If only being a Norwich City fan was more simple.
Following Tuesday night’s events at Craven Cottage from nearly 300 miles north in my student accommodation in Durham, at half past eight I was in a triumphant mood.
The increasingly reliable Graham Dorrans had just unerringly slotted his second penalty of the match, rewarding City’s first half efforts with a comfortable two goal lead.
If only it could have stayed that way. If only I supported a team who were capable of defending leads.
Despite Fulham’s deficit, I still felt on edge. We all did, surely. I was present 20 days earlier at St. James’ Park, watching on as City disintegrated under the intensive pressure Newcastle were applying on Michael McGovern’s goal. The chaos of the final two minutes felt surreal. We couldn’t defend our lead.
It almost happened again at Molineux. Sitting pretty at 2-0 following Robbie Brady’s aesthetically-pleasing curler, a moment of Ivo Pinto lethargy allowed Wolves back into the game.
The final twenty minutes were painful to watch. City held on that day, but only after surviving an agonising six minutes of relentless bombardment. We sat too deep. We got lucky.
Rotherham at home continued the trend. A combination of Wes Hoolahan innovation and the uncharacteristic clinical finishing of Cameron Jerome had handed us another two-goal lead. Again, however, defensive ineptitude let the side at the bottom of the league back into the game.
It took a late goal from the much-maligned Steven Naismith to secure the victory.
And so Craven Cottage arrived. The pattern of defensive vulnerability and conspicuous lack of second half stability continued to manifest itself, as former City striker Chris Martin condemned us to a disappointing point in the capital.
The laudable away fans departing that game would have inevitably left with a sense of profound disillusionment.
They had every right to. City may be scoring goals – a considerable 26 so far in the league – but we are conceding far too many as well. It’s not just the mere statistic of conceding 18 that is so telling: it’s the timing of those goals.
Too frequently, we enable poorer sides to obtain a foothold in games they have no right to achieve anything from. The past few weeks have not been good enough.
There is no solitary problem that City need to solve. Instead, the issue is multi-faceted, with Alex Neil’s often perplexing team selection as well as his in-game tactics culminating in us allowing sides to get back into games.
The players must receive some form of criticism, too: the same eleven who looked so comfortable throughout the first half on Tuesday night subsequently crumbled after half-time, letting what could be two critical points slip.
There’s no single cause of us being fundamentally incapable of defending leads.
Things have to change. Alex Neil must finally come to terms with the fact that Ryan Bennett is a superior centre-back to Russell Martin, who has improved over recent weeks but still too often demonstrates visible signs of defensive fragility.
We must stop retreating so deep when we hold a lead over teams, consequently inviting pressure and leading to the inevitable. We must learn from our plethora of recent mistakes.
City still do possess the second strongest squad in the league behind the now ominous-looking Newcastle United. Our attacking options are considerable, with Alex Pritchard being unfortunate to miss out on Tuesday at the hands of the under-par Robbie Brady.
Cameron Jerome has been superb all season, working tenaciously in his solo role up front and providing the side with a focal point, as well as scoring goals.
Jacob Murphy has been terrific, playing with fearlessness and boldness when deployed on the flanks. However, such significant time on the pitch in recent weeks will have surely taken its toll on his body, and the prospect of the fresher Josh running at Championship defenders is surely an attractive one for Norwich City fans. The latter should start against Preston on Saturday.
Jonny Howson has been missed in the most recent two games, a player who provides such creativity and solidity to our midfield, retaining the ball excellently and distributing it with positivity.
Graham Dorrans has been good in recent weeks, but his partnership with Alex Tettey in front of the back four remains an unstimulating and slightly undynamic one.
Defence is where the problems lie. Ryan Bennett has been grossly under-used by Neil this season, remaining on the bench when the inconsistent Martin continues to be selected.
And although not starring against Burton Albion three weeks ago, the brilliant Timm Klose remains our best defender, whilst Martin Olsson has had a terrific season at left-back.
Ivo Pinto provides City with an extra dimension and additional enterprise going forward, but his defending remains questionable at times, as evidenced at Molineux and then at Craven Cottage. Pinto was culpable for Fulham’s equaliser, marauding up the pitch and leaving Norwich’s right flank exposed.
