A shallow piece of NCFC dignity was restored at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. Yes of course we lost, didn’t score, as has become de rigeur and, Olivier Giroud’s header from an excellent Christian Pulisic cross completely bamboozled Timm Klose who got nowhere near his man.
Not only did we fail to bother the “goals for” column yet again but registered not a single shot on target and in the process managed to achieve a personal best of losing eight league matches in a row.
But there was a bit of fight, although if the idea of going 4-5-1 and hoping the opposition waste all their chances is the shape of things to come you can count me out. Kind of reminds me of a previous regime. Chris Hughton anyone?
As others have said elsewhere, if we contrast this match with the 2-3 loss against Chelsea at Carrow Road earlier in the season it was really quite painful stuff to watch. The first game was one of the most enjoyable defeats I’ve ever witnessed as we gave it a good old go and probably deserved a point. This time around the match was hard to watch with enthusiasm, to put it mildly.
Daniel Farke’s take on events was I would suggest typical of what we know of the man.
“There are no happy days at the moment. We’ve been relegated so we’re not dancing on the tables. We lost a game and we’re still disappointed, but I was pleased with our reaction because it was a difficult night for us.
“We’ve been relegated for two days and my young lads handled it against a highly motivated Chelsea team who needed to win after their game against Sheffield United to finish in the top four.
“They’re a top class side in the best league in the world, so it was a difficult game for us but we were competitive. We looked solid in defending, were well structured and our tactical behaviour was spot on.”
It’s difficult to argue with him of course. But what concerns me the most is he will have only just over a month to try and reboot the mindset of this squad during which will be the strangest pre-season that any of us have ever experienced.
I had a short but interesting interchange with MFW’s Billy Dunthorne on his fine article on Tuesday wherein Billy said: “I think the lack of transfer speculation regarding incomings in defence would probably tell you we’re comfortable with our options”.
But how comfortable can we be with so many goals conceded from set pieces and [albeit excellent] crosses from the likes of Pulisic?
We are hearing of lots of incomings at basically the lower/middle level but with the exception of Sam McCallum they are all midfielders. No defenders and no strikers. With all respect to Stuart Webber, is this really what we need?
Genuine width, sure. Only Onel currently provides that, but CMs we have enough of unless we can get a box-to-box player kind of in the Damien Francis mould.
Anyway, it was good to hear Webber break his silence over the weekend and at surface value he made a fine speech. Who’s to say he might not have a pair of centre-backs and a striker up his sleeve? He yet might.
But pre-season will be uncharted territory for Farke who has to become Mr Motivator and that right quick, as we say round these parts.
August and slightly beyond will prove a real test for him to provide said motivation and to get that confidence restored. And then there will be the need to get the new faces indoctrinated into Farkeball, which despite Tuesday’s midfield blanket I do not really see changing too much in the Championship.
We need some steel for the Championship. Not specifically Sheffield steel, but steel nonetheless.
I have always found it a little bit counter-productive to criticise individual players but in this case I’ll break my own rule.
Courtesy of Declan MacManus, I’ll dedicate this to Josip Drmic.
Elvis Costello – (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea (Rockpalast)
Something’s gotta go right afore long Marty, the virus, City’s capitulation in the Prem, lousy summer weather, all things go in threes. Time the Fates dealt us a few good cards. Maybe we’ll be able to chuck a few bangers on the barbie in an Indian Summer whilst listening to City taking the Chump by storm, there might even be a cure for the virus, But watch out for flying pigs.
Hi Cutty
Still being toothless – I mean myself as much as NCFC – the idea of a Barbie does very little for me just now although a banger or two would be most welcome. If only I could eat the bl00dy things.
Fate, kismet, call it what you will has given us a season off in terms of assistance so we’ll indeed have to see what the remainder of 2020 brings.
And if the vaccine is provided by Bill Gates I’ll give it a swerve if I may.
Thanks pal.
Recently Timm Klose has looked as though he can’t stand up for falling down. I think DF and SW need to come out and say that this year’s model hasn’t worked. Although we all appreciate that accidents will happen, it seems that every day I write the book and often end up with less than zero.
I’m sure SW will be interviewed again and say something to the effect of ‘my aim is true, we’re going to pump it up for next season. Have sweet dreams looking forward and get ready to party party next May.’
Hopefully we can all get happy!
(6 singles, 4 albums)
And to compound it all, Don, we were handed a new one by Olivier’s Army
Which silly b0ll0cks here spelt wrong in the intro. Well done Ed 🙂
Aaagh, missed that one. Open goal
I was surprised, Don …was a tap in!
Hi Don
Well it might have been a good year for the roses it wasn’t for the Canaries.
We’ve been a bunch of Stiffs ever since the restart. And our major attractions will probably be off during the next few weeks.
