July 14 2006

The Football League

Norwich suffered in adapting back to Championship football last season and struggled to consistently put wins together, writes Danny Hayes.

However aspirations are much higher this time and there is more confidence coming out of Carrow Road to suggest they feel promotion is a real possibility.

Norwich did suffer significantly with injuries, primarily in defence where a settled partnership was never formed. This coupled with the loss of the inspirational Dean Ashton was a big blow to the Canaries.

But now with Robert Earnshaw ready to go and a bit more luck with injuries, Norwich could be in with a serious chance of repeating their successful promotion campaign of three years ago.

Their Squad

I think Norwich will use a 4-5-1 formation this year, similar to that of Chelsea. Earnshaw will be the lynchpin as the lone figure upfront with Darren Huckerby and Paul McVeigh providing support from the wide areas.

That encumbers vast amounts of pace and is sure to cause many defences problems. Huckerby is someone who always seems to cause palace problems from the left side of midfield.

Andy Hughes will be the main man supporting from midfield, a role he filled effectively last year and I would expect the former Reading man to pop up with a few goals this season. Carl Robinson and Youseff Safri will play the holding role and in Safri, they have a player capable of firing a thunderbolt from long range.

In defence, Norwich are certainly strong, Robert Green, regarded one of the best keepers in the country, is always likely to pull off a world class save when required of him.

Then in front of him Gary Doherty is a full international, whilst Jason Shackell has enormous potential, forming a good mix of experience and enthusiasm.

Adam Drury the captain has consistently proved himself as one of the best full-backs outside the Premiership and Mathieu Louis-Jean excelled himself at Nottingham Forest before succumbing to injuries last year and will be looking to prove himself this season.

Finally in Craig Fleming, they have a quality experienced defender that can fill in at full-back or central defence.

Probable Starting XI

Previous Meetings

25/02/06 – Crystal Palace 4-1 Norwich

13/08/05 – Norwich 1-1 Crystal Palace

16/04/05 – Crystal Palace 3-3 Norwich

14/08/04 – Norwich 1-1 Crystal Palace

When We Meet This Season

16/09/06 – Away

01/01/07 – Home

Prediction

Expect Norwich to perform better than they did last season. Nigel Worthington will install a good work ethic into the team and they will be more consistent.

I think this will sacrifice some of their attacking play slightly and Norwich will look to more 1-0 wins, the foundation of the successful promotion campaign three years ago.

Even with improvement upon last campaign, Norwich will still fall short of promotion and possibly just short of a play-off place. But if the two games follow suit of previous encounters then both games look sure to entertaining matches, hopefully with Palace coming out on top.