Promotion Watch

[Yellow Fever]

Other sites have one of these to follow the ups and downs of City's quest for promotion. 

At the moment, we're the Bookies' favourite among the 5 main contenders for automatic promotion:

Forest 17, City 16, Watford 15, Reading 13, Derby 12. 

We are nicely placed, but there is still a long way to go, but the quality and depth of our squad should prove a great advantage over the season as a whole.

What do others think?

 

[Din]

Not surprised we're favourites. I personally think it'll be tight between us and Forest for top spot. We play them at home towards the end of the season, which could prove to be a crucial game. 

No doubt there will be a lot of twists and turns between now and May though.

 

[morty]

We are top of the divisions form table, so this comes as no surprise.

 

[ZLF]

Good start but plenty of time for form etc to peter off.

Fingers crossed we have enough quality and drive in depth to stop a splutter becoming a stall.

 

[Monty13]

Way too early but we are where we want and need to be, I can't see us fading too far away from the top with the strength of squad we have.

 

[The Ghost of Michael Theo]

There will be ups and downs. Be prepared for them. Hopefully people keep their heads when the downs happen.

I think we're as well placed as anyone in the league to get up. The rest is up to the players and management.

 

[Yellow Fever]

The main factor for me is the quality and depth of this squad. Forest only has two strikers, and Antonio who can also play as a striker. A serious injury to any of those and they are in trouble. By comparison, City can play 3 strikers and still have two more in reserve and that sort of depth goes through the whole team. Hooiveld seems to be settling in well and we have 5 CBs, not counting Martin. It all seems very positive for our cahnces to me.

 

[eatonparkboy]

I really think we can emulate Leicester last season and win over 30 games. I don't foresee too many draws. I hope the management team spot any loss of form either by individuals or the team and utilise the apparent quality we have in depth.

 

[Yellow Fever]

Glad to see that Adams is guarding against complacency ahead of the Brum match:

“If we don’t deliver at home then going to Cardiff and Brentford and winning is undermined. That is what we said to the players after the Brentford game. We have to concentrate on a massive match now at Carrow Road. If we keep winning games we know teams will come here and look to try to frustrate us. You have to expect that. The fans will be used to that because they will remember the previous times when we have been successful and achieved promotions so at times it can be a game of patience. The fans here are fantastic so I know they will be with us every step of the way.”

Full article here:

http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/complacency_is_the_enemy_within_for_norwich_city_boss_neil_adams_1_3776340

 

[It's Character Forming]

my favourite football cliche "it's a marathon, not a sprint".

We're well placed but have 39 games to go.

 

[Lone Star Canary]

Not to jinx anything, but the way things are going I think we'll surpass last season's goal total by the Leeds game October 21st, if not the Fulham game the 18th...

 

[Salopian]

If we have any injuries or suspensions, I hope that they will be brief. In virtually all positions we have cover. I suspect that our careful stewards have left some budget money for emergencies in January as well.

We not only have a quality squad, we also have a big quality squad. I am not sure that this will apply to some of our competitors, who may reduced to playing players out of position.

We know all this, and so do the bookies. There will be reverses, but I believe that Adams is right. There is more to come, and with a full squad available at some point soon....

 

[Yellow Fever]

Adams on his target for the season:

“That is the target. We have to set the bar that high,” said Adams. “If we look to get a top-six place and we just miss out on that, then it’s not a good season. If we aim for the title and you just miss out you still end up getting promoted. It would be disrespectful to the players I have here to tell them to aim for a top 10 and see how we get on. I’m obviously delighted (with the start). We set ourselves goals and we are slightly above where we want to be if you base it on two points per game. Full credit, they had to deliver – and they have. It has not been unexpected for me because I know the quality of the players we have and how hard they work in training and in matches. Every day we insist on really high intensity training. That is the key for me. Obviously we don’t want them smashing into each other, but we insist they are at it and it has become the norm here.”

Says it all really!

 

[Din]

So refreshing to here a manager say that. What I loved was after the Brentford game Adams was asked would he of taken 4 points from Cardiff and Brentford if he'd have been offered it before, which would've been a good amount of points, but he said no, and that he'd be disappointed with anything less than 6. Love his ambition, and it's clear that we're not going to aim for anything less than 1st. 

 

[Yellow Fever]

It'll be interesting to see a virtually whole new team from that against Brum on Saturday and what all of these players could give to our promotion campaign. 

 

[Yellow Fever]

City's odds have shortened further today and Derby have now moved above Forest with Watford also dropping. 

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/promotion

 

[GazzaTCC]

The main factor for me is the quality and depth of this squad.

Depth is only of any use if it's managed properly. The only slight concern I have at the moment is that Neil seems to have made up his mind on his preferred starting XI and there have been so few changes. This is fine when things are going so well, but you can quickly come unstuck if so few of your back up players are far from match fit because of lack of game time. Tuesday proved this point to me.
Rotation is clearly going to be key. I'm not advocating wholesale changes each week, but I do believe there's a balance to be had from where we are now, to where we probably need to be if this season is to be a comfortable success.

OTBC

 

[Yellow Fever]

Agree with that Gazza and to be fair, Adams has admitted that player fatigue is already showing through. I thought both Tettey and Johnson looked slower to react yesterday, though they played well enough. With Howson coming fit and Odjidja-Ofoe and O'Neil also available some rotation for Tuesday could make sense. Possibly a Whittaker for Martin rotation would be a good idea. 

 

[Din]

Depth is only of any use if it's managed properly. The only slight concern I have at the moment is that Neil seems to have made up his mind on his preferred starting XI and there have been so few changes. This is fine when things are going so well, but you can quickly come unstuck if so few of your back up players are far from match fit because of lack of game time. Tuesday proved this point to me.

To be fair though, we're not even a quarter of the way through the season yet. Fatigue probably wouldn't have effected our players too much so far. It will definitely start effecting us in the next few games, and hopefully we will see much more rotation in the next couple of months. And I'm sure we will, as Neil wouldn't have bought all these players in if he didn't plan on using them.

Good news is (for the players at least) is that there's an international break after this Saturday's game against Rotherham. Meaning that most of our first team players will get a rest.

 

[Salopian]

After another game of poorer first half performance followed by an exhilarating second half, perhaps promotion may come to depend on the ability of the management to do something about the disappointing first half performances. The clubs to be promoted will need consistency, as well as skill.

We all, including neutral observers, concluded after Shrewsbury, that the first team of about 13/14 players are much better than the rest. This could be due to the transplanting of virtually an entire team, leaving each of them unfamiliar with each other, or perhaps there is a gulf in quality until everybody is fully fit. If it is the former case, then Adams needs to introduce one or two second team players on regular basis.

The pundits generally reckon that we have a large and generally impressive squad. We need to improve consistency and deploy of all the squad over a period, to increase our chances even more.