Norwich City have been dealt another injury blow as Daniel Farke has confirmed that Timm Klose will miss the club’s clash with Liverpool on Friday.
Twitter: @LFC ? DF: Timm Klose is out for tomorrow unfortunately. He hope to have him back for Newcastle. #ncfc https://t.co/y5SW7Tetox (@NorwichCityFC)
Farke has, however, said that he hopes to have him back in time to face Newcastle the following weekend.
This leaves Ben Godfrey and Grant Hanley as the club’s only fit centre-backs, with Christoph Zimmermann also out injured.
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Hanley was Norwich’s fourth-choice centre-back last season in the Championship, so is he a good enough replacement to start at Anfield?
No. Farke has made it clear that Norwich will try to play their way in the Premier League, which means that the centre-backs are going to need to be comfortable on the ball against the best sides.
Hanley, quite simply, isn’t good enough in possession. Defensively, there isn’t much between Klose and Hanley – with WhoScored only marginally rating Klose as the better performer last season in terms of defender.
However, the difference in their ability on the ball is staggering. Klose had a pass accuracy of 81% and 83.1% in Farke’s two years at Carrow Road, compared to Hanley’s lowly 74.1% and 75.9%.
Klose often looked to bring the ball out from the back last season and play short passes to midfielders or the fullbacks to progress Norwich’s attacks. Hanley, however, seems to hesitate when playing short passes and sometimes opts to just play aimless balls down the line – halting Norwich’s build-up play.
