Aficionados of the Fast Show will recall a character called Indecisive Dave. As the name suggests, he took indecisiveness to a whole new level. He was brilliantly played by Paul Whitehouse but I now find those sketches an uncomfortable watch.
Why? Because that’s now me while reading the messageboards and Twitter (and even listening to Canary Call) in the aftermath of a City game. I was at it again last night.
I was actually fairly comfortable with what happened yesterday – Fulham did pretty much what I’d anticipated they would. They clearly have an embedded style of playing that’s not dissimilar to our own but have been doing it longer and man-for-man have a squad of better players. That City matched them for long periods was a positive sign.
But it was when the debate opened up to what yesterday meant in terms of the club’s overall direction of travel that I struggled and found myself toing and froing in an Indecisive Dave style.
I can’t, however, agree with those who argue there has been no progression on the pitch. Before Christmas the football was so sterile there were barely any chances being created and we were almost non-existent as an attacking force at Carrow Road. While it’s clearly not fully transformed, I now see more bodies in the box and a greater desire to get in behind.
Where it often falls down – and is clearly something that has been a problem all season – is when the build-up play is ponderous and without oomph. On the rare occasion when we shift it quickly we look far more of a threat. No rocket science needed. To shift it slowly allows the opponents of the day to get set in their defensive shape; to shift it quickly denies them that opportunity.
Fulham, while not streets ahead of us yesterday in terms of quality on the ball, where able to demonstrate how it can be done at pace.
But it takes good players to do it. The more limited the group the slower that ball will be moved. It requires confidence, intelligent movement off the ball, a perfect first touch, an awareness of the options, and an in-built cohesion. And it starts from the back, with Angus.
I understand the need for caution when either centre-back has the ball – a mistake can, of course, cost a goal – but if all of the above boxes have been ticked then the ball is moved quicker than City do right now.
Klose to Lewis, back to Klose, across to Zimmermann and back to Klose is fine – unlike most of the River End, I’m cool with that – but I do wish that ball could be pinged rather than rolled sometimes. Overly simplistic maybe, but it would up the tempo, and would force the midfield to also do everything a little quicker.
Yet yesterday, even with moving the ball a few mph slower than Fulham, we matched them for long periods – the in-form side who were unbeaten in 16. City just fell short at both extremities of the pitch. Three bits of iffy defending – two of which were punished – and poor execution in the final third were ultimately the difference.
But it didn’t boil down to luck. Fulham are now 17 unbeaten for a reason. They don’t make defensive errors and are clinical in the final third. That’s what turns an okay side into a good one. That City came out the wrong side suggests they’re an average side … and they are.
The big debate, one that’s still raging today, is around whether we’re on an upward curve, a plateau or a downward one. And that’s where Indecisive Gary kicks in again.
Make no mistake, this is no slight on Messrs Webber and Stone. I wasn’t at the Supporters’ Trust AGM, but understand that both were as impressive as ever, and both will, I’m sure, squeeze every last drop out of the resources afforded them.
But in this realm of extreme austerity that we’re about to find ourselves in, it just feels a little like Webber and Stone are being asked to deliver a successful club with their hands tied behind their backs.
This time next year the wage bill will be a mere fraction of what it is today. It has to be. And so the reliance falls on identifying more unpolished diamonds and promoting good youngsters from the academy.
It might work. But only might. And the alternative is fairly unpalatable. Fulham, to return to that comparison, are further down a similar road to ours but they haven’t been hamstrung by a shoestring budget. Their owner also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars. Do the maths. And that makes a huge difference.
We had Dennis Sbreny up top, who to be fair was decent, but if you’re heading to the playoffs would you prefer Dennis or Aleksandar Mitrović leading your line?
So, while there were definitely positive signs yesterday, there were also some pointed differences that ultimately determined where the three points ended up.
Where we go from here will depend hugely on what happens in the summer, but looking further ahead we’re looking for some favourable footballing gods and a prevailing wind.
Terry Allcock said much the same thing on The Scrimmage Thursday. He said if you watch England and Barcelona they both play the same as Norwich, but at a much faster pace. Not only is this more likely to outwit the opposition it is more entertaining for the crowd. Unfortunately the two players with the speed of thought to execute this, Wes and JM, are both unlikely to be here next season.
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Agree 100%. Point I was trying to make – but didn’t do it very well – is that as we dumb down the quality then we make it doubly difficult to play in the style Farke wants.
