City boss Chris Hughton will be hoping to set an early, summer marker on Saturday as the Canaries finish their pre-season preparations with a home clash against German visitors Borussia Monchengladbach.
After that and the real thing starts again with the away trip to Fulham on August 18.
For whilst the Canaries have looked admirably solid defensively, going forward they have found goals rather harder to come by.
If they could just sign off Hughton’s first pre-season in charge with a couple of goals and yet another clean sheet under the belt, then you suspect that the Canary boss will consider the last six weeks as a job well done.
More than that, it might also get one or two of City’s nearest and dearest in the Premier League thinking that the Canaries look fit for purpose – and with the likes of Robert Snodgrass and, potentially, Jacob Butterfield bolted in alongside the proven Premier League goalscorer that is Grant Holt, so all will be set pretty fair.
“You want to go into that game making sure you show some of the qualities you’d like to take into the season,” Hughton told BBC Radio Norfolk, after this week’s 0-0 draw with Hull City at the KC.
He has, however, been around the block enough times to know that pre-season results can count for very little; it is only when players see the white of their opponents’ eyes in the midst of a Premier League battle that you really begin to discover the strength of Norwich’s likely challenge this season.
Few, for example, would predict another relegation dog-fight for Aston Villa under Paul Lambert’s watch – just on the back of a sloppy, last 20-minutes away at Nottingham Forest.
Or that Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland wouldn’t be pushing towards the top of the middle pack just because they failed to beat Leicester City one summer’s evening.
“I’ve been involved in so many games before the season starts when things have gone right or they haven’t gone right – it’s a bit of a barometer of where you are, but some will hit the ground running on that first day, some will take a few weeks to get into their stride,” said the City chief, with Norwich looking forward to that all-London start to their new campaign – including a return trip to White Hart Lane for the former Spurs star and coach.
By when, all would hope, Norwich will be firmly in their stride.
“It’s not just about that first day, it’s about the next game and the next game and the next game and being able to put some sort of consistency together,” said the manager, hoping that this summer’s change at the top will not precipitate a change in the kind of consistency that saw the Norfolk club rise and rise under Lambert’s charge.
Certainly for the better part of two seasons, Norwich forgot how to lose games; by the end of last season, they had even remembered how to win away at places like Spurs.
Hughton is building atop some pretty solid foundations; including, of course, his newly re-signed skipper whose obvious goal threat will again be much to the fore this term.
Coupled to the arrival of Snodgrass and Butterfield and the evident hunger of both James Vaughan and Steve Morison this summer, for now Hughton isn’t gunning for further strike power.
In every likelihood, the next weakness he will seek to address is at full-back – particularly now that Steven Whittaker has been ruled out of making the start of the new season following his ankle injury.
With Adam Drury hoping for an Indian summer at Leeds and Kyle Naughton back at Tottenham, much currently rests on Russell Martin and Marc Tierney staying fit.
“We’ve got a lot of forwards, a lot of strikers, but possibly there are areas where if had one or two injuries, then we’d be struggling a little bit,” he revealed.
“It’s an ongoing process and if we’re able to strengthen, great, but if not, we’ve got a group of lads here that have fared very well at this club.”
Massive mistake not strengthening the forwards , Holt will not replicate last season and is looking fat and the other strikers ae clearly not up to Premiership standard .
Very disappointed with the amount of money spent this summer , the club shouted biggest transfer kitty ever then delivered almost nothing .
It must be a singular task to take over a team that has over-achieved not because the previous manager was unsuccessful, but quite the opposite.
Hughton’s overriding philosphy has always been that the team is more important than the individual – turning an imploding bunch of failed price tags into an irresistable unit at Newcastle and taking the remnants of Birmingham’s post-relegation fire sale into the play-offs (after some wonderful achievments in Europe).
CH’s instinct is for attacking football, as both NUFC & BCFC can attest, but only when the back is solid. Defence was the main Norwich weakness last season, and this is where the work is rightly being concentrated. Will Holt get into double figures again this season to pull them out of trouble? Chris won’t be betting on it, instead he’ll expect everyone to weigh in.
I am guessing it will be a slow, low table start with any mid-table momentum not being gained until the team as a whole finds its functioning feet as a Hughton style unit, around late September & October.
Will the chairman panic? Will the fans panic? Will the Canary pundits panic? I hope not, as I suspect this more feisty yellow bird might well finish higher than the class of 2011/12 – and with a higher goals tally in the end to boot.