It’s by all means not all negative for City. We remain second and are scoring goals freely. But, Alex Neil must re-evaluate his team selection – Bennett must start – and learn to tighten up his defence. It nearly cost us at Wolves and against Rotherham, whilst in the Newcastle and Fulham games we were less fortunate.
I – like most City fans I’m sure – remain confident about our prospects. However, episodes such as that of Tuesday night must be eradicated rapidly if we are to sustain any form of successful promotion charge.
We must be resolute, maintaining solidity for the whole 90 minutes and not allowing inferior teams routes back into matches. We are capable. It’s probably only a matter of time.
If only being a Norwich fan was more simple.
OTBC
I really do feel sorry for certain players like bennett and Pritchard. Things must change at the back as you say, but they won’t. Unfair selections based on preference and stubborness is a trend Neil has continued from Hughton and it will be the canary based death of him. Martin is dreadful, but he will play. Apart from the goal at wolves, Brady has been very poor this season, but he will play. This, we all know…and what’s annoying about it is Newcastle did exactly what we called for in the summer and yet we made the same mistakes this time round. A clear out of the repeated failures had to be made, but instead we held onto the inbetweeners yet again. A few early season struggles would have been preferable to watching the same clowns pull out their disappearing act when it really matters. Russell Martin, John Ruddy, Sebastian Bassong, Turner (who somehow got a new contract), mulumbu and Tettey (who also got a new contract) should have been moved on for fresh blood based on their top flight inability in a ‘forward thinking club’. There’s no point getting out of the champ if you dont even have the ambition to stay up, let alone execute that plan. Turner getting a new contract tells you all you need to know. We will go up second most likely (because he isn’t actually good enough to get this team firing fully in the champ…a proven fact this season), we will apply the same terrible transfer regime, get relegated, Neil will get sacked and we’ll be back to square one. It’s all becoming slightly surreal. That groundhog seems to be appearing on and off the pitch every game.
Ps. It isn’t just at the back. We’re still missing too many chances. We scored two pens, one was very lucky. We’re not putting games to bed, a hangover from not having the goolies to buy a gayle when we had the chance. Jerome is a very good striker, but he’s still very wasteful even at this level.
Bennett is not the answer. We tried him in the earlier part of the season and we weren’t winning as regularly. I would rather we went out and bought a new CB in January an upgrade ready for the PL when we return. Until then Martin it is.
#2 Jeff: I’d hardly describe Cameron Jerome as “camp” – not to his face, anyway:-)
There is much truth in what you say, but I reckon it’s far too pessimistic a view to take only a dozen or so games into the season.
We are where we are on merit, and if you look at W8 D3 L2 Pts 27 it doesn’t look too shabby now does it?
The CB issue remaining unresolved is deeply concerning and I do wonder if the attitude is one of “let’s get up by hook or by crook and then have a real Summer clear-out”.
Pritchard, Maddison, Godfrey, Thompson and a couple of others have all been bought for the future so there is definitely some thought going on in there somewhere. W have the Murphys and Harry Toffolo too. The only signings I would really question are Naismith and Andreu tbh. It’s already been explained on here and elsewhere that the Turner and Whittaker extensions were triggered by relegation so there’s nowt we can do but accept their continued presence for good or ill.
# 3 Ben: I agree with you. I don’t necessarily expect a new CB in January, but I’d love to see one!
While we average two points a game I’ll not be complaining.
I don’t think the goals against Fulham can be attributed to Martin. He is however a player who has become the target when things haven’t quite gone to plan.
Both goals came from the right through to the centre – where Tettey lost key battles with Parker and McDonald throughout. Fulham also used the space behind Pinto to great effect.
The question I have is this; we have the second best squad in the Championship but seem not keen to rotate. Only Neil and his staff have eyes on the fatigue stats etc before the game, but to me, Wes and Tettey looked leggy while the same could be said for Jacob for the best part.
We’ve got terrific talent in the wings – when there is Tuesday game and some players are perhaps fatigued, isn’t this the time that you start the likes of Naismith, Pritchard, Josh M or Canos? And what about Thompson? Just think we lost the game in the legs.
We are lucky – we don’t need to play the same 11 week in week out. It’s one of the aces up our sleeve. I wonder if at times, we are too cautious when it comes to stick or twist.
