Hhmm… where to start.
While the Derby defeat was laid firmly at the door of fatigue and was swiftly followed by a Wolves walloping that bore all the hallmarks of being beaten by a better side, I’m struggling for extenuating circumstances to explain away what occurred in Horwich yesterday.
Unfortunately, as hard as it is to search for plausible excuses, neither was it a surprise. The three-word phrase that begins with A and ends in H lives again. Throw into that same mix another well-worn three-word phrase – one that starts with word and ends in progress – and I guess we start to see why we still emerge second best when faced with opponents whose raison d’etre is to put it up ’em.
Exactly where this current iteration of Norwich City FC is right now was summed up perfectly by a pal yesterday morning in less than 140 characters, a few hours before events unfolded at the Macron:
This team is still a puppy; fantastically cute in the main, but still liable to chew your slippers and shit in the lounge from time to time.
— Phil Harris (@kingswell) November 4, 2017
Yesterday the little bugger was at it again… brown stuff everywhere.
But Phil was right. The highs of the Riverside, Brammall Lane and Portman Road took some of us into the stratosphere, believing that the riddle had been cracked and this was the ‘start of something’, while in fact they were just a trio of very good away performances in which we heroically scraped home by the odd goal.
By the same score, the disasters of Villa Park and the New Den were not the journeys to the depths of Hell as reported in some quarters, rather two extremely bad days that gave Team Farke a massive kick up the derriere around marrying their Utopian view of the beautiful game with the brutalities of the Championship.
Yet there’s no escaping it’s been a feast or famine type season to date – especially on the road. Just a single draw – on opening day at Fulham – to show for their efforts, the rest split 4/3 between adrenalin-pumping victories and spirit-crushing defeats.
Right now there appears little chance of bobbing along minus any extreme highs or crushing lows; every game bringing with it either recrimination or jubilation, very little in between.
As ever, the margins are fine and even the most blinkered Trotter would likely agree that but for some woeful finishing in the opening 20-30 minutes City could have been out of sight, yet the chances came and went at the Macron just as they have done all too regularly of late. This time however they weren’t just half-chances and speculative efforts – these were sitters. And we missed them.
And there’s the rub. I could write 1,000 words on why I think we’ve gone from 1-0 wins at Boro to 2-1 defeats at Bolton, on whether our new squad is actually capable of mixing it with the Championship’s elite or on whether our Germanic direction is compatible with our intended direction of travel but winning games of football ultimately boil down to the act of scoring goals. And we’re not scoring anything like enough of them.
I’ll try for once to avoid the usual clichés but football is a simple game the hinges on that single act, and while we all like to watch our team weave pretty patterns and play in a way that’s aesthetically pleasing the pleasure as a fan is predominantly derived from winning.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the passing style and patient build up, and when it works there is nothing better, but right now I’m indifferent to whether a goal comes from a hoof downfield, a flick-on and a lob over the keeper or a flowing 20-pass move that starts from the feet of Angus. Yet the Farke way is most definitely the latter. It relies on creating chances through clever passing and movement and at the the moment they’re anything but plentiful.
I digress slightly because yesterday the paucity of goal-scoring opportunities wasn’t the problem. The issue was taking them when they arrived. Cameron Jerome was obviously the main culprit – and typically took a social media kicking as a result – but Josh Murphy too, before his late consolation, had a perfect opportunity to set up a grandstand finish. Unfortunately, like CamJam before him, he fluffed his lines when it really mattered.
The clean sheets while they lasted were magnificent but were realistically unsustainable in the medium term, and with us creating relatively few chances – for all the reasons muttered above – there is a greater than ever need to snap them up when they come along. And for all of Bolton’s grit, determination, desire and excellent finishing it came down to chances being missed in those opening 30 minutes.
But now’s not the time to start hurling the same toys out of the pram that flew everywhere in August and ended up looking just a little bit silly. Daniel Farke and his team had the wherewithal back then to turn a rotten August into an impressive September, and with a fit Nelson Oliveria and (hopefully) Alex Pritchard at their disposal there’s no reason to doubt they’ll be able to tweak the system and reinvigorate the squad in readiness for an improved November and December.
