Excited Canary 18 Posted December 28, 2010 NORWICH CITY vs SHEFFIELD UNITED on 28/12/10 at 15:00 BST.This afternoons match brings Norwich City and Sheffield United together in the Npower Championship.SHEFFIELD UNITED: Having had a decent season last year, finishing in 8th position, the Blades would have been hopeful of kicking on and attempting to reach the play-offs this campaign. However, with manager Kevin Blackwell sacked, United have really struggled to gain any sort of consistency and they currently find themselves floating in the lower echelons of the league. Just recently, their previous manager, Gary Speed left the job to take over at international side, Wales. This left Sheffield United: manager-less, in the relegation zone and completely helpless. Since then, the Blades former first team coach, John Carver has taken over in a caretaker role whilst the board quickly find a sensible appointment that will take the club up the league, and safe from the dreaded drop.Key Player: Chedwyn Evans. The highly rated Welsh striker joined Sheffield United for £3,000,000 from Manchester City in July 2009. Big things were predicted for the youngster-who had previously had a brilliant loan spell at today’s opponents, Norwich City, where he notched 10 goals in just 20 starts- however, he has received a lot of stick from the Blades’ faithful having yet to live up to his high price-tag. In his first season he only scored a couple of goals, and he had only scored 2 goals this season, until recently he has just hit a rich vain of form. Scoring 3 goals in his last 2 goals, in their 1-0 win over Swansea and 3-2 defeat to Hull, it looks like the United fans are starting to see the skill, talent and guile that the Norwich fans were able to enjoy in their relegation season, of 2008/09. The Canaries will know all to well that their defense will have to be on top of their game to keep the Welsh starlet quiet.Last 5 games: WLLWL. A mixed bag of results for the Blades in recent games, where they would pick up good results like their 1-0 victory over high-flyers Swansea yet lose 3-0 to fellow strugglers Bristol City. Their other victory was in front of the Sky cameras at home to Crystal Palace, where they won 3-2 and their other 2 defeats were against their Yorskhire rivals, Barnsley and most recently, Hull.Predicted line-up: 01 Simonsen 03 Nosworthy 12 Calve 16 Taylor 23 Bartley 04 Montgomery 08 Britton 11 Yeates 24 Reid 28 Ward 09 EvansNORWICH: Norwich will be hoping to get back to winning ways after their Boxing day clash with Crystal Palace was postponed due to icy turf. The Canaries last game saw them win away at fellow play-off contenders Coventry City, courtesy of a brace was Captain fantastic, Grant Holt. Wes Hoolahan and Russell Martin both picked up knocks during the victory however, and both will be concerns for manager Paul Lambert’s selection. On the good front, summer-signing Andrew Crofts has recovered from his bout of illness that prevented him playing at the Ricoh, and is fully expected to go straight back into the first team.Predicted line-up: 01 Ruddy 02 R Martin 05 Nelson 22 Ward 12 Lansbury 15 Fox 18 Smith 19 Lappin 09 Holt 10 Jackson 16 C MartinHead to head:All time:Played:65Norwich win: 26Sheffield United win: 22Draw: 17Norwich goals: 87Sheffield United goals: 82At Carrow Road:Played: 33Norwich win: 19Sheffield United win: 5Draw: 9Norwich goals: 55Sheffield United goals: 34My prediction: Norwich City 4-1 Sheffield United.Please feel free to update this thread with news, views, rumours and predictions.Thank you,Excited Canary [:D] [Y] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
priceyrice 123 Posted December 28, 2010 holt, jackson and martin? is this whats expected or just a personal guess? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Excited Canary 18 Posted December 28, 2010 Oh yeah sorry, I put down the team from last week and then I was going to change it, but I obviously forgot to change it! [:P] From that team, Crofts in for Jackson.Midfield of:Lansbury Crofts Fox K Smith? I don''t think Hoolahan will start. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites