To quote the skipper: “There’s been a lot of cynicism at times from certain people and certain areas, and it’s a bit disappointing as a player, a bit disconcerting, because the effort has always been there”.
While Alex Neil steered clear of questioning his side’s ‘effort’, he did agree post-match that they lacked hunger. And surely the two go hand in hand?
For an hour against Cardiff, the Canaries were excellent but for the final 30 plus minutes they were awful. Yesterday felt just like a continuation.
Faced with opposition who were bursting full of confidence, innovative, vibrant and lively, the Canaries appeared edgy, predictable, leaden-footed and lifeless. Throw the aforementioned dearth of hunger into the mix and we ended up with probably the most painful 95 minutes of Carrow Road football seen this season.
The previous home defeats – against Charlton and Reading – were both crushing in their own right but were games City could, probably should, have won.
Yesterday was different. From minute one Brentford were better, won every personal battle, won virtually every 50/50 and carried a goal threat throughout. To use the boxing analogy it would have been stopped after 20 minutes with City, for the most part, barely able to land a glove on their slippery opponent.
Not since the final game of last season, when Arsenal’s 2-0 win confirmed what we already knew, have Norwich been so comprehensively outplayed. Back then we were afforded a lesson by some familiar names: Ramsey, Arteta, Giroud, Özil, Podolski and co. Yesterday it was the likes of Pritchard, Jota, Diagouraga and Douglas who did the damage. Unfamiliar yes, but precisely the same outcome.
It was hard not be be impressed by Brentford’s work ethic and the way they pressed City high up the pitch. Tactically Mark Warburton got it spot on and in doing so gave Neil a short, sharp lesson in Championship football.
Part of the David McNally gamble in appointing the young Scot was around the fact that he, like Neil Adams before him, will have to learn on the job and learn quickly.
Lesson one: It’s not the league in which to mess around with square pegs and round holes.
Despite his valiant and laudable attempt to deflect the attention away from Steven Whittaker’s difficult afternoon, Master Neil must privately question his decision to plonk his second-choice right-back into the centre of midfield.
It backfired horribly. With many baying for an anti-hero on whom to unleash their frustration Whittaker’s struggles offered them a perfect target; the booing that accompanied his inevitable withdrawal leaving a particularly nasty taste.
Football crowds are notoriously unforgiving but the treatment of the makeshift midfielder was incredibly harsh.
With Gary O’Neil ruled out with a suspected broken foot, injured in training on Friday, Neil had a conundrum. With only one recognised central midfielder in Bradley Johnson he had a choice: to either to change the team’s shape to accommodate the players he had available or slot an unfamiliar face directly into the position vacated by O’Neil.
He opted for the latter but, presumably because he perceived Wes and Conor McGrandles as a too ‘lightweight’ to take on the defensive side of the role, handed the stripes to Whittaker. With the benefit of hindsight it was a mistake. In truth, it felt like one even before a ball had been kicked.
Either way the unfortunate Whittaker can consider himself inadvertently shafted.
With Johnson’s strong suit his tackling and endeavour, City’s control of the centre of the pitch was non-existent. Ironically, they struggled defensively too. Gaps appeared everywhere. Master Pritchard ran the show.
Game, set and match Warburton.
But, while Neil may privately concede that a Hoolahan or a McGrandles bolted in alongside Johnson would have helped City pass the ball better, there is no excusing the aforementioned lack of hunger.
The big question is how do you instil said quality? Part of the downfall of Neil Adams was his inability to do so
In City’s starting XI, ten have sampled Premier League football and have been duly rewarded. Only Kyle Lafferty has yet to kick a ball in anger in the top division. By contrast, unless I’m mistaken, not one of Brentford’s starting line-up have sampled its riches.
And therein possibly lies the answer: One team played as if their professional lives depended on it; the other as if it were another day at the office.
Among many issues facing Neil early on in his City career, that one remains the biggest and most challenging.
