It’s hard to know where to start.
I was desperately hoping to be picking the bones out of an emphatic win where, in a West Brom style, City threw off the shackles and put their hapless opponents to the sword.
Alas it wasn’t to be and a combination of inspired goalkeeping and rotten luck meant that while the shackles were removed and the opponents did appear a little hapless we drew another blank in front of goal.
In terms of incident, as 0-0 draws go it was about as entertaining as they get; goalmouth action and talking points aplenty with a pantomime villain thrown in for good measure.
Surprisingly, while the role of said villain was written for Craig Bellamy, it was his understudy, David Marshall, who grabbed it with both hands – along with every single shot and header that was fired in his direction.
Unfortunately – as Twitter and the messageboards painfully reminded us on Saturday night – it was more of the same from City, with a good level of performance bearing no fruit.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the passing was again of a decent quality, the stats show we enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, we played with an attacking intent throughout, created a shed load of chances and had 31 attempts on goal.
As several of the players reminded us after the game via Twitter, on another day we could have won by three or four.
Indeed there will be days when we play far worse and win… that’s football.
But patience is in short supply right now – the Hughton-outers waiting to pounce at the merest hint of a setback – and the continued promise of good things ahead is starting to wear a little thin.
And I can understand that. For those looking for a stick to beat the manager with, a recent record of one win in six comes gift-wrapped. Simply not good enough. Relegation form… no question.
Where it starts to irk is when *every* decision Hughton makes is questioned. Some are simply looking to crucify him at every turn.
The fans demanded he releases the shackles and plays with a more attacking mindset… sorted. The fans demanded a midfield that retains possession… done. The fans demanded a more fluent style… tick.
While I’m not suggesting those changes have been made off the back of fan-power – despite a common belief otherwise, Hughton does want his side to play attractive football – they have all been achieved in the last few weeks as the team slowly starts to play to the strengths of the new players.
Yet those who are of an embedded belief that Hughton is not for us choose to ignore this.
“Lack of ambition is soul destroying”.
“Monotonous safety play”.
Two of the comments I seized upon on Saturday night as his pros and cons were mulled over for the millionth time. But lack of ambition? Really? And unless I was watching a different game I didn’t see even the merest hint of ‘monotonous safety play’.
But that’s what he’s up against.
As I said in last Sunday’s column, we’ve reached a crossroads on our critical path. In the stands and, sadly, behind the keyboards (although I’m not sure that really counts) we’ve arrived at a point when for many the die is cast.
Any successes will merely be perceived as blips; every backward step seized upon and used in evidence; wins merely ‘papering over the cracks’; defeats merely confirming he’s not the man for the job.
And it’s a complete no-win (pardon the pun) situation. We’re Norwich City – a middling Premier League club at best – where defeats and draws will always outnumber wins while we dine at the top table. So do that maths…
Not much to look forward to if you ask me as we descend into near meltdown every time we miss out on three points.
Of course the mood would be improved considerably if we were able to translate good performances into wins – apologies for stating the obvious – but even then I suspect some will simply lie in wait for the next backward step… and then pounce.
And my biggest fear is where it is all going to end. I don’t see any obvious closure to the current off-field malaise until the outers get their wish.
On the flip side David McNally is made of sterner stuff than a vociferous minority and some keyboard warriors and so it may just be an impass that we’ll have to begrudgingly learn to live with.
But back to the match itself… in terms of the missed chances, none were what could be described as ‘sitters’ – unlike Jordan Mutch’s first-half effort that was brilliantly saved by John Ruddy – although Russell Martin may consider the late chance he sliced wide as one that was more than presentable.
Other than that, most were kept out by a goalkeeping display that seems to be the sole preserve of returning Marshalls.
I’ve deliberately not dwelt on the Leroy Fer ‘goal’. While it may be commonplace in the Eredivisie not give the ball back in such instances, in the Premier League it is. The PR of having won the game by virtue of such a goal would be not worth thinking about and I’m happy to assume if Michael Jones had seen fit to award the goal City, would have reciprocated in similar fashion.
So… another bitterly frustrating and disappointing afternoon that’s added fuel to a fire that’s already flickering.
The crossroads has been reached. My faith in McNally steering us down the right road remains.
But what road is that Gary?…
You summed it up perfectly Gary. There are a hardcore of ‘fans’ who don’t like CH..end of. You could try to reason with them until the face turns blue but their opinion is set in stone.
Is it his ‘fault’ we had 61% possession and 31 efforts at goal and didn’t score? I’d say those stats deserve praise, not derision.