This international break, however irritating, has come at the right time and while I’ll be accused of more happy-clapping I remain confident this is not the beginning of a slide into oblivion that some are predicting. Yesterday was just a very poor day.
Right then Phil… we have a lounge carpet to clean.
In the summer I said that if three of the four same defenders regularly start this season then we’d misunderstood the problem. That continues to be true, with our only solution to defensive issues being ‘throw more players at it’.
Webber also misunderstood our attacking situation. Last season we sold or let go a lot of players who contributed to the “for” column. Webber’s reply “we don’t need any more attackers”.
The players we’ve introduced are “okay”. But where we used to discuss if players were living up to their massive potential, now the question is “are they any good”?
While the puppy analogy sounds great, any training progress will be hampered by the amputation of three of its legs in the summer when the parachute payments go away and there’s a 20M+ revenue gap to fill.
Yesterday was rubbish. I think teams have us rumbled. They see as as toothless and are willing to let us play with the ball knowing we’ll do little with it.
Still no win where we’ve had over 50% possession says it all.
Reading the comments on the live Pinkun yesterday was disappointed with the views which we all have the right to have is that Team Farke should be sacked from a few people these were possibly the same ones that were praising the turn round in September.
I think most level headed city supporters expected a bumpy ride this season with all the changes that have gone on and still see light at the end of the tunnel.
Webber ans co accepted a challenge and so far it has been hit and miss yes injuries and tiredness has taken it toll on the squad but as mentioned above city have been found out by other teams sit back for twenty mins and keep it tight then we run out of ideas, they also know if they keep CJ quite then they block our goal scoring threat.
While Oliveria is injured I can’t understand why we haven’t used either Abrahams or Fonkeu along side CJ it would give them an experienced pksyer to learn from and also take some of the expectations off him, come January supporters will be clammering for either purchasing or loaning in a striker my question is can we afford to do either.
The problem with loaning a player is the loan fee, his wages and the loaning clubs expectations as they will dictate his game time and at the end city have helped out another club with possibly no end profit.
Can we recall Morris or is there a striker released during the summer that is available we could take till the end of this season on a reasonable wage???
I’ve been clamouring on another website for Abrahams to be given a chance to see what he ‘can bring to the party’ and I’d forgotten about Fonkeu. I’ve seen them both in the Under 23s and both look promising and having either of them on the pitch would ease the pressure on CJ.
Morris, Godfrey and Adams are ‘coming home for Xmas’ (well New Year anyway), to be reassessed to see if they ‘can give the lads a hand’ and I’d be disappointed if Morris and Godfrey didn’t stay at CR. Goodness knows, we need someone who can score goals and I’m fairly certain that Godfrey could deputise for Tettey.
I think I’m right in saying that although Godfrey and Adams are available for return in January, Morris has gone on a season long loan and can only be brought back if all three parties are in agreement.
It may be that Farke will have to get very inventive and think outside the box when selecting a centre forward over the next few months.
Great attempt to get some sense out of what is happening to Norwich city Gary.
That the wheels have come off is not in question. Four straight defeats raise many new questions about the staff and the club itself, it’s simply not good enough. This has very much the same feel as last season, when the roof fell in on Alex Neil and he had no idea how to right the ship while Delia fiddled and our Rome burned.
I admit I was starting to think we have unearthed another Lambert when we suddenly started obtaining good results, notwithstanding the dull bore fests and poor results routinely served up at carrow road. Judging by comments I’ve heard and read and the contents of my email inbox this morning yesterday was something of a watershed moment. Goodwill is starting to drain away and dissatisfaction is building. It’s fair to say three points upon our return to action is an extreme necessity.
