Just hours after Norwich City’s late Coventry heartbreak Josip Drmic took to social media to affirm that “I am not injured, I am just no longer wanted by the club”.
It spelt a definite and miserable end to the striker’s difficult time as a City player, during which he’s started just seven times and scored three goals.
During Daniel Farke’s reign centre-forward after centre-forward has fallen by the wayside, the likes of Dennis Srbeny, Marley Watkins and even Nelson Oliveira. To put things into context, with Drmic that’s three international strikers who have failed to make their mark and left Carrow Road unceremoniously since the German took over. He demands an awful lot from his strikers, a trait that may have something to do with his own career.
Farke describes himself as “the slowest striker in western Europe” but states he “knew where the goal was” when he played mainly in Germany’s third and fourth tiers. As a known goal scorer his eye on the strikers in his squad is particularly keen.
The demands he places on his squad are known to be tough and, as the previously mentioned players know, none more so than on his forwards.
Many had believed that Drmic was in line for a first Championship appearance when Teemu Pukki was ruled out of Saturday’s game, with the outcast Swiss the only striker at Colney to have appeared for the first team.
Farke subsequently ruled him out of the fixture through a “minor injury”, prompting his response. The 28-year-old’s plight shows just how difficult Marco Stiepermann’s task was on Saturday.
It’s fair to say Stiepermann didn’t light it up but given the current situation there can hardly be a better solution. Farke’s trust of his number 18 in a role he’s never played before for Norwich shows the calibre of player the boss believes he is, and it would be optimistic for any of us to believe we know more than him.
Pukki’s status for Wednesday’s trip to Luton is yet to be revealed, and while we wait it’s looking more likely that Stiepermann fills in again. He now has 90 minutes of Championship experience as a striker and showed when failing to convert Josh Martin’s fantastic through ball that he can at least get in the positions to score. The German has ten goals to his name at this level and will find the net given a few tries from his favourite 20-yard shooting zone, opportunities he may be afforded by the Luton defence.
The Hatters conceded eight shots from between the 25-yard mark and the penalty spot in their 4-0 defeat by Cardiff on Saturday, conceding twice from this area. Stiepermann’s goals against the likes of Blackburn, QPR and Swansea surely mean most Norwich fans would entrust him with these chances given the opportunity.
Luton will be buoyed by a 3-1 cup victory over a City side which looked second-string at the time but was probably preferable to the eleven Farke will be able to field on Wednesday and, with the extra ammunition provided by the return of 1000 of their fans to Kenilworth Road, will be full of energy and desperate for the scalp of the league leaders.
Stiepermann’s hold-up play and pressing will be key in halting this early momentum, and the Canaries will be buoyed by a crucial return of their own.
The return of Emi Buendia.
However difficult the task of a striker under Farke, it’s made a whole lot easier with Buendia behind them. The Argentinian is yet to link up with Stiepermann in the same way he has with Pukki but has experience of linking up with his German teammate as the two creative outlets for the Norwich side.
Examples such as the second goal of the famous Manchester City defeat spring to mind and, even if it’s in slightly different roles, the pair have a history of intricate and effective interplay.
Stiepermann’s struggles have also given a fresh appreciation of our Finnish finisher, a man who’s had the hopes of Norfolk pinned on him for nearly three years now. A vast number of fans (including myself) were quick to write Pukki off during his Premier League dry spell, failing to recognise that he had fulfilled the extremely demanding role of a Farke number 9 and carried the Finland team to the Euros in 18 non-stop months of hard work.
Our number 22 is on form now and will be back to lead the promotion hunt as soon as possible, but until then we must appreciate the extreme demands on an out-of-position Stiepermann, and back an overworked side to the hilt.
It’s perfect timing for a Carrow Road return.
How come City fans never address the real problem.
Regardless of the injury position I’ve just seen Villa tonight and Leeds over the weekend playing.
Two years ago we were showing both these teams how to play.