I’m looking at the table as it stands and we are 3 points off 9th place!
I just don’t get the mentality of those who seem to think we have a divine right to hammer other teams. The season’s all about building momentum and getting better game by game – not playing your best stuff before the clocks have gone back. Let’s have a right go at Moyes boys on Tuesday and bring on the Hammers (points at Man City is unrealistic).
Fer’s ‘incident’ was silly but was it any worse than someone diving to win a penalty?
I would assume the road of sanity. The biggest threat facing our club at the moment are the fans who seem hellbent on bringing instability by getting rid of Hughton. They should get behind their club by getting behind their manager.
Hi Gary,
It seems to me like Hughton is finally getting things right. The team had 60% possesion, 30 shots and 10 on target. Anyone who complains about the manager at this point, has no clue about football or what it entails. The players are the only ones who are responsible for the 0 tally yesterday.
The team are playing well; 4 games on the spin. We should be united behind the club not baying for the managers blood. Thankfully, McNally has more sense that some of these so called supporters!
Yes, all the boxes ticked, Hughton ‘outers’ and ‘doubters’ can have no reasonable complaint about team effort and intent. Just the finishing & inventiveness boxes remain unchecked. That said, just don’t think the fit is good anymore between what supporters want to see and the Hughton way. The word ‘boring’ being applied to both Hughton and his way. Maybe one day in the not too distant future, City will come away from a match with more than just ‘the positives’ but if we don’t get a good tally of points from our next four Premier matches, Hughton will have very little support left.
The words ‘winning’ and ‘win’ have suddenly become evident in Hughton’s comments. This is perhaps very significant as it follows Bowkett’s clear message that Managers are hired, at great expense, to manage the players to succeed. Hughton has built an impressive team who are playing well, but who remain unimpressive on the (too rare) rare occasions of possession in the opposition’s penalty box. We will not survive on long shots alone.
This needs fixing.
Great article and good responses. We are of course making the assumption that the “Hughton Outers” (aka HOBNOBs) are in fact Norwich supporters! Could well be a group of “the disillusioned ones” from down the A140 who don’t really have a team to support themselves and therefore are trying to disrupt our progress by sowing discord & disharmony!
Have to agree, hughton has done what the doubters wanted and he still can’t do right. Things are clicking and a point and ever improving performances is where we want to be. A lot of the players we’ve signed this year and last, have said they wouldn’t have touched city with a barge pole if it wasn’t for hughton. The ‘outers’ are mugs.
A very good read as usual Gary, I’m starting to think there is a Divine conspiracy, determined to derail Chris Hughton’s attempt to build a reliable, mid-table team that can reside at “top table” for the foreseeable future! Apart from picking himself to show our mis-firing strikers how to put the ball in the net! One thing for sure, changing managers now is much more likely to do harm than good!
Let’s pray for a change in fortunes that is long overdue! OTBC
One unhappy punter in the station after the game said “we should have changed it at half time.” I kid you not.
Previously I have been very critical of Hughton, especially after Hull and Spurs. Now I can’t deny the side are improving- how could any one who watches Norwich claim we are not getting better.
Yesterday was a momentous day- my six year old sons first trip to the hallowed ground, he showed how well he is developing into a true Norwich fan by remarking “Daddy, Cardiff don’t want to score, Norwich are desperate to score but I don’t think they’re desperate enough!”
Sums it up in so many ways and possibly the view of many fans? In fact we saw 31 shots and he might have to watch several matches to see that number again!
Perhaps Gary one line of your report sums up part of the problem. None of the chances were in the category of the sitter saved by Ruddy from Jordan Mutch. Whilst we has 31 shots, how many chances were created inside the box. Our central strikers have scored 1 goal this season but they’ve missed precious few chances. My main gripe with Hughton is the lack of a plan b. We all know(we’re told often enough) you can’t play two up front to start but is it really so taboo to do so when chasing a winner or equaliser last week with 15 minutes or so to go
I wish all those so called supporters would wake up and smell the coffee. Who would you want to replace C H if it happened that you got your way? There is a list as long as your arm of managers with P L experience , but would any of them be any better?i very much doubt it. The grass isn’t always greener. Now is the time we all should be pulling in the same direction and get behind the manager and our beloved team. O T B C
its a results business and we have won 7 games out of last 30, chris hughton has spent more money than any other manager, and is not getting results.good form really 6 goals so far Norwich have scored, and we struggle to beat a poor Cardiff side 30 shots staw clutching I think.