“Defence is where the problems lie.”
Ok Will, I would agree, except I would say “defending” is a problem, throughout the team.
The whole team are responsible for defending at times, just as the whole team sometimes chip in with goals.
Do you remember Daryl Russell? He had a habit of giving the ball away just as his fullbacks and fellow midfielders were heading forwards. If that led to an opposition goal who did the fans blame? Shackell and Doherty obviously, because they were the last two people you saw trying to retrieve the situation.
At Fulham Dorrans did much the same thing. So they likes of Martin get the blame for “being out of position”. As for their first goal we did little wrong – it was just payback time for a couple of lucky deflections that Jacob Murphy had earlier in the season.
At Newcastle we had a kick-off at 3-3 and gave the ball away within seconds; Oliveira, with fresh legs, put no pressure on Shelvey. Nothing to do with centre-halves or full backs.
Swapping Bennett for Martin would give us more aerial presence but that’s about it. Bennett doesn’t read the game as well as Russell, and is far less likely to react when scoring chances come up in the opposition box. I would love to see Bennett develop the talent he has but it looks to me that he is always going to have “potential” – we’ll still be saying that when he’s 35. If he’s so good, why aren’t other clubs trying to buy him?
Frankly we can buy as many Tim Klosses as you like but until the guys ahead of them learn to look after the ball a lot better we will always be inviting pressure on our back four, some of which will pay off, whoever they are.
The “Bennett factor” is surely one that unites over 90% of City fans. We all have our little grumbles about our favourites not playing or those we don’t hold in high regard being selected. But I have never heard a plausible explanation for the non selection of RB. Disregard the fact that the majority consider him much better than RM there was never a game where following his performance any expected him to bed dropped. Some argue you can’t drop the captain…others do not have that problem at international level.
Good piece but it prompts me to say that we all have different opinions and different solutions. It is my view (and several around me at matches) that John Ruddy would be a better, stronger and more vocal GK for us at present. McGovern is a good shot stopper but sometimes lacks presence in the penalty area.
The long Neill goes along with Martin’s ‘Mike Brearley’ role, the longer the team loses its chance of solidity. The two best Centre Backs should be playing at CB but they can’t because AN insists on playing Martin regardless. At best Martin should either be playing at RB or as cover to Pinto.
This farce is increasingly unacceptable to many fans and we need a leader on the pitch who deserves to be in the starting XI. That is not Martin and the defensive stats bear that out.
Keith B makes a very good point. The loss of the ball just before Fulham’s second was the primary cause of it, and fully avoidable.
Only Alex Neil sees them in training but I think Ryan Bennett has been treated poorly. Maybe there’s a personality clash which can skew a manager’s thinking.
Sure RB’s not infallible (no one is) but he’s not been in the defence for any of the 2016 capitulations (Liverpool, Newcastle, Fulham..). He had done little wrong before Martin returned. Indeed, we kept clean sheets with RB in the team this season and last (Swansea & Southampton).
He seems to be treated pretty harshly by fans whereas Timm Klose attracts undying devotion – clearly an entertaining social media presence helps.
Martin does seem more convincing at right back but doesn’t offer the attacking threat of Pinto.
It’s a big call to leave the club captain on the bench but that’s Alex’s job to make those calls.
4 – Whittaker’s contract was not triggered by relegation (or promotion). He was a free agent and was bafflingly re-signed for another year. He’s played a couple of games and has been dumped for the foreseeable future yet again. Apart from Cup games I can’t see he’ll play in league unless we have numerous injuries/suspensions.
11 – Bob – I don’t much care how they perform in training. What matters is how they perform on a Saturday or Tuesday night in actual matches, and having watched certain players for several seasons I’m pretty certain I know who should be starting and who shouldn’t ….
Pab(12) – you might not care about training performance but it has and always will form a major part of a manager’s decision on who to play in a match. Care to share with the rest of us who your favoured CBs are (I can’t read your mind)?
Ben(3) – we have won more points per game since Martin came in (although Bennett played against Sheff. Wed and Bristol C., two of the better sides we’ve played) but the number of goals conceded per game has risen alarmingly – 5 in 5 with Bennett to 13 in 8 with RM.
