The Tony Pulis bus rolled into Carrow Road this afternoon and parked itself obdurately in NR1.
Pulis deployed what has become the go-to playbook for visitors this season. Pack the box with players. Tick. Frustrate Buendia. Tick. Hit on the break. Tick.
Wednesday played with five across the back, and three more players only yards in front of them denying the City players the space and channels in which they love to operate.
They were more than willing to concede the rest of the pitch to the players in yellow and the sight of Gibson and Hanley deep inside the opposition half was common. That’s not to say Wednesday offered no threat.
A succession of corners in the first half will have had the 2000 Canaries fans in the ground shuffling uneasily on the edge of their seats. City just don’t look as secure at set-pieces without their talismanic Dutchman between the posts.
Norwich were trying to play with width to counter the Pulis tactics – Placheta was a constant threat, forming a good partnership with Sorensen, and it was the Dane who perhaps came closest to scoring. A diagonal ball found him in space but his shot was smuggled away by the keeper.
A couple of crunching tackles on Buendia illustrated the threat that Pulis felt he offered but Emi was largely a frustrated observer for much of the afternoon. Both he and Vrancic had free-kick opportunities in the first half which came to nothing.
The second half continued in the same manner and City became more and more frustrated. Stiepermann will probably want to forget this game – nothing came off for him, largely because he was denied any space, time or options. And then what felt inevitable.
A long ball to Adam Reach who played a curling cross in from halfway inside the city half, and Windass was first to the ball. McGovern made himself look bad by coming, stopping and then watching the ball fly past him but, in reality, there was little else he could.
Pulis responded in typical fashion. Striker off. Defender on.
For some time it looked like, once again, a tiring Norwich team would run out of steam and ideas. But Farke dealt probably his only attacking card, removing Stiepermann and bringing on Josh Martin.
It was the formation change that really helped. Sorensen moved into the centre of a back 3 and Aarons and Placheta pushed up as wing-backs.
Immediately, Gibson strode forward with the ball and found Vrancic. As the ball was played by Gibson, Martin was on the move, Vrancic slipped a beautifully weighted ball into his path and the youngster touched it past the keeper.
Only a few minutes later, Aarons got the ball on the right. His jinking run took him into the box and this time his through ball found Vrancic. The Bosnian played a delicious backheel back to Aarons who had continued his run and delivered feint and finish worthy of Pukki.
The last minutes were nervous ones with several City players cramping up, including Vrancic, but it ended with City threatening to increase their lead further.
The 2000 fans allowed back inside Carrow Road were treated to the Farke wave – how we have missed that. And back to the top of the league. Not the best technical performance perhaps, but a thrilling end to the game which was won by two moments of sheer quality.
This game showed just how much all the injuries are taking their toll on Farkeball.
Make do and mend comes to mind but unless we see more players returning soon then we could see more injuries happening do to both tired bodies and minds.
There are still people shouting for a plan B how can you execute a plan B with out more players being fit to play and the numbskulls calling for Farke out should take a look at themselves in the mirror.
Onwards and upwards especially for the 2000 hardy souls that cheered the team on and hopefully it will soon be 4000 and gradually increasing to a full house.
OTBC
Stay safe and stay healthy
A good summary of the game, particularly the negative substitution which signalled Pulis intention to hold what he had.
It was very important that they got something out of that game. Two losses on the bounce would have knocked their confidence. I wonder how much it takes out of opposition teams to chase the ball and to concentrate in a defensive formation. With our over 70% possession Wednesday must have been tired. I think that helps us create chances late in games. It also helps to have players who can play passes at the correct pace.
Hopefully we are starting to get players back from injury and we have less injuries as the season progresses. We may even be able to make use of the 5 subs rule.
This team has a strong desire to get a result and keep going. I’ve said before I find it remarkable how those players, who were scarred by the Premier League experience have bounced back do well. I think we have some great characters and great professionals at the club. Clearly the management team are a good fit for our club and the club’s philosophy.
I see there is speculation again about Emi and I guess Aarons will be subject to speculation too. Let’s hope they stay until the end of the season. I suppose my concern about the squad is we have players who are top draw in the Championship but are not quite good enough for the Premier League. We, hopefully, will face the dilemma again about whether we let them have another crack at the Premier League or whether we get in some proven Premier League players to bolster the squad. Money will probably decide that to a large extent. I know our self funding model dictates that we must spend some money on young recruits to keep the flow going through the squads, like we did with Bali Mumba, Soto, Sinani, etc.
I was surprised to hear that tickets have not flown off the shelves and that there were still tickets available yesterday for the Forest game. I wonder if it is people want to see their families at Christmas so much that they are not willing to take the risk of going to Carrow Road. There is no doubt that the 2,000 made a difference. If we had been in tier 1 would they have sold all 4,000 tickets that they could have done. I hope we are not seeing people falling out of love with football.
Stay safe one and all.
OTBC
It makes you wonder if Vrancic’s Amazeballs pass to Pukki against Spurs, which was a contender for the goal of the season, would have changed Norwich’s and Vrancic’s season last year if it had been not unfairly ruled out for supposed offside.