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Whilst I agree with most of your comments Gary and the fact when we did go forward with pace Maddison set up Srbeny who forced the keeper into a fine save encouraged me greatly and proves to me that Farke is learning and trying to adapt more to championship football.,especially if you take the football we were playing at the start of the season. Canary call makes me smile Mervyn is an interesting character to say the least and if I was unlucky enough to share a pint with him my glass would be nearer the top whilst his would be languishing in the dregs at the bottom. As for Mitrovitch didn’t do much for me,only have him over Srbeny at the moment just because of experience,Srbeny will prove to be a decent signing in time. I am still excited by the future
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It’s easy to forget that Fulham were relegated in 2014 from the Premier League, after 13 consecutive seasons, and are therefore in their fourth Championship season. They’ve already rebuilt their squad and, in Jokanovic, have a manager vastly experienced at this level. They also don’t have to wrestle with the same PL legacy wage bill we’re struggling with until June 2019.
I guess the fear for many is just how competitive NCFC will be once we’ve overcome these hurdles?
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Farke’s squad will never be good enough to successfully play the style of football he requires, so – on the pitch – the club is going nowhere.
It’s like trying to get a Elephant to ballet dance. It can’t. But elephants are very good at some things. Why not play to your players strengths instead of getting them to play a system that they cannot do?
What the club needed in this so called ‘transition’ phase is a manager who could mix and match it, and doesn’t try to get players to do things they cannot do. Everyone can see what Farke is trying to do, but it isn’t working and I cannot see it ever working. His over methodical stance that x+y should always equal z is driving me insane.
To answer one of your questions Gary, the club is on a upward curve financially, but on a downward curve professionally. For the fans that are happy with Championship football, then there isn’t too much to be concerned about – for now- but for those that want to return to the land where Delia will no longer wishes to tread, then we really have to look at ourselves with a long hard stare in the mirror.
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Very frustrating again yesterday, how people can find positives/progress is beyond me.
Yes Fulham are a good side but others who are not have left Carrow Rd with the same outcome….the problems we have are easy to see both on and off the field,you rightly say Gary that next season the wage bill will lower,Maddison and Gunn probably gone and so it will all begin again only with more “diamond’s to polish…..and so it goes on and on,the thing is i suspect im much like a number of Norwich supporters of a certain age in that i quite like the championship,the teams in it,extra games and none of the over the top hype of Sky ….but only if we give it a good go (Paul Lambert style) .i watched Chris Lakeys video report on the pinkun last night,it could have been me doing that as it pretty much summed up my thoughts every time I’ve left the ground this season
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I agree Martin, Chris Lakey nailed it!
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A good read and even better summary.
Gary, you have made the point which every City supporter will agree with and that is after JM what is there.
I have said a few times that the team is over-reliant on him and City have been lucky that he hasn’t had any injuries. I don’t know if it is the coach that has praised him too much but it seems the other players look to him for ideas and to start any movement forward – if he is marked out of the game City stall in their play.
Leitner was making a difference and starting to show that he can also alter the game but injury curtailed that and possibly will not be around next season.
As you mentioned, Fulham have a wealthy owner but he hasn’t thrown money at the club to get them promoted and after a few years in the Championship his patients is being rewarded with a team that just might do it for him.
Yesterday on the Pinkun live coverage there was, as usual, the die-hard moans calling for Team Farke to be replaced. It is too early to say they are a failure in one season, not knowing the Championship and starting with a very depleted squad that was further hit by long-term injuries and players out of form.
I am not a financial wizard – ask my wife she keeps the family books and doesn’t let me near them – but even I know a business needs investment to survive. Selling Maddison for a reputed £15 to 25 million, and after paying Coventry their portion still, leaves City way behind at least half the club’s in the Championship.
Over the years, the club hasn’t increased the ground capacity due to the cost, so losing a long-term revenue stream. The board said it would have cost £20 to £30mill – we have wasted that in bad buys.
Martin mentioned the Smiths have ring-fenced their 51% ownership by putting it in trust for their nephew. I am sorry but they are now proving that they no longer love the club but are making sure no one else can try and make a success of it.
No one wants to see them forced out like Chase, South and Jones (GREAT COMEDY ACT) but it will happen sooner than later with demos if City have a bad start next season.
Happy Easter to all on MFW
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Hi Alex:
Don’t you mean Wilson, Kepple and Betty?
Or even Freeman, Hardy and Willis?
Happy Easter mate.
