In sport, statistics will never tell you the whole story. In a simple and somewhat idealistic world, a mere glance at a football score, an assessment of a batsman’s average or an analysis of a rugby player’s try-tally would provide us with a comprehensive indication of what really happened.
However, as many of those City fans who were present at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon will testify, such a desirable scenario will never really ensue.
I’m more than happy to accept the facts. Daniel Farke’s Norwich City lost 2-1 in South Yorkshire, were the inferior side in possession and had fewer shots both overall and on target. We have just a solitary point from a possible nine, in a season where all fans were united in the belief that we needed to see tangible improvements in results. We have conceded an alarming eight goals in three games.
Corners and set pieces have proved our downfall, both at the back and of last season and into the beginning of this fresh campaign. Indeed, such a trend has revealed a grimly concerning degree of continuity. However, as I sit here this Monday evening, reflecting on the weekend’s display and looking forward to Wednesday night’s game against Preston, I genuinely am filled with a strange sense of optimism.
And this optimism isn’t blind, irrational or a merely youth-induced sense of footballing hysteria. Instead, this optimism is based on watching all 270 minutes of City’s Championship football his season, an eventful trio of games that have been saturated with moments of true attacking flair, cohesion and refreshing signs of potential penetration.
Losing James Maddison and Josh Murphy alarmed us all. However, the personnel we have recruited to replace them – Teemu Pukki, Kenny McClean, Jordan Rhodes and to a lesser extent Moritz Leitner – combined with the advent of Onel Hernandez’s brilliance on the flanks really has led to the construction of a side that looks remarkably more potent going forward.
Gone are the days of ponderous lateral passing and a sense of collective confusion about how to get in behind teams. Gone are the days where City showed a relentless lack of urgency on the ball and appeared incapable of making runs into the channels. Instead, Farke has coached his team to now move the ball with a renewed sense of fluency and tempo, finding pockets of space in areas we previously never ventured to in order to create so many more clear-cut chances.
The truth is, had certain individuals in yellow and green been more clinical so far then City would be sat at the top of the table with nine points. Onel Hernandez at 1-1 at Birmingham. Jordan Rhodes’ spurned one-on-one and subsequent penalty at home to West Brom last weekend. Mo Leitner’s one on one, Grant Hanley’s header and Pukki’s follow up at Sheffield United. The opportunities are there. The composure – so far, anyway – isn’t.
Chances aside, however, the displays more generally have been so much more positive. Pukki has been terrific, playing in a deeper role than many anticipated and continually darting around to find space and release teammates higher up the pitch. Hernandez has been a revelation, terrorising all three defences he has come up against with his pace and persistent desire to be direct. Jordan Rhodes’ runs have been excellent, intelligently getting into areas that saw him score 83 goals in 159 second-tier games between 2012 and 2015.
I’m not saying that Norwich City have suddenly become Manchester City. I’m not hyperbolically claiming that Farke is some form of managerial genius. All I’m trying to argue is that an objective, sensible and rational assessment of our three performances so far reveal a significantly improved team going forward that appears capable of scoring more goals than last season.
Is that so unreasonable?
Farke and his coaching team were clearly aware that this was the area that required the most urgent surgery. They deserve credit for doing so. All the reaction on social media has centred around the eight goals conceded in these opening three games, but many seem to neglect the fact that we have managed to score a laudable six – against three good opponents – ourselves. That barely happened at all last season.
The defending may need a bit of work. However, it is worth remembering that the majority of our goals conceded so far have been the product of individual errors – that can be easily eradicated over time – than a collective inability to defend as a group. Our defence improved markedly as last season went on, particularly around the festive period. Under Farke’s leadership, I have every faith that this can happen again.
So please, City fans: don’t write this team off just yet. We are a mere three games into a Championship season, a campaign that will inevitably be characterised by its usual turbulence and unabating sense of drama. I accept that results so far have been disappointing, however, all I’m trying to state is that a rational assessment of our performances reveals a side that has improved significantly as an attacking threat.
So, statistics can lie. And, from a fan who travels home and away and seeks to be as objective as possible when analysing City, I do somehow sense that our position in the league table as we speak may well be one of those occasions.
