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Sochi 2014 reminds us that fortune indeed favours the brave. Now is surely time for City to go easy on the brakes

16th February 2014 By Gary Gowers 9 Comments

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Blank weekends are generally not good for football supporters. Rarely is the alternative a palatable one, especially if the other half is determined to compensate for the fact Saturday afternoons – between August and May – are shopping-free zones.

But blank weekends for football supporters whose team have managed to acquire one point from their last three games and have lost to two of their main rivals in the process are especially painful.

Do you mull over, for the millionth time, why the season to date has been such an unedifying slog? Do you make hay of the fact there is no turgid performance to pick the bones from? Or do you suddenly become a winter sports expert and give the heart and soul a weekend off?

In fairness, at least the Winter Olympics have offered an alternative that doesn’t involve watching Alastair Cook and ten others getting humiliated Down Under; England’s cricketers affording us the opposite of comfort on days when the pre-Christmas Canary woes all became a little too much. As least in Sochi we have relatively little expectation of success.

So, rather than tackle head-on the rights and wrongs of David McNally telling it straight to BBC Radio Norfolk, I attempted to immerse myself in seemingly sane folk throwing themselves down a mountain, head-first on a tea tray, aka ‘the skeleton’. And compelling stuff it was, especially with the women’s version of the event having now thrown up GB medalists in four consecutive games; gold in the last two.

Alas, however hard I’ve tried, everything comes back to Norwich City FC.

The other half often refers to my “obsession” with everything yellow and green and how even the most obscure subject matter can be turned round to be likened to events unfolding at Carrow Road. As if…

Often I’ve contested this as the uninformed talk of one brought up in a household that supports ‘that lot’, but of course she’s right.

Taking the skeleton as an example: while the premise is clearly to get down the track in the shortest possible time, it doubles as the ultimate test of risk and reward. The first objective of getting to the end of the run in one piece can be achieved by taking a cautious line and ensuring the high banks are tackled at a moderate height. But to win a medal the line has to be one of the Lewis Hamilton ilk, with the high banks being used to propel you faster into the next corner and walls of the run being avoided at all cost.

The result if you’re British is invariably a medal, and is clearly achieved using the high risk strategy.

To inevitably bring it back to City, while not suggesting Chris Hughton is totally risk averse I can’t rid myself of this vision of him careering down the run, clad in green and yellow lycra (bear with me…), with hands and feet scraping the ice to ensure each corner is negotiated safely. The result: a safe finish, but not one that is going to trouble the medal chasers.

Ditto the four-man bobsleigh. Hughton’s desire for caution would make him the ideal brake man, ensuring safety, while the driver (or ‘pilot’ as us experts describe them) would be demanding the opposite.

A little unkind perhaps – and not the best analogy ever – but the thrust being something that was summarised far more eloquently by my MFW colleague Kevin Baldwin when he wrote: ‘… the manager’s propensity for applying the brakes rather than changing gear at vital moments continues to cost us dear.’

And that for me sums it up. The much discussed substitutions at Upton Park were, for me at least, the most visible and obvious sign yet of him applying the ‘the brakes’ when most of us wanted the right foot to hit the throttle. A tipping point if you like.

For the first time this season I looked at the league table, and remaining fixtures, and concluded that in City’s fight for Premier League survival we’re now in the the realms of 50/50. The bookies agree.

Until now I’d been hopeful of a mid-table finish – akin to those achieved over the last two seasons – on the basis of Gary Hooper and/or Ricky van Wolfswinkel belatedly delivering the goods you expect from £13.5million worth of striker.

But Ricky’s continuing struggle and Hooper’s goal drought – after an admittedly promising pre-Christmas spell – have alas dented a belief that had been hitherto absolute. As encouraging as it has been to see the clean-sheet count rise, the only thing that’s getting us out of this mess is goals.

And which is why the imminent return of Jonny Howson can’t come soon enough. Of course match fitness will be an issue, and no-one can expect him to hit the ground running after such a lengthy lay-off, but with goals so hard to come by he’s the one central-midfielder we have who refuses to panic when the chance of fleeting glory beckons.

The old adage of good strikers being at their calmest when presented with a chance in front of goal has failed us of late. Straw-clutching it may be, but perhaps the finest product yet of our Yorkshire academy can return to the fold and show them how it’s done.

McNally’s decision to speak directly to the local press was an unsurprising one given the proximity to the first deadline for season ticket renewal. While I had no specific issue with the board’s silence – which in itself told us Hughton will likely be in situ until the end of the season – it was vital the board did something to acknowledge they understand the growing unrest among supporters.

For all his perceived faults, City’s CEO is the shrewdest of operators and will have been acutely aware of the consequences of saying nothing.

So it’s back to the snowboard cross for me. I’ll keep an eye out for the competitor in green and yellow coasting down out of harm’s way… and the stern-looking bloke at the bottom in a suit, arms crossed, lambasting him for missing out on a place in the final.

Hats off to Chris Goreham, he did a fine job. But I fear more for the bloke on the receiving end of the weekly one-to-one with McNally.


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Filed Under: Column, Gary Gowers Tagged With: Chris Hughton, David McNally, Norwich City FC, Winter Olympics

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Comments

  1. Jonno says

    16th February 2014 at 4:16 pm

    Not sure McNally told us anyhing we didn’t already know but at least he was pressed hard for answers by Chris Goreham. I even detected a vague shuffling in his chair at one point.

