The Canaries are yet to spread their wings back in the Championship, but when will they begin to take flight?

To say that Norwich City’s return to the second tier of English football has been underwhelming is an understatement as the Canaries have only won once since their relegation back to the Championship. 

Following their relegation from the Premier League, Daniel Farke’s side have picked up four points from four games as well as a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Luton Town in the EFL Cup.

Before the international break, the Canaries failed to break down a Derby side short of confidence and form, they eventually handed the Rams their first points of the season thanks to a late Wayne Rooney free-kick. The Canaries were unlucky not to get a point out of the game but, Teemu Pukki did not convert a penalty which left Norwich without picking up any point against the Rams.

Farke will be desperate to get his team performing and picking up results in a bid to hopefully finish amongst the top-six come to the end of the season and have a shot at an instant return to the top-flight.

However, they have a decent opportunity to pick up their second win of the campaign and kick start their season at the weekend as they travel to Rotherham.

The Millers have picked up one more point than City on their return to the Championship but could’ve boasted more if they hadn’t conceded a 96th-minute goal to Huddersfield last time out.

The last time these two sides met at the New York Stadium, Norwich were well on their way to the Premier League and were easily the division’s most impressive side, winning the game 2-1.

What’s interesting though, is that there were as many as seven players who started for Norwich that day who also started their last league outing against Derby. 

The team that romped the Championship with key performers such as Teemu Pukki, Onel Hernandez, Emi Buendia and Tim Krul back in 2018/19 still have a significant chunk of its core two years on but are yet to click in the same way.

Of course, it’s early days still and it did take the Championship title-winning side of two seasons ago a handful of games to really get in gear, but if the Canaries have serious hopes of returning to the Premier League, they’ll need to get up and running sooner rather than later.

The main bit of team news ahead of Saturday’s game is that Rotherham manager Paul Warne will not be on the touchline as the 47-year-old boyhood Norwich fan is in self-isolation after a family member tested positive for Covid-19.

Furthermore, since the start of the international break, Norwich have lost two key defenders in Timm Klose and Ben Godfrey. Klose has joined FC Basel on a season-long loan whilst Godfrey joined Everton for £25m before the close of the transfer window.

Sam Byram and Kieran Dowell will also miss out for Norwich with the hosts missing Clark Robinson, Trevor Clarke and Chiedozie Ogbene.

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