Frustration rather than anger thankfully appeared to be the overriding emotion after City’s home defeat by Sunderland, but seldom can I recall a walk back to the car that was so quiet. The sense of disappointment and anti-climax was festering but for most the ‘early days’ mantra prevailed.
And inside the ground, other than a few strangled boos from some River End malcontents (there are always a few), most were able to keep a lid on their frustration as an afternoon that promised so much ultimately delivered nothing but that gnawing pain in the gut.
Quite rightly ‘patience has been the key word as Project Farke takes shape and it remains as pertinent now as it did at 1:30 yesterday but there’s little worth in pretending there’s any joy to be had in a 3-1 home defeat.
City are still some way off becoming the finished article – we all know that – and the Head Coach has already warned of blips and hiccups en route as he attempts to embed his message into the psyche of his new squad. But those blips and hiccups will bring with them a modicum of pain. That’s football. So too the way its whacks you in the cojones if you start getting a little too ahead of yourself.
To pore over the negatives at this early stage is neither fair or helpful. That the heart of City’s defence failed miserably to cope with the dual threat of Lewis Grabban and James Vaughan was there for all to see – and will form the core of the debrief – but to pass early judgement on Messrs Zimmermann and Franke when the former, in particular, has received plenty of plaudits would be equally knee-jerk.
To have conceded three soft ones when being under such low levels of pressure would be a worry if the season was 270 days old, or even 27, but it’s neither. Its 270 minutes old.
Time, for once, is on our side.
And with QPR just around the corner there’s an early chance to get this one out of the system.
Yet if there was one thing that irked yesterday more than the result it was that Simon Grayson probably departed the fine city content in the knowledge that his comments to the Chronicle were justified.
For those who haven’t seen them, in the pre match chat, when questioned on the route the Norwich board have taken the club Grayson himself careered off down the Ray Wilkins path. And I can only imagine his smug grin after City had dominated possession for the opening 27 minutes only to be undone by a long hoof from his keeper, a flick-on and a finish from Grabban.
And for the Mackems to have then gone on to take the three points will no doubt be perceived as a mini-win for those who preach the gospel according to Wlkins & Brazil.
The chance to ram those ill-chosen words back down Grayson’s throat were sadly missed but, as the man himself admitted post-match, these are indeed early days.
One positive, for me anyway, was that the River End was remarkably patient in the face of some fairly unedifying adversity. There were moans and groans of course – it’d be odd if there were none when you’re losing at home – but generally there appeared an acceptance that a definite style of play is being developed and that patient possession based football is now going to be our thing.
What does need to happen looking ahead is that said possession based football is played with more tempo and zip. I’m all for patient, neat passing and fluidity but when it all happens at a stroll and in front of the opposition’s back-four it just becomes a little bit too easy to defend against. And when the creative spark is not igniting the goal scoring chances are few and fleeting.
But that’s something that’s being worked on and something that will come. And now’s not the time for recriminations or lining up the next scapegoat.
As an occasion it all started brightly but then fell a little flat – as things tend to when you’re 3-1 down – yet it was interesting to hear Harrison Reed comment afterwards that he had ‘a few goosebumps’ as Carrow Road found its voice when the teams emerged. Interesting too that he found inspiration from the ‘great words’ of Russell Martin in the huddle.
The march from Riverside to the ground organised by Barclay End Norwich and our friends at Along Come Norwich did appear to the galvanize fans and it’s clear the impact a buzzing stadium can have on the players. So in that regard let’s hope for more of the same on Wednesday night.
Predictably our friends down the road are getting incredibly excited over the five-point gap they’ve opened up over the course of seven days week and already #mindthegap is being resurrected.
Like we keeping saying… early days.
As an #itfc fan, but also follower of your excellent site, I am enjoying the #mindthegap banter, But I am also a realist. Please be kind, let us have our moment, because I suspect it will be only be a moment. Having said that, as you so rightly say, football does have this habit.