On the face of it, it *shouldn’t* be the case – and Russell Martin and co are quick to tell us it isn’t – but the evidence suggests otherwise. Too many half-hearted performances, too many ponderous spells of play, too many sloppy passes. All have been far too prevalent since August.
Yet, still we remain in touching distance of the play-offs. For all the ills listed above and for all the angst that’s befallen the Yellow Army as a result, City are still in with a shout.
As ever, the management team’s job is to now dust them down, make them graft on the fields of Colney and gear them up for the joys of St Andrew’s. If they can do that, and succeed in the unenviable task of instilling some of the passion on view in yesterday’s FA Cup, then all is not yet lost.
But more of the same and, with games running out, even the play-offs may end up a distant dream
We will not get promotion this season, we are no where near good enough. That is despite the ‘quality’ of the players we have. Added to that the club’s ability to get rid of a manager only to replace him with someone less capable. To make things worse, Ipswich will go up….
One of the most depressing afternoons at Carrow Road I can remember. The atmosphere was appalling, the players didn’t seem to give a toss and the manager showed deeply worrying tactical natevity. To say our prospects look bleak would be something of an understament. I can’t help but look at the hunger of Brentford, the youth inspired revival of our friends down the A140 and the performance of Cameron McGeehsn against United and draw the conclusion that our biggest problem is a squad of players who are in the comfort zone of earning too much money. Not top dollar by today’s standards in football, but enough to lack the desire that is required when they come up against a team like we did yesterday. We may need three years in this league to root them all out and get back to being a proper club again.
We definitely didn’t look good enough yesterday. We were outmuscled in midfield and seemed to lose almost every individual battle. We couldn’t get the same wing-play going as against Cardiff and definitely lacked that player in the middle of the park that could dictate play. Positives for me were an excellent stop in the second-half by Ruddy, Bennett looked reasonable when he came on, but kept coming inside rather than take on the full-back. Olsson showed his class at times too, and although I’d be happy to have Garrido at left-back I think we’ll miss MO if he goes.
The big question for me is what happens for the game against Birmingham? Firstly I don’t think the centre-back pairing of Turner/Cuellar works, there’s too many mistakes. I’m pretty confident we’ll see Bassong back in the team. But the biggest concern is if both Tettey and O’Neill remain injured? what do we do in the centre of the park, do we try and revert to a 4-1-4-1 formation, conventional 4-4-2, stick with 4-2-3-1 or go for a diamond?
Excellent article Gary .Must mirror the feelings of many Norwich fans
OK Neil was hamstrung by the number of midfielders ruled out through fitness and suspension but here is a man who comes with the reputation of blooding young talent .
The likes of McGrandles , McGeehan and Hoolahan must surely wonder what they have to do to get in a starting line-up
I shared the sinking feeling when the team was announced.
We must cover the left side of midfield in the Jan window.the prospect of seeing Lafferty struggling to bring everything on to his right foot is frankly embarrassing for a team with top six aspirations.
I look forward with interest to see what Neil does, or is allowed to do, in the transfer market this week.
In my view we need two full backs at least one centre back and a left sided midfielder who can shoot.- successful candidates to be blessed with pace also !
I woke up this morning, after yesterday’s depressing performance, with the feeling that the club, which has been in decline over the last 2 years still thinks it is a ‘Big time Charlie’ We have a large squad of players (not the best squad we hoped for, just the most expensive) and as other teams found yesterday those players in large squads who play very little competitive football are not ready to step up when needed. We have young, hungry players and experienced players who no longer want to play for us out on loan. We pay £1m for players who are not considered ready to step up to the mark. And we show no interest in cup competitions as our league position, which gets worse every year, is more important
It is only a few months ago that the Directors apologised for mistakes last season. They set up a new structure, the Football Management Board to ensure they did not happen again. They appointed an inexperienced coaching team, experienced back up felt needed did not even last until the start of the season. The pre-season organisation was a disaster. Players brought in had more of an appearance of committee purchases, players available at the right price rather than to form a team. Within a few weeks of the new season the cracks were beginning to show and one of the coaching staff was sacked. Experience was needed. Was hired and results improved. But within a few further weeks the manager, who the experience had been brought in to help, left. We hoped that there would be some continuity with the experienced coach helping the new manager but no, within a further couple of weeks, the coach too had left.