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Hi Martin
As long as it’s not the Muppets and ghosts of future past
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Totally agree with you Alex. The worrying thing for me is she seems content to drop to a level where she can financially remain in charge.
Looking on the bright side Kings Lynn will be a short trip.
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Yesterday showed us that when it comes to the expensive part of the game, strikers, we cannot compete with other Championship teams.
As long as Delia remains in charge, all that good coaches will be able to achieve is slowing the decline.
How much have Fulham spent compared to us?
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Excellent comment that I thoroughly agree with.
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Dear Indecisive Dave,
Perhaps a little clarity to help things along. At the start of the season we drew 1-1 with Fulham, a little fortuitously. At that point if we had changed managers we would now be where they are and visa versa. I felt at the start of the season that this group of players was easily good enough to get us into the play offs and I have seen little all season to change that view. You say that Fulham have better players – not from where I was sitting or in the opinion of the two Fulham season ticket holders I went to the game with. Gunn, Lewis, Klose, Maddison, Reid, Tettey and Hooloahan are more than a match for Fulham and had DF started with the right team and tactics things would have been very different – as they would have been on many other occasions this season. A couple of examples? Well….
Knowing that Fulham play a similar style to us not to start with Wes to exploit the increased spaces was perverse. Vrancic has a quality left foot but could manage to slow the game down playing in an over 60’s match, mystifying selection. Also on at least six occasions we had a free kick in the Fulham half or on the half way line and passed the ball backwards! We even managed that trick when 2-0 down with less that 15 mins to play – the ball ended up back with the keeper after about 4 passes backwards not once but twice!! These tedious DF tactics nullify our strengths going forwards, make for awful football and have cost us countless points this season. Possession is a meaningless stat!!! Yes, yes I know…..patience and things will improve, well let’s hope so.
The answers are not difficult to find, this squad is good enough for at least a play off place but needs an experienced coach who can muster up something more than German lower league football tactics. No doubt we will become slightly better at playing this system next season but with Maddison and Reid gone and Wes coming to the end of his career we had better bring some pillows and a sleeping bag to home games, there won’t be much to keep us awake!
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Good article. I think there has been progress this season and I like it that we try to play the ball on the ground. What frustrates me and a lot of other supporters is our inability to mix it up at least occasionally. When we are 2 goals down with 6 minutes left and have a free kick in the opponents half surely there is nothing to lose by packing the opponents’ penalty area and putting the ball in the box. And yet we pass it short and 10 seconds later it has gone back to the keeper. Of course, the players are following instructions, but by then we need hope, passion, initiative and something different – why not try the old fashioned way. The other problem with our short passing game is that there rarely seems to be enough movement and enough people getting forward to sustain pressure in their penalty area.
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Don’t you think that the players have a responsibility to play better as the late great Danny Blanchflower once said “you listen to the manager before and during the halftime in between you make your own decisions” his manager one Bill Nicholson was said to have replied “I give you the ammuntion and knowledge to win games over the white line it is the captain how he uses it”
Farke can only tell the players what he wants from them and how he wants them to achieve it and once over the white line he has no means to change it except with subs and that doesn’t always work.
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At the Canaries Trust AGM a few days ago, Stuart Webber said we’d been hampered this season by the lack of a pacy striker. That’s clearly a big priority for the summer. With pace up front as well as on the flanks with Hernandez & Murphy, we might look a different side.
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Good article the main difference or me between Fulham and us was they took advantage of their opportunities we either made a bad call missed a shot or sadly found players on the wrong page!
Inconsistency was very apparent yesterday one minute Vrancic would deliver a peach of a pass tgenext minute he’d kick it loosely into touch. Im not picking on Mario he wasnt the only one!
Murphy is trying hard so hard its painful to watch his decision-making is poor and often hes trying to score when in reality he’d be better off trying to find another City player.. for most of the game he had the run of the Fulham left back but then ruined it!
Nearly all the City players almost froze when faced with the Fulham penalty area.
I wasn’t that impressed with Fulham to be honest they certainly were not Wolves in terms of quality and asyou say we matched them. I certainly do not concur with the BBC report of “easy” and “routine” victory.