    Hughton has definite potential as a ‘four bob brake man’- probably more than he does as a 2015 Premier League manager

    Reply
  2. George says

    16th February 2014 at 8:28 pm

    It could be that McNally didn´t say all the things that many fans had been waiting to hear, but he came with good responsible answers to some direct questioning. Most pertinent of all perhaps, was the fact that he realises, even if the majority of fans still don´t, that we are a very small fish in a very large pond. Expectations have been blown out of all proportion, simply because we´ve spent a few million quid for once, and as he said, we´re still at the bottom of the league when it comes to financial clout. Thankfully as well as being a top CEO, he´s also a realist, and understands that we will have seasons of struggle before we can hope to establish ourselves in the top flight, and accept it or not, Hughton´s track record at the club does stand up to scrutiny. Unfortunately his achievement last season, which was nothing short of amazing, laid the platform for fans frustration this year, as they just assumed we would sail on from there, instead of which, when we get what, for us is a ´normal´ season, they can´t accept it, either not being able, or refusing, to see that last year we over-performed.

    Personally, I´m with McNally and the board on this, Hughton is the best person to keep us up, and as McNally so rightly said, it´s not worth making any change, particularly at this stage of the season, unless you can guarantee that it will be for the better, and I think looking at Fulham, Cardiff and West Bromwich ought to be evidence enough of how trus that is.

    Reply
  3. p says

    17th February 2014 at 3:59 am

    McNally is on a massive wage,the players pay may be below average for the PL but he is doing very well.Our manager is not a natural risk taker which leads to slow insight into the squad,even now CH gives the impression that he hasn’t resolved our best 11 in his mind.May as well play Becchio as he cannot be worse than any current incumbent.Our chance of avoiding relegation is reducing fast and unless our goals per game ratio improves we cannot expect to survive.Caution can no longer be justified.

    Reply
  4. Bob Sleigh says

    17th February 2014 at 10:20 am

    We’re skating on thin ice and facing a downhill plunge but so are ten other teams – for all the Eddie the Eagle-like comparisons that Hughton has had thrown at him, we are still in with a fighting chance although the goals are as rare as Team GB medals in Sochi.
    “Fortune favours the brave”? – not so sure that works every time – I’ve seen a few take a plunge on the slopes in Russia and end up with nothing to show for their efforts.
    I’m always reminded of everyone saying how great good ‘ol Harry is when he went to QPR and how everything would be alright for them. Pulis got lambasted for his style at Stoke which wasn’t exactly of the ‘free’ variety – now he’s lauded like an Olympic champion for hauling Palace off the the slippery slopes.
    “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” – particularly apt for City fans who are more fickle than the weather.
    It’s going to be a tight finish but I’m backing us to get over the line.

    Reply
  5. Cityfan says

    17th February 2014 at 4:25 pm

    Gary, many of us ‘other halves’ also go to the football these days, and despite what some stuck in the dark ages might think, much prefer it to shopping. You can do better than that.

    Reply
  6. Gary Gowers says

    17th February 2014 at 4:35 pm

    Ciytfan (5) – Fair point. Was intended to be tongue in cheek, but having re-read the piece didn’t translate well!

    *Must try harder*

    Reply
  7. Cityfan says

    17th February 2014 at 4:40 pm

    Just wanted to offer up a tactical reason why our strikers are ‘struggling’.
    Anyone watching them will note they have been getting in good positions more often than not – yet the ball isn’t going in (or they’re not being passed to).
    Having watched almost every game this season, I firmly believe that this is down to CH’s tactic of attacking down the sides and pushing his team too far up the pitch. That might sound odd considering his ‘negative’ tag but if you look at the games where we’ve had plenty of shots on goal, the one thing that stands out is how many opposition defenders are in the box when we shoot. In general, LOADS. The reason is this: we are not drawing defenders out of their areas – in fact we are pushing too far down the sides and taking too long to get the ball either into the box or across the pitch, which allows the opposition to get enough players back to get in the way of the ball by the time we do have a shot. How many times have we watched NCFC frustrated by balls ricocheting off defenders/posts/bars/backsides and getting no return?
    Looking at RVW and Hooper’s goals last season, so many of them come when they have broken the defenders’ line further up the pitch. Given intelligent movement and decent passing they score. Yet we expect them to score standing still with five defenders in front of them.
    Too often I have watched Redmond take the ball too far and whack it aimlessly at or across goal, and Snodgrass take the ball all the way to the byline and then gently ‘lob’ the ball into the six yard box – a patsy of a cross that is dealt with too easily.
    We are almost gifting the opposition with the chance to park the bus on their own six yard line – and by the time we’ve decided what to do with it, there’s no way to goal.
    Until we start drawing teams out of their box and playing (god forbid!) some decent through-balls to our intelligent strikers (who scored 70+ goals last season) we can continue to look forward to seeing less than a goal a game.

    Reply
  8. Gary Gowers says

    17th February 2014 at 6:46 pm

    CityFan (7) – Interesting point that. There’s no doubting the service to the strikers for large chunks of the season has been poor. Certainly from the centre of the pitch the quality of distribution has been ordinary at best and, as you say, it’s often a case of having to thread ‘eye of a needle’ passes through a mass of bodies – usually to no avail. The laboured build-up – for me – is one of the reasons City are being met head-on with two solid banks of four (often a four and a five).

    Were the ball to be shifted quicker then there is a chance to exploits gaps in opposing defences. As things stand we often move is so ponderously defences and midfields are afforded the chance to get back behind the ball and ‘get their shape’.

    In the last few games the chances have been more plentiful, but such is the importance of taking one the chances are invariably snatched at and missed. It’s in the mind and it’s a confidence thing. Both are fragile right now.

    That’s my two-penneth for what it’s worth…

    Reply
  9. cityfan says

    17th February 2014 at 7:40 pm

    Gary (8) Agree entirely. I’m not someone who believes Wes is the answer to everything but at least he creates some trickery around the box and draws defenders out.

    Reply

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