I had a bad feeling before yesterday’s match after reading a players reaction to Phelan leaving. It was made worse when I saw the team selection. How did we expect to compete with no midfield and players playing out of position?
If I am alarmed at how the club has been run over the last few months how do we think the players feel? The answer was there for everyone to see yesterday afternoon!
Yesterday was equal to the worst performance since our climb to the premier league. Apart from Ruddy and Redders not one can hold their head up. After the first half petformance I was expecting arses kicked at half time ans action in the second half, especially following ANs comments on the intetview on bbc last Sat. night and he will be boss. I won’t prejudge him on yesterday alone, but my confidence is at floor level. Wish I hadn’t bought tickets for Birmingham.
Sounds like we’re all agreed about yesterday. Full credit to Brentford, who showed all the hunger and discipline we expected, plus an array of slick footballing skills. Good luck to them. Meanwhile, Brentford’s qualities served to highlight the lack of them in our team. We had a dubious set-up, made worse by poor execution. A painful afternoon.
What does it mean for the future? Perhaps those seeing yesterday as symptomatic of deeper problems and writing us off are right. But not necessarily. Now we’ll really find out about Alex Neil and his talents. There are plenty of games to go; yesterday could be no more than a setback, if the players can take it as a wake-up call. We showed against Bournemouth and Cardiff that there is another side to this team; that’s the side we need to see again, pronto.
I won’t be renewing my season ticket this year. Nor will my friends who sit with me. This result notwithstanding, there is no real vision going forward for NCFC and the signings both on and off the pitch show that. We failed to bring in any midfield class that could inspire the rest of a fading department and I’m baffled as to how we’ve managed to alienate both Joe Royle and Mike Phelan – two of English football’s most respected men – within only a matter of weeks of them arriving at the club.
Whilst I have no wish for a fly-by-night sugar daddy to run the club, the current board (by whom I mean Foulger, Smiths, etc) cannot go soon enough. And I have supported them through thick and thin. But enough is enough. The only stability we’ve ever had under them is as a poor to middling Chamionship side and they’ve consistently let the team down when they’ve had a chance to make the most of success.
Time to move over while we are still a going concern.
Cityfan (8): it’s your decision about renewing, of course, but at least make it on the basis of facts. We did NOT alienate Joe Royle – he wanted to help us, but a change in personal circumstances meant he had to reluctantly withdraw. As to Phelan, I think we all know that a new manager will bring in his own staff. The only way we could avoid alienating Phelan was to make him manager; judging by every measure of opinion available to us, that would have been an unpopular move.
In midfield, I’m told Vadis Ofoe is a quality player. Sadly, injury has prevented us from being able to see much of him so far.
As Norwich fans, we’ve enjoyed a fair measure of success as well as mediocrity – especially since the arrival of David McNally. I still see that ambition, and will try to help a young and exciting manager to establish himself here. Respect to you, but I’ll be renewing.
Strange line up – yes. Poor performance – yes. Terrible penalty decision – yes. Their keeper played a blinder – yes.
Just as the ‘fickle-ometer’ went off the silly scale after Neil’s first couple of appearances on the sideline, so it seems to have gone shooting off in the opposite direction after this one.
Surely he’s allowed the odd mistake before the season tickets start getting ripped up?!
Players need to get a grip but so do some fans.