Good to hear there’s some love for Elvis out there. He was great live.
Cheers Alison.
Me missus met Elvis C in the 1980s – on Sheringham Market of all places. Must have been playing the Pavilion that night or something..
Me missus met Elvis C in the 1980s – in Sheringham Market of all places! Must have been playing the Pavilion that night.
What we really need to know is what our owners plan for the club. Where do they see it going and how do they propose to do it.
With the best will in the world Webber is going to struggle to build a team to survive in the championship if the owners are only going to invest £750,000.
If our recruitment relies on Rupp and Drmic we’ll have a job remaining in the championship.
One or two of our better players are either past their sell by date, injury prone or both.
If we lose three of our younger players where are we going for replacements and how much is Delia prepared to spend.
Time for her to tell us where she sees a self funding club ending up!
Hi John
Yes somehow it always seems to come back to this.
One or two of our MFW writers have ably illustrated that the £750k spent on Sam Byram wasn’t the end of our investment by any means but the trouble is supporters want to see an efficient matchday outfit from players I-XI on the field and I-VII and lately I-IX on the bench. And that has been disappointing.
Delia & MWJ have had their fingers burned during “recent” interviews and it seems to me that somebody within the NCFC PR department might have told her to button it so I wouldn’t expect to hear too much soon from that quarter.
Mother hen and chicks comes to mind I’m afraid.
Thanks again.
Viz replacements. We already have 3 announced and 5 others either done but not announced or very likely namely: Soto, Dennis, Mumba, Sorensen, and the Polish winger Placheta. In addition I expect another striker and another centre back before the end of the window. That’s almost a complete team!
And we have all those young hopefuls bought in or developed via the Academy over the last 3 windows.
Plenty to be optimistic about.
Yes Nick and a very fair point.
But will Farke have the time to bed them all in? That’s my concern.
As I said in the original article Webber may very well have a couple of CBs and a striker up his sleeve. I really hope so but I dunno any more than anybody else does. As I said to Billy D the other day: speculation, dontcha just luv it!
The one I expect great things of is Sam McCallum the young LB from Coventry who looks pretty tasty from what I’ve seen anyway.
Thanks.
As a minimum we need an experienced centre back and a holding midfield player. We will also need a like for like replacement for any youngsters that leave and I mean by that proven ability at championship level.
As for the new signings are they a Drmic or a Pukki?
Last years recruitment of unknowns was not very successful, hence my scepticism.
The proof of the pudding… sometimes the old standards are the best.
We mostly know who’s coming down the tracks… but which of us can tell how they we will shape up when we can’t even watch them in a match against, say, Dereham or Gorleston?
It’s in the lap of the gods mate. I’m not confident either.
Thank you Martin for an excellent summation of what so many of us must be feeling right now.
Totally agree with your tune for Mr Drmic.
In mitigation for him (although I’m no fan!) can I say that as a (much) younger NCFC fan I used to dream of being our centre forward who scored goals for fun as we won trophy after trophy…..I did say it was a dream. However, given how we set up for Tuesday, and have been ever since “re-start”, surely playing up front for Norwich must now be one of the most unwanted positions in the whole football business. My dream has turned to nightmare!
Social distancing doesn’t come close to how isolated our front man is.
Oh; and don’t get me started on how ineffective Mr Rupp currently is!
O T B C
Hi John
We all had those dreams – the first one I can remember was wanting to be Jimmy Greaves fer chrissakes.
Later the adult me wanted to be Mark Bowen cos I ended up at LB myself.
If I could choose now I would definitely have been Hucks, for the adulation as much as the envy of his abilities. Don’t want to be any of the current lot though, except maybe Krul and Tetts.
My jury’s out on Rupp until I’ve seen him in the Championship. You never know.
Thanks a lot.
Good luck with that one martin as we know with the likes of russel martin , bassong and klose these people keep getting you relegated this defence needs ripping apart and starting afresh with the young lad famewo and 2 more proper tough tall centre backs and some midfield muscle then we might stand a chance imo .
Hi Jim
I haven’t seen Akin Famewo play myself but I do know he was highly related during his loan to St Mirren. Fingers crossed.
Properly fit I think we could rely on Zimbo for sure.
Thanks.
Cripes CanaryJim, I’d even have Bunter Steve Bruce back to fill a centre back slot at the moment – even as he is now! At least he’d still provide a robust obstacle…
🙂
We have no bite we are so slight .
Too true until Hanley returns.
At least this year they wont keep theyre wages the only positive .
Some interesting comments and I can only reiterate the need for defensive signings, as we seem to have a few who spend a considerable under ‘Matron’s Care’ to quote @Andy Head’s terminology and you can bet EVERY Championship Manager will have seen how susceptible we are at crosses especially corners/Free Kicks and we can expect bombardment in every game we play.
