For the first time in ages I was unable to watch yesterday’s game. In my capacity as dad/taxi driver I was unavoidably detained elsewhere. I was even denied the uninterrupted luxury of BBC Radio Norfolk and the dulcet tones of Chris Goreham and Adam Drury.
Instead I was at the mercy of the BBC Sport app and the #NCFC Twitter timeline. It did little to lighten the mood. The first-half in particular made depressing reading.
For those who have sampled the BBC’s blow by blow account of a game, you’ll know the routine. It went something like…
2:29: Foul by Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe
8:25: Foul by Lewis Grabban
10:00: Misplaced pass. Bradley Johnson
12:15: Attempt saved. Lewis Grabban right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved
15:09: Foul by Cameron Jerome
22:30: Offside. Lewis Grabban
30:00: Misplaced pass. Bradley Johnson
35:00: Offside. Lewis Grabban
44:00: Offside. Lewis Grabban
Interspersed among the vast array of fouls, mispaced passes and a couple of missed chances was the occasional flurry from Sheffield Wednesday. Sound about right?
That City went in at half-time having drawn a blank will have been a surprise to no-one.
The optimists among us (I remember those days…) will point to the fact the back-four again held firm, but to have now gone ten games without scoring a first-half goal is almost unbelievable. Especially with those ten games being played out in a division where we are supposed to be one of the ‘big boys’.
The second half was better, by the sounds of it, and was enhanced by the arrival of Gary O’Neil . The ex-QPR man, over the years, seems to have developed a healthy habit of passing the ball to a team-mate, although one hopes the injury to Vadis Odidja-Ofoe – which prompted his arrival – is not a long-term one.
Again chances came and went – although none were as clear-cut as those afforded Lewis Grabban and Russell Martin in the first period – but ‘the Keiren Westwood show’ ensured that the travelling faithful would again depart riddled with the ‘f’ word.
Neil Adams’ post-match interviews also had a horribly familiar ring to them. He was clearly happy with the number of chances created in the second half and was left to bemoan the series of ‘worldies’ from Westwood, but remained confident that more of the same will eventually see it all come good.
He may be right. Perhaps those of us who are left feeling a little uncomfortable when the league table comes into view are jumping the gun. Perhaps I should be affording Adams and co the same level of patience that I unreasonably, and unfathomably, offered to Team Hughton.
I really hope we can just sit tight and watch it all come good.
In truth, the second half does appear such that, on another day with the wind in the right direction, we would have made the breakthrough and gone on to win the game. Alas City are in the midst of one of those runs where good fortune is in short supply.
But that still does little to explain the paucity of quality in yesterday’s first-half and the nine that have gone before.
I stand to be corrected, but my guess is that the build up play was slow and pondersome, the passing poor and a decent final ball almost non-existent? Thought so.
The starting line-up was also intriguing. While Nathan Redmond’s appearance on the bench was likely due to a touch of the ‘Raheem Sterlings’, the option to recall Bradley Johnson with O’Neil still on said bench was puzzling. At least it was to me.
Johnson was presumably dropped because his passing and overall form were poor in equal measures. I fail to see what could have occurred on the fields of Colney in the space of three days to change that. O’Neil should consider himself very unlucky not to have made his first Canary start.
Another who is clearly struggling for form – and who appears to have done himself no favours yesterday – is Steven Whittaker.
With a ready-made right back currently filling in alongside Michael Turner and three new, fully fit centre backs all waiting in the wings the solution appears obvious.
Otherwise, why did we bring in three new central defenders over the summer? Ed (Couzens-Lake) made the same point on here this week. Once Ryan Bennett makes it back to fitness that will be four viable alternatives.
As things stand it just feels a little… well, odd.
For those of a statistical leaning the numbers are looking bleaker by the week (unless the percentage of possession turns you on) and even Mr Adams would struggle to spin something positive out of three points from the last fifteen, or one win in eight.
But, the Championship being what it is, City still remain just three points from the top with a more than decent goal difference. And that – in itself – speaks volumes. They are also just four points from 13th place.
The league appears jam-packed with average teams, all of whom are capable of winning on a given day. And right now City seem to be fitting nicely into the pack. Unexceptional.
On paper Adams’ squad, at this level, appears very good. On the grass it appears average.
Only time will tell if it is indeed a good squad that is under-performing or an ordinary squad that we just think is a good one.
Right now I can’t decide.
