• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us
CITY v CARDIFF (A) – THE PREVIEW

CITY v CARDIFF (A) – THE PREVIEW

29th July 2022 By Jamie Lauder 3 Comments

Please share

Competitive football is finally back!

It’s been over 1,180 days since City fans last saw their team play a Championship away game in person, but that all changes in Cardiff this weekend.

Pre-season ended on a disappointing note, with defeats at Celtic Park and Easter Road, but City now look to kickstart their promotion campaign with three points in South Wales.


The Bluebirds have had an unbeaten pre-season, managing four wins and a draw against lower-league sides, but a morale boost was much needed before the start of this Championship campaign.

Steve Morison’s side flirted with relegation last season but in the end finished 13 points clear of the drop, helped somewhat by Reading and Derby County’s point deductions. 

Cardiff lost five of their last eight games in 2021-22, so may be tentative going into this season, but they’ve not been quiet in the transfer market.

The Bluebirds have brought in 12 new signings, most notably, Sheyi Ojo from Liverpool, Mahlon Romeo from Millwall, Ryan Allsop from Derby, Callum O’Dowda from Bristol City, and Cedric Kipre on loan from West Brom. It’s a new-look squad for Cardiff and there have been a number of outgoings too.

No less than 18 players have left the club in this window, including Josh Murphy, who’s now at Oxford United after being released at the end of his contract. Leandro Bacuna, Alex Smithies and Isaac Vassell were also among those who left. 

It’s set to be Morison’s first full year as a manager, following his appointment last November. The former City striker won Manager of the Month in March and impressed with his attacking mentality and clear playing style. He earned his UEFA Pro Licence while he was still playing, and spent 21 months in charge of Cardiff’s Under-23s before taking over the first team.

One of his first signings was Jordan Hugill on loan, who scored four and had one assist in his 18 Cardiff games, and he may feature against his former club on Saturday.


Predicted Lineups

Cardiff (4-3-3): Allsop, Romeo, Ng, Kipre, Collins, Rinomhota, Sawyers, Wintle, Ojo, Watters, O’Dowda

Ryan Allsop is expected to start in goal, while I predict Ng will play at centre-back alongside new signing Kipre, with fellow new signings Romeo and Collins as full-backs.

Rinomhota, Sawers and Wintle could form a midfield three, with Max Watters starting up front, with new lads O’Dowda and Ojo out wide.

City (4-2-3-1): Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Omobamidele, Giannoulis, Sorenson, McLean, Sargent, Cantwell, Rashica, Pukki

As we know, many areas are still open to discussion. 

For me, Krul gets the nod over Gunn. I imagine there have been assurances that he’ll get game time in his bid for a spot in The Netherlands’ squad for the World Cup but Angus can feel hard done by. He performed well when needed last year, and is a Championship-level goalkeeper, at the very least.

You can read my view on the matter here.

The back four is relatively straightforward. Hanley and Omobamidele are our only two fit centre-backs, with Gibson out for a few weeks with a strain. Aarons has been City’s number one right-back for the majority of the last four seasons although Dean Smith does seems to like Byram – citing him as ‘future captain material’. Perhaps there’ll be more competition for that spot this year.

The starting left-back spot would have certainly been in contention more than a week ago, with Sam McCallum knocking on the door. He was given an opportunity to impress in Scotland, but massively underperformed. I know it’s pre-season, but that, along with Dimitris Giannoulis being one of our top performers when featuring last season, gives the Greek the nod, for me.

In central midfield, we only really have two options at the moment, stressing the importance of another signing in the middle of the park. Gabriel Sara and Isaac Hayden are still not back for a few weeks, leaving Kenny McLean and Jacob Sorenson.

Both have immense quality in the Championship, but if one of them gets injured, we’re in trouble. That being said, I have been really impressed with Liam Gibbs’ performances in pre-season, but think it may still be a little too early for the former Ipswich man. He is though certainly one for the future.

Ahead of the back four, there is a lot more competition.

The front four all have a target on their backs, whether it be Dowell for Cantwell, Hernandez for Rashica, or Sinani for Sargent – every player has to earn their place in the starting lineup.

