We knew there would be bad days. We told ourselves we must keep our heads when they happen. And that Daniel Farke and his players had done more than enough last season to earn our trust this.
That keeping your head lark, when all about you are losing theirs is no quite so easy when the time comes though is it.
And sure enough…
That’s not to say there were too many plus points to cling onto because there weren’t – other than Tim Krul’s excellence that kept the score down to a sober level.
It will take some sifting for City’s team of analysts to try and pull together a positives package from what became an increasingly nightmarish afternoon in Stratford.
But afternoon’s of this ilk have been rare of late and not since last September have we had to indulge in this much naval-gazing, the type you do after games where it feels as if almost nothing clicks and little goes right.
So – analysts, you can have this one for nothing – to have headed home off the back of a 2-0 defeat when it could have easily been 5 -0 or 6-0, was in itself something of a result. But for Krul’s heroics, it would have been.
And there’s the rub. It wasn’t the 2-0 defeat that was disappointing – a 2-0 defeat to an expensively assembled but also pretty good West Ham is no disgrace – but rather the level of performance when we know our heroes are capable of so much better. This wasn’t one of those defeats where we were left still feeling proud.
If teams like West Ham, blessed with the likes of Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini in their squad, perform well then it is going to be tough for City to live with them, especially away from home. That’s a sad fact.
That’s not to say City won’t pick up points away from, I feel sure they will, but we do need to find a system and a level of performance that doesn’t permit the opposition of the day time and space to play themselves into the game and then impose themselves on it.
Other than a decent opening 15 minutes in which City did look threatening, it all just looked a little too easy for the Hammers, who as the game wore on were able to knock the ball around in little triangles almost at will with our ailing midfield, in particular, barely able to lay a glove on them.
It was a midfield mix designed for City to have more than their fair share of the ball. Against Newcastle, who were happy to not press and let us have the ball, it worked beautifully with the two Germans at its base instrumental in everything good that we did.
But when you set up to have the ball, then don’t have enough of it the problems occur. Tommy Trybull and Mo Leitner as the ballast in that midfield are not going to thwart wave after wave of attacks. They’ll both compete, both put their foot in, but neither are physically equipped to deal with Premier League midfields who use physicality as well as top quality technique to outnumber and outpower.
Farke doesn’t need telling that that particular mix needs addressing.
Ball retention too was an issue yesterday and it was an afternoon unbefitting of a team that has passed the ball with such precision over the last year. The system demands that it’s passed with accuracy and tempo, and when neither of those things happen it tends to fall over.
The mitigation, of course, is that to play with the swagger we did in the Championship in the top division is that much more difficult, with the intensity and pressure on the ball being that much greater. What’s a simple pass in the second tier becomes that little bit more tricky to execute in the Premier League.
To give the ball away in the Premier League invariably ends badly. Either you have to wait patiently before you get another turn to play with it again, or you get punished bu conceding a goal. Todd Cantwell will not need reminding that his nothing pass that led to Yarmolenko’s goal was just asking for trouble.
But again that’s something that will be analysed by Team Farke over the next fortnight and has to be remedied. Oddly, it’s the one area I expected us to be okay with, with it being our thing and all, and in the last couple of seasons when engaging with Premier League teams in the cups we passed the ball beautifully.
Hopefully, on that score, yesterday was just a bad one.
The Christoph Zimmermann incident was obviously disappointing and potentially costly but mustn’t be used to disguise the paucity of the performance. Paul Tierney should have booked Haller, no question, but I’m not convinced he was ‘out of control’ sufficiently for a red.
In a true twist of Norwich City fate, it had to be Haller who put the Hammers 1-0 up just three minutes after fouling our captain, with Zimmermann unable to make up the ground due to the impact the foul.
We didn’t lose because Tierney and VAR screwed up though. We lost because on the day we weren’t good enough.
But, *perspective klaxon*, the season is just four games old and in those four games, we have played the Champions League and Europa League Champions. The game we had pencilled in for possibly picking up points we won, and yesterday was the only genuine Premier League disappointment we have suffered so far.
