For years Norwich City had an Achilles Heel at the heart of their squad.
The reigns of both Chris Hughton and Alex Neil, promising though they both were at times, were fatally undermined by a soft underbelly that all too often presented itself to a grateful opposition to be lacerated.
Other than a superb first season for Sebastien Bassong, and a smattering of classy pre-injury performances in Timm Klose’s first half-season in the Premier League, the centre of Norwich’s defence had been a carousel of mediocrity for years.
Various incumbents have tried to fill the roles at the heart of the back four and been found wanting both individually and collectively. Ultimately the failure to create the necessary solidity and continuity at the position led to the downfall of both managers.
The arrival of Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke saw the departure of Bassong, Michael Turner and Ryan Bennett, all long-term members of the centre-back department, whose high wages and underperformance over a prolonged period did not fit the new “value for money” philosophy.
In their place came Marcel Franke, for a not inconsiderable outlay from Bundesliga 2, and Christoph Zimmermann, Farke’s Dortmund B skipper, on a free, expected to be a starter and a developmental squad-filler respectively. They joined club captain Russell Martin fresh from signing a new contract, young untested midfielder/defender Ben Godfrey and Klose, whose future at Carrow Road hung in the balance following a poor first season in the Championship.
A shaky first month saw central defensive duties split between an unexpectedly impressive, yet still naive, Zimmermann, stuttering stalwart Martin, and Marcel Franke, who was slowly trying to get to grips with British football. Klose remained on the treatment table following a tackle in Cambridge that had the crowd screaming “punt” at the offender whose lunge nearly separated Klose from his calf muscle. (think that’s what they were shouting).
The zenith of these early struggles was what I think of now as Daniel Farke’s Colchester moment. A catalytic low point that resulted in important and long-lasting change. Millwall away. On that day Martin and Franke turned in a first-half performance that was nothing short of horrendous. On the spectrum of partnerships, forget Forbes and Stringer or Bruce and Watson and think Laurel and Hardy. Millwall thumped us for four. It was embarrassing.
The reaction from Messrs Webber and Farke was decisive. Before the transfer window closed Grant Hanley was added to the ranks at no little cost. Franke was dispatched back to his homeland on loan, (probably never to play for City again) and Martin only made a few more token outings before being loaned out to Rangers.
This was a gutsy call from the management. Making a quick decision that Franke was not settling in as everyone had hoped and was not seemingly comfortable with the style of football, they cut their losses early. Having judged Russ to be a leader in the dressing room (as he undoubtedly was) and extended his contract they could have doubled-down and continued to play him in the hope that he would come good.
Instead, they acknowledged what many fans had been saying for a long time: Russell Martin was a lovely guy and a great captain, but he made too many mistakes. Removing Russ from the squad felt cathartic in many ways. The team was a meritocracy once more. Favourites were only indulged when they earned it. It didn’t matter who you were, or how much we’d paid for you. The fans and Farke were on the same page.
Following the end of the transfer window and international break, a new central defensive partnership was in place. With Grant Hanley not ready to make his debut, Zimmermann and Klose were paired together, and so successful was it that City went on an extended run of clean sheets and generally outstanding defensive performances.
Hanley had to wait nearly three months to get any extended game time but had little cause to argue due to the superb form of Timm and Zimm. Something about the two together just worked, and Klose looked reborn as the father figure easing the increasingly mature Zimmermann through his first season. Over the course of the season, the three split playing time at the back, even appearing as a back three at times.
This season, with a battle-hardened Godfrey returned from a “making-his-bones” season in League One, we are now blessed with four centre-backs.
At the time of writing, it’s impossible to say which of the four is the most trusted or popular amongst the fans, or who will be the likely starters going forwards.
Hanley, our captain, is, for my money, our most consistent, all-around centre-back. A lump of Scottish granite in the Duncan Forbes mould, he’s ferocious in the air and damnably difficult for forwards to get past on the ground. He has a width to his hips that would be impressive on an Aberdeen Angus and one sidestep sees opposition strikers have to reach for the sat nav in order to recalculate their run.
On the minus side, Hanley is not the quickest, not the most accomplished passer, and this season he has made a few errors, not least a tackle after 15 minutes against Portsmouth that was so poorly-timed it was reminiscent of a Michael McIntyre routine.
