Asked in 1972 about the impact of the French Revolution nearly two centuries earlier, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai replied “too early to tell”.
While it may not take 200 years to judge the current season, it’s certainly still early days. That hasn’t stopped City fans taking to social media to give a range of verdicts. It seems their glasses vary from brimming over to the thinnest of dregs.
A bit of perspective may be called for. As far as we can tell anything from four games, it would be:
• We’ve played a fair cross-section of Championship sides.
• We’ve deserved, and got, eight points from four games – exactly the target for automatic promotion.
• There’s no relegation hangover, but we haven’t yet performed to our potential.
For me, that’s a generally encouraging picture. Of course we need to strengthen the strikeforce; I’ll be as disappointed as anyone if we don’t. I’ll also be very surprised if we don’t.
The rest of our squad and options look good. Daryl Murphy gave Timm Klose a rare uncomfortable afternoon – giving serious weight to Rick Waghorn’s view here – but generally our central defence has looked better than for several years.
We have plenty of creative options in midfield, backed up by the excellent Alex Tettey (apart from the unnecessary bookings he’s already picked up – cut it out, Alex). Regular readers will need no reminding of my admiration for Jonny Howson.
And we haven’t seen Alex Pritchard yet.
The naysayers will point to Sheffield Wednesday, and the 0-0 which some of us have argued was no cause for despair (let alone booing). If they were so good, how come after drawing at Carrow Road they’ve lost the next two?
Well, welcome to two facts about the Championship. First, most teams are inconsistent. Their concentration will vary from game to game, depending on circumstances and opposition; like Norwich in the Premier League, the mental pressure of facing higher-quality opposition will tell on many in the Championship.
Second, we’re a big fish in this pool. Occasionally, that will make teams nervous of playing us; more often, it will make them raise their game. The performances of Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich are testament to that.
Neither of those teams can play much better, or consistently, as they did against us. There’s no doubt that City can – and I believe will – play better than we did in those games.
For all its frustrations, I do love being a football fan. Most parts of our life require us to be rational, consistent and – at least to some extent – responsible. Some of us pretend to be that way about football too, but we know in our hearts it’s a thin veneer.
The truth is that in our supporting lives, we let ourselves be irrational and unreasonable. For regular readers: more authentic, less sincere. And we know it.
It simply can’t be true that year in, year out we get the rough end of officials’ decisions. It certainly can’t be true that 92 clubs get the rough end of them, as their fans will vociferously claim.
By the way, I was interested to see both sets of fans complaining after the derby that their side was hard done by. It seemed to me the debatable decisions went both ways (which probably means we got the better of them).
Fans are sometimes boorish – yes, including ours – but a saving grace is the humour that football inspires, especially when things aren’t going well.
Reluctant as I am to give praise to Aston Villa for anything, their fans came up with an impressive chant as they lost in the League Cup at Luton recently. In response to taunts from the Luton faithful, the Villa fans came back (to the tune of “we score when we want”) with “You’re nothing special – we lose every week”.
Class.
PS There’s a twist to the Zhou Enlai/French Revolution story – it’s probably not true. Apparently he misheard the question and thought it was about an event in 1968. Diplomatically, the Chinese say the original version is “too beautiful to change”.
Though normally a stickler for truth, I’ll go along with them this time.
Yeah that article puts it all niceley into perspective. If we hadn’t conceded when we did we’d be top I am sure. It’s a long old season – especially in this wretched league. A good articulation of the supporter mentality, too.
And I am sure any genuine neutral (which I’m obviously not) would have said a draw was the right outcome.
Shame about the idiots with the flares. What are they trying to prove?
I also try to feel quite positive. Last year everyone says we look like a really good championship team. In many ways we are, and I agree we definitely haven’t hit or stride yet. Another striker on board and I’ll think we have a squad that really should be pushing very hard to win this division.
I know other teams are good but I really do think this Norwich team could really do well this year
OTBC
I think this game showed (if we ever doubted it) that we need to play our own way, and not get dragged down to trying to play the way less accomplished Championship teams do. The long ball up to a single striker doesn’t suit us. (I think maybe Jerome is too much of a gentleman). We need to play our way through teams, the way we did for a goal this weekend.
