Sunday’s early afternoon kick-off sees the two very organised outfits of Stoke City and Norwich City come head to head at the Britannia Stadium. Norwich’s third consecutive season in the top flight since promotion in 2011 will mean a fifth League meeting between the clubs in two years, the previous four matches all ended in an Under 2.5 goal result, with only 5 goals being scored in total.
Norwich have failed to register a goal on their two trips to the Potteries, and recent form suggests they’ll find it difficult this weekend too, as the Canaries haven’t found the net away from Norfolk so far this season. Stoke’s style may have altered slightly under Mark Hughes; with less direct passing and more patient build-up play, but with the same physicality, lack of creativity and no real goal scoring prowess.
Stoke’s 4 goals this season, from 5 matches, have come from 4 different players. They don’t possess a really confident goalscorer and the creation of chances for that forward player is one of the worst in the League. In fact, Stoke and Norwich have averaged only 1.5 & 1.4 shots per game in this current Premier League campaign.
The set-up of the team may be Hughes problem – he has creative players like Charlie Adam playing too high up the pitch, when the Scotsman is more suited to a deeper, Pirlo-esque playmaker role. The Austrian striker, Marko Arnautovic, could potentially be the goalscorer that Stoke desperately need, but he is being played put of position on the left wing. The once mercurial, Stephen Ireland, may turn out to be a fantastic signing once he gets up to full match speed, and he should really be deployed in the position that Adam currently occupies.
The cautious approach of Norwich Boss, Chris Hughton, is now starting to grate with a large percentage of Canaries supporters. He may have bought exciting players in the Summer like Van Wolfswinkel, Fer and the young tricky English winger, Nathan Redmond, but he is failing to deploy them in a formation that allows freedom of movement with attacking verve and risk.
The previous Norwich manager, Paul Lambert, was wholly concerned with forward momentum and brave football, so the Norwich fans will not accept these tactical stalemates for too long if the results do not improve.
Go for the Under 2.5 goal result at 1.7 Euro odds @ Ladbrokes
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