one ACTUALLY knows what will happen.

[sonyc 6,144]

54 minutes ago, seanthecanary said:

I think with Steipermann, he has looked a bit spent in recent matches. I guess it's not easy coming back from an injury then playing twice a week, every week with no rotation.  He looks desperately in need of a break to me.

You mean about 3 to 4 months perhaps? 😉

Edited December 7, 2020 by sonyc