Norwich City v Leeds Utd Match Thread

30 Sep 2024 12:58 pm, by Ellandback1

Norwich City v Leeds United
Tuesday 1st October 7:45pm | Carrow Road

Leeds face the first game without inspirational Captain Ethan Ampadu as he faces 10 weeks on the sidelines. The Welsh International limped off just before the half time interval in obvious discomfort, and was replaced by AO Tanaka, whose assertive performance will give the gaffer food for thought ahead of team selection. Just like Bielsa, Farke doesn't like to tinker with his starting XI unless he has to, but Leeds are fortunate to have the likes of Tanaka, Rothwell and even Crew to call upon in the skippers absence. The Captain's armband is likely to go to Pascal Struijk.

The two sides played four times last season with Daniel Farke doing the double over his former club in the league, then knocking them out of the play-off semi-finals with a 4-0 aggregate over two legs. Norwich have only beaten Leeds once in eight attempts, a 3-1 win at Elland Road in February 2019.

The Canaries have had a moderately good start to their 24/25 campaign considering their opening day defeat at Oxford Utd. The departures of Gabriel Sara, Adam Idah and Jonathan Rowe have hit them hard, but have picked up nine points since. Veteran striker Ashley Barnes is out with a leg injury, meaning their goal threat falls once again on Borja Sainz (6 goals already) and Joshua Sargent. Christian Fassnacht is out of action until late October with an Achilles problem, whereas centre-back Jacob Sorensen has a foot issue.

As well as Ethan Ampadu, Leeds are without Manor Solomon (hamstring), Max Wober (thigh/knee) and Dan James (hamstring). Apart from Ampadu, Daniel Farke should pick the same XI that pulverised the Sky Blues at the weekend.

Match Thread

367 Comments

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andrewjohnsmith wrote on 03 Oct 2024 03:28 pm

GreennWhite wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2024 2:33 pm Any decent manager will keep an eye on up coming games, the season is a long and hard one and you cant put all your aces into one game.Maybe it works against Norwich, maybe it doesnt, but he has to think about players fitness and he knows much better than anyone of us fans how each player is doing in the regard. The top teams can make changes in games and it doesnt effect them because sometimes the player coming on is better than those going off, or the players coming on have had plenty of time to get used to the teams tactics.
Weasel hit the nail on the head when he said, AO and Rothwell just havent had time to get used to each other way of playing. It might take a few weeks for them to gel if Farke sticks with that pairing. Or he might see that its not quite right and then we have to try another pairing and see what that brings.

Plus, I think, it's imperative that we use our bench more. He has to find minutes for fringe players somehow. Some come about by necessity - Rothwell, Tanaka. But he's got to try and force Bamford back to fitness somehow. Schmidt (unfortunately injured) needs to be incorporated. Byram needs to stay fresh. People like Gelhardt need minutes.

If we don't involve those players they won't be ready when needed. And we'll be running into the same situation as last season - a small first team that's knackered because the manager didn't trust his bench enough to make subs or rotate.

Ideally you'd get them all involved when we're cruising at 5-0. But those opportunities rare. The middle game of 3 in 6 days seems like an obvious time to use the bench. It didn't fail. We got a point away to a 9th place team.

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andrewjohnsmith wrote on 03 Oct 2024 03:20 pm

1964white wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2024 12:43 pm Farke won't need to do the same tonight, as we haven't got a game for two weeks. Sunderland is a three-day turnaround, three games in six days is tough with a depleted squad.

If there's a game when minor injuries might be desirable (I did say minor), it's Friday. That way we can withdraw them from international duty.

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GreennWhite wrote on 03 Oct 2024 02:33 pm

Any decent manager will keep an eye on up coming games, the season is a long and hard one and you cant put all your aces into one game.Maybe it works against Norwich, maybe it doesnt, but he has to think about players fitness and he knows much better than anyone of us fans how each player is doing in the regard. The top teams can make changes in games and it doesnt effect them because sometimes the player coming on is better than those going off, or the players coming on have had plenty of time to get used to the teams tactics.
Weasel hit the nail on the head when he said, AO and Rothwell just havent had time to get used to each other way of playing. It might take a few weeks for them to gel if Farke sticks with that pairing. Or he might see that its not quite right and then we have to try another pairing and see what that brings.

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1964white wrote on 03 Oct 2024 12:43 pm

Cjay wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2024 12:16 pm And all ifs and buts though.

We could have easily lost to Norwich because of it? What if we lose to Sunderland anyway?

I understand squad management but it totally changed the structure of the team for the worse

Farke won't need to do the same tonight, as we haven't got a game for two weeks. Sunderland is a three-day turnaround, three games in six days is tough with a depleted squad.

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Cjay wrote on 03 Oct 2024 12:16 pm

weasel wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2024 9:32 am It is not just the next game though. If Gnonto or Largey got a muscle injury then they miss weeks or months so it is risking them missing lots of matches. Given that James and Solomon are both injured it would have been stupid to have risked leaving them on - it would have been almost as stupid as when Marsch needlessly brought Rodrigo on in the cup match and he got injured. Thankfully Farke was able to see the bigger picture rather than get caught up in the emotion of trying to win the one match. Sadly the kneejerkers didn't see that but thankfully they are not managing the team.

And all ifs and buts though.

We could have easily lost to Norwich because of it? What if we lose to Sunderland anyway?

I understand squad management but it totally changed the structure of the team for the worse

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