There’s even pressure around the lone striker spot, with Hugill’s excellent pre-season producing six goals, but I don’t think he can pry that spot away from Pukki. The Finn has been City’s main man for four seasons, scoring an incredible 77 goals in 157 league games. But there’s also pressure from City’s new number 11, Adam Idah.

Idah really impressed before his injury last season, and undoubtedly is in Smith’s plans, but unless we use a two-striker formation, one of the three frontmen will end up short of game time.


Bookies’ favourites

Norwich are the bookies’ favourites going into this weekend, with the best odds being 13/10.

We’re also the majority favourites to bounce straight back to the top flight by winning the league, with there being an overall 15.4% implied probability from bookmakers that Norwich will be champions, come May. 

This is the predicted top six from the perspective of the bookies but I’m surprised by how low down Burnley find themselves before a ball has been kicked.


Do you favour City as much as the bookies, and would you make any changes to my predicted starting XI?

Dean Smith will be craving his first win of the campaign, but Cardiff will shock some teams this season.

Let’s hope City aren’t one of them.


Please share

Filed Under: Column, PREVIEW

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gil says

    29th July 2022 at 8:45 am

    Bit unfair on McCallum,he made some mistakes against quality opposition but did some things well. He’s a much better player than when he joined us. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started, Giannoullis wasn’t fit on Sunday and may not have had enough minutes.

    Reply
  2. AlexB says

    29th July 2022 at 2:19 pm

    With the transfer window open for another 34 days a lot can change especially at Watford a new manager with one season at Forest Green and only a few games as a player in the championship and a few Premiership clubs looking at their best players.

    The odd with so much in the coming weeks till all the teams get settled into their playing routine, this first weekend end is neither a hit or miss for anyone but will start to build confidence in teams.

    Traffic Warden McLean needs to up his game instead of pointing where other players should be covering if he sees something needs doing then do it not point to someone else, maybe Sinani will fill in with Sorensen.

    Just a thought

    Reply
  3. CaptainZimbo says

    29th July 2022 at 8:59 pm

    We need to start with a positive performance. 0-2 win with the occasional squeaky bum moment.

    1
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

#NCFC LATEST

fpljessx 🏳️‍⚧️ Jess #HerGameToo @fpljessx ·
17m

Love how we've gone from having next to nothing on the wings, to suddenly having enough to win us a league title if we'd had them from the start of the season #ncfc

Reply on Twitter 1620323933441638400 Retweet on Twitter 1620323933441638400 Like on Twitter 1620323933441638400 Twitter 1620323933441638400
talknorwichcity Talk Norwich City @talknorwichcity ·
18m

🚨 𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 ‼️ ⤵️

#NCFC

Reply on Twitter 1620323697319116804 Retweet on Twitter 1620323697319116804 Like on Twitter 1620323697319116804 9 Twitter 1620323697319116804
saund65 Canaries Caption It @saund65 ·
18m

#NCFC as February approaches;
New manager ✅
Revitalised squad ✅
Loans in/imminent ✅
Injuries minimal ✅
Perfectly placed for a promotion push ✅
League leaders next up at Carrow Road. ✅
**
If you're not excited to be a Canary right now then I'm afraid I can't help you.

Reply on Twitter 1620323547213361153 Retweet on Twitter 1620323547213361153 1 Like on Twitter 1620323547213361153 3 Twitter 1620323547213361153
pinkun The Pink Un @pinkun ·
18m

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗽𝗼𝗻 𝘂𝘀... 📝

🟢🟡 Who is your favourite ever #NCFC January signing, and why?

Reply on Twitter 1620323497015746560 Retweet on Twitter 1620323497015746560 1 Like on Twitter 1620323497015746560 4 Twitter 1620323497015746560
99benbray1 Ben Bray @99benbray1 ·
22m

Tzolis back and now Marquinhos seemingly about to be confirmed! Excited to see how they work within Wagner’s system. Let’s go!!! #ncfc #otbc

Reply on Twitter 1620322620737740800 Retweet on Twitter 1620322620737740800 Like on Twitter 1620322620737740800 1 Twitter 1620322620737740800
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by