I totally agree about the Squad being average. City cannot wait much longer for a return to form. Whitaker and Johnson were a liability in the PL and remain so now. Russell Martin is incomparably the best right back and when Bennett is back fit or Miquel is up to speed they should come in. J
Grabban is totally right footed, has poor ball control and strays offside too often. Whether that is because City build attacks up too slowly I dont know. But somehow we have to play at high tempo to put lesser teams under pressure. Jerome is a streak player? Lafferty is not a natural goalscorer. we need to get Hooper fit and firing as he has the best goal scoring pedigree.
Two games and this will all change. Hard to see it happening at the moment, but it will.
Burnham – the squad is not average. That’s a highly uneducated (footballing terms) statement. You’d be much better off stating the very inexperienced manager is average. That would make infinitely more sense when you actually think it thro.
it seems Russel Martin wants to play centre half, but we want a right back, so totally agree with Gary, as we have a few centre halves not playing. It will be a tough few weeks coming up, as soon a few clubs will get a run going and be clear of the rest. Will ncfc be one of them ?? As Xmas will br the time when the league is showing the quality teams and we all want ncfc to be there.
Having watched the game, I’d say your analysis is more than a bit harsh, Gary. We bossed the game against a useful side, but I do agree that playing both Tettey and Johnson in this situation is not helping. I presume Adams wanted a left-sided midfielder, but it was a weakness. Jerome had at least two shots that would have gone in on another day but were denied by great saves – not his fault. A return to the 4-2-3-1 with Howson, Tettey and O’Neil in midfield (assuming VOO is injured) would be the way to go IMO.
Fair comment Rick (4) – You were there, I was not. Was at the whim of BBC Sport and Twitter!
OTBC
“But, the Championship being what it is, City still remain just three points from the top with a more than decent goal difference. And that – in itself – speaks volumes. They are also just four points from 13th place.”
Thank you for adding the second part. So much last season we heard “we’re only X points off 10th”. The reality is we weren’t in 10th, never reached 10th, and didn’t finish in 10th.
That no one is running off with the league right now is very very fortunate and leaves us with time to pull things around.
Last time we were promoted we had a manager and a player that took control of the team and the league. I honestly don’t think we have either right now. Adam’s ability to straighten out a broken squad over the summer was admirable, but he needs to do more than that to win the league. He needs to get people playing at a level they’re not used to, turn journeymen into leaders, and get 90 minute performances out of them. Not ticking any boxes for me so far.
I’m a long way off joining the small (but growing?) crowd of saying Adams should go. That’s insane. But he needs very experienced help. The sad truth is the leaders of our team are a youth team coach, a scottish championship manager (of one season), and, well, I’m not sure what Robson has successfully done for any period outside of playing, perhaps youth team coach? Not a lot of Championship coaching experience. It’s not a traditional recipe for success in The Championship, that’s for sure.
People are still throwing around Pulis’ name. He’s not coming here now. But if we could use some money for a 3-6 month contract for someone with recent experience in the championship, that would be money well spent. We had the idea with Joe Royle, although he was definitely not the right person, but have since never filled that role. Oddly, we don’t list either of our ‘first team coaches’ as the Assistant Manager. Are they not good enough or do we believe we don’t need one? Perhaps we should do what every other team does and fill that role.
Agree wholeheartedly with your observations, in particular, why oh why must the team be hamstrung every sodding game by the inclusion of Bradley Johnson, whose one or two brilliant games per season are worth sacrificing. O’Neil has shown calm and control in his brief appearances and, as noted, seems to be able to direct a pass! So, with regards to Johnson and Russell Martin (great servant to the club that Russ undoubtedly is), is Adams afraid to drop the former and upset the latter by telling Russell to play right back, even if he does have delusions of central defender grandeur? Adams must be given time to develop his managerial nous but patience will wear thin (again) if everyone but he can see better options on the bench and in the squad as a whole.
I’ve seen nothing so far (having watched 10 out of our 14 league games) to suggest that this league is anything but ordinary. There’s lots of well organised, hard working teams, but none have yet to really put City to a severe test.
We seem to go through long periods during games looking “comfortable” yet doing very little with our possession.
It’s also giving me cause for concern that we’ve yet to get off to a flyer in any games and haven’t scored a first half goal since August. That needs sorting and soon.