This is a hypocritical piece: Murphy gave Klose a RARE uncomfortable afternoon?! As good as he is, he’s played about 20 games for us and we can already say in matchweek 4 of the second tier it is rare for Klose to be bullied?
We have creative options ahead of Tettey? Maybe, but almost single one is a mirror image of the other. Tidy, but no pace and no second striker goal scorer… I count identical players excluding Murphys and Jarvis and Brady whom I consider wider options as being Andreu, Wes, Naismith, Pritchard, Madisson, maybe even Howson. Any experienced manager would play only one such player.
The excellent Tettey? I like him, but stats suggest that with he shielding we concede far more goals than at any other time in our recent history. In fact, since his arrival at the club “protecting the defence” we concede, on average, nearly 2 goals a game. Shielding can be done by any intelligent player, it’s about playing tactically and positionally, not about tackles and yellow cards. David Fox anyone? Andrew Surnan at Bournemouth? A certain Michael Carrick? By all means play Tettry but PARTNER HIM WITH SOMEONE THAT CAN DO EVERYTHING ELSE from midfield: lead, pass, create, shoot, score, play 40 games a season, organise, pass some more, turn the ball over, get up and down the pitch….. Neither Dorrans, Mulumbu or Howson do that, so if Tettey is first choice we need a player signed too. (Chris Brunt for me). Our midfield is a cluster, no 2 players are ever side by side as a unit, only ever one ahead of the Other (so often is Howson caught upfield and his lack of pace exposed when tracking back, never a problem for Johnson). If the second midifleder cannot get back to sit and form 2 solid banks of 4 we’ll concede against most teams.
Finally, (I’m not going to bother with the striker situation) Alex Neil spoke after Ipswich about 2x things: conceding the goal and “not moving the ball quick enough”.
A) he played no fewer than 3x central holding midfielders in Mulumbu,Tettey, and Howson…. And we conceded a pathetically defended set piece from a strike that ANYONE of THREE should have been protecting, and AN blamed Wes for a sloppy pass. I reiterate my comments about the central Midfielders operating side by side as a unit!
B) “not moving the ball quickly?” To where Alex? Where do you want the ball moved to? you insisted on width coming from WBs who were pinned back by very basic Ipsiwch tactics! If they don’t get forward and wide of those 3 central players (none of whom are capable of going wide themselves) then where is the ball to be moved forward to?! Wes, Naismith and CJ were all so central and congested they offered no option, and of all his signings, none will offer a wide alternative because they all play the same position!!!!!
My class isn’t half full, it was empty after Cmas when AN was found out. Just remember he’s been in charge for nearly 2 years and has bought his own team entirely so he has no excuses. Neil Adams built a squad for the Chump, creating niche roles to maximise BJ in particular, and frankly AN came in on a shiney horse and rode off with the credit, by bringing solid organisation to the back. But just remember, we thrashed Ipswich with Neil Adams team, built for the Chump, and AN has been in charge far longer than NA ever was. We scored, whether people like it or not, 44 goals under NA before he resigned, and in an Identical number of games under AN, we scored only 44 again. Defence aside, it was no attacking improvement…. And now in this season, AN has spent record outlays on his own team, and we are underperforming.
Great bloke that Neil Adams is Mike his City team were wildly inconsistent and confidence was severely on the ebb when he graciously stood aside. As for shaping a coherent team for the Championship….Lafferty wide left anyone??!!
Stevie M:
Neil Adams was not a qualified manager. AN was/is.
NA inherited Hughtons squad. AN inherited and promoted with NA’s squad, relegated with his own.
NA bought CJ and Grabs for the same money that AN has paid for squad players like Canos and Madison, not to mention Pritchard, Naismith and Brady.
NA was creative, visionary. He invented a role for Johnson to thrive, AN plays Brady as a LB.
NA spent less on his entire team than AN spent on Naismith.
NA, by the end of Sept, had a team that was top of the league with 6 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. AN has accounted for his 2 draws before August finishes.
