Gabriel Sara is set to make his first start for Norwich City in Tuesday night's Carabao Cup round one fixture at home to Birmingham City. The match kicks off at 7.45pm. In his pre-match press conference at Lotus Training Centre on Monday morning, Dean Smith also confirmed that Dimitris Giannoulis will be sidelined for at least eight weeks after he sustained a ligament injury against Wigan Athletic on the weekend. Max Aarons had a gash on his shin thanks to a challenge from Joe Bennett, but "he'll be fine," Smith said. "It's a superficial contact injury, but it could've been much worse." Otherwise, there were no injury concerns from Saturday's game. "Sam Byram had a bit of a setback but is back on the grass now," Smith added. "He's not joined full training, but is doing rehab with the medical staff and I expect him to be ready for Millwall. "With Jonathan Rowe, I'm careful to put timelines on stress related injuries. We'll have to wait and see how it pans out. "If Adam Idah is okay to train he will be available, but if there is still some swelling we won’t risk him. "Isaac Hayden is moving along really well. There's no swelling on the knee, so we expect him back in the next three or four weeks." As for new signing Aaron Ramsey, Smith confirmed that Aston Villa have given the green light for him to feature in cup competitions for Norwich, but we are awaiting clearance from the FA
We tried get Rick to do one but nothing materialised so for the sake of cohesion a day before the game I started one for him .
I actually expect us to win comfortably tonight because we will have several players who are very keen to impress.
I have a horrible feeling Delia wasn't allowed to host Carabu cup games on Canary TV and the rights weren't sold to the Far East so we'll be relying on Radio Norfolk or pay £2.50 to her to listen to the game . Tight as a nun's chuff
Sorensen adding RB to his resume? As I said on another thread, I kind of struggle to see what we learn about the team from a lineup like this, rather than just giving a few individuals a chance to impress. Perhaps Dowell has the game of his life as an 8 and makes himself undroppable, but we're not exactly setting him up for success are we? He's part of a midfield trio in which he's the only one with more than a few mins of Championship football under his belt, and he's feeding a striker who works in a completely different way to Pukki, which is the relationship we need to build.
As someone pointed out during the tail end of last season Smith often picks a team like he's got 22 names in a hat and the first 11 start
It would seem more logical to pair Rashica with Hugill and Dowell with Pukki, but ours is not to question why.