As part of MFW’s continued effort to offer its floor to the columnists of the future, today’s guest blog is from Samantha Palmer…
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A win against Millwall tonight could see City, currently fourth in the Championship behind Bournemouth, Swansea City and Reading, go up to second. So far they’ve collected 17 points from nine games.
But is it still too early for City fans to start hoping for promotion?
Teemu Pukki has scored four goals and had one assist in the Canaries’ opening nine games with only a 50 per cent shot accuracy, so it seems that he can only score more.
While City have kept just two clean sheets so far this season, Tim Krul is still proving to be a reliable and unstoppable as ever between the sticks, and on that basis alone I’d say the supporters have every right to start getting their hopes up.
The next three games see us take on Millwall, Swansea and Middlesbrough.
Millwall have been floating about in the top half of the division for a few games but have been inconsistent so may provide City with an opportunity to make it six games unbeaten. Gary Rowett has led the Lions to four wins, three draws and two losses and his side currently sit seventh, just outside of the play off places.
Swansea are currently second and are playing extremely well, especially considering the loss of Rhian Brewste who was a key player up front for them last season. While City supporters will obviously hope for three points every game, this is one where we would accept a draw.
Middlesbrough under Neil Warnock have a distinctive style of play and will certainly give City a challenge. They currently sit one place behind the Canaries in fifth.
Daniel Farke has been forced to make changes at the back this season. With Ben Godfrey off to Everton and Jamal Lewis moving to Newcastle, Grant Hanley and new signing Ben Gibson have joined the back four. Xavi Quintilla suffered an injury in the warm-up midweek against Brentford, ruling him out of the following games, but this enabled Jacob Sorensen to showcase his skills in the unaccustomed position of left back.
After relegation from the Premier League, it was natural that fans became disheartened but hopefully Farke’s side will be able to continue their recent improved performances and build back up the hope within the support base.
Due to recent government announcements, it looks like project #LetFansIn will be put on hold for at least the next month, meaning it will take even longer to get fans back into stadiums to start engaging with their team again.
Finally, one other area of discussion has been Mario Vrancic. He’s proved to be a reliable player coming off of the bench in the latter stages of games, but less so when playing a full game. Farke is clearly happy in his decision to bring on Mario late in the hope of impacting the game and scoring those late free kicks that we all love.
The question here is will Vrancic tire of bench-warming for 75 minutes?
One to keep an eye on.
In the meantime, let’s hope City can make it six unbeaten tonight.
Hi Samantha, a good read, thanks. I am always optimistic at the beginning of a season but often that optimism is dashed. This season so far my optimism remains high. Not only are you right about Pukki and Krul being important to our results. I think the quality of our squad will also help. Two games a week most weeks will see some teams suffer badly as their fringe players are much lower quality.
I’ll be interested to read your future contributions.
OTBC