By Sept end, NA goal difference was +20 -9. Let’s see how AN does in the next 4 or 5 games and then redress this chat?
I know NA was not ready to manage and the wheels came off slowly in October (3 drawers, 2 losses and a win) and November was chronic…. But that was when he was finding a new formula to be more defensively sorted. Remember, by Dec he found that with 10/15 points +15 goals -5 against. Every team has a blip, every manager loses the plot. But Neil Adams only lost the plot for Nov, AN lost it for 3 months last season!!!!!
NA also lost Bassong & RVW through choice and the best player at the club, Leroy Fer. His signings of 3x strikers, GON and VOO were hardly bad. Alex Neil lost ONE periphery wide player in Redmond. He has kept the rest.
Steve Bruce for manager, yesterday. And give NA a chance as first team coach.
Mike (4) : thanks for your thoughts. I won’t respond in detail (others might like to chip in), but just a couple of points:
Neil Adams led us for the first 24 games of the 2014-15 season, amassing 37 points and leaving us in 7th. Alex Neil was in charge for the remaining 22 games, amassing 49 points (best in the Championship over that period) and taking us to promotion.
When the opposition is mounting an attack against us, I have to say I’m happy to think of Tettey protecting the back four rather than David “please run past me” Fox. The goals conceded have been despite AT rather than because of him.
Not sure anyone else has considered Wes and Howson to be identical – or indeed Wes to be identical to anyone.
Cheers
Wow, Mike (4), with supporters like you…..
I can’t remember reading a more incoherent rant on here for such a long time. Think it’s back to The Pink Un for you, which is where you first posted this nonsense.
I’d like to argue every point with you but at times you do it for me.
We all know AN has made mistakes, he’s admitted as such, but he is building a decent squad in my opinion, one which, when complete, will be the envy of many in The Championship.
NA deserves credit for what he did but AN finished the job.
Thanks, Derek (8) and others. I’m still reeling a bit at Mike’s farrago.
Just to take one idea “NA lost … the best player at the club, Leroy Fer.” It’s easy to find film of the famous team goal that Arsenal scored against us in 2013-14. Instead of looking at the Arsenal players, just look at Leroy Fer jogging back, watching them in admiration and doing everything except his job.
We got £10m for him and must have laughed all the way to the bank.
NA did a decent job and deserves respect. He bought quite a few players. AN made them play.
Chaps, no need for animosity. Argue my tactics, not just with your instinct.
Here’s a point on the AN versus NA rant. I stipulated that Neil Adams wouldn’t have won promotion first time out.
Next, AN undeniably led a promotion charge with a greater points haul from an almost idienta number of games, but 2 important points are missed:
1) we were promoted on BJs goals, which came from a niche position that AN created with an imaginative formation in which is best players thrived.
2) AN inherited that formation and squad but brought organisation, which I again had stated. But attacking wise, we scored no more in those games than we did under NA.
3) When AN has spent money, he’s spent a lot on players that don’t fit his squad. NA bought Jerome and Grabs for less money than AN recently spent on Pritchard, who positionally will be difficult to fit in. What’s more, ANs own squad was embarrassed in the Premier League. His players, his formations, no excuses. I reiterate,he inherited a free scoring Neil Adams team and added to it, that’s all. What’s more, he threw away automatic promotion twice because of his over cautious tactics against top of the table teams.
4) not blowing on NAs whistle, but every manager and ever team has blips every season. After a shocking Oct and Nov NA won 3/5 and scored 15 goals. I’d say he’d turned the corner and we don’t know whether that would have been sustained or not.
5) it MUST be considered that NA did inherit CHs team, not his own. To say that Fer wasn’t a class above is simply wrong. It was embarrassing when he came on for Swansea, only as a squad sub, last season, and walked past Tettey and Howson on his way to setting up the Swansea winner. I hated his want away attitude as well, but it’s simple that he, Bassong and RVW were all record signings in their positions that NA had to deal with losing. NA built the promotion team, and got them playing free scoring football. That is undeniable. AN tinkered in the Chump to make it more organised, but when he changed that squad and spent big money to build his own, he failed.