On a slightly different note, I see that Hull are in in danger of slipping into League 1 and it’s not that many years ago that they were in the PL. Let’s just hope that we don’t follow suit.
PS -I see that the Transfer Window will close in October.
Hi Ed
I think we all know where we need to strengthen but nothing ever seems to be done about it.
I’d even take a reinvented Butterworth and Polston back if I could. But I can’t.
Andy H will come up with a great school review as always but this time around I don’t envy him – it might take him a little longer than usual to crack it out!
I wouldn’t know how to continue after Krul.
Cheers.
Well I’m struggling to get a Handel on these musical references, but that’s because I’m more of a classical man.
The apparent lack of defensive targets suggests that the management team have faith in Famewo to make a breakthrough, and possibly Raggett. I imagine we will hear in a couple of weeks whether the latter is staying with us.
I saw highlights of a couple of games Famewo played in Scotland and I wasn’t convinced by him. But of course, highlights tend to show goal action so you don’t tend to see the occasions when defenders read the game well, get to the ball first, make a clearing header etc. etc.
I’m expecting a bumpy ride for the first few weeks of the season. As the headline says the management and players have very little time to clear their heads and regroup. Given the late start there will be even more midweek games to play. Even if they are considering changing the way we play – and I’m not convinced they are – they have little time to embed those changes.
Leaving the transfer windows open until October is the right thing to do, but it means that even if none of our so-called prize assets depart immediately speculation will continue throughout the early games.
But it’s the same for everyone and what we don’t yet know is how badly many of our rivals will have been effected by the loss of income these last few months. How many other Championship clubs have players they can sell for significant sums if they are struggling to stay alive? I suspect there aren’t that many.
Hi Keith
You have very much in common with MFW’s Stewart Lewis who understands the classics whereas I don’t. I love Gustav Holst’s Planets suite though – a great concept at the time and a bit of JS Bach is far better than a visit to JD Wetherspoons. I don’t mind a bit of Liszt either if I’m in the right mood.
It’s amazing how much prog rock developed from the classics. Ask Rick Wakeman or Ritchie Blackmore. Or indeed John Evan from Jethro Tull.
Raggett is a goner under Farke as he can’t do flicks, spins and tricks in his own box. Sorry but that’s my perceived truth. Daniel doesn’t want any old skool CBs anyway. Shame.
You’re expecting a bumpy ride – I’ve genuinely been on a DC-3 Dakota and that will probably turn out to be more comforting. Ugh!
Cheers
Hello Martin, not much to add really, you’ve pretty much called it again.
With regard to the list of names linked to the club in a response above, we would probably have change from £2 million for the lot of them, and once again we are patently targeting kids rather than men. Indeed, how many of those mentioned will be carting their kitbag and boots to schiphol beofre the season starts to link up with a loan club?
With the impending summer sales expected to raise many, many times that amount the suggested outlay reeks of yet more underfunding. In fact, if we are relying on those unknowns and boys to reshape our side after the departures of Godfrey and the gang then the future doesn’t look so rosy.
Hi Chris
I wish we could all see it the same way but there are always folks who don’t.
Should I ever have to walk into an ambush I’d like to think at least I knew where the exit door was. That seems not to apply to our football club though.
Let’s see for a while. You never know.
Okay course we know.
Cheers.
Hi Martin.
An enjoyable read for an after match report I am hoping cricket will turn a dull day into a bit brighter but with Archer self isolating are attack will be weaker so will we see both Anderson and Broad lead them.
The other day I mentioned the Martin Samuels article in the D Mail really rubbishing cities weak attempt to prolong their stay in the Premiership and saying that the relegation payments were a free spend for city to stay up and in most of what he says I agree with him but I don’t think any outside reporter or supporter truly understand the strangle hold the Smith’s have on our club to them we are just taking the money to survive in the championship and get promoted again to get another big payday and start all over again.
Either my financial experience it is a false economy to not but more money into staying up as others have mentioned clubs that have tried it on the cheap are now in the league 1 and others like Leeds that blew the family jewels have taken 16 years to get back to the promised land of plenty.
We will never know what was paid to Drmic to sign for city but a tenner would be to much on for his present level on a playing field I would have prefered to have given Srbeny more game time he was fitter and motivated but never given a chance, so will Drmic be off come the window yes please but time will tell.
Here is the article I mentioned above for those interested.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8518993/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Norwich-rewarded-utter-failure-imagination.html&ved=2ahUKEwjcioLsx9HqAhURQkEAHWxYAn4QxfQBMAF6BAgKEAQ&usg=AOvVaw0duUkpPj58Yu80A50QS8tV
Some people have forgotten we still have Heise to return to the fold as back up for Lewis but still no CB’s on the Horizon could Klose decide with his injuries its time to wave goodbye to city, will our young hope full Faweo get a chance, can Louis Thompson actual get game time for city with his injury history a thing of the past and will Raggett get an extension just so city can sell him to Portsmouth only time will tell.
