The Canary song above Carrow Road
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Two and a half weeks left before the start of a new season in Premier League, and I think the time has come to estimate the odds of several clubs to achieve certain success by the end of upcoming campaign. I'd like to start with Norwich City, an interesting and ambitious team from the East of England. Their contrasty perfomance left mixed impression on the audience: a 10-game streak without defeats was followed by 16-match run with only one homeground victory - over Everton. By the way, the first Premier League gameweek will give us an opportunity to watch the Canaries home match against the Toffees on 17 August 2013.
Norwich City finished 11th last season. The question is whether they will be able to improve latest result and enter the top-10 next year. I think they will. So, let me give you 4 reasons why this campaign will be the Canaries swan song.
1. Chris Hughton and his vision of the game. Hughton's football philosophy is quite simple - you go out on the football pitch, defend until you grab the ball, then run into the counter attack and score a goal. Extremely simple manipulations with the arrangement of players on the field (turned up to be a big plus for teamwork), the trivial 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 (which took the form of 4-2-3-1 by the end of the 2012/13 season) and endeavor to squeeze the most benefit out of standards - that's the Irishman team ace in the hole. Despite the fact of 5 defeats with no less than 3 goals difference, Chris has done a good work to keep Norwich City in Premier League, beat Arsenal and Manchester United at Carrow Road and Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, and eventually helped his team to finish on the honorable 11th place. Hughton is on the right way to lead the Canaries to their future success.
2. Strong and reliable defensive line. Altogether, John Ruddy and Mark Bunn kept 10 (6 + 4) cleen sheets for the Canaries and both played pretty good last season. Chelsea wanted to sign Ruddy, but have been told they will need to double their opening bid of £5m. So, John stayed with the Yellows and Mark Schwarzer moved to the Blues. Norwich performed with 4 defenders in a line, and I think they will continue to do it next season. Starting 11 will include right back Russel Martin (31 matches, 3 goals, 2 assists, 7 cleen sheets), centre backs Michael Turner (26 matches, 3 goals, 7 cleen sheets) and Norwich City Player of the Season Sébastien Bassong (34 matches, 3 goals, 2 assists, 10 cleen sheets), left back Javier Garrido (34 matches, 2 assists, 10 cleen sheets). Our old friends Steven Whittaker (right back), Leon Barnett and Ryan Bennett (both play centre backs) will act as qualified subs and new signings of former Stoke City goalkeeper Carlo Nash, 22-year-old centre back Daniel Ayala and Swedish international left back Martin Olsson are going to strenghten the competition for a place in the team.
3. Effective combination of teamwork and individualism in midfield. Hughton mostly used 5 midfielders: two strongly marked wingers - Robert Snodgrass (right wing) and Anthony Pilkington (left midfield, 30 matches, 5 goals, 3 assists), two central midfilders (both are former Leeds United players) - Jonathan Howson (30 matches, 2 goals, 1 assist) and Bradley Johnson (37 matches, 1 goal, 2 assists), and an attacking one - Wesley Hoolahan (33 matches, 3 goals, 5 assists), who also played a secondary striker. During the 2012/13 season these five played more than 30 games together and really helped each other to show their best. But Snoddy's first season with the Canaries was especially prosperous: he scored 6 goals and provided 8 assists in 37 Premier League matches (35 times in the starting team and 2 times substituted in), finished second with a result of 2.2 successful crosses per game and 4th with a result of 2.4 earned fouls per game among all Premier League players, executed standards brilliantly (his direct free kick goals were particularly good) and at long last became Norwich City player of the year in my humble opinion. Alexander Tettey (central midfielder, 27 matches, 2 assists) and Elliott Bennett (right midfielder, 24 matches, 1 goal, 2 assists) supported those five key midfielders mentioned above. Dutch international recruit Leroy Fer will add variety and reliability to the Yellows midfield and 19-year-old Nathan Redmond will compete for a place on one of the flanks with Anthony Pilkington and Elliott Bennett.
4. Variety in attack. Norwich City captain and 3 seasons in a row (2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12) Player of the Season Grant Holt joined Wigan Athletic on a three-year deal. This transfer brought £2.6m and left a giant question "And who will score now?". Luciano Becchio, who played 169 minutes in the aggregate and made an assist? Probably not. The answer came from Portugal, when the Yellows have broken their club transfer record to sign 24-year-old Dutch international striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel from Sporting CP on a four-year contract for a fee reported to be £8.8m. But Norwich City astonishing transfer campaign wasn't over yet. The 25-year-old Gary Hooper from Celtic FC, who scored 31 goals for the Scottish champions last season, became the Yellows 7th summer signing after he agreed personal terms and passed a medical at Carrow Road. Moreover, the rumor has it that Norwich are closing in on the signing of Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella and have already agreed a deal to sign Ola Toivonen from PSV Eindhoven. Now Chris Hughton has more pleasant questions to answer: "Becchio, van Wolfswinkel or Hooper?", "Which scheme to use?", "How about van Wolfswinkel and Hooper in a duet?". With such a variety in attacking line the Canaries will solve their one-goal-difference defeats problem and break into the top-10 next season.
Norwich City fans' song "On the Ball, City" is described as the world's oldest football song still in use today. Let's hope the Canaries will give their fans as many positive reasons as they can to sign this song in the native walls of Carrow Road and away too.
Kick off, throw in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die;
On the ball, City, never mind the danger,
Steady on, now's your chance,
Hurrah! We've scored a goal.
City! City! City!
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