For a 2-0 defeat at Everton to cause such undiluted hysteria speaks volumes about where Norwich City is as a football club at the moment.
As disappointing as it to lose *any* game – and as one commentator pointed out, Goodison is hardly the Camp Nou – there are plenty of others who have suffered a similar fate at the blue end of Stanley Park. The Toffees have only lost twice all season and so the task facing Hughton’s men was always going to be of the uphill variety.
So why the furore? Why is there now much debate in some quarters of not renewing season tickets?
While yesterday’s performance was hardly a capitulation on the scale of an Etihad or an Anfield it did frustrate for long spells, especially in the 37 per cent of time that City had possession of the football.
I write regularly of those in yellow adopting ‘hot potato’ mode when they have the ball – usually borne of a dearth of quality possession – and it happened again yesterday; at least it did for the first 75 minutes. Only when the game was out of reach, and the home side had gone with three at the back, did City have any real joy in possession.
Prior to that it was mainly feeding off scraps as the ball was given away cheaply time and time again. As always, work-rate and willingness to chase and harry were evident across City’s midfield. Quality and composure on the ball when under pressure were not.
Of course when you’re matched up four versus five it’s always likely to be a struggle and, on this occasion, perhaps Chris Hughton’s desire to play two up was too ambitious. But, given the increasing volume of calls for Ricky van Wolfswinkel to be paired with Gary Hooper the City boss opted to sacrifice control of the midfield for the extra striker.
It didn’t work – Everton’s midfield quintet dominated the ball almost throughout – but City did see the whites of Tim Howard’s eyes on several occasions.
It’s a trade-off that isn’t working; City currently unable to perm a midfield four good enough to perform the task asked of them. The return to fitness of Jonny Howson and Alex Tettey should help in this regard and can’t come soon enough.
That City did create a few chances was one of the few positives; that we fired yet more blanks was not.
Ricky’s encouraging performance last Saturday – when he was denied only by the brilliance of David Stockdale – was worthy of a start and again the Dutchman went close twice. The first saw a long range effort clawed away by Howard, the second was a shanked left-foot effort from a ball that dropped invitingly over his shoulder. It was arguably City’s best chance of the afternoon.
Alas I’m writing about near-misses rather than goals and that in itself tells a story.
The life of a Premier League goalscorer is a curious one. Unless you’re of a Suarez or Aguero ilk, you’re largely in the hands of those around you and their ability to create opportunities. It’s stating the obvious (a trait of mine) but the better the players, the more chances created.
Ricky and Hooper had a couple of chances each yesterday. None went in. Negredo at Man City – for example – misses plenty of chances, but always in the knowledge that more will come along.
Also when your weekly ration is thirtysomething per cent of possession, the maths tells you chances are not going to be plentiful. So when they do arrive they have to be taken. They’re not going to be like double-decker busses.
All of which makes Ricky’s barren run a concern. We need the clinical striker we’d been promised to step up… and quickly.
Alas, for City to haul themselves clear of the mother of all relegation scraps is going to require one monumental effort from everyone – fans included (the travelling Yellow Army were magnificent yesterday, as always).
And we are going to have to pick up an *unexpected* win or two. Last season the home wins against Arsenal and Manchester United were instrumental in survival – not only for the six points but also for the belief they instilled. To date we’ve only beaten those below or around us.
All well and good, but that theory relies on wins and draws to be picked up consistently within that mini-league. Defeats against Villa, Fulham and Hull have to be remedied.
The days of targeting wins against only our peers have passed I’m afraid. If we’re to survive one or two of the big boys are going to have to be taken down. City went close against Manchester United, but not close enough.
Games like Hull at home have to be won, but not at the expense of away-days at Stamford Bridge and the like. From here on in they have to be tackled head-on too. No more ‘bonus’ games.
A big ask, naturally, but the alternative is unpalatable in the extreme.
