Promoted Teams Analysis: Norwich
Looking at Norwich as Fantasy Prospects for the New Season
Norwich City’s promotion to the Premier League almost felt destined to happen as the later weeks of the Championship season came by. The Canaries only lost six fixtures last season and won the most games with 27 victories in the second-tier. They will be a welcome addition to the Premier League next season, and there will be anticipation to see some of their star performers and how they can transition to life in the top flight.
Many will be aware of the qualities that the Canaries have but will also be well aware that they will naturally also be among the favourites to be relegated. However, there is no doubting that they are a proven Championship team, and it will be fascinating to see how they adjust to the Premier League. Their scoring record was impressive, as they netted 93 goals in the Championship last season. However, there will be question marks defensively as they conceded 57 goals last season; which was the worst of all the top three teams in the division. This youthful side will continue to improve, but it will be interesting to see whether they can continue to excel in the face of fierce competition when the stakes are the highest.
How Norwich will likely line up
Daniel Farke has proven to be an inspired managerial appointment by the club, and after overcoming a difficult start to the season, he settled on a 4-2-3-1 formation. The two holding midfielders offered insurance to let their flair players express themselves without worrying too much about their defensive duties. While the back four ahead of Premier League veteran Tim Krul will certainly excite Norwich fans as they are only getting better the more they play. Right-back Max Aarons and central defender Ben Godfrey have been revelations since joining the club and could be potential stars of the season. Club captain Christoph Zimmermann partners Godfrey in the defence and their partnership will be crucial.
The forward areas are where the club excelled last season, and the relationship between Marco Stiepermann behind Teemu Pukki flourished last season. Meanwhile, left-winger Onel Hernandez will be looking for another productive season in terms of assists. New signing Patrick Roberts could take up the right-winger position after Farke consistently rotated players in that area throughout the season.
Difficult Start…
Fantasy players would be quick to notice the difficulty level of the opening five games for the Canaries. In the opening weeks of the season they travel to Liverpool and West Ham United, and also welcome Newcastle United, Chelsea and Manchester City to Carrow Road. According to Compare Your Odds, Norwich are 18/1 to beat Liverpool at Anfield, and this shows how unlikely it is that they will get a positive result against the European champions. That is the highest price for any team on the opening weekend of the season, and as Liverpool look to better their second-place finish last term you wouldn’t expect them to get the win.
The same can be said of their fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester City; with the current champions only having lost once in 2019. However, the Canaries will already be looking forward to their first home game against Newcastle, and this could present them with an excellent chance to get their first win of the season.
Norwich Players To Look At;
Marco Stiepermann – 5.5m
(Photo by Shaun Brooks/Action Plus via Getty Images)
His importance was clear for all to see as the club drew the three games in which he didn’t play, while they lost to Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion when he started on the bench. He could be a shrewd choice for a fantasy player as he is only valued at £5.5 million and consistently provides chances for Pukki. Also, he is a guaranteed starter in the Canaries line-up due to his work rate for the team and the club have made no new signings in the number ten position. Yet.
Max Aarons – 4.5m
(Photo by Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images)
If he can seamlessly adjust to life in the Premier League, then there is no reason why he won’t excel and become comparable to last season’s Matt Doherty. Every season there is a 4.5m diamond in the rough, and Max Aarons could certainly be that man. He has all the tools that are needed to be a first-class full-back in the modern game as he is as comfortable attacking as he is in defensive areas. This is shown by the fact that he has had 24 shots on goal in the Championship last season, while he also created 31 chances for teammates. His ability to get up and down and adding width to the Canaries side will be crucial in how they attack against opposing sides in the Premier League. His aerial ability also isn’t bad as he win an average of 0.6 duels in the air per match. As a young player this quality is undoubtedly going to improve in the Premier League.
Teemu Pukki – 6.5m
(Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
Whether he will match his goal-scoring from last season remains in doubt, but 7.3% of players have taken a chance on him exceeding all expectations once again. At a price of £6.5 million he could a bit of a gamble considering there are other more proven strikers around the 6.5m mark such as Josh King (6.5m), or Diogo Jota (6.5m). There’s no doubt he has the capability to become a good fantasy pick, but at his price range, it’s probably best to assess Norwich and his performances in the first few game weeks. He’s currently 100/1 to finish the season as the top goalscorer, and if Norwich are to stay up Pukki will need to be the man putting the ball in the back of the net.