Welcome Graham. Appreciate that those among you who are shouting the loudest are probably not the realists. We all have them
Thanks for the kind words – appreciated. Enjoy the season; just not too much ☺
Fair enough, Graham! Best wishes to you
Decent GG. I urge every reader to look at Parma Masterclass 16 on the pinkun messageboard. The most encouraging piece since DF and his St. Crispin Day speech on Oliveira and collective action! A masterclass indeed . It should be required reading for every naysayer before QPR roll up on WEd.
One thing that makes the Championship so hard to predict right now is the number of older heads in charge of the supposedly less fancied teams. There is an unusual managerial strength in depth in our division this season
Our first 4 home games are all against teams that few predicted to be in the top 6 come May. Yet look at the managers: Grayson, Holloway, Redknapp and Clough. Every one of them has been around the block many times and had success at clubs with relatively limited budgets (Redknapp don’t forget started at the old Bournemouth). Every one is capable of organising their team to frustrate the hosts and look to nick it with swift breaks. How many of them have a front pairing as sharp as Vaughan and Grabban, or a creator to match McGeady remains to be seen. Later on we will be welcoming McCarthy and Warnock, another pair long in the tooth and much wiser than we ever like to admit.
It just emphasises what the newer group such as Farke, Monk, Rowett , Warburton and Santo are up against.
I started off expecting us to finish mid-table, and nothing that’s happened so far suggests otherwise.
To state the obvious a disappointing start. I have to say that except for,his rather unfortunate “it’s our country” quote I’m in complete agreement with Graysons arguments on foreign V English coaches. I have also gone on record on this site as not being a fan of the new structure of football director and coach, I just don’t like the idea that the coach is going to take the flak for things that should be the the football directors responsibility. Not only is this structure alien to out football culture it will prevent any decent experienced UK manager from coming anywhere near us.
That said I was and remain underwhelmed by the new structure but having not got too excited by the appointments I am not going to get too dispondant by the first few results and look forward to being proved wrong over the next few weeks. There were things to like in the performance and some of the football was very promising but we need to be sharper in possession and DF needs to quickly understand that we won’t win many if he doesn’t start with Wes!
Here’s hoping we can build on the positives and bounce back quickly.
There’s a line in one of my favorite travel documentaries -Long Way Round where Evan Mcgregor realizes the enormotity of their situation. To paraphrase “we’all just ride from London to New York, how easily it trips off the tongue”.
It makes me think that maybe the size of the task was downplayed. “We’ll play our own style”, “possession based football” etc…
Sounds great until your defenders can’t handle a long ball from the keeper.
The larger question I have is, do we decided this new footballing style is the best approach for this league, or are we doing it just because that’s what Farke likes to play?
The first few games were always going to be tough for the new set up and few true believes would have expected anything else.
The history of Grayson’s teams has always been based on the long punt up field to his strikers and city having two young CB that are not use to that were in danger of losing this game.
Stats show city dominated the game in every area except scoring, I haven’t read or seem anythink about chances that CJ have during the whole game and it seemed subs this time came on to late to effect the game, not good when the other team scores an own goal to make the score line look respectable.
Is Farke still peved with N-O he says not but it couldn’t have been helpful to his mind set prior to the game with rumours abound that Wolves have offered £8m for him and Reading still interested, to make this new communication work and let the supporters know whats going on the club should come out and say that he is staying or that they will lsten to offers even indicate what they might accept.
Lets get another more experienced CB in to help out the lads and possibly a striker that Farke likes and trust to do a job.
Dominated the game, corner count crazily in our favour, but managed to find ourselves 3-0 down.
That was our previous home game with Sunderland in April 2016. Plus ca change…..
As Harrison Reed (and Gary Gowers) say, the passing football needs to have a quicker edge to it. Given time, Sunderland were well organised at the back; we gave them too much of that time. A test of Farke’s vaunted ability to adapt and tweak.
PS Wes may well start on Wednesday. But let’s not forget he missed a chunk of preseason; no surprise to me that he hasn’t started the first two league games.