OTBC
Norwich are far from the perfect football team, but nevertheless we are capable of winning this division. I only get to watch the home games in person but my view is that we are very close to getting things really right. Last home game against Leeds we dominated, yes we are at times static, the playing receiving the ball too often standing still and the optimum pass too often not picked. Despite all that we had half a dozen reasonable chances which might have been converted. Its the same story week in week out and as fan its frustrating because I see so much that is really positive, so often I bemoan that things just didn’t, quite, go our way. But this year I have confidence Norwich can get the formula right. Last year I looked at a team totally devoid of anything positive, this side isn’t like that. I really think when it clicks someone is going to get a hiding, hopefully at Carrow Road so I can enjoy it!
OTBC
I think overall performances have been ok, and with a little more luck two of the recent draws could easily have been wins, and we’d still be top. For that reason I feel Adams has been too reluctant to change things. Yes he changed shape yesterday, started Vadis, and dropped Redmond for the first time, but that was too little too late.
The message should be “win games or the team gets shaken up.” We haven’t been winning, but poorly performing players like Whittaker and Johnson still start almost every game. Adams knows his squad better than anyone else, but I’d like to see more rotation.
The Tettey-Johnson DM partnership was the foundation for our early success, but has become stale and predictable. Grabban-Jerome up front is another partnership that isn’t working. Hooper needs more minutes, but I’d have given Loza much more of a chance by now. You don’t know what you’ve got there until you put him in.
Still plenty of positives though. Not least that after a very uninspiring run we’re still only 3 points off, with 96 to play for.
Again we cannot turn our dominance into goals because we have average strikers who have the occasional good streak and we need at least one of them to have a streak as soon as possible.I’ll accept that Jerome has not had much luck of late.
Part of the problem is that our play is too predictable. Why don’t we try the odd drawback or flick instead of laboriously lining up a shot the gives defenders plenty of time to block and clear.
More sudden burst of pace please in conjunction with the best above I’m sure will open up defences.Josh must figure at some point in the game.
Whatever happened to the most difficult attacking move to defend-ie get to the byline and cut back to on -rushing strikers or attacking midfielders.
A video session watching Saints or Bournmouth would be invaluable.
So Neil -up the tempo and a few more flicks and fannies should do the trick!
As usual, these comments contain convincing views on both sides of the coin. I haven’t seen the last few games but it seems that we’re going a long way towards winning games without winning them. a few have said that there have been imperfections in the performances, but I haven’t heard anyone say that performances other than for short periods have been bad. All of this makes the fact that some have been booing at the end of games pretty incredible. That used to be something that only happened if a team were downright awful. The team and club need patience and faith. Fans seem to get on the team’s back all too quickly at Carrow Road these days. I don’t know where the sense of entitlement comes from. Teams go through lean periods and one where you find yourself in the top six at the end of it can’t be that bad. There’s a long way to go and there’s no reason that Team Adams can’t get things to click and keep us at the upper end of the table. I think most people would’ve taken a play-off place at the start of the season and we’re well on course for that.
@12 Ben
I think the point is that going on current form we’re moving down the league and we’re not well on course for a play off place (although we’re in them now).
I’d agree that we’re not at boo-worthy levels. I think it’s stemming from a hangover of last season, focused at the players whose performances haven’t improved over last season, and perhaps people thought we could have had a ‘better’ manager than Adams at the helm.
I think we’d all agree that we’re lacking a spark at the moment, the goals have dried up and – well spotted, Sherlock Dave B – we’re moving down the league. All the way down to 4th.
Two thoughts on this – or rather, two sides of a perspective. We continue to dominate vritually every game, and in some cases (Charlton, 2nd halves of Leeds and Sheff Wed) have been unlucky not to win. Our squad is undoubtedly strong for this level. Unlike last season – where we had clearly one of weakest squads in the league – it’s fair to expect us to arrest the current slip.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t expect miracles. The fact that we have probably the strongest squad simply underlines the gulf between the Championship and Premiership. Fact is, our new strikers are established English players costing £2-3m. A good use of the money available to Neil in the summer following relegation, but they’re not going to be Ronaldo or Messi. They’ll do some good things, some not so good.
Some of our fans seem to have troubles shaking off the jitters. A week ago the clamour was to start Josh Murphy and Kyle Lafferty; well, they started and didn’t change anything. Then it was for Vadis O-O; ditto. The issue is tactical flexibility and mental set-up. It’s frustrating, but the strength of our squad means that just a slight adjustment will put us back on track.