Finally tactics there is no way Farke would have wanted us to pass backwards at 2-0 down and 6 minutes to go. Its down to the players they are not robots… I dont get that
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Great comment Paul;
If only Murphy was able to make a decision (even a wrong one) then I’m sure we would look a much more potent force going forward. To have held on to the ball for so long allowing Srbeny to move into an offside position, and electing then to pass to him whilst Maddison was unmarked on the penalty spot was little short of criminal. When Srbeny went near post, Murphy played it to the far; and vice versa. He is no longer a “young lad learning his trade”. Given the money invested in him, and the (I suspect) not inconsiderable amount he is paid, I really do think we can expect something better.
Other than the really clinical finishing from Fulham , I thought we matched them pretty well, but as it was Fulham, anything other than a heavy defeat is surely a moral victory??
O T B C
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There have been a couple of comments along the line that it is down to the players not the coach that they have a negative mindset and by implication prioritise keeping possession. Not so in my view. If you put great store and train to ensure that you retain the ball at all costs the players will get into a mindset that it is easier to keep the ball if you play short passes to players in the clear, which is always sideways or backwards. There is risk as soon as you go forwards because that is where the opposition players are. If you don’t believe that it is down to the coach….just ask Wes! Our most creative player for the past several seasons on the bench week in week out because he does exactly what you say – looks forwards and risks losing possession…..hence no starting place!
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I’d agree with you: but, if your’e chasing the game then surely thats not applicable. What your’e saying is that the 3pm passing philosophy will be paramount, whatever the score whatever the game-time. I don’t believe in my own mid the players will have that mindset or the coach would practice it or emphasise it in those circumstances. What does appear to be missing is movement and/or guys to pass to up field for the players to find.
This maybe down to lack of pace or maybe good defending of course If its down to cluelessness on the part of the players then they are clearly in the wrong sport
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A lot of well made and articulated points to which I’d like to add my simplistic personnel and formation views:
1.Unfortunately Josh Murphy hasn’t, progressed anywhere near in line with his potential. His decision making, awareness and strength are way way short of the required level (even in the Championship) . Despite him being one of our won would ‘cash’ in and move on.
2. We look so much more solid with 5 at the back and it also gives us the ‘fluidity’ for the wing backs to ‘bomb, forward (in Pinto and Lewis we have 2 who are very good in that role). Clearly doesn’t think Raggett is good enough as we play 4 at the back whenever one of the three CBs is not available so why on earth did we buy him?,
3.Moritz Leitner – along with a striker, our number one transfer target for next season. Won’t fill Madders boots but won’t be too far off (IMO)
Still believe there is more reason to be optimistic than the Southern end of the A140
OTBC
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Good words Martin and some excellent comments below.
Shortly before Fulham scored I was beginning to feel we might get out with a point. Sadly my optimism was short lived and we capitulated to yet another home defeat.
The unavailability of trybull and Hanley, the fresh loss of the energetic Hernandez all combined to weaken us significantly, fulhams strength in depth, courtesy of their rich backer, emerged from the bench to wrap up the points in the last quarter.
The collective howls of anguish when Murphy ignored the unmarked Maddison, when tettey collected a clearance form a corner on the halfway line and scuffed the ball to the only player behind him with the penalty box loaded with team mates or when with ten minutes left, gunn and his defence indulged themselves in a private game of fannying about to run down the clock by the corner flag in front of delighted travelling support speak volumes, the honeymoon period is over.
We know, because we have been told by the owners and their various mouthpieces both official and unofficial, that this season was a write off, a transitional period of change, the entire length of time between August and may counts for nothing as the best laid plans are drawn up. Unless fresh excuses for a totally uncompetitive season of dull uninspiring football culminating in a desperate camping in front of its own support surely we can all expect a top six surge, goals, excitement, wins?
I sense that unless the ground is hit and hit hard in full running mode later this year the recriminations will begin very quickly.
Farke and Webber need to spend the summer months turning base metal into gold because the time for excuses will be gone.
I’m sure a whole new line will be spun soon, detailing how the work in progress takes time and we need to unload a few more players, the likes of Maddison perhaps before it starts to bear fruit. Such nonsense is already being spouted, presumably to ease his unpalatable exit and make a positive slant on a distinctly depressing outcome. Two days after reading how the boy slows our attacking game, negating our prowess in front of goal he delivered a first half hat trick to pour scorn on such rubbish.
Good players, well managed will result in promotion. The constant repetitive sale of our best assets will not,
So we wait and see, let’s get this transition season, expensive to watch as it is out of the way, with its dearth of home wins, one goal a game boredom and utter frustration in the stands and wait for the much vaunted, oft promised goal soaked points rich season to come.
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