Norwich City: 2013-14 Season Preview

Maybe Hughton has a thing for teams with white and green jerseys. But he went on to sign another prolific goalscorer in Celtic’s Gary Hooper. Hooper, who is a youth product of Spurs, traveled a lot before settling at Celtic and the Scottish PL. He has been a pivotal figure in Celtic’s commanding league wins in the past two seasons.

Decorated by almost every possible trophy in Scotland, Hooper longed a new challenge and agreed to move to Norwich for a fee of 6.3 million euros. The next area to reinforce was the midfield, and in came Leroy Fer. A transfer target for Everton last season, as a possible replacement for Fellaini, Dutch international, Fer has been on the radar of many clubs across Europe and it was a surprise that he chose to join Norwich over other clubs which were much better, statistically.

With money still left in the kitty, Hughton was chasing England U19 international, Nathan Redmond who was impressive for Birmingham. Touted as a future England star, Redmond chose to join Norwich over Swansea after both clubs made a 2.3 million euro bid for the player.

While this can be considered as a long term signing, it portrays the right direction in which Noriwch are headed. Also, Javier Garrido, who was on loan from Lazio last term, made his transfer permanent for a fee of 1.5 million euros. The fullback will face some competition from another new signing Martin Olsson. The mercurial and agile fullback ended his days at Blackburn and returned to the Premier League, where he had a decent past.

New goals

With an above average squad and a decent manager, Norwich City will now aim at finishing in the top 10 in the League and having a strong run in the cup competitions. Their pre-season has not been that great, but Hooper and Wolfswinkel have shown some promise with a couple of goals between them.

While one can only speculate on the tactics managers use with a completely new set of players, changing the already established system might not serve well for the ambitions of the owners. So, a solidified midfield with one or both of the new strikers playing upfront would be an ideal scenario.

A change of formation to 4-2-3-1 would not markedly affect the balance of the team but will aid in possessing more dynamism going forward. With a player like Fer, anchoring the middle, one can afford to play a 4-2-3-1. There is also a possibility of fielding two strikers, to unsettle strong defenders. In which case, a 4-3-1-2 is a natural fit. Natural in the sense of fitting the versatile Hoolahan into the setup. But it would completely sway away from the established theory of wingplay.

So, the idea of two strikers together, would mean, returning to the traditional Premier League’s long lost 4-4-2. Whatever might be the tactics and formations, Chris Hughton has done a great job in identifying the weak spots and filling them with some very good players. The first game of the season is against Everton, and that game might be an early indication of how good Norwich have become from the last season.