If this team continue to gel, continue to play with the verve, purpose and dynamism that we have seen in possession so far, and recapture some of the defensive solidity we witnessed for such considerable parts of last season, then things are surely set to improve soon.
OTBC
Hopefully DF will see sense and do away with zonal marking at set pieces. That would have saved us 3 goals this season
I think this team does need time to gel and that, when it gets into its stride, results will improve. The one point from three games could easily have been bettered, based on performances I witnessed in two of them. However, we are now in a position where points are needed to build belief and there is now a lot hanging on results rather than performances. Will we see a pragmatic to three at the back to help grind out a couple of wins?
Hi Will
I really like your optometric view and and enjoyed the read so please continue in this vain.
Statistics can be used many ways depending on what you want to prove or disprove there are many people on this and many other sites constantly use them to make a point but never actually show a table on how they get to their respective results and not showing a table others can’t argue against their points if view.
Yes the defence has been leaking a few goals just like in many previous seasons as city supporters we should have got use to that but over many seasons we have also scored more than conceded and that ladt season was a worrying situation, 3 games in and many see the same errors happening and the bandwagon in starting to roll down hill and the doom and gloom merchants already want a change this will be the same people that wanted Houghton and Neil out and Lambert back which would never hapoen.
Still on the defence we have now lost Husband to Fleetwood till January and could this be a possible permanent deal or just giving him game time so he gets his confidence back.
We are also about to lose Klose if you believe all the noise coming out of the fartherland to either Hamburg or Basle with the same papers reporting city have already told him there will be no new contract so that could be another player out how will city cope get a loanee in or recall Raggett, use Godfrey or possibly give Martins a try (this is a no no)
Last we are fighting Aston Villa for a striker on loan till January then a permanent deal, financially we should have no chance but the Frog papers are suggesting city are the favored leaders in the chase but there are also mentions of Wigan, Blackburn so is his agent trying to drum up interest and the price.
This could be a very interesting end to the transfer/loan window for city, I think the English clubs have self inflicted a transfer system on them selves that gives European clubs an advantage, it was mentioned in the Daily Mail that internal transfers could have stopped prior to the league starting but still allowed clubs to buy in players till the European window closed, also the World Cup didn’t help.
Ah, yes, the Daily Heil!
I believe that FIFA’s/UEFA’s transfer rules simply specify that there should be periods within which clubs may buy and are silent on the ability to sell. This would effectively make it impossible for a league/nation to have different rules for intranational and international purchases.
We can sell to European clubs between now and the end of August only because they can buy. If China has a transfer window for all of November (this is an example, I do not believe that they have) then my understanding is that we could sell a player to a Chinese club then.
Tables generally don’t lie we have one point! I agree some good football played and goals scored but you cannot keep saying IF this IF that. If Sheffield United had taken their chances we could have shipped four! If I hadn’t taken eight on 17 at the weekend I could won a golf tournament – but I did! I agree, however, that there are signs of improvement in the final third but we don’t seem to be able to find the balance.
Good stuff, Will.
Obviously it’s a crucial “If” at the start of your last paragraph, but all the positive elements you mention are real. A win tomorrow would give things a very different look.
I agree with your article Will and in spite of the meagre points tally, I still feel that the football has improved from what we witnessed last season and our first league win will hopefully come in the next 2 games.
What´s this, another call for patience? – that song´s beginning to wear a bit thin I´m afraid. I´m in the, some might say, fortunate position, of only being able to follow Norwich from afar, unable to watch any matches. I base my opinions on results alone, football is after all, a totally results-orientated industry, and nothing suggests to me yet, that this season will be any more successful than the last. Goalscoring chances are still being missed at crucial times, goals are still being leaked. also at crucial times,( eg, W. Brom and Sheff U) in fact defensively it sounds as if we´ve got worse, at least in young Gunn we had a decent keeper. Are the players who´ve come in significantly stronger than those who left? Time will tell on that front, but nothing suggests it yet.
This League is notorious for churning out one tough game after another, and this weeks are no exception. I´m predicting max one point from the two, we might just scrape a draw tonight, but forget about winning on Saturday, Leeds have finally, after endless tries, found themselves a good manager.
We keep battering teams from the edge of our own penalty area with no luck whatsoever. Perhaps the keeper should try a few more speculative shots.
At least our possession stats are very encouraging!