Already this season Villa have won at the Emirates, West Ham have won at White Hart Lane and Cardiff and Sunderland have used home advantage to trump Manchester City. If they can do it…
Whether Hughton and David McNally will be able to boost City’s chances of doing so by bringing in some new faces in the next nineteen days remains to be seen, but it does at least appear that one of City’s reported targets is on his way out of Tyneside.
Jonas Gutierrez yesterday tweeted: “… It was an honor and a pleasure to play with the Newcastle shirt and to have the support of the Geordie. Thanks for the messages. I enjoy my 5 years at the club, I hope the club finish the highest this season and the best to my team mates.”
Only time will tell if that has any bearing on City’s hopes of mid-table comfort, but from somewhere the City board need to conjure up a spark; something that will lift the spirits and re-ignite a season that is threatening to drift away from us.
The form of that spark is their call… and it’s a big one.
Thank you for an enjoyable read Gary, shame it couldn’t portray an enjoyable subjec. We’re in a fight, no doubt about that, but I still think this is a wrong time for managerial change, we have to hope that we can employ a couple of players that will turn things around.
OTBC through gritted teeth!
As always at the bottom of the table little things can change quite a lot. Man for man our team is every bit as good as any around us at the bottom, to my mind what is lacking is spark, some sort of va-va-voom.
I think Chris Hughton is trying to achieve this, finally playing two up front is what so many have demanded for so long, well, here it is but they will need time to bed in. To my mind it is the way to go, we have to score goals, we have to beat teams and get three points. One good win can make all the difference, just look at Sunderland thumping Fulham.
The Hull match is becoming crucial, a good win can mean so much, a defeat and we look totally and utterly like favourites for the drop. Draws are still ok away but no good at all at home. Time for players to stand up and be counted,
OTBC
Is it the board that need to conjure up the spark ? I think there is money available, whether those involved in talks with players can encourage them to join us and lets be honest we have the look of a side sort on confidence and in a scrap. A difficult package to sell.
Something isn’t working in the side, as mere supporters we all have ideas of what is wrong and how to change it. I was never a big fan of Hughton from the start so I have not changed that view at all, I have not really seen enough to make me change my view. I still see many of the same things that plagued us last season, to think we have not moved on.
Whether a change of manager is the right thing to do I do not really know, there are good arguments for both sets of views. All I know is time is fast ticking away, clubs below us are starting to pick up and collect points, Sunderland in particular, a side that has been in turmoil for over two seasons. They changed manager yet again. Fulham changed manager, and we could not beat them at home nor Sunderland away. Teams we really need to be taking points from.
Perhaps a change or addition in coaching staff may make a change, some person who has the right badges but from an attacking background. Neil Adams is already in the house, Darren Huckerby still close to the club, both with a more positive approach to playing.
The big questions for me is how long do you gamble with the present set up ? or do you take another gamble on a fresh approach ? That is a whole new discussion on it’s own.
For me personally this cautious approach of Hughton & Co isn’t working and has not for half of last season and now half of this season, that makes a whole season.
Perhaps that is enough
Bringing in a ‘spark’ or two may work, but only short term, which may be enough to secure another season in the Premier League. However, Hughton needs to be replaced at end of this season (preferably sooner) or NCFC will limp on, fearful of every team’s quality, and never taking our brand of football to them. At the moment, we don’t have a brand or style, not a team, just a collection of players who are getting worse together under the current regime.
The managerial position has to be reviewed on a game by game basis and also in the context of what others around us are doing. To suggest there’s not enough time left now to effect a change is just wrong, there are still 17 games to go and plenty of points up for grabs.
Similarly, just because you and I may not necessarily be able to think of a replacement (I can think of plenty I wouldn’t want here) doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be ample options available if it came to the crunch.
There is no single reason for our current predicament, too many players have underperformed this season, injuries certainly haven’t helped, but we also need to be more effective in possession, solve that and the number of chances created should increase.
The RVW and Hooper combination needs to be given more time to flourish and a central defender seems a must.
I can’t see the Board acting before Hull, even if Fulham turns into another Cup nightmare, but lose that one and the cries for change will only get louder.
Magnificent travelling army? Ha ha you sent half your tickets back! Southampton brought more!!