I liked this comment on the twitter feed: ‘Based on yesterday #ncfc fans should feel much more optimistic than the side who got battered for 90 minutes and sit only a point higher’. Also, though I like Malky a lot as a person, I find it hard to see how he would bring much improvement to City, since he seems the replacement choice of many.
I had hoped yesterday might release the floodgates a little; well it did on the number of shots, just not yet the goals. But as a side the last few games have been much improved, and I hate this needless undermining of a manager, which clearly helps neither him nor the team.
Hughton has bought potentially the best two strikers Norwich have ever had but seems incapable of devising a system which produces chances for them. There have been no league goals from whoever plays up front since the opening day of the season. While the willingness to shoot from long range against Cardiff was welcome it is unrealistic to rely on that to produce sufficient goals to avoid relegation.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that the Hull game was a low point in Chris managerial tenure Norwich. That said, the team’s performances are clearly improving we appear to be getting more attack minded. Yesterday was a good performance that justified a win. I do disagree with your viewpoint that we are a mid table team at best. Look at Southampton and Swansea, they have clearly moved substantially passed Nowich. I think you do the club a disservice by suggesting our highest ambition should be to avoid relegation each season.
I entirely agree that we should support CH anD the team. There are a hard core of so-called fans who will never accept Chris Hughton as manager. And they are encouraged by the selection of callers on Radio Norfolk for Canary Call. For the presenter to introduce the programme as a chance to discuss Hughton in or out was little short of incitement to go for the manager and the rudeness to Adrian Forbes from some callers was embarrassing. In my experience as a regular listener he tries to put into perspective the untutored views of people like you and me. He is the best ex pro since Neil Adams in that role.
Clearly fortunes need to change but booing substitutions does not help the team. We now have some good premier league players – Ruddy, Olsson, Fer, for example. Others are very promising – Redmond and Howson for example. In the last three games Pilkington and yesterday Snodgrass seemed to be back on their game.
It is now a team of greater potential than before. But that potential will show better in an atmosphere of support and encouragement.
Changing managers is always a risky business. David McNally will know whether CH has taken City as far as he can. I hope we get the chance to see how Chris Hughton’s vision develops. OTBC
Crucial point- it’s all well and good saying “Hughton out” but do people seriously think we’ll get Di Matteo, Zola etc?
Di Canio is the perfect illustration of “be careful what you wish for.” Hughton is developing and seems to be doing his utmost to adapt his style to please the fans.
I was at the Villa game and I saw what happened with “Two upfront”. We got slaughtered. Can’t emphasise it enough- be careful what you wish for.
So interesting… Today Spurs beat Hull City 1-0 thanks to an extremely lucky penalty – sounds more fortunate than if we had been given the one that hit Caulker’s hand yesterday. What’s more even after 66% of the possession, Spurs only led the shots score 16-9. I’m sure after such a poor performance and failing to dominate Hull, fans will be calling for AVB’s head… or maybe not.
Although we played fairly well first half, we were pretty terrible second half. Why? Well perhaps it is to do with Malky’s double sub at HT and tactical change which Hughton failed to adapt to. Not the first time it’s happened; Hughton has a plan A and that’s it, he is easily out-thought even by managers of the weakest sides.
The 31 shots stat will get peddled out a lot this week I’m sure but does it tell the whole story? How many shots were from 30 yards and miles wide? How many were blocked 2 yards away? How many were genuine actual clear cut chances? For all of our ‘improvement’ recently we still completely fail at getting our striker involved in the match and we still fail at creating genuine clear goalscoring opportunities.
We deserved to win yesterday but we were playing a horrendous side, I mean seriously seriously poor, and they came to defend and play for a point. With that in mind I would expect 61% of possession, but I’d expect more clear chances created than what we did.
And let’s forget the Marshall world class performance nonsense, he didn’t play badly but it was hardly a Niemi at CR in 2006, Murray in 2007, Szczesny in 2010 ilk of goalkeeping performances that we’ve seen here in recent years.
Saturday just once again showed all of the shortcomings in our manager and the excuses do not wash any more. It’s points right now or Hughton out.
Heartening to see so many sensible and positive comments after yesterday’s frustrating result but encouraging performance. We’re just missing that quality finishing that seems to cost 10 million+
Everyone’s blowing up the Southampton bubble and fair play to them, they have the points on the board…but the fixture list has been very kind to them. After next weekend, they will have played just 1 (Liverpool without Suarez)of the top 7 while we will have played 6 (inc. them who we beat)! They’ve also played the bottom 2 sides at home. Call me bonkers but I’m willing to put down a bet that by next May, we will be above them.