A number of contributors here and elsewhere have been advocating the inclusion of a British coach in the management team. If Sunday showed anything both on the field and in his post match comments it is that Farke has a lot to learn about English football. All successful teams in our leagues start from a sound defensive platform, and despite saying that they are aware of the problem, nothing changed from midweek when we conceded two to a league two outfit. Zimmerman probably had his worst game so far but he is not the concern for me. The three at the back were so far apart at times that the long ball was always a danger and I simply don’t beleive Franke is up to this level at the moment. Everyone says it is early days yet, and that is true, but the talk of 70% possession cuts little ice when you only have one shot for keeper to save and that from your fullback. I am still optimistic but this failure for me is down to a poor team selection. I hope Herr Farke learns quicker than his predecessor.
This was one of those games where the longer you don’t score, the more likely you’ll concede.
We varied the pace nicely in the first 15 mins but once Sunderland sat 9 men in front of their box, we ran out of ideas.
I felt sorry for Naismith and Maddison, they were buzzing around trying to make things work but up front Jerome’s touch was too heavy and Watkins’ too light, so each time our midfield made progress, our forwards gave the ball away too easily.
Oliveira us suited to Farke’s style, his movement was excellent when he came on. He should have been on at half time.
I know he’s a trooper/soldier etc but please can we keep Jerome in reserve for battering ram duties. He’s just not suited to this style of play.
Spot on @cityfan – whatever happened at Fulham is ‘history’ and if DF insists on ALWAYS starting with Jerome, then I can very well see Basil asking his agent to find him a new club. Should Basil go/leave, then I fear we are in for a prolonged stay in the Championship.
Thankfully we have QPR on Wednesday and then Villa away on Saturday (which will be another tough game) to try and ‘right the wrongs’ of yesterday, but DF and his coaching staff need to adjust to Championship football and QUICKLY!!!
It is only one poor performance – so far.
.I think we will win well on Wednesday night, and then this Sunderland debacle will be put in more moderate perspective
I guess Webber (British and holds coaching badges) will not be shy of sharing his opinions with Farkes.
Hopefully future defensive mistakes will just be a rare event, instead of becoming a ‘habit’ – which they did last season. Because habits are hard to break …..
It is indeed early days and is too early to give a more wider assessment on what has been seen so far. What I hope doesn’t happen is that Farke has not got the personnel to play the football he wants to play in a successful way. You have to box clever in this league with technical ability and tactics not being the be all and end all, but quality should shine through.
I still question why Russell Martin is still here and the more cynical may suggest that having a team that wants promotion without actually achieving it is music to the majority shareholders ears, but I’m hoping Farke can get NCFC up on the cheap and leave the board with uncomfortable feeling of being back in the Premier League. Think Harold Macmillan in a night club – How much are the drinks?
Some great comments on here
I personally was baffled yesterday , we are 3-0 down and kept passing square , no real attempts to move the ball forward with any pace .
I do understand this is very much ‘work in progress ‘ but , that said we still need an end product .
Unlike the Fulham game , no change in formation and as many have said , subs too late to make any impact .
I’ll try and keep the faith OTBC
Thanks for the comments folks. No way of disguising the sense of anti-climax, and a work colleague greeted me this morning with a “what the hell was that all about?” Short of trotting out the ‘patience’ and ‘early day’s’ platitudes I was at a loss as to explain it, other than to conclude if you concede three softish goals then you’re unlikely to win a game of football. We’ll (hopefully) have days when we play worse than win and play better and still lose. That’s the nature of the beast.
I did have one rather dark though during the second half as I contemplated a home defeat though, and that was the football we are looking to play requires good technicians; those whose technique is unfazed by having the pressure piled in mentally and physically Championship-style. And usually good technique costs and isn’t generally available in the aisles of Aldi and Lidl.
Luckily I snapped out of it.
[BTW… an interesting piece tomorrow by James (Finbow) in which he examines the new style of play].
I did wonder too if our players are actually good enough. But dealing with the pressure can’t be honed in pre season. It’s from here that Farke’s leadership qualities come into play, for all his obvious coaching ability.