Then we spend £750,000 while they attract substantial investment and now they are way ahead of us in every respect.
As long as this ridiculous self financing project persists we will never be an established premiership club.
We will need £50-100 million to give us a chance should we achieve promotion. In all honesty where is the investment coming from?
Farke is one of the best young managers out there and if he leaves where are we going?
Working very well for Sheffield United at the moment….funny how this season not a soul is comparing us to their ‘model’., yet last season everyone told us to be like Sheff Utd and not to be like Villa, due to their league position and financial expenditure.
I am more than happy with our model.
Self financing is a great concept as I’d having a sugar daddy to cover all the bills as and when they come in but city doesn’t have the income on a regular basis for self financing.
If as we all hope we fain promotion this season then the funds must be found to give the club a fighting chance to stay up.
Last season we got praised on the style of football bur laughed at for a meager spending we have to find a happy medium.
I read a while ago City needed a ground capacity of 35k to have any chance to survive as a self financing club.
Our model relies on us finding a Maddison, Godfrey or Lewis every year in order to survive. As soon as we fail to do this the project hits the buffers.
Our only interest in the premiership appears to be the parachute payments. This is why the media treated us badly last season as they see it as very cynical approach towards the premiership.
Do you think Farke will be happy if we gain promotion and he’s not provided with the resources to mount a reasonable challenge. He said last year he’d turned down offers in order to stay at City.
And yes, it does rely on player sales if we are going to be relegated every other year from the Prem 🙂
And yes, some of the media did think we were playing a cynical game, but I also remember the other half of the media saying we were being very savvy, in light of the lack of available budget in comparison to every other club in the Prem. Don’t forget that the media need to generate stories, so accusing little old Norwich of being cynical is a juicier story than the other angle.
And if we go up again – it’ll likely be the same two stories again, because although we’ll spend more than last time, I’d still expect us to be the lowest spending club. But if we do go up again, and we’ve effectively pocketed all those parachute payments, we’ll be a hell of a lot richer than we were last time. So that’s progress, right? And if we go down again, but come back again even richer, perhaps we’ll have enough to really invest and make a proper challenge.
Also, don’t forget, its not all about money. We stayed up and finished 12th under Lambert and we’d barely spent a penny that year either, but I bet you didn’t complain that we didn’t.
I think you’ve answered your own question there. You can’t simultaneously criticise the self-financing model and at the same time admit that “where is the investment coming from?” Because that’s the issue – there is no outside investment. We’re not in a fashionable location, and we won’t be sold to dodgy investors (which is a good thing – no one needs to list the number of championship clubs who have been bought out, promised the world and have ended up worse off) so yes, its hard without that external investment, but that means self-financing is the ONLY way we have to run the club.
I haven’t answered the question at all, far from it.
The club recently stated it was their ambition to establish the club in the premiership. With the best will in the world it’s going to require a level of investment of far in excess of that generated by the self funding model.
Do you seriously think we are the only club in the land that couldn’t find interested buyers if they were fortunate enough to gain promotion.
All that is required is for our owners to phone up The Times and give another interview stating they would be interested in receiving offers.
They’ve literally done that before – and they said they didn’t receive any viable offers. Obviously, since then they’ve said they don’t want to sell, but they’ve never said they’re against external investment.
But also, back to my previous point, if the self-funding model doesn’t work, what happened in 2010/11/12/13? We had 3 seasons in the Premiership, 2 of which we finished in the top half. I would argue it was Hughton’s mis-management that relegated us in the 3rd season, not a lack of investment.
That links me to the point that you seem to be ignoring – the fact that having all the money doesn’t mean anything! Countless clubs now have been bought out and spent £100’s of millions and have ended up worse off than us. Lets look at Fulham – spent literally 100’s of millions, went up, came straight back down. Went up again, and are now struggling once again. You’re telling me they’ve done better than us over the last 3 seasons?
Good management is worth a lot more than millions to spend. However, a little more money would clearly help!