In Klose, you have a cool customer who is having a wonderful season and looking back to the Bavarian Behemoth that we first signed from Wolfsburg. By far and away the most comfortable of our defenders on the ball, his ability to link up play and even push on into midfield or make forward runs has been a key feature of our increased attacking fluency this season. None of the other centre-backs possess this quality.
The downside with Big Timm however, is the question mark that hangs over his future. Whilst I genuinely believe him when he says he is playing in the here-and-now and not thinking about the end of the season when his hefty contract expires, with our other three centre-backs all younger and set up on long-term deals, he has to question where he will be in six months, and that has to play on his mind to a certain extent. We wait to see if a deal can or will be done.
Godfrey is the future. Rated by Farke as potentially world-class, he is smooth and composed on the ball. In the air, he remains competent and competitive, if not yet dominant, but this will come with experience. Where he really stands out amongst his colleagues, is in terms of pace. I’ve yet to see him lose a foot race at the back and, allied to his natural strength, he’s a great foil for any of the other three who are not as blessed in terms of speed.
Zimmermann is a lionheart and benefitted enormously from his first full season at Championship level. A fans’ favourite, he gets the club in a way that few others over the years have done. As honest as the day is long, he throws body and soul on the line and is genuinely hurt by every error or defeat. Magnificent in the air, strong in the tackle, and a vocal leader, his only real weakness is his penchant for the occasional unfathomable cock-up.
To be fair, he rarely makes the same mistake twice, but if anyone’s going to play a blinder for 80 minutes and then lunge at an interception and miss, or shank a clearance straight to the opposition striker, it’s Zimbo. Equally though, if anyone is going to tackle a man with his head on the ground, or plough through an army of bodies to put himself in the way of a striker’s volley at goal, it’s Zimbo.
While we are currently conceding goals, especially from corners and set-pieces, the errors are collective and also often a result of our attacking style as a team. With the full-backs practically playing as wingers, it’s a testament to the ability of our various centre-back pairings that we have been able to contain teams with only two at the back for large percentages of the game.
I don’t know however what the future holds for us at centre-back. Farke can surely only keep juggling four players happily into two positions for so long. But what I do know is that when you look at where we were at with centre-backs over the past few seasons, and where we are now, we have an absolute embarrassment of riches.
We are shipping the same amount of goals-per-game as we did last year (1.3) and this sits between Alex Neil’s first season in the TC (1.0) and his second (1.5). It’s certainly not impossible to get promoted with a goals-against-per-game of 1.3, but you do need to bang in a lot of goals too. Our current position can be attributed to our attack, not any tightening up of defense (or change in players, it would seem).
It’s interesting that there was such a reaction to letting in 4 goals against Millwall that it ended player’s Norwich careers, yet this season we’ve frequently let in 2,3 and even 4 goals and see little change. I think our fantastic attack has covered up a lot of frailties in defense and, if we do achieve promotion, I’m not convinced Hanley, Klose, or Zimbo could cut it., Which is sad, as they’re nice guys.
Take your point Dave – and there’s no arguing with the stats – but, personally, I think our defensive issues this season (the odd individual error aside) have been more around how we defend rather as a unit rather than the defence itself.
Farke had to find a way to make us more potent going forward and part of that has been around getting the full-backs to join in high up the pitch – the downside obviously being it leaves us vulnerable on the transition and counter-attack. And also we’re sh!t at defending set pieces!
But, pound for pound, I’d consider the four current centre-backs to all be a considerable improvement on Martin and Franke.
Hi Andy
A very good read and analysis of the defence.
I have a question that will possibly get ridiculed and I hope that it isn’t taken that I am a Krul hater but it has been announced that Fraser Forster has been told that he has no future at Southampton and to find another club.
Not really sure what this means is it a free transfer or has his agent to find a club that will pay them a fee but what an upgrade to Mcgovern and Tim would have a fight on his hand to keep the No1 spot and could bring out the best in both of them.
