The Canaries and the Whites are flying high in the Championship under Daniel Farke and Marcelo Bielsa respectively.
Alan Pardew has given his thoughts on the kind of football played by Norwich City and Leeds United, suggesting it’s a welcome development in terms of what can get a team out of the Championship and into the Premier League.
The Canaries and the Whites, managed by Daniel Farke and Marcelo Bielsa respectively, have played attacking football throughout the season and, as shown by the former’s top spot in the table and the latter in third, it has proven effective.
Pardew, who has managed in the second tier with Reading, West Ham United and Charlton Athletic, has claimed that in the past, teams seeking to get into the top flight would do so with a conservative brand of football and big, strong players.
“It’s not Premier League Two yet but when you look at the teams who are playing football, like Leeds and Norwich, then it’s ‘wow’,” Pardew told The Telegraph.
“That isn’t what used to get you out of the Championship five years ago. Then it was powerful, big teams who scored a lot of goals from set-pieces and were super-tight defensively. These teams are not like that. They are trying to play through you, out-manoeuvre you and that’s brilliant. That’s where we all want it to go.”
Norwich are currently six points clear of third-placed Leeds, which means just one point in their 45th league fixture will see the East Anglians mathematically assured of a top-two place and thus promotion to the Premier League.
Farke’s charges play Blackburn Rovers on Saturday at 7:45pm, after the game between Sheffield United and Ipswich Town has already finished (5:15pm kickoff), while Leeds take on Aston Villa early on Sunday afternoon.
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