So, let’s keep the toys in the pram for now and not slate Stuart Webber for not buying another centre-back, when it was perfectly fair to assume he had four available, five if we include Ibrahim Amadou.
The theory of giving those who got us to the Premier League a chance to play there should surely apply equally to central defenders. No one could have legislated for the injuries – that’s football.
The international break has, on this occasion, probably come at a good time. Time to take stock and go again in a fortnight against… eerrr… Manchester City.
Unfortunately Gary it is abundantly clear that if we continue as we are we won’t be in the premier league next year.
We are being out muscled by better athletes which stops us playing.
Let’s hope after the break Zimmermann is fit to partner Godfrey so that Amadou can move into central midfield.
It is accepted that home form will determine whether we stay up or not, so away from home we need to adopt a pragmatic approach which means McLean or Tettey rather than either Cantwell or Buendia.
Good article Gary.
Your point about the physicality and power of the Premier League midfielders is well made. They out muscled Trybull and Leitner.
Years ago teams coming up could fly under the radar and take opponents by surprise but no longer given the amount of analysis of all teams whatever league they are in.
Our inexperience not just of the Premier League but of the game in general is showing at times. Our youngsters will no doubt be learning. The international break may help to allow the coaching staff time to sort some things out. The only problem maybe the number of players who will be away on international duty.
Remember last season we had a poor start but got our act together after the first international break. Can we do it again?
The team have certainly earned our support after last seasons heroics. So keep the faith.
OTBC
Yes, we cannot complain that ‘ no one told us there’d be days like these.’ We knew what the project was, and have to cope with the disappointing ones. I decided to quit early, before the toothache that is Canary Call on defeat day and watched the final episode of War and Peace on Netflix, the one where, all the mayhem, blood and gore and death resolves into a bucolic family picnic fit for Country Living magazine. I promised myself a reading of GG’s report of the game, and am now going to pick the last of the plums and then off to play with the Loddon granddaughters. I do this because I absolutely trust that there will be much better days, and that the Coaching and Playing staff will make good use of the International Break. We weren’t far off this last season and the first Lambert PL season, and look what happened then. Yours affectionately, Happy Clapper.
Thanks as always for an interesting read. I was invited to watch the game by a friend of mine who is season ticket holder at WHU. He said it was the best he had seen them play at the new stadium. I thought we started brightly, as you said but the physicality particularly of their central midfield and defence made it difficult for us to keep possession. They were also very effective in stopping us using the channels. I was encouraged by Amadou’s performance. He could add some additional physicality into defensive midfield if he’s not required at CB. We will have days like this, as we all have to accept, However painful they are, I am confident that we will learn the lessons in the way we did last year and hopefully remain in the EPL.
Nice write up Gary.
I don’t envy you the task of evaluating yesterday’s display. Suffice to say the shine has been well and truly taken off our ball in the last five days.
The reasons for this are many and varied. Farkes assertion that Zimmermanns incapacity following that dreadful tackle directly led to the first goal is probably correct and having conceded, listening to the excellent goreham/Barnett commentary I never once felt we were in the game.
Much has been made of the centre half position, pundits such as Greg downs have warned us of the need for more cover. The stark truth is, we entered the premier league season with two of our four pivots on the injury list which forced a rusty Hanley straight into the lions den.
The injury to Hernandez hit home yesterday, game changing options few and far between. After the pathetic offering by the shadow squad at crawly options for change to the starting line up were limited, perhaps solely to the inclusion at kick off of Amadou. At this level the current midfield personnel are coming up short. Where are the tackles? Will anyone put a foot in? Please?
Both Goreham and Barnett mentioned the word sloppy during the commentary. Whereas coming up short in terms of ability is to be expected lazy minds leading to sloppy passing, slack marking, failure to track your man, careless finishing etc is not. On too many occasions to mention numerous players fell into this trap. The opposition at this level doesn’t need help.
Many people were surprised by the absence of Roberts from the bench yesterday, particularly with the Hernandez situation. However, his assertion after the crawly game that City had “played well” after his own completely underwhelming display indicates he is some way short of the first eleven right now.