6) Finally, a note on Tettey. I am a fan. But all he is really good at his defensive midfield shielding. And what all fans MUST ACCEPT is that he and Howson, as a midfield partnership, have been general ever-presents in the core heartbeat of the team….. For 2 relegations. The ACCEPTANCE must be, wherever the blame is laid, is that Tettey and Howson protected the same defence that has our worst concession rates ever in the Top flight…. For 2 seasons. They are the same midfield pair that supported and created attacks in those same 2 seasons…. Where we had records for our poorest goal scoring tallies ever in the top flight.
7) I give AN to the end of Sept, but if you lot think drawers against Shef Wed and Ipswich is good enough for a team entirely of Alex Neil’s own building and coaching after approaching 2 years in charge, at record outlay, then your aspirations are different to mine.
People would do well to recognise, and AN needs to get this into his head…. That playing for drawers doesn’t work. Newcastle have lost 2 already but are only 2 points behind us. That’s one loss and one win and we are behind them. All so that AN can hang his hat (with much media support) and say “look, we are unbeaten. Take our start across the season and you get promoted”. No, you don’t. Because the team forgets how to score freely and win when necessary. That’s how you throw away automatic promotion and get stuffed by Sundeland to be relegated without a whimper. Or are there some short memories out there? I say again, 2 points behind having lost twice, but after winning rather than drawing, see what happens to goal scoring form in the next few weeks for that team.
Mike (10/11) – Thanks.
But you do seem to be arguing against yourself. Alex Neil inherited Neil Adams’ players – and as you say, found ways to get a lot more out of them.
I’ve always pushed back on those who rubbished Neil Adams; he did significantly better than the other teams who came down with us, for instance. But the simple truth is that AN quickly showed himself a better manager.
Unfair, surely, to say his squad was ’embarrassed’ in the Premier League. He made mistakes, by his own admission, but came close to survival with what was widely recognised as the weakest squad in the division. By common consent, he was let down by our failure to make appropriate signings in the summer of 2015.
Interesting that you’ve prejudged Pritchard will be difficult to fit into our team – despite acknowledging AN’s previous skill in finding imaginative ways. Shall we wait & see?
I made very clear that it’s early days. After 4 games, you can take almost any club and say “one loss and one win and we’re behind them”. That’s what 4 games means.
No, Neil Adams was the imaginative one…. And you’ve misread my probably poor grammar. Neil Adams Had to build his squad from afresh (Fer, Bassong, RVW etc), Neil Adams had to buy the correct Chump players (GON, Grabs, CJ), Neil Adams had to get creative with tactics. (4-1-3-2). I am saying that AN came in and therefore inherited a free scoring team that simply needed organisation and defensive balance…. Which is what he provided, to his credit.
I think you are quite wrong about our squad only just being relegated and that we had the weakest squad in the Premier. Having watched every single game, I’d predicted relegation in October because it was so stifled, so uninspiring, so little threat to the opposition. And why? Alex Neil sold the leading scorer (for whatever the rumours off field), AN refused Laffs, Grabs, Wes, he chased one target convinced on his judgement in Brady…. Remember in the autumn we got 2 wins from 12 games… The writing was on the wall.
But then the travesty of NCFC fans….. Xmas…. Everyone was waxing lyrical about the performances (first we had really seen) of both Dorrans and VOO, and with their involvement came goals and points…. Yet someone (AN) then decided to drop them again once his favourites were available. And post Xmas? Well, that’s pretty emphatic history, including Brady Chase II with the insistence Naismith was the man.
as for my point on Pritchard, it’s another case of an agent DVD landing as available on ANs desk. Maybe review how much better Tom Carroll is, and then wonder why AN chose Pritchard. My pre-judgement of Pritchard is based on his physical stature which is very similar to Wes, Naismith, Andreu, Madison, Howson, but a bit slower than other alternatives for similar roles like Canos, Brady, Jarvis and the Murphys. WHAT IS THE POINT? Don’t you get it? AN is trying to buy a team rather than create from what he has.