Leicester City welcome Norwich City to the King Power knowing that a win would see them move above the drop zone before their remaining relegation rivals play later in the day.
The Foxes are one point behind West Bromwich Albion in 21st place, but are eight points clear of their opponents, the Canaries, ahead of this fixture.
Both teams performed admirably in midweek matches in the last Championship, with Leicester holding automatic promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough to a 1-1 draw and Norwich beating Sheffield 2-0 on Wednesday.
last meeting
The final meeting between the two teams changed Norwich’s season for the better, as it was Liam Manning’s last game at Carrow Road.
Leicester won 2-1 in Norfolk in November with goals from Bobby Decordova-Reid and Jordan James after Matthias Qvistgaden opened the scoring.
Manning was relieved of his duties that night as Norwich, with two wins from 15 Championship games, languished in the relegation zone and Philippe Clement replaced Manning during the ensuing international break.
Philippe Clement’s influence on Norwich | ||
|---|---|---|
25/26 season | Manning | clement |
managed games | 15 | 19 |
victory | 2 | 10 |
draw | 3 | 3 |
loss | 10 | 6 |
point | 9 | 33 |
Points per game | 0.60 | 1.74 |
The Belgian led the Canaries to victory in 10 of their 19 games and scored a whopping 33 points, with the Canaries now eight points clear of Leicester heading into this game.
Leicester’s recent Championship results:
LLLDD
Norwich’s recent Championship results:
LWWLW
team news
Leicester are expected to triple their selection for this match against the Canaries. Manager Gary Rowett has confirmed that Jordan James and Jamaal Lascelles have returned to training and should be available for selection.
Meanwhile, Abdul Fatawu returned from injury and came off the bench against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, but the manager has revealed he is now fit enough to start if required.
Meanwhile, Norwich will be without Mohamed Toure, who has scored five goals in three games since joining the club, as he sustained a groin injury against Sheffield Wednesday and will be out for up to six weeks.
He joins Ante Crnak, Pere Mattsson, Harry Amas, Shane Duffy, Gabriel Forsyth, Lucian Mahovo, Jovon Makama, Matej Jurasek, Mirko Topic, Papa Amadou Diallo, Oscar Schwartau and Jeffrey Schlupp on the Canaries sideline.
But it’s not all sad news for Norwich supporters. That’s because Clement confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Jose Cordova and Amankwah Forson will each return to the team from injury.
Expected lineup
leicester (4-2-3-1): Begovic. Ricardo, Okoli, Nelson, Thomas. Skip, Winx. Fatau, Mukasa, Mavididi. Ayew
The 21-year-old forward has eight goals and seven assists this season, so Rowett could tap into Fatau’s attacking talents to secure a first win in 10 competitive games.
The experience of Jordan Ayew, who has scored five goals in 33 games, could also be put to use ahead of Daka, who failed to register a shot on target against Boro.
Norwich (4-2-3-1): Kovacevic. Fisher, McConville, Cordova, Chriseen. McLean, Field. Magoma, Suliman, and Ahmed. qvist garden
As mentioned earlier, Clement won’t have to work much due to the club’s increasing injury problems, but he could make some changes to the squad, such as bringing in Cordoba and Ben Crisene for Harry Darling and Jack Stacey, giving him a naturally left-footed player on the left side of the defence.
They could also remove Jacob Wright and Sam Field to add some physicality to the midfield, which was favored in the last game away to Oxford United.
After making a surprise cameo on Wednesday night, central defender Jakov Medic could be seen playing up front in place of Kvistgarden in the second half.