Oh and further to that, we’ve got Hughton’s mind-boggling use of substitutions. Hooper taken off for a clearly inferior player Elmander who offers us absolutely nothing and then we have RVW coming on after 86 minutes. If RVW is fit enough to play longer: why isn’t he? And if he’s only fit enough to play 4 minutes: why is he taking up a spot on the bench?
Unfortunately there are sections of fans ,particularly in the Barclay end that believe NCFC have a devine right to be in the PL. This has down trodden somewhat on the once electric atmosphere in the Barclay. Yesterday in the first half was great as the whole stand got behind the lads, but as they shot to the river end in the 2nd half a lack of ‘work ethic’ on the song front showed through frustratingly. People talk of the football generating atmos, but surely it works both ways? The last two visiting teams have accused carrow road of being a library. Now where are my prawn sandwiches…?…a block
I think several of you are missing the point, Hughton great bloke personally don’t know him but he seems level headed and is trying his best.. Personally for me I think a lot of this lands on the laps of his assistants and in particular Mr Calderwood who I know is very negative due to me knowing a few Forest fans who said he was the most defensive minded individual he had seen as their manager in years, Neil Adams as assistant can it hurt us anymore? Believe me I’m Norwich through and through and nobody comes away happier if Norwich win but we lack and real urgency up front.. Sorry snodgrass should not be playing over Redmond and would Redmond be playing every week if he was good enough at Fulham? Stoke? Villa? Course he would be playing over Snodgrass every week he’s lazy and lethargic and a moaner.. Can’t deliver a cross for toffee either!! McNally wants us to be a big club as proved by merchandising new kits every year so mid table is the least us fans expect! Come on get real Cardiff were poor as were villa as were Southampton.OTBC
Chris (21) – I “trotted” out the 31 shots stat because I considered it relevant. 9 times out of ten when you have that amount of attempts on goal you’ll score – we didn’t.
And as for David Marshall not having a worldie – you must have been watching a different game to me.
But thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
Southampton and Cardiff were poor because Norwich made them that way. Chris, your comments are poor. You seem to have more personal vendetta against Hughton, than actual football nous. The fact that we dominated Cardiff was because Hughton and his staff had done their job. The players are the only ones who can put the ball in the net. So why are you so against the manager? The last four games have been very good. 10 shots on target does not sound like few chances. Watching the game also backs this statistic. Here’s some chances to remind you. Fer from corner, Hooper near post, Pilkington sitter, Russ Martin’s wild shot in box…need i go on…
Seriously, some fans need to get a grip. Your teams needs you and all you can do is criticise. You may be fans, but you aren’t loyal supporters, no matter how you try to wash it.
I will let McNally decide what is best for the club, Hughton or not. They will always have my support no matter where we end up.
Great to see so much support for Hughton. I’m fed up with the boo boys, who can only think of Lambert (and yes they were great days).
Elmander did not do his cause much good against Cardiff. It was good to see Hooper getting a few balls on the ground (RVWs service has often seemed poor). Could RVW play behind Hooper? I do think we need a number 10 who has/makes time on the ball, but they are hard to come by.
Sacking Hughton at this stage of the season would be foolish, Mourinho’s hardly going to come running here; who would we get? 2 or 3 wins would potentially put us in the top half of the table. I can understand the disappointment, but not the constant sniping at the manager by (what I hope and think) is a small minority of so-called fans.
The form of the team has been good over the last 4 games and we have been unlucky not to pick up more points. The passing in particular has been measured and controlled and indicates we will pick up more points as we go forward.
A significant variable in determining point gathering, particularly in the PL is who you play, where and when. Our first 9 games, 6 have been against top half teams. Of the 3 against bottom half teams 2 have been away.
Our next 10 games, to the half way point will see us play 6 teams in the bottom half, many at home. We can’t be so unlucky in front of goal again
Marshall was not world class,he was busy,you mistake the two. 31 shots on target,yes,but a series of scuffed,mis-hit,speculative long range shots does’nt add up to a hill of beans,as we saw.
We are playing a little better,if nice pretty patterns in non threatening areas is your thing. Keyboard warrior i may be but this is serious,i am a worried fan,don’t you realise that a quarter of the season is over?
Whilst I tend to echo your views Gary, there is something quite rich and supremely ironic about an individual aiming his derision at ‘keyboard warriors’ via a blog…
Bucks (31) – You’re right of course – and the irony wasn’t lost on me as I was writing it – but I went with it because a lot of the angst is driven by social media.
