It’s been said many times… football has this unforgiving knack of bringing you crashing back to earth. To put you in your place the second you start acting and thinking a little too far ahead.
While we hope and pray that the footballing gods will look down kindly upon us when we enter the likes of Old Trafford and the Etihad, the pragmatists point to the plain facts. In United’s case, they’d won twelve consecutive Premier League home games prior to yesterday.
I guess it shouldn’t have been, but it was still more than a little surprising to see the number of tweeters, ‘message-boarders’ and bloggers who were predicting a City win – some going for a two goal win. One assumes this optimism was borne of the ‘bounce’ afforded us all by the Everton win and that Real Madrid await United on Tuesday night.
As it happened of course the outcome bore an uncanny resemblance to that early October afternoon in West London when Chelsea put City to the sword in a similar way – the only difference being Grant Holt had the audacity to fire City ahead that day before Lampard, Torres and co restored order by scoring four times with no further reply.
As hard as it is to accept, or even to watch on occasions, we are where we are. On any given Carrow Road day we’ve proved we can live with the best – especially when the team and crowd are perfectly in sync – but on the road is a different matter. Especially so in the heady confines of Manchester, Merseyside and London where the norm is an afternoon or evening of stoic, ‘all hands on deck’ defending.
Occasionally the trend is bucked – White Hart Lane last April being the obvious example – but, like it or not, this current iteration of Norwich City is not ready to go toe-to-toe with the big boys on a regular basis.
If the medium term plans of Messrs Bowkett and McNally come to fruition then maybe we can do so in the not too distant future… who knows… but we’re not there yet, not even close.
As painful as it was – and there’s no doubt it was infuriating at times – yesterday was a perfect snapshot of reality. A gulf in class and quality that was evident from the second minute when some typically neat City inter-play worked Bradley Johnson into that exquisite crossing position. What followed was neither pretty nor clever, and I’m not expecting the Johnson Sky+ box to have been in action last night.
As unfair as it is to single out poor old Bradders – he did get himself in that advanced position after all – you can’t help but think there’d have been a different end result if that same crossing opportunity had been afforded to Fergie’s finest.
And therein lies the issue. Quality.
That Hughton has assembled a good, honest, hardworking group is not in doubt and in the less refined surroundings of the Championship the team would contain sufficient pockets of class and quality to shine. The Premier League alas is a very different kettle of fish and against the elite of the professional game the passing does occasionally look a little laboured, the first touch is sometimes a little heavy and the ball retention under pressure does sometimes break down.
That doesn’t mean we have poor players; quite the opposite in fact – we have some very good players – but when faced with the game’s elite good isn’t always enough.
Yesterday was a perfect example.
The endeavour, tenacity, willingness and sheer bloody mindedness on show were precisely what the gaffer had ordered and, minus a poor old Steve Morison to single out, I didn’t hear too many moans about lack of effort.
Most of the negativity seems to have been confined to City’s perceived lack of ambition, with those two banks of four seemingly a little too intent on staying perfectly in line for many. In fairness to Hughton, while I’m sure his wish for a cohesive defensive display was clearly part of the masterplan, I’m sure he also had hoped that we’d at least force De Gea to get his gloves a little dirty.
To have been on the receiving end of a 10-0 shot count is disappointing whatever the circumstances; I’m not about to pretend otherwise.
Hughton will argue – and did in fact – that, but for a fairly disastrous final fifteen minutes, his approach was justified. If instead of Kagawa making the game safe with his second City had, from somewhere, nicked a 76th minute goal then it would have been ‘game on’. As it was the legs and minds tired – unsurprising given the one-way traffic they’d been enduring – and the Old Trafford scoreboard racked up a score that suggested a hammering.
Like I said… football has a knack of doing that. Buoyed by the Everton win and its accompanying adrenalin rush we were all a little guilty of getting carried away. Some (ahem) even suggested that the proximity of United’s return leg with Real Madrid may impact on their desire to get the job done against City. As if…
But onwards and upwards folks. While away games in Manchester are not pivotal to our Premier League future, home games against Southampton most definitely are.
My gut tells me we’re going to be treated to some more #heartshapedhands. Let’s hope it’s more reliable this week.
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There are many teams who have been in the league a long time, and they are no closer to standing on higher ground with the Utd’s Chelsea’s Man City’s, liverpools, spurs Arsenal’s
I believe we can get ourselves in a position where we are better than the lower middle to bottom. But the fact to compete toe to toe with say Utd, is a pipe dream. There will be games where give a good account of ourselves and sneak the off win, after all they aren’t unbeatable all of the time.
It does appear to me at times, if we believe all an sundry, teams like City are allowed in the Premier League, so the bigger teams are guaranteed some points to boost their total’s
It is as always the teams around us that can do the most damage to us, so we have to beat these teams who can hurt us. After all it is only Manchester Utd
I agree with the argument of this piece. But I think we have all seen Bradley Johnson misplace passes/crosses too often to be surprised. He is also rather slow and was the cause of a booking for Garrido? when he was outpaced. Our play is too predictable and without the ability to pass through the opposing defence we kept the ball until it was passed back to Bunn to be fired up field. City frequently allowed United to pick up balls without contesting them. We beat Man U and Arsenal and drew with Spurs at home by playing at a high tempo. Where was that on Saturday or even against Everton till the final ten minutes. At least a point next week is imperative and a win at Wigan very desirable.
Some great points here. Personally i feel that Hughton always opts for the solid approach, but if you’re not expecting to win, you may as well play someone like David Fox, who can provide a better quality delivery. We carried a much greater threat going forward last season with players like Fox and Surman and Jackson attacked out wide a lot too (to good effect). When he was used this year he looked isolated. I feel we aren’t as fluent with the defensive approach and we have less points and far less goals than last year. We have more clean sheets but overall i’m not convinced the defensive style is really the way forward for us. Our strikers seem far more detached from the rest of the team than last year and our abundance of midfield quality isn’t being used to resolve that issue. Please play Mr. Fox! He can tackle too but he can play that cutting pass we are so missing.
We were always going to lose this one. Our play in the first half when we got the ball was embarrassing. We offered no threat because we did not come forward when we got the ball. It would end up at Snodgrass, who could see Holt surrounded up front, BJ, Howson and R Martin staying back.
I don’t think Howson/BJ ever managed to find Pilkington. They must have looked at him then decided to launch it upfield back to Manchester United.
Talk about an inferiority complex against a side which conceded 21 shots to Southampton at Old Trafford this season.