Thanks for reading Promoted Teams Analysis – Norwich. This article was written by James Hirlehey
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Current dilemma: Kane, zaha and no city defence (rotating 4.5 keepers) or Vardy, Sigggy and City defence (ederson). So Kane or Vardy camp ?
Vardy 4 me..
Very informative article thanks.
Things are slowly lining up for take off…exciting!
Would love your comments on my current team. 0ib and GW1 cappo Salah I think.
Cheers all
Evening Bees
I’d go for a Liverpool wing-back myself and move Alisson on for either a cheapie or Ederson if you want to spend big in that department. Or get Ederson, forget Walker.
The mid looks good – identical to mine, in fact, so it’s perfect – but with your front 3 I’d say King is OK but you may want to think about an Everton striker perhaps or even switch to a 4/4/2 formation – get rid of striker 3 for a cheapo and boost the defence a bit.
Long and the short is that TAA or Robbo should be priorities – or would be for me if I had your team.
Thank you Kralin. I much appreciate your input. Will work on the team. Been out all day…so hope my appreciation reaches you.
All the best!
I’m here for you Bees. Whenever you call.
Evening all.
Hope your all good.
Just started my team first attempt.
What do u think?
It is a very solid team…if Kane performs. Personally I don’t trust him to start well. But that is my take. He could be a runaway horse.
Cheers bees
Looks fine to me. Siggy may be a better option than B Silva but I can appreciate why you’d want B Silva. I have Fraser in there but Ake and King may be enough.
Do you think Wickham could play? Not that it really matters with players that far down on the bench at this stage.
Cheers kralin
Looked at siggy
Ake unsure off. Needed a 5 mill defender.
Wickham was just a filler really
I think Siggy offers a bit more, though of course Silva plays for a much stronger side who’ll create umpteen chances. Siggy’s stats from last season are pretty good though.
I have Ake as well, though have left funds to upgrade him. At the moment I’m going big on Bournmouth to (hopefully) cash in on their (in theory) perfect opening fixtures. Should Chelsea start well then they pick up the good fixtures from Bournemouth in Gw3.
You could rotate 2 4.5m defenders I suppose if you don’t want to risk Ake.
Made a list of how many points per invested 1.0£ a few popular players would bring in if they performed like they did last season but cost like they do this season.
This dosen’t really prove anything since you probably would have sold some players when they had a streak of tough fixtures and stuff like that, and this list over the entire season. Still there are alot of ”set and forget” players here.
And the list isn’t really fair either since some player might missed a few games for whatever reason.
Anyway I found it kinda interesting, so here it is.
VanDijk. 32,0
Robbo. 30,4
Allison 29.33
Pickford. 29.27
Ederson. 28.16
Luiz. 27.3
Laporte. 27.2
TAA. 26.4
Digne. 25.0
Fraser. 24.13
Jimenez. 24.13
Milivanillijevic 23.7
Siggy. 22.75
Pogba. 21.05
Salah. 20.72
Mané. 20.0
Sterling. 19.5
Vardy. 19.33
Auba. 18.6
Aguero. 16.75
Kane. 14.54
Very interesting. Thank you for posting.
thanks for this, unsurprising to see it’s the defenders who offers the most value. have to see if liverpool can offer as many clean sheets as last season.
5-3-2?
I don’t know. Since you want to get the most points out of 11 players, not out of the budget. Or maybe it’s both…
Anyway, we got to remember that 11 VanDijk’s wouldn’t bring in the most points, 11 Salah’s would.
Or maybe yes 😉
If Giroud looks like starting then that is quite an attractive side Allan.
If I were going down that route I think I’d have Ake for Luiz and swap them in GW3.
I’d be more inclined to have someone certain to start – one of the Watford forwards, perhaps – instead of Giroud. Again, if he does look like he’s going to be starting then GW3 beckons.
I would be more inclined to use ppm otherwise players that missed a number of games through injury will come out lower e.g. Kane.
That is correct! But I suspect even if you do that the defenders will still come out on top!
Yes it would. It would also mean that a player like sané would end up high on the list since he took alot of points when he actually played.
But as I said. The list dosen’t prove anything and isn’t fair…
Many lists fall into that category, blimey.
Thanks for taking the trouble to post it.