My own answer to the situation would be my default position, I.e. Get Vrancic into the midfield and add physicality behind him in the shape of Amadou and maybe even Tettey as well. Another option would be to revert to three at the back, but the club would need three centre halves to achieve that. What is certain is that we need some Cojones in the midfield or we will continue to be totally over run.
Whether this would be the answer is a moot point, Vrancic has started the season slowly and by and large stiepermann and trybull have struggled, as did Leitner yesterday.
Krul on the other hand has started the season like a man possessed. Several times yesterday I held my breath awaiting gorehams commentary on another West Ham goal only for Krul to defy their forwards and on one occasion gravity in order to single handedly keep the score down to a merciful 2.
Farkes post match interview yesterday sounded fraught. His usual laid back, considered tone being replaced by an agitated rant which at times was quite hard to keep up with. It’s clear he wasn’t happy with this, or the previous Tuesday’s offerings and obviously upset by the injuries to key players.
With regard to the aforementioned canary call, it’s usually reserved for butlers pals, some of whom he addresses by their Nick name or as a vehicle for butlers “comedy” routine. Far better to cut the frivolous crap and have an in depth dissemination of the game by the ex pro, giving a yellow and green slant on what happened, warts and all. The commentaries are so good, what follows lets the side down.
Thankfully the international break allows farke some time to collect his thoughts, while we all pray for good injury news and no fresh injuries to the international contingent. Hopefully a more pragmatic approach will be adopted, as yesterday’s approach rendered us simultaneously toothless and wide open.
Game was completely even until the disgraceful tackle on Zimmermann. That has to be a red if you put an opponent in hospital with a full-body lunge that is so late. Even Trezeguet for Villa got a yellow for a nudge on Zaha in their game,
He had just made a brilliant saving tackle on Anderson and West Ham were not on top. The reason Zimmerman stayed on is because we have no replacements – which exposes the mistakes of the summer transfer window. If we had a decent centre half off the bench to come on then West Ham don’t get their first goal and the game is completely different. It is bad luck to get three centre backs injured in a week but the real fault harks back to the summer.
So, four centre-backs plus Amadou is not enough, Tony?
It’s rare to have five in a squad surely, as how do you give them all sufficient game time?
If you are a club that has 3 injured centre-backs all recovering in the summer then yes – you need more cover. People were openly saying that Hanley was not good enough then. They were not wrong. No we are completely dependent on him and Godfrey. Norwich were in the game yesterday until that moment. Centre backs are vital as yesterday proved.
It was a poor performance. Most worrying, some heads clearly dropped. Tim Krull did a much better job than Daniel Farke with after match interviews. The players need to retain belief. The manager was shocked that another defender was injured. He was burning with the unfairness and injustice of it all and went off down a blind alley. I expected a brutal start to the PL campaign and that has come to pass. Norwich will learn to swim with the big boys, or they will drown. Too early to call yet but the size of the task is daunting and on this outing some were overwhelmed. A break is timely. OTBC
Hi Gary
A good read and summation of yesterday’s game.
I was slightly disappointed in Farke’s comment that VAR isn’t working for City it seems, or hoping that the system will help him get points on the board. I hope that’s not the case.
Was the Haller tackle over the top or just very physical? If City had got a free kick for a foul it would possibly just have delayed WHA scoring.
Tettey was on the bench – is he fit and could he have started in midfield to strengthen that area? Or possibly Amadou might have added steel.
Playing nice football and getting plaudits for the style is all great, using the same players that gained promotion, giving them their chance to prove themselves is also that the club trusts them, but my one big concern was and still is a CB with experience of the Premiership.
Hanley nearly 180 games in Premiership for Blackburn.
Klose less than 20 games for City.
Zimmermann none at present.
Godfrey 4 games to date
All the above have potential to form a solid defence when fit.
Do we need to bring in a short-term loan till the end of the season – I would suggest yes and now that the international break is on Is the ideal time.
Williams, the ex Swansea and Everton CB is looking for a club, and there are a few others that would look at City as a project and a chance to prove they still have what it takes. So let’s hope the powers that be will look at freebies and not wait until it is too late to act.