It’s hard to disagree with Davids assertion that we have indeed been rumbled, a toothless outfit with a soft centre. Just draw the sting, keep Maddison tightly marked and wait for the soft centre to collapse again. If Jerome has had a social media kicking this morning then quite frankly he deserves it for that display, some professionalism would be nice, the standard of some individual performances has dropped alarmingly and while it’s fair to mention the loss of tettey, oliveira and Pritchard there is no excuse for losing to Bolton.
The lack of any goals, entertainment or wins at carrow road hVe been mitigated by away wins, some notable, described on radio or viewed on sky. should the away form dry up the mood will turn very quickly.
Having nailed it’s colours to the (webberlution) – what a daft phrase – we had little choice in July but to hope and pray things would improve. Nobody seems to grasp the importance of this season, failure to get promotion will see further asset stripping and god knows what kind of rabble will stagger out of the tunnel next August, if yesterday was the shape of things to come, change is needed. This vision of the future stinks.
Have to admit to being a tad disappointed by yesterday’s result, however, I don’t think Bolton have actually been as bad as their early season form appeared to show.
Just think; if we’d had half decent officials at the Emirates, and at home to Derby then we would be looking back on a home defeat to a very good Wolves side, and the loss of the unbeaten away run at Bolton, and would be only one point outside the play-offs.
The striker situation is a worry with Jerome clearly not fit for purpose – yes, he chases and harries and works very hard, but in our current set-up surely his primary function is to put the ball in the net, a task which (at the moment) is clearly beyond him. Oliviera seems injury prone; Watkins yet to find his feet and for some reason the youngsters currently do not fit in with Mr Farke’s plans.
We have Naismith and Jarvis pocketing huge sums for little or no output (surely both Everton and West Ham saw us coming??), which probably curtails too much activity in January.
Hopefully there’s a half decent forward currently plying his trade in the lower German divisions!
When fit, personally I’d give Naismith a try up front – probably for his nuisance value as much as anything, as I’m sure the chance conversion rate would improve.
Given all that, and where we were after Millwall, I’m sure most level-headed NCFC supporters would take where we are now; after all, only 4 points off the play-offs can’t be bad (or can it??).
O T B C
Is the glass half full or empty? That is the question at present with some supporters.
I agree 4 points outside the pkay offs and with possibly 3 very good players returning ie Tettey, Oliveria and Pritchard it will take a couple of games to get up to speed but it gives us hope.
Team Farke says he likes to give youth a chance and as I said before Abrahams and Fonkeu need to be tried my concern is that he doesn’t have any confidence in them even for a cameo of 10mins and there is no chance of changing that until he put one or both on the bench.
Alex, you’ve consistently said over the weeks that Abrahams & Fonkeu should be given a chance. I’ve never seen them play but I can only assume that they are not impressing enough in training to warrant that place on the bench. If that is the case, then it would be wrong for Fake to put them on the bench at this stage.
As commented earlier we’re simply too predictable. Some of our passing and movement is very good but it all seems a bit one paced. We seem incapable of surprising opposition defences by moving the ball from defence to attack quickly. While we pass around the opposition gets organised and snuffs out any threat. Couple this with our strikers inability to score, or sometimes even to hit the target and things don’t look good.
Haven’t seen any of the U23 prospects but you would hope that 1 or 2 could offer something in attack even if it’s just hard work, the element of surprise, pace and the hunger to grab an opportunity. Other teams throw in youngsters; we always seem reluctant to do so.
A much more measured article than several elsewhere. We are just 2 weeks from derby victory at Portman Rd and what, in all fairness, should have been a league cup win at the Emirates. Granted the international break cant come quickly enough for us but, with Pritchard, Tettey, Naismith, others to come back, there will surely be a marked upturn later in Nov and into early Dec.
I just had a quick search for out of contract players, there are around 5-6 pages on the transfer market site. I guess many are there for a reason. But surely some may be worth a look at past videos or something . There might just be a player who will do a temp job for us while getting Nelson back .
Other than that get the young lads out of the u23 and give them some minutes , they will learn quicker than most and defenders will not know anything about them.