index – Page 3 – The Knee Jerks

Norwich City has returned to the Premier League

By index | June 27, 2015

Alex Neil has accomplished something very impressive as he managed to guide Norwich City from the English Championship League and into the Premier League. This was done during his first season in charge of Norwich City.

It was earlier in January when Neil was appointed as the new coach of Norwich City and under the guidance of the Scottish manager, the English club managed to win 17 matches of their 25 which was played with Neil at the helm of it all.

The 34 year old Scottish manager said that he is ready to celebrate and be proud about what was done in the previous season.

Neil talked about Norwich City’s promotion to the Premier League and what he will do in the next few weeks as the Scottish manager told reporters: “I’m going to get a couple of beers and see my family and then look forward to heading off on holiday later this week. The goal was to gain promotion. We aimed for automatic. It was difficult but we got close. Than it was important that we remained focused. Felt the squad we had was a strong as anyone. Especially in one-off games like this, I thought the big players rose to the occasion and made the difference.’’ …

Norwich City lost more in the League Race

By index | March 21, 2015

Norwich City lost further ground in the race for the automatic promotion spots after only managing a 1-1 draw against title rivals Derby County. Norwich were hoping to win this match by taking advantage of the home support.

The victory was more crucial for Norwich given that they had only recovered from the shock 1-0 defeat against Wigan Athletic. After a 4-1 win over Millwall last week, the club were expected to push on for a top spot. Despite being fifth in the table, they are only a couple of points away from the top of the tree.

There are midweek matches in the Championship and Norwich can hope to quickly recover and return to winning ways when they take on Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night. Manager Alex Neil says that he is counting on the club’s superior form away from home to take three points and possibly close the gap to the leaders. Norwich have won the last four away matches without exception and it has been a major reason towards their title push. …

Alex Neil – The Best Coach

By index | January 20, 2015

Alex Neil used to coach the Scottish side Hamilton Academical FC which is a team that usually has crowds of around 3,000 people and fans watching their respective matches but on January 9, the tables turned as the Scottish manager was selected as the new manager of Norwich City and even though the obstacles will be much more higher and difficult, Neil is confident that he can handle all of the pressure which he is going to face with his new club.

“I’ve been in big stadiums with 50,000. At the end of the day it’s 11 v 11 on the pitch. There are big games in Scotland, we go to Parkhead and play against Celtic, or Ibrox to play Rangers. I played in the Championship with Barnsley for four years. It’s not as if all this is new to me’’

‘’I’m young for a manager. I don’t think there’s any getting away from that,” he said. …

Ronald Koeman confident on his team win

By index | December 22, 2014

The Southampton boss Ronald Koeman is hoping that the large number of supporters that are making their way to Bramall Lane to watch the Saints play in the Cup fixture versus Sheffield United get their reward.

More than four thousand supporters of Southampton FC are believed to go to that game.

According to Koeman, such big home support at an away ground would be a motivating factor for his boys.

Speaking ahead of the game, the Dutchman said, “It’s a long way away from home. But, still for people to travel and support and especially at a time when we have not been playing particularly well, it’s fantastic and we heartily appreciate that.”

“It’s certainly going to be a motivation. Such fans deserve to get something to cheer about.”

After maintaining the second position in the Premier League table for good 4-5 weeks, the Saints have lost the plot a little bit. They have had to counter some strong teams of late yes, but, they have not shown enough fight.

And, to add insult to injury, they even lost to Burnley the other day to slip out of top 4 in the league table. However, what’s good for them is that they can make people forget that defeat if they thrash Sheffield in this much important game tomorrow.

When Koeman was asked if this is the perfect chance for his team to put that Burnley disappointment aside, he said, “Yes. After a disappointing game, you want the next game to come as quickly as possible and the same has happened here. But, Sheffield is not going to let us breathe easy. They will be very positive and will attack in their conditions.”

If Southampton beats Sheffield, they will go to the Round of 4.