Onwards and Upwards
OTBC
As my son commented, it was a good day out until the football started. It was an off day, I saw plenty of effort but West Ham were good enough to make us change our style of play. We probably put out the best team we have available but the movement and pressing of West Ham was like us v Newcastle. I still hope we can continue with the style we used last year but West Ham cut out Pukki (after a couple of moments where he caused problems) and closed down our players when we had the ball leading us to play aimless long balls. We know that Farke will take these things on board and work them into his coaching but I still want us to be playing expansive football when we play the future bottom six. As a venue it was fine for us but we were near the front, I will leave it to others to talk about the upper tier experience. The number of West Ham fans on the train made it feel like a local derby and those we met were fine but I did find the walk back to Stratford more intimidating than Upton Park. Regarding refereeing incidents the Haller foul should have been a yellow and a free kick but he would still have been there for the goal, The tussle between Yarmolenko and Trybull just required a talking to nothing more but Yarmolenko was lucky not to have been carded for his dive which would not have looked out of place at the nearby aquatic centre. Maybe the punishment came when they were not awarded a penalty when contact was actually made
It is worth remembering that it took Farke sometime to come to terms with the style of Championship football. Unfortunately, this learning curve is going to be even steeper. When any coach focuses on refereeing decisions you know things are not going well and he and his team may need to think about adding a little bit more muscle in the midfield. There is also a bit of a mystery surrounding Roberts’ absence from the Matchday sguad. I don’t think Manchester City loaned him to us for him not to be involved at all.
Still, I always think it only makes sense to look at the table after ten games. Let’s see how things are going by then.
As usual Mr G a good write up . My only grumbles are
,
1 subs too late to try anything. it was only two goals, one back and it is game on again, as we were past masters of.
2 with two major players being right off the boil Marco and Emi . In my eyes been quite clear they have not hit the ground running in more than one game.
We are said to have back ups .. Perhaps the protector in chief, Tetts is needed in the middle
That’s it really, it should have been worse if is wasn’t for the excellent Krul, you know the guy who was thought to be not good enough by some. Losing Zimbo was massive , Have not seen the incident with Haller but by all accounts a free kick and Yellow was the least. . There simply was not enough care with the ball, Wet Spam looked perhaps a tad better than what they were, despite the being termed as the best seen. But when a team helps them so much with bad call care, who would not look better. ?
Some may overlook the fact the Hammers have been up in the Premier I believe for about 7 years . building over that time into what they are now. spending on more quality type players, for me that puts it into perspective a little more. We are the new kids on the block.
The break has come about right, injuries time to heal, more work to be done etc etc. The players know they had a bad day, hopeful will come out the other side more eager to put it right.
The main lesson to learn is take out the opposition’s key player. If Haller had been taken out by Zimmermann then a very different game would have taken place. We are all judging the game when the complete opposite happened which proved disastrous for Norwich. We need to be a lot more ruthless in this department as it can have huge consequences.
Excellent write up Gary.
Personally I’m not able to understand all this doom and gloom.
Just think where we were one (yes; just one)year ago.
If you’d told people then that we would be in the Prem, with 3 points on the board having already played the Champions League and Europa League Winners,….using the SAME squad as at this time last season other than one loanee…then I’m pretty sure that the men in white coats would have been called for.
Yesterday was tough to take. I erroneously tuned into BBC Radio London as the Haller/Zimmerman clash was taking place, and their commentator could not believe that Wet Spam continued with 11 players. OK, it was Zimbo’s first league start of the season and we should not expect too much, but he was the senior pro in our back four and his loss was sorely felt.
I just wonder what the referee would have done had Pukki put in a similar challenge on Diopor come to that any Wet Spam player? I don’t think just a talking too would have been sufficient then.
Even with VAR, it still seems that we get a rough deal from the officials; Chelski managed to get away with rather a lot at our place last week too.
Never mind; 2 weeks off now and then the simple matter of The Champions at home….easy peasy isn’t it Daniel??
O T B C