I will paraphrase – if only because I can’t lay my hands on the tweeted quote too easily. It’s a Sunday night and too many tweets have now passed beneath the bridge to make my life simple.
Anyway, it was two lines of reaction from City boss Neil Adams fresh from witnessing his best-laid summer plans come a-cropper on the back of the 1-0 defeat by Wolves today.
‘We now have two home games coming up,’ he observed. ‘And we need the crowd to get behind us and get some points on the board.’
The two, home games in question are Watford on the Saturday, Blackburn on the Tuesday – hardly the pick of the bunch. After that, of course, it is the small matter of Ipswich (a). Hence Adams’ desire to have picked up something before City make the trip south.
But having scanned the fixture list properly for almost the first time, when coupled to the tenor of today’s performance and result the immediate reaction is something of a sinking ‘Hmmm…’
Getting back into the Land of Milk and Honey at the first time of asking was never going to be easy and, to my mind, today’s events might serve as a ‘welcome’ reality check for anyone who thought otherwise.
Not that that will come as much consolation to the 1,500 travelling Canary fans who might have fondly hoped for a start to the season that would see rather more by way of attacking invention and purpose as opposed to a re-run of all too many limp trips on the road in the higher flight.
As an aside, August is a terrible month to make any snap judgements – particularly for clubs fresh from the drop.
Until the transfer window finally closes you can never be wholly certain as to whose minds are really on for this – and whose are still hankering for a move elsewhere.
And that doesn’t make for a dressing room wholly at ease with itself. Unlike those that are travelling in the opposite direction a la Wolves. Wind firmly in the sails as opposed to still bailing out the last of the water from someone else’s sinking ship.
But Adams’ point is heart-felt and bang on the money.
He might have been handed a wholly lost cause at the end of last season, but this is now his cause – no-one else’s.
He has re-shuffled the deck up top and with two new faces in the building striker-wise he needs both to hit the ground running sooner rather than later. Norwich need to rediscover a penalty box menace they have lacked since G Holt disappeared.
The back two-thirds of the team ought to be able to do a job in this division. Even if the full-back positions give cause for concern.
Of more concern, however, is just how long the Faithful will keep faithful; how long they will give a decent lad like Adams before their frustrations start to vent forth again.
Because that’s where it goes wrong; change after managerial change only gets you one place. And it is not back in the Premier League; nor in the top half of the Championship.
Part of the trick will be further evidence of going out – or down – guns blazing.
Even if you lose a game 4-3, you have kept the punters on the edge of their seats; given them something for their hard-earned money.
For too long in Norwich’s case, it has been ‘first goal wins…’ As it was again today.
Adams’ heart will be in the right place; he can do swash-buckle.
Effective won’t wash all too well – even if short term you would take back to back 1-0s over Watford and Rovers now.
The punters deserve more; they need to be fed better entertainment-wise.
If not, it will indeed be a long, hard season of toil and potential turmoil should the restlessness return.
Nip it in the bud early; get on the front foot early at home – and stay there.
Goals not only win games, they win hearts and minds.
And right now Adams and the City board need to win back hearts and minds just as much as they need to win points.
The general consensus of Sundays game seems to be “same old, same old. We dared to expect more from the new regime. I was disappointed that as a group on the pitch there was no visible statement of intent, I could not see a leader within the squad, nor anyone busting a gut to seal a place in a new look Norwich. Wolves gave us problems on the wings
time after time with both our fullbacks struggling in a narrow set up on the other hand we rarely reached the byline to make purposeful crosses.
At the top chances were far and few between.
Too many Norwich players are playing within themselves,and still seem reluctant to express themselves with freedom. If we do manage to add to the squad and we appear to need to we need a player with the ambition,drive and determination of Grant Holt. There is not a Norwich player that I can recognise displaying any of the potency all over the pitch that Grant gave us. Neil Adams needs to find and start the players who want to win games no more pedestrian performances like Sunday please.
I agree with everything posted by David Price; we were slow, predictable and just not very good. Rick, I agree with most of what you’ve written. However, you say that getting rid of managers regularly doesn’t work. Well, we’ll never know whether Hughton went too early or too late but we do know that Gunn was sacked after the first league game of the season and that worked out quite well. The vibes I’m getting is that the crowd aren’t going to give NA much of a honeymoon period and if that’s the case I don’t want to once again experience the poisonous atmosphere there has been at the end of the reigns of previous managers. It’s difficult, NA is a decent bloke and was a terrific player for us but that’s 6 competitive games and one point gained. How long can we go on like that?
Lacked just about all of what we fans would expect yesterday. Constructively suggest and obvious to most. Play your central defender to whom you have just given an extended contract in the centre and your long-term right back at right back. More muscle up top and in midfield please.
What was very apparent on Sunday was that the players in the midfield diamond were not effective in those positions and whereas Wolves had strong presence in the centre we were found somewhat lacking. Clearly this would have not been the case had Howson and Fer been available as either would and should have run that game with their eyes closed.
Bradley Johnson is not a screener in front of the back 4, he is an up-and-down guy who plays more effectively alongside 1 or even 2 others. Andrew Crofts or David Fox were more ideal for that position and that it why it worked under Lambert. Similarly, Elliott Bennett is an old fashioned wide player whose strength is running at and committing defenders, not tucking in and interchanging with others. Surman is more used to that system but looked out of touch and the lack of match action the last couple of seasons showed. Wes dropped very deep at times to collect the ball and start moves, showing how much it needed for someone to get on the ball.
Personally I would have gone with a midfield 4 with Wes in behind Grabban, who himself looked delayed in what he was doing and not as imposing as someone should be with what he did in the division last season. We will need to see him more direct and playing more on instinct, showing his strengths.
Redmond is still a bit of an enigma for me, he possesses a lot of speed, acceleration and tricks but it seldom leads to a killer pass, accurate testing shot or decent cross. The kid has a lot of potential and just needs to look up more. He will skin a lot of defenders in this league it is the end product which is needed and how he has a defined role in this XI. Clearly Adams sees that he may best serve the team just behind the front man but he needs to develop as Sterling has done for that to be successful.
Defensively we should be ok this season, with a more robust midfield they will be under pressure less and Ollsson and Whittaker should be able to get forward more.
Lafferty could prove to be the best of the signings made as he has the physicality and attitude for this league and has obvious good technical ability. Why Pilkington is linked with Bolton is a mystery to me they are so much in debt it is untrue and he will not advance there. He is one who, when on his game as he was in 2011/12, will cause a lot of problems in this league.
We have the players for a promotion and if we retain Hooper and others, the goals as well. Somehow the formula needs to be found for a system that these guys fit into and understand.
Neil Adams is a very smart guy who has a lot of passion for he club and football nous. He should be given time to gel this team and all those on the guy’s back already are dramatists.