Wayne Rooney’s Derby County host Norwich City today – how can the Rams cause an upset against the Championship leaders?
Norwich City have been at the top of the Championship table, if not closely behind, for the most part of the campaign.
Daniel Farke’s side look good for an immediate return to the Premier League and show no signs of slowing down after their 7-0 demolition of Huddersfield Town last time out.
It doesn’t bode well for Derby County who sit level on 43 points with Huddersfield. But speaking to the club’s official website ahead of this weekend, Rooney told how he would exploit ‘weaknesses’ in this Norwich side:
We know it is going to be a tough game, we know we have to work hard in it throughout the 90 minutes. We will prepare for that in the best possible way.
First of all, we have to do our jobs. We must look at ourselves and make sure we are doing our jobs right.
Secondly, myself and the coaches have to sit down and really go through what we see as Norwich’s weaknesses and try to exploit them because we know they are a good team, but we have to find a way to beat them.
But what exactly are those weaknesses?
Norwich have won 10 of their last 12 Championship outings, drawing the other two. Those two draws came against Blackburn Rovers and Preston before the Huddersfield win and on both days, Blackburn and Preston set up to frustrate Norwich.
The same can be said of their comeback win v Sheffield Wednesday earlier in the month but the Owls donned an ‘attack is the best form of defence’ strategy, which could well have pulled off a shock win.
Derby then could sit back, soak up the Norwich pressure and look to hit them on the counter, which would be most teams’ method.
Rooney has some pacey players to make that work in the likes of Jason Knight and Tom Lawrence, and Louie Sibley could also be a useful player if he’s given the nod again today.
But Derby should follow Wednesday’s suit. Their defensive record doesn’t hold them in good stead if they look to sit back v Norwich and so they might be better off trying to keep them penned back in their own half.
That’s obviously easier said than done, and doing so for 90-minutes against Farke’s efficient Norwich City side will be hugely challenging.
It’s been done before this season though, and so Derby County shouldn’t be written off too soon.
