After a positive performance in the Cup against Watford on Tuesday, Liam Manning’s men head to Fratton Park tomorrow intent on getting their first point, or three, on the board in the league.

The Opposition

Portsmouth won 1-0 at Oxford last Saturday with Australian Adrian Segecic getting the only goal on his debut.

Ex-City youngster Josh Murphy, who was instrumental in their 5-3 victory at Carrow Road at the end of last season, missed that game with a hamstring injury. The initial prognosis was that he would miss another week; however I wouldn’t completely rule out him being on the bench tomorrow.

Which way does Manning go?

As for Norwich, a number of players took their opportunity on Tuesday night to push for a starting place after missing out on the XI against Millwall.

Papa Amadou Diallo and Ben Chrisene worked extremely well together on the left-hand side of the team, both in attack and in defence, and it would be a surprise if Manning doesn’t bring them in for Jeffrey Schlupp and the injured Amakwah Forson.

I watched some of the Watford game back – via the Full 90 replay on YouTube – and what really stood out was the way in which Chrisene so comfortably switched between being the left of a back three and then being in a more traditional left-back role.

It’s difficult to know if this was a specific tactical change by Manning or Chrisene being a more natural fit for this than José Córdoba. What was clear is that it was part of a significantly better balanced approach: more threatening when in position, more solid when defending.

In fact, when we were defending we reverted to a shape that is very much like the good old 4-4-2.

Watford fans would be quick to point out that their team played particularly poorly in the first half, but some of that should be credited to the way that Norwich played. It felt more controlled in the way that we could transition from a good defensive shape, to a good attacking shape and then back again.

The other player who really pressed his case was Marcelino Núñez. As I wrote recently, part of the story with Núñez during his first three seasons has been finding a good partner for him when played as part of a more defensive pairing. Mirko Topić could be that man, although I would be surprised if Jacob Wright made way tomorrow.

So, the team I think we’ll start with tomorrow is as follows:

Kovačevic

Medić – Darling – Chrisene

Stacey – Wright – Topić – Diallo

Kvistgaarden – Sargent – Crnac

Not that it really will be a 3-4-3 formation at any point, more that this will be the starting point when we have the ball and Stacey and Kvistgaarden will both move back to create a 4-4-2 type shape in defence.