I’m also aware that I’m effectively moaning about the moaners…
A carelessly worded title and I shall endeavour to try harder in future! 😛
I hope no offence was taken Gary.
There does appear to be a growing trend for this form of ultra-criticism and online trolling.
Having said that, even those pundits who should know better, are whipping up these debates about the next manager to be under threat, yet stating how ridiculous the whole managerial environment is in the next breath.
The hilarious thing is that a few inches either way for any number of the goal attempts on Saturday and we’d be talking about a good start to the campaign.
You can label me a ‘keyboard warrior’ all you want, but i know that I’m a supporter and that I want the players, the manager, and the club to be the best that they can be.
Paul Lambert (PL) turned us into a team of believers and winners. We won with heart and effort. We didn’t have the fittest, fastest, or most skilled team, but PL got every ounce out of them. While we were underdogs I believe people genuinely feared coming to Carrow Road because they could see others dropping points. Let’s be very clear, PL is a winner and he turned us into winners.
Since PL left let’s look at what happened. CH had a great 10 game run leading up to Christmas last season. Fantastic. I was very happy with his appointment because he was a gentleman and a sportsman with a good reputation.
Since then I’ve seen us become a very poor side. He took Holt, the second highest English scorer in the Prem under PL and drained the goals out of him. He’s benched people who have done well under PL like Wes, he’s sold off those deemed not skillful enough (but rose high under PL) and he’s bought in “top talent” who can’t score. Carrow Road is no longer feared. Our points per game is relegation fodder over the last 30 games. It’s difficult to see where the next goal is coming from or if we’ll ever beat a top side again.
Yes we finished higher under CH than PL last season. That was down to the difficult-to-see being-repeated 10 game run and the fact that there were some very very poor sides in the Prem last season.
I look at it this way, we can have CH (or other nice gentleman) in charge, but accept that we won’t be ruthless and will sit in the Championship. Or decide that we’re winners, go for someone with more edge, is perhaps more abrasive than what we’re used to (e.g. PL) and be in the Prem.
I don’t see us having our cake and eating it.
I take some umbrage with the title – our form is not improving, it’s getting worse. I assume you meant to write performances. From generally refers to recent result – our current form is relegation stuff.
Dave(34) – you’re not Paul Lambert’s agent are you? If the sun really does shine out of his backside, why is it Villa are only 2 points better off and he has a worse home record with Villa than CH does?
As for CH somehow ‘draining the goals’ out of Holty – that’s a crock. His legs had gone as evidenced by his less than spectacular progress with Wigan. Everything else (whether you like it or not) is natural squad evolution.
“Someone with more edge” – anyone in mind and what is ‘edge’?
Dave (34)
I stopped reading your drivel when I reached the paragraph about Holt and Hoolahan…
I can’t recall a single game under Lambert where we were so dominant in midfield as we were on Saturday.
Yes, he had them believing in some ways but the points tallies are negligible between Hughton and Lambert.
If you seriously believe Wes has anything to offer the Premiership, you really need to take a long. hard look at the far batter alternatives.
Agree totally with my (near) namesake and Gary. I believe that over the past four gamers, Hughton’s side have picked up the baton cleanly and begun to run well with it. The goals WILL come if we continue in this vein, but the ‘supporters’ need to get behind the team and the manager.
Like most fans, I know ten percent of nothing about the game, so the two penneth I’m about to chip in will be valueless and based on ignorance, but here goes anyway:
1), should McNally consider getting in a decent attack coach (do such people exist, anyway?)?
2), Liverpool are playing both Sturridge and Suarez up front on a 3-5-2 formation. Turner is quite slow at the back, and playing three at the back we could have him on the bench, and increase our midfield contingent – Wes? – whilst having two up front. Worth a try?
Hey – I know nothing. Other than the fact that i support Hughton and NCFC!!
@36 PL took over a team that was finishing below us, they’re now above us. He’s beaten us three times, including recently at home, even with Benteke going off injured and us getting a penlaty. They’re getting the job done, we’re not It’s that simple.
One last point on PL vs. CH. Look at how much each had to spend. PL did more with less. Our form should be improving, not declining.
@37 Dominant midfield, lots of shots. Win? No, we didn’t. I’ll take route one, 1 shot, 1 goal and 3pts over dominance and encouragement. Wouldn’t you?
And I agree with @35. I keep hearing the phrase ‘improved form’. Our form is terrible, even if our playing style is easier on the eye.