Great article Andy, certainly brings back some memories! Bassong was certainly on paper an excellent all-around centre half but after Season 1 the consistency and performance dropped off big time. His apparent spat with Neil Adams no-doubt added to the relegation from the PL. I seem to recall reading about his first conversation with Alex Neil when he returned from Watford which went something along the lines of “…if you behave the same way with me I’m going rip your ####### ##### off…”. You’ve got to admire Alex Neil’s diplomatic skills! Now plying his trade at Peterborough and does (or at least did) hold the unenviable record of the highest number of PL relegations.
Regarding the current crop the striking thing to me is that they are all big, powerful, imposing defenders and I think all 6’2 plus. Brings back memories of some of the fantastic centre halves of yesteryear – Ian Butterworth, Andy Linighan, Malky Mackay and Jon Newsome setting the standard in my books.
Would also add that i’m a little disappointed that Marcel Franke has never really had the opportunity to show what he can really do in yellow and green. Nobody stood out on that trip to Millwall. Vrancic and Stiepermann have gone on after slow starts to their Canary careers to being key performers.
OTBC
I was also surprised that Marcel Franke was ex-communicated quite so suddenly and ruthlessly without being given another chance since. After all he was brought in by Webber/ Farke that first summer.
But more to the point, as noted by David Bowers, we have certainly not yet achieved the greater defensive solidity I had expected this season. We don’t have the zonal marking system sorted out yet, especially with regards to the second phase balls on the edge of the penalty area we have been regularly conceding from. But even more it is our failure to be able to shut the door when we need to that concerns me the most.
The defensive fiasco post the floodlights fiasco against Derby stands out for me. It was obvious what was going to happen, but a combination of poor/ naive management and tactics from DF at that time, including the wrong substitutes, coupled with defensive sleeping/ errors at at time when they were obviously going to come at us, horrified me. it seems to have scarred the players less than it has scarred me, which is a good thing, but if we don’t make the automatic promotion slots, I will point to that terrible, bizarre 15 mins as the starting point for it. I felt Farke was almost believing his own myth then – that we could always win on adrenaline in the last few minutes + injury time, rather than just doing the sensible thing – defending better so that the last minute goals weren’t quite so frequently needed.
No one seems to mention Raggett surely he deserves a chance to show what he can do in a leagye game not just a ore season friendly
Yes @Michael D, the naïve defending after ‘floodlightgate’ may well come back to haunt us in the final reckoning and as Michael Bailey and others have said, the entire pitch was darker at Brentford in the next game with ALL floodlights working normally, so I wonder why the referee chose to stop the game against Derby.
In the last few minutes, Rhodes had a shot at goal which cannoned back off the underside of the bar and had that gone in ……
One named omitted, that of Sean Ragget, the lad signed from Lincoln and then loaned back, now on loan at Rotherham, not doing too badly despite injury. Big things were clearly expected of Ragget, I cannot recall if he has had a few starts to really get to grips, perhaps the loan at Rotherham is the make or break
That day at Millwall I agree Andy was a watershed moment for Farke. I asked him a cheeky question at his first forum which was did he see Russ as a right back or centre half, he didn’t answer the question just said what a great lad Russ was ( True) and said he was going to be invaluable going forward. I then said to my mate Harp, how long before he realises he has been sold down the river ? Russ has ben a very good player for us at right back, never as a centre half. I still feel to this day had Alex Neil played for me the underrated Ryan Bennett in his place we could possibly still be in the premiership. Don’t think Ryan has done to badly at Wolves either ! Again I think the managers close friendship with Russ may have influenced his team selection.
One thing other thing Andy, I think Grant Hanley is quicker than you think. Quicker than both Timm and Christophe for sure.
I think Hanley is quicker than you give him credit for.
I also think of the four Godfrey is the most comfortable on the ball. His better control gives him more time.
My preferred pairing for the second half of the season would be Klose and Handley with Godfrey in the holding midfield role.
Great article . Hanley is underated the aberration against Portsmouth was early on in his first full match . Caught out trying too hard ( no bad thing) Zimbo is always 110% but not quite up to the quality required . I agree with John F . Hanley and Klose , with Godfrey holding midfield. Alex T is not the guy he was. Number of errors in recent games , put the defence under pressure.Give Alex a rest replace with Godfrey . OTBC