PREMIER LEAGUE 2015/16 PREVIEW: Norwich City
By Chris Jones
"Life in the Premier League is as tough as it gets in world football, but life as a newly-promoted Premier League side is especially tough."
After reaching the highest level of English football through the Championship play-offs, defeating Middlesbrough 2-0 at Wembley Stadium, Norwich City now find themselves with the toughest task you can face: staying up in the Premier League.
Can manager Alex Neil, who really turned Norwich City around mid-season last year and got them back to the Premier League, help the club stay up?
It’s going to be tough, but if anyone is up to help Norwich City battle to stay in the Premier League, it would be Neil. When the Scottish manager took over at Carrow Road, the Canaries were sitting right outside of the four playoff spots, but under his leadership, the Canaries took maximum points from 14 of their final 21 games.
One thing that was not a problem for Norwich City last season was scoring goals, as they put 88 in the back of the net.
Live Feed
FanSided
They have done a great job of keeping their top attacking players including leading scorer Cameron Jerome, who netted 20, as well as midfielders Bradley Johnson and Nathan Redmond, and also strikers Lewis Grabban and Gary Hooper, who both scored 12.
While the competition is taken up a couple notches as they enter the Premier League, the Canaries will have the confidence that they can get goals from a lot of different players.
One reason to worry is, due to the much higher level of competition, a team with an attacking style like Norwich City will most likely have scoring droughts against top defenses in the Premier League.
How will they cope? Will they be able to record clean sheets in the Premier League when they only had 12 in 46 Championship matches?
That will be a defining question in this year’s campaign.
Another reason for Canaries fans to be worried is that, unlike the other newly-promoted clubs, Watford and Bournemouth, Norwich City have been quiet on the transfer market.
Other than making Graham Dorrans’ loan move from West Brom a permanent, Norwich City have only made moves for midfielders Robbie Brady from relegated Hull City and Youssouf Mulumbu from West Brom.
Brady will provide some creativity to the Norwich City midfield, and Mulumbu should help with defensive depth, but these are not the kind of signings that are really the kind that help a newly-promoted team stay in the Premier League.
Norwich City’s last Premier League tenure lasted three seasons from 2011-2014. The first two of those campaigns finished in mid-table finishes (12th and 11th, respectively) before their 18th place finish in 2013-2014 resulted in their relegation.
Can the Canaries attack and midfield scoring prowess lead them to a prolonged Premier League tenure, or will the heightened level of competition be too much for them to handle?
Norwich come into this season with players who still know what it’s like to play in the Premier League, having only been relegated the season before last, so that should be helpful.
There seem to be teams in worse spots than the Canaries, so they stand a good chance at staying up and reaping the financial benefits.