Onwards and Upwards
OTBC
Keep up and well
I will now get back to American prog Metal rock called Dream Threater
Hi Alex – sorry to be belated – I missed this comment earlier. Too much driving..
As for match reports MFW has largely given up on them for now – what’s the point when you’ve not been to the game?
The Martin Samuel article was pretty divisive so for once I made no comment but it was certainly well written and I enjoyed reading it. Kind of.
I have several personal examples of doing things on the cheap. Old houses in Coltishall? Cool given time to put initial mistakes right.
A couple of mkIII cortinas and a brace of capris. Oh no, bad move. It can go either way.
How the hell did you get into Dream Theater?
I’ve got Black Clouds & Silver Linings courtesy of number one son – if you like Dream Theater check out Porcupine Tree. And all for the better Mastodon. No mucking about with un-needed keyboards there. Crack the Skye is their best imo.
Sometimes it’s easier to talk about music than football 🙂
Dream Theatre was an accident of a download a while back and I got the complete catalogue so gradually working my way through it and there as you say are some good tracks, but then I like John Mayal and the Blues Breakers I am told like my football club my music is strange would be a dull world if we all liked the same.
So glad that LIVARPOOL are coming unstuck just proves that their smug supporters got it wrong and they won a title that before lockdown 19 clubs never turned up.
Keep safe
Up on Dream Threater my download stops at 2007 so wll have get the others
We’ve gone from a team we thought could just about hold its own in the PL to one which requires major surgery. Football’s a funny old game.
We’ve certainly fallen short in defence and attack and our midfield has been out bossed by more physical and athletic PL players.
I won’t get into the arguments about investment because unless the Suffolk two decide to sell up it’s just a dead end. But we will have to sell some prized assets to address our all too obvious weaknesses. I just hope SW and DF surprise us by buying decent quality players at either end of the pitch.
OTBC !
Hi Tom
That’s a great comment because you’ve boiled down the issues we pontificate about into a couple of short, sharp sentences. I wish I could do that!
“Unless the Suffolk two decide to sell up it’s just a dead end”.
Yes mate, absolutely.
Sincere thanks.
Hi Martin good read i feel the style of football we Play when with two better cb we would still concecede because the fullbacks in oppositions half when they on the attack and our midfield weaklings other than tetey couldnt muster a tackle between them some look ok goin forward but as a surporter of 55yrs cant remember such a weak midfield hope for hanley and zimbo are fit so godfrey could Play midfied cause his timeing and reading if game at Cb wont to clever keep well
Hi Kev
What the effin’ hell am I supposed to say after Burnley? I could write it now and there’s no joking about that.
Sometimes I feel the squad have it easy and Gary, myself and many other MFW writers have to cover the hard yards. Seriously the season’s been $hite in so many ways as we both understand only too well.
Didn’t realise you were that old mate 🙂
You are absolutely right Martin, we need at least one centre back if not two.
That will depend on the situation with Tim Klose.
I also have noticed his inability/reluctance to just jump. Something so rudimentary for a strapping Centre half.
I really hope he can come through this, but the poor fellow has been out so long I have my doubts.
The pinkun today had some stats on aerial duals won, Kenny McLean was top, What !! Just goes to show how bad we need 4 fit centre halves.
I cannot believe Stuart Webber hasn’t got 2-3 players in mind for us at the back.
And we did concede 56 goal last time round in the Championship, so one centre half is a minimum.
Hi Tim
Yeah Timm Klose turned out to be yet another injury-plagued gamble that didn’t quite pay off. Maybe there’s another season in him? We don’t know.
Equally I would imagine there’s a great chance for young Akin Afamewo at CB. I don’t see anybody else in the pipeline and [regrettably] Raggett ain’t coming back.
So we’ll be bullied again. Sorry to be maudlin but that’s how I see it just now.
Thanks as always.
Yer 61 mate i know i look 45 has it advantages 😉
Ha! I’m one whole year older than you but 62 is only 26 backwards.
After the White Flag moment against West Ham, an experiment to play 4-5-1 against Chelsea. It turned into a practise match of attack versus defence.
In deference to your advice to listen to Mastadon may I say it takes a Mammoth effort to listen to that Elephant in the room.Indeed, they would make a great pair of centrebacks.
Hi Bernie
Yes I certainly get the practice match point. Absence of the crowd does nothing to help of course.
The last mastodonic CB I can remember was Tiny Ward back in the Lambert days, who had the turning circle of a Liberian-registered supertanker.
At league one level though he was up to the tusk.
Cheers