Birmingham City Preview vs Norwich City

The opening weekend of the football season is almost here and I feel like a kid at Christmas. Hopefully not one of those kids who are expecting a PlayStation and ending up with a pair of socks…

The Blues kick off their 2018/19 Season at home to The Canaries this Saturday, in what could prove to be a very interesting game.

Build up:

As a lot of you are already aware, Birmingham City are under a transfer embargo and haven’t been able to bolster what looks like a finally settled and fully cohesive team, which is a real shame. Although this has given Monk the opportunity to dip into the youth system at the club and give them a chance to impress during Pre-Season. I’m sure the likes of Charlie Lakin, Bez Lubala and Viv Solomon-Otabor are all very eager to take their opportunity (should it come) with both hands.

Norwich on the other hand have had a rather different transfer window – selling big names in James Maddison to Leicester, Josh Murphy to Cardiff and what appears to be Nelson Oliveira heading out the exit door. However they have managed to recruit players and signed a proven goalscorer in Jordan Rhodes, on loan.

The Blues have a very good home record under Garry Monk and I expect this to carry over into the new season, with players looking revitalised under the new regime.

Head to Head:

Playing Norwich will always give me good memories of that Play off penalty shootout all those years ago, more recently though? Not so good. Blues have lost 3 out of the last 6 meetings, whilst only winning 1 – really doesn’t fill you with confidence, does it? My prediction for the game is a 1-1 draw and right now I’d take that.

Team News:

Garry Monk doesn’t quite have his full squad at his disposal; Isaac Vassell’s long awaited return isn’t too far away now, David Davis has just started his rehabilitation after ankle surgery and won’t be available for selection any time soon. In non-injury related news, Kristian Pedersen’s first start is registration depending to the EFL, whilst David Stockdale has been completely frozen out of the picture altogether, meaning Connal Trueman is likely to get the nod.

I expect The Blues to line up in a similar fashion to the Brighton game in a 4-4-2/4-5-1 when we haven’t got the ball. This is my team for Saturday, taking into consideration embargo issues:

Trueman

Harding, Morrison, Dean, Colin

Jota, Kieftenbeld, Gardner, Maghoma

Adams, Jutkiewicz

The opposition:

I caught up with Jack (@Jackyaboii) to gain an insight on what to expect from our opponents on Saturday.

Can you give us an insight into the Canaries pre-season, do you think it’s been positive and effective?

“We’ve had a good pre-season fitness wise and managed to pick up some results on the way. At times we’ve appeared to lack energy, but that can be put down to different factors such as: Tiredness and fatigue, as well as Farke’s hard work regime which consists of double sessions most days and not many days off.” “I think this is a effective way to build the players up and get them ready for the long championship season.”

How would you rate the clubs summer transfer business?

“Business has been good. We’ve had to sell to buy – hence the departures of Murphy and Maddison, but we’ve brought in young quality such as Felix Passlack, Moritz Leitner and also added vital experience with Tim Krul. I think our business is done, apart from the sale of Oliviera who hasn’t feature throughout the whole of pre-season, but that doesn’t worry us as we’ve manage to add a proven Championship goalscorer in Rhodes.”

In your opinion, who are the danger men for Norwich – who is going to cause the most problems for Blues on Saturday?

“Onel Hernandez has had a blistering pre-season and Ben Marshall has been excellent too. I think they are the ones who will do the most damage Saturday.”

Finally, what do you expect the final score to be on Saturday and why?

“You haven’t been able to make the transfers you wanted and that could result in trouble, so I think us having new additions to the squad will give us that little advantage – I’m going 1-2 Norwich.”

I’d like to thank Jack Cummings for providing us with an insight of what to expect on Saturday.

As I have been writing this article; Edward Cheng (Assistant Chairman & Club Director) has just tweeted a huge hint over the embargo situation, but that article will have to wait another day when we have more clarification.

Keep Right On.