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Hatters will test City’s mettle for Farke
Daniel Farke takes Norwich City to Luton Town today in the Canaries' latest pre-season test Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
The tougher the better for Daniel Farke when Norwich City take on Championship new boys Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on Saturday.
Brentford inflicted a first pre-season defeat on the Canaries in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Colney, and Farke predicts no let up against the Hatters.
"I expect more or less the same," he said. "Luton, after promotion, will play with a good rhythm, especially at home, they will be desperate for a good result against a Premier League side and a bit like Brentford they are closer to the start of their season. That is what we want.
"We don't want seven easy wins in pre-season. We want to test ourselves and have that competition.
"At this time in pre-season when you face Championship sides you can't take it as given you can just turn up and win the game.
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"The most important thing is these games prepare us for the Premier League and the whole season."
Timm Klose returned to the fray against the Bees, after a summer spent overcoming a knee issue that saw him play a bit-part role on the title run in last season.
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Alex Tettey and Mario Vrancic have yet to feature in the warm up matches but Farke is optimistic the experienced duo will be in the mix for the final two home friendlies ahead of the Premier League opener at Liverpool.
"The game (at Luton) will be a bit too soon. But I hope to have both fit and fully available in team training from next week," said the City chief. "The good thing with them is they are two experienced players, hopefully they don't need too many games to be back in their rhythm.
"That would be different if it was a 19-year-old.
"That was the big positive from Brentford. It was important to rest some players who had many minutes in Germany, like Grant Hanley, like Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis. Plus a few players just coming back from injury.
"For Timm the first game in months, Josip (Drmic) was out for a week and just had one training session and it was also important for Sam Byram and Philip Heise to get a start under their belts.
"Emi needed minutes to get back into his rhythm as well so it is good we still these couple of weeks to be prepared."
City wrap up their pre-season next week at home to Italian side Atalanta on Tuesday before Toulouse visit next weekend.