Your struggling….. You should be packing out every game in support of yer team.
Well we spent a lot of money, we all thought we had a better squad!! on paper I’m sure we did, therefore why don’t we perform as a better squad.
I’ll leave you to think of the answer, but here’s a couple of clues
1)2nd lowest goal scorers in the league
2)2nd highest goals conceded in the league.
My thoughts are lack of use of assets (that’s a hint to the business brain of the chairman)
Who manages the assets ???
“Games like Hull at home have to be won”
A good article, but it’s comments like the above e.g. “we have to win this” or “it’s a must-win game” that irk me. This suggests that if we don’t win them then there should be some recourse. “This is must win or… [we change manager] or [we bring in a new coach] or [we buy a new striker] or [we try new players]”
Palace, Fulham, Sunderland, and Swansea were all called must-win games by some. In retrospect did we decide they weren’t?
Mark (6) and (7) – Thanks for that useful contribution.
Dave B (9) – I do apologise if my article ‘irks’. My reference to ‘must win’ was with regard to the prospect of Premier League survival. You’re inference is that the *only* way things can improve is by firing the manager. If only it were that easy.
Swapping Hughton for [insert name here] would come with no guarantees.
Hi Gary,
It is not just this article, but a general overuse of absolutes without conviction amongst writers and commenters.
If my CEO tells me my team “must” or “have to” do or achieve something in my day-to-day job, I take that extremely seriously and expect consequences if I do not.
No game is a must-win in terms of survival until it becomes mathematically certain that a draw or loss means relegation. If we are using it in another sense that a game, or series of games are must-win, then I am assuming the consequence is something different. “It is must-win and a loss would mean…” What does a loss or draw mean?
As you pointed out “The days of targeting wins against only our peers have passed I’m afraid. ” Possibly our easiest run of games all season has come and gone. These games declared “must-win” and “what we should be judged on” have sailed away with their possible points haul. Yet there are people still defending our results, despite the targets they themselves set.
Perhaps people could start using the phrase “must-draw”. At least our expectations would be set accordingly.
How many must-win games can we not win?
Dave B – West Ham was construed as ‘must-win’, as was Crystal Palace. Unless my memory is playing tricks City won both…
@11 Dave “must win” is media jargon, the reality is there’s 38 games to achieve the widely accepted safey target of 38-40 points. How it’s achieved doesn’t really matter, whether by pretty or ugly means. The board must have confidence that the present incumbent can achieve that otherwise I’m convinced they’d have acted by now of that I have no doubt.
The Everton fan is right – our “magnificent” travelling army is reducing game by game, because our team is going through the motions. We arrive at places like Goodison Park expecting defeat and expecting to be outplayed so what is the point in spending 2-300 pounds watching it?
Our home games are boring, even when (rarely) we win!
The only way Hughton will be asked to leave is if we go down, because everything depends on TV money. If we survive he will stay – but what is the point when every game is tedious?
I’m fast coming round to the view that a half empty Carrow Road and no travelling fans is the only thing the Board will take any notice of. Football isn’t meant to be boring – it’s meant to be full of passion; or a thing of beauty. At least when Stoke were boring they were winning games.
We have a manager who doesn’t have a positive bone in his body! Nice man (yeah, yeah) but an awful leader. In any other business he would have been shown the door months ago.
Gazza TCC says that “how it’s achieved doesn’t really matter”. Well, it does to me and it does to thousands of others.
If all we’re after is survival at any cost, then I won’t be renewing my ST’s.
Dave B: you post many times about how we should have had points from various ‘winnable’ away games, and judge the manager on them. Yet we took six points from two away games most would predict no points from – Stoke and WBA. There is no logic to your reasoning.
We are not improving as a team and CH doesn’t inspire me, but the conjecture going on about the club ‘the board are just happy with survival’ / ‘Hughton has no ambition’ is nonsense and counterproductive. We would never have bought the players we did if there was no ambition. The simple fact is it’s not happening on the pitch or the training ground.
