This Sunday Sunderland will travel to Carrow Road to take on Norwich City, as the Lads look to turn around their recent form...
NORWICH CITY
It's been a strange season for the Canaries. The team everyone knew as the ultimate yo-yo side is currently sitting 6th in the table. Former Huddersfield boss David Wagner took over from Dean Smith in January, after the ex Aston Villa boss failed to get Norwich anywhere near the play-offs. Norwich have won the Championship the last two times they were in it, so this season has been poor for their standards.
Now though, the Canaries are fighting for a play-off spot having won four out of their last five games. Josh Sargent is currently their top scorer, with the USA international bagging 11 league goals this campaign- although he's an injury doubt for Sunday. Not to mention, they also have the clinical Teemu Pukki who has secured 10 goals and seven assists. Gabriel Sara looks to have been a good pickup- the 23 year old has registered five goals and four assists from midfield this season. He took a while to get up to speed with the Championship, but has now definitely found his feet.
I think it’s clear that Norwich have lots of threats. The Canaries have an average possession stat of 57.68%, that’s the third highest in the league. Wagner has rotated between 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, and 4-1-4-1, so he has a variety of different formations he can come at teams with.
As a whole, Norwich are a really good footballing side who like to keep the ball on the ground and play through teams. They have good squad depth and lots of goal threats. I think we will struggle (again) this Sunday.
SUNDERLAND
Things are starting to fall apart a bit on Wearside, with Tony Mowbray’s men now losing three games on the bounce. Last weekend brought a 5-1 defeat to 16th place Stoke City, and the result even led to the most extreme fans calling for the gaffer's head! Although recent results have been really poor, we are still in 11th place. That is still huge progress from where we were last year. This is a long term process, so I want to sit back and let it play out. I'd certainly give Mowbray until the end of the season, as a bare minimum. If things start to go wrong over these next few years, I will of course question the board and our owners. However, I do think that some fans are going over the top given the fact we overachieved in the first half of this season.
Away from the pitch, the digital season ticket controversy seems to have added insult to injury. Personally, I think the digital season tickets should be slowly phased in, and I don’t think the club has considered the struggles our elderly fans could have. The communication of this system has been poor, you can’t just put out a social media post saying 'we’re going digital now'. It was very unexpected and it appears we have just gone from one extreme to another. On the other hand, I do see where the club is coming from, and over this next decade digital season tickets will become a regular thing in football. I just think the club needs to open up and make things clear with the fans, because there might be some miscommunication going on here. Plus they should offer an alternative for the elderly and vulnerable. For example, implementing at least one turnstile which still accepts physical season cards, as a very last resort.
MY PREDICTION
Unfortunately my prediction for this game is a 3-1 defeat. I think Norwich will have too much for us. Mowbray needs to adapt otherwise we will continue to lose games, we need a change in system and personnel and he's not shown any signs of a Plan B so far.
Personally, I would introduce Pierre Ekwah into the midfield. I've been saying it for weeks at this point! He is tall, strong and physical, so he offers something we don’t have. Recently teams have been aggressively pressing us, outmuscling the likes of Neil and Michut. Joe Gelhardt doesn’t fit his current role, so we need to play to his strengths. He is clearly more of a goal poacher, so we need to shoot more and give him more rebounds to convert. He had success when O’Nien was whipping balls into the box, so I would demand our wingers to cross the ball more. Not to mention, I would also bring Luke back into the team at full back, given the recent announcement that Aji Alese will miss the remainder of the season due to a thigh injury. My goal scorers for Norwich are Teemu Pukki, Marquinhos, and Gabriel Sara. I think Patrick Roberts will score for us. Sadly, I think the 'friendship trophy' will be staying in East Anglia.
MY PREDICTED SUNDERLAND 11 (FORMATION 4-2-3-1)
1 Anthony Patterson, 6 Danny Batth, 5 Dan Ballard, 13 Luke O'Nien, 32 Trai Hume, 39 Pierre Ekwah, 17 Abdoullah Ba, 21 Alex Pritchard, 10 Patrick Roberts, 20 Jack Clarke, 28 Joe Gelhardt
MY PREDICTED NORWICH 11 (FORMATION 4-2-2-2)
28 Angus Gunn, 2 Max Aarons, 5 Grant Hanley, 6 Ben Gibson, 30 Dimitris Giannoulis, 23 Kenny McClean, 17 Gabriel Sara, 13 Marquinhos, 25 Onel Hernandez, 11 Adam Idah, 22 Teemu Pukki