I should clear something up – this is not a reaction to yesterday, more that I have been a season ticket holder for 25 years and I’m bored of the little club mentality mediocrity. We will never be huge but if we think big we can be. We had a chance to sustain our success with three years in the premier league and we blew it. I don’t buy the “personal issues” thing as Royle knew what he had signed up for. And getting Phelan in knowing Adams was only a few bad games from the chop was seriously bad planning. I don’t want to be thrown in with the hyper-reactive “we lost, we’re doomed” gang – I’ve sat through a lot of bad times and been appalled at the way other fans have behaved (I even defended Roeder till all hope was lost, FFS!) – but I don’t want to continue investing money and more importantly precious time and emotion into a club that spurns almost every opportunity for continuing well earned but briefly attained success.
Cityfan (11) – I think it best we steer clear of “personal issues” pertaining to Joe Royle. They were indeed legitimate, personal and should remain so.
Dear me. And I thought I was frustrated…
The only thing that would make me chuck my season ticket wouuld be the idiot I have to listen to in the row behind. Even he did not cheer Whitt’s substitution. Why?, because he’d already left.
Give AN a break. He’s been here five minutes. He’s picked a team that’s done well for an hour last week and then had his only fit midfield pairing fall over the day before.
Whitts was doomed in there. I can think of an alternative, but there wasn’t a game plan ready for Brentford yesterday with our current squad.
He needs to learn fast. Put square pegs in square holes and start building his team for next year. The trouble is,shipping out average players on high salaries is less than easy.
Right now, we need a bit of activity in the window, AN’s right hand man in place. And a bit of unity in the club, on the pitch and in the stands.
Otherwise, a next to impossible team selection will turn into an impossible job. And that is a real worry.
I agree with cityfan. I have supported Norwich since 1980. How many times have we witnessed the people responsible for running this club screw it up as soon as things are on the Up? It’s happened too many times. I look at clubs such as Swansea and Southampton and I think to myself ‘what do they do that’s so different to us, why can’t we do the same? What he he’ll is wrong with this club that nobody wants to invest in it but are willing to do so with Hull!?
Jaundice (14): if you’re looking at Soton and Swansea, isn’t it also fair to include Coventry, Portsmouth, the Sheffield clubs etc in your assessment? Not to mention Ipswich? Any reasonable perspective says we’ve done better than other comparable clubs, though not as well as the two you highlight. In the five-and-a-bit years since David McNally’s arrival we’ve had two promotions and 11th & 12th place finishes in the Prem – the envy of many.
If our majority shareholders were only concerned with cashing out, I’m sure they could have found a Vincent Tan or Shahid Khan. Interesting that you mention Hull, whose fans are uncomfortable – to put it mildly – with their owner.
We wish City were doing better. Personally I think there’s still a fair chance we’ll be swapping places with Hull at the end of the season. We’ll see about that, but in the meantime let’s not overlook the positives about our club. To most people who follow football, we aren’t a club that screws much up.
That’s the reason I highlighted Swansea and Southampton. They seem to be doing something right. Of course Portsmouth etc. Are disastrous and nobody in their right mind would suggest emanating those clubs. A lot of people who follow football have in fact questioned the decisions made.in particular the way we have replaced 2 previous managers let alone the questionable timing.. .
Jaundice (16): I recently had a bit of independent feedback. A client of mine, who heads a major organisation in another sport but knows his football, learnt that I was a Norwich fan. His reaction:”What a great club, and very well run”. Not my words.
I’d say there are two sides to a football club – the football side, and the business side. We can argue all day about how things are going on the football front, and let’s face it there is still so much yet to be decided on that front that it’s hard to draw firm conclusions.
But I fail to see how anyone can argue that the business side of NCFC is badly run. We’re in the black, we can afford to assemble one of the deepest squads in the league, and we are now apparently in the top 40 richest clubs in THE WORLD!
Doesn’t seem like the board have “let the team down” or “screwed it up” to me.
Top 40th richest in the world? Well what is, let’s just say, the 4th richest club in the world doing in the 2nd tier if English football?