Norwich City vs Rotherham (home) Saturday 15th October.

[morty]

Am away at work so no fancy crest! 

Is Klose fit?

Will Alex shuffle the pack?

Is a win a foregone conclusion?

 

[Dubai Mark]

Dont know

Guaranteed

No

 

[flashdown]

Klose is likely out cause of his ankle.  AN will have to shuffle due to that injury and Brady's concussion.  Maybe Pritchard gets a shot now?  Probably just a pipe dream though.  Naismith is the likely replacement.

A win will have to be fought for.  The last 3 meetings in the Championship have been draws; 1-1, 1-1, and 4-4 (though the 4-4 was back in '04).

 

[Bill and ben]

Nothing's guaranteed and we seem to have a habit of rising or falling in performance to meet the opposition but if the pack is to be shuffled then now is probably as good a time as will be seen this year. 

The enforced changes will probably limit the number of unforced ones we'll see though

 

[Yellow Fever]

Given that we play Fulham away on Tuesday, I think we'll see more than the enforced changes. We have a good squad and we should use it to rest some of those involved in internationals. Rotherham will pack the defence and hoof the ball up to the strikers so we need Wes to work a way through. If we manage a decent lead then Pritchard could replace Wes and Oliveira could replace Jerome for the last half hour. Josh as well perhaps.

McGovern
Pinto, Bennett, Bassong, OlssonHowson, Dorrans
Jacob, Hoolahan, Naismith
Jerome

Subs: Ruddy, Martin, Whittaker, Tettey, Josh, Pritchard, Oliveira 

 

[KeiranShikari]

Am confident that we'll win, even with a good number of changes.

4 - 0

Wouldn't love to see Jacob, Pritchard and Josh starting together. A glimpse into our near future.

 

[morty]

Klose is fit, Brady a doubt.

 

[Yellow Fever]

Klose in for Bassong in that case!

 

[dj161]

 

[flashdown]

Wow, shut my mouth. Klose is alright and Pritchard is getting a chance. COYY!

 

[Din]

Yet again we make it more uncomfortable for ourselves than it should've been. At 2-0 up we were cruising but we then took our foot off the gas and allowed a poor Rotherham side a route back into the game. I didn't really ever doubt that we would see out the game and we even went and got the 3rd goal at the end, but it's frustrating that we don't ever really seem to be able to kill teams off. Amazing to think we're top of the table despite the fact we've only kept 2 league clean sheets all season and the last one was mid-august.

Wes Hoolahan though. God knows how we've kept hold of him for 8 years now. If there's a better player in this division I haven't seen him. Unplayable today and his goal was Lionel Messi-esque. Pritchard also looked really good and linked up very well with Wes. Jerome, Dorrans and the full backs also excellent. Have to say I wasn't that impressed with Jacob Murphy but he's started this season so well I'll let him off. Good to see Naismith grab a goal as well. Hopefully over the course of this season we'll see him start to justify that hefty pricetag.

Anyway, top of the league (if only for 24 hours),7 wins out of our last 8 and 16 out of a possible 18 points taken from our home games. No complaints from me.

 

[SussexYellow]

Agree Din about Jacob - did not look as though he fancied it today.

 

[GJP]

Credit to the Rotherham left back. He got the measure of Jacob pretty quick.

 

[Gaffer]

Wes Hoolahan though. God knows how we've kept hold of him for 8 years now. If there's a better player in this division I haven't seen him. Unplayable today and his goal was Lionel Messi-esque.

He seems to keep getting better every season, not just for us but for Ireland too. And Aston Villa wanted him for how much? If we're in the Prem next season he'll be 35 but still deserve to start.

 

[Canaryboy]

Just seen the Wes goal, surely has to be a goal of the season contender! Absolute magic!

Really hope that he can be our Ryan Giggs, still having an influence at 38/39.