After the 3-1 defeat at home against Crystal Palace, Norwich will turn their attention to the Stadium Of Light. Sunderland lost their opening game of the season 4-2 at Leicester City. This is a big game for both teams; some are even calling it an early relegation “six pointer”. Here are five things to look out for in this critical showdown.
1. Use last week
Manager Alex Neil needs to get the players to use both the positives and negatives from the Crystal Palace game. He needs to channel the anger of the players from the referee last week to motivate them. He also needs to get them to reflect on the positives of last
week, as City did play some great football at times. The key is getting the players to play the way we did last week.
2. Redmond and Jerome must start
Nathan Redmond and Cameron Jerome were the game changers last week. They came on when we were 2-0 down, and should have gotten us at least a point. We saw what our attack was missing when they weren’t on the pitch. Crystal Palace have a decent defence, and they managed to cause problems. Against the shaky back four of Sunderland, they will wreak havoc.
3. Crosses
Three out of the four goals that the Black Cats conceded last week began in wide positions. A cross came in, they could not deal with it, and then they had to pick the ball from their net. If last week is any indication, our best chance to score is by
crossing the ball into the penalty area. Redmond is going to be vital to
that. Even Robbie Brady could be a key player to this tactic with overlapping
runs. We are going to need to put players in the penalty area that have a
chance to win headers and put them on goal. Set pieces and crosses were one of
our few problems last season, so we need to use them to our advantage here.
4. Jermain Defoe
I’m not going to lie. Not much about Sunderland’s embarrassing loss at Leicester was good. But if there is one positive they can take, it is Jermain Defoe. He was the only player on the pitch for Sunderland that looked like a real threat to the Foxes. He had a
goal and an assist, and it was deserved. Our defense struggled massively last week against the Crystal Palace attack. With Adam Johnson now out, Defoe will be almost cut off on his own up top. We need to make sure that we keep track of Defoe at all times, and our defense should be able to shut down Sunderland.
5. Patience is key
Sunderland are a team that are going to take a point if it is all they can get. For them, they just want to put something on the board after that horror show last week. They led the league with 17 draws last season, and nine of those were 0-0 affairs. We need to just do what we did last week. Hold possession, probe the final third, and make chances. Only this week, we need to take them. If we can just starve Sunderland of an attacking threat and pin them back, the reward will come.
My message to the Yellow Army this week is to stay upbeat. We were so unlucky last match. Sunderland are not a good team, and we are certainly capable of taking all three points off of them. I think we will get the three points. Those are the five things that I expect to see In this game. What are yours? Leave a comment below with what you are
expecting out of this game. Come On You Yellows!