We lost at EFC. Big deal. They had more possession. No sh*t Sherlock, it’s a Martinez team. Move on.
Next week we need to win. And we need to get behind the team.
@16 cityfan
“Yet we took six points from two away games most would predict no points from – Stoke and WBA.”
Perhaps that is where the fans are split. Stoke and WBA away, in previous seasons I would absolutely have put us down for points against these teams. Yes, this season I wouldn’t, but that’s a commentary on our club as it stands.
You can point at our wins in ‘must win’ games. The last two real must win games that we actually won were Palace and West Ham at home. Yes, we won those and that’s great. But that was November. West Brom was another good result, the type of ‘bonus points’ we’d picked up in previous seasons. Pts that Sunderland and Palace are now picking up.
Then we came into the crunch Christmas period with what were must-win games, yet came away with draws and losses. All of a sudden these games became ‘very good points’. I’m sorry, I don’t see a logic that has “must-win” equal to “a good point”.
You look at the remaining games and try and pick out our must wins and now they don’t amount to enough points to stay up. We have three home games against bottom half teams remaining. Just three. Who wants Villa away to become a must-win?
So I’m sorry if I sound negative, but we’re moving the bracket of ‘must-win’ to include teams we’d previously be happy with a point, because those must-win games we’ve already played, we didn’t win (yet applauded anyway). So now our must-win games are becoming harder. I’m concerned for when Man U, Chelsea, and Arsenal become must-win games.
The point I would agree with you on, Dave B, is that our present form has to improve or else we are likely to be relegated. We also need to get beyond looking like within 5 mins of starting a game against a side higher in the table that we are resigned to losing it. We require more passion – sgnxfc’s point – and we require a few different players on the pitch, whether returning from injury or new.
The one additional thing we need, and the returning/ new players may provide it, but I doubt they will wholly provide it, is an injection of something. The side is too inert at the moment, without sufficient leadership, especially when Martin is absent. If I were McNally that’s the thing I would be most concerned with, especially as Hughton seems to fail to recognise that he needs something extra to provide the passion/ leadership spark that’s missing. Personally I think its too risky changing manager this advanced in the season, but I would like Hughton/ the club to work out how best he can receive some additional support.
The one final thing I don’t want to hear again is Hughton rationalising another loss. I’d rather he just kicked something or swore at someone Pardew style.
One of the problems facing City is the wholly unrealistic expectations of some fans. Exemplifed by Dave B, who apparently expected Norwich to win at Stoke in 2011-12, despite the fact that none of Man U, Man C, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool or Everton did. Wow. Now we hear a lot about City’s spending last summer, with no mention of the bigger spending by many clubs (eg Swansea, West Ham and Southampton spending £12m, £15m and £16m respectively on a single striker).
We’re not in the bottom 3, but we are one of 11 clubs in a relegation battle – let’s help our team get out of it.
@19. I didn’t say win. I said…
“in previous seasons I would absolutely have put us down for points against these teams.”
Points, not win. Since we only lost 1-0 away that season and drew at home, it’s not unrealistic to think that perhaps we could score one goal and get a point away? Also, Sunderland and WBA beat Stoke at Stoke that season. So really, us pulling out a point is unrealistic?
I’m concerned about supporters who think it’s realistic to survive in the Prem AND be happy with draws to bottom AND not expecting to get anything out of teams like Stoke and West Brom. You’ll need some creative maths to make that ledger work.
Hughton’s NCFC is death by a thousand cuts football. We all know how this is going to end, so why are the board sticking by a man – nice as he is – is slowly but surely, taking the club down.
There is very little to be positive about and you can sense the frustration by the journalists as much as the players who on the most part, are going through the motions.
The backbone of the side in Ruddy, Bassong and Fer is dissolving as I suspect they see their futures away from Carrow Road. This could be averted of course by a new manager but board and scribes alike are not prepared to act.
@15 sgncfc – my point was really having regard to our current plight, and, from hereon in until the end of the season, it really doesn’t matter how we get to safety, as long as we do. I accept that’s not how either of us want it to be but sometimes needs must. OTBC