Interesting that we still hear about Alex Neil’s ‘blind spot’ for Russell Martin. Even more interesting that it’s apparently a blind spot shared by Paul Lambert, Chris Hughton, Neil Adams and Gordon Strachan.
I’ve been critical of Russ previously and don’t believe I’m blinkered, but in recent games he’s seemed to me our best defender. Klose and Bennett are similar: strong, aggressive and slightly impetuous. A better foil for Klose is someone with anticipation, positioning and composure. I can see why managers choose Russ.
All about opinions, of course! And it shows that we have a substantial squad of similarly-talented players. Long may we have lively debate, while Alex Neil and his decisions keep Norwich in the top two.
When we score do people think we have only done so because of the perceived weakness of one of the opposition centre backs?
Stewart(14): Fair point re: Martin & other managers but Strachan’s record with Scotland is increasingly poor, Adams with Norwich not great while Lambert & Hughton used RM as a right back, very arguably his best position during his best years.
#12 pab: Yes you could be right on Whittaker and if you are, the decision to re-sign him just shows how potentially weak we are at RB. Inexplicable, really.
#14 Stewart: Russ has hardly been our best defender imo, but he is nowhere near as incompetent as some folks like to paint him. I’m happy to see him alongside Klose over Ryan B for the reason you suggest.
Our best defender? Martin Olsson for me, by a Norfolk country mile (sorry Timm)!
Ash (16): Chris Hughton supported Russ’s wish to move to CB. I believe (though happy to be corrected) that Lambert took the same view in the latter stages of his Norwich time.
Russ was a great RB until he started to lose pace, at which point other attributes (watch how often he anticipates & intercepts opposition attacks) argued for moving into the centre.
He hasn’t been infallible, but I think he’s been pretty decent in recent weeks. Sad that some are so prejudiced against him that they won’t see it.
The author was ‘almost 300 miles away, yet seems to think Russ Martin was at fault in some way for either of the goals conceded at Fulham. He wasn’t.
Barry thinks he knows what 90 percent of fans think. He doesn’t.
Jeff thinks everything is dreadful. It isn’t.
We have a good spine but a weak backbone.
I felt there was a big overreaction from fans following the Birmingham defeat & was disappointed to see Bennett dropped for Martin, but difficult to argue with the results following it. I personally trust Neil’s judgement & I do wonder if there’s a underlying reason why Bennett has never completely broken through. In the meantime Martin appears an easy target.
Interesting that Neil gets criticised for not rotating when he get criticised for doing it last year.
Pab/Martin, you say Whittaker’s contract is baffling/inexplicable, yet you give the reason; injuries & suspension. With the changes in the loan market we needed to make sure we’re covered & Whittaker gives us that. For better or worse, at least Neil knows where we are with him.
Things are never as good or bad as they seem. If you had offered us the position we are now in at the beginning of the season we would have all grabbed it.
My only comment is that AN needs to take a few more risks with his team selection. He seems to lack the confidence to give a couple of players a rest in a three game week. Wes could have been given a night off on Tuesday and would then probably have been firing on all cylinders for this Saturday’s game.
It is interesting that not only have a succession of managers supported Russell as a centre half but also, pundits on Canary Call have robustly defended him against callers criticising him and calling for Beneett to be played. I like Bennett but I can see that the more mobile, better passing Martin brings different skills to the defence.
It is wonderful to see fans complain that managers are not picking the best players. Why would any manager do that. We have had it with Becchio, Lafferty, Odija etc etc but if the team does not perform then the manager gets sacked.
Every manager wants to win every game. It would border on the insane for a manager not to play what he thinks is the best available side for that particualr match and risk his job. Neil plays Martin not because he likes him nor because he has a problem with Bennett. He plays him because in his view, Martin is the best choice in that position.
Finally, last season we had complaints that Neil did not have settled side. Noew he is being advised to rest palyers and use his squad more. It really is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Mick Dennis thinks he is vastly more qualified to comment on Norwich city than anyone else. He isn’t.
Pritchard, excellent against Rotherham on debut. Inventive, skilful, motivated, with better finishing from his colleagues would have set up three or four goals. Dropped next game against Fulham for Brady. Disinterested, wants away, goes through the motions, criticised roundly by the radio commentary team and substituted early for his poor performance. So which one starts at home the following Saturday? What the hell was Neil thinking?