It wasn’t the Boxing Day we had hope for obviously, but then again we don’t really do Boxing Days.
We’ve only just got the hang of opening days of the season, so to expect us to move on to Boxing Day wins so quickly was probably a step too far.
Couple that with the wearing of the ‘blue’ away kit (or any away kit) and it became an almost impossible task.
I jest of course. It was a game City could have won but simply weren’t at their best and came up against a team that has a lot of good, very expensive players.
I hesitate to say they’re a good team – as others have been telling me they are – but they have a lot of good players and with yet another new manager on board, certainly have the potential to be. And those quality players alone will be sufficient to ensure they remain in the top two shake-up.
Yet, unless I missed something, this Watford team reached nowhere near the heights Sky’s Don Goodman described and on another day could have gone the same way as Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn, Reading and Cardiff.
But they didn’t and for all City’s possession, the Hornets defended very well and protected Ben Foster to such a degree he spent most of the night catching lame hanging crosses and diving to the floor to smother and protect the ball for the proceeding two minutes.
Fair play to them. They did a job on us, caused us more problems than most, and the win will have kept new man Xisco Munoz in employment for at least another week.
And in Troy Deeney they have a wily old fox, who literally leads from the front, is a master of the dark arts and does precisely for Watford what Grant Holt did for us.
Between him and Andre Gray – who, again, was nowhere near as impressive as Goodman made him out to me – they engaged Grant Hanley and Christoph Zimmermann in close-quarter combat in a way rarely seen this season.
And we creaked a little.
A fit and healthy Ben Gibson has to come in. Zimmermann had, until last night, been a capable replacement but (with apologies to Twitter’s Zimbo Appreciation Society) a Gibson/Hanley combo is simply better.
The big German has never let us down and will never let us down but it was an area that needed an upgrade and last night showed why.
Similarly, the sight of Xavi Quintilla on the bench is a welcome one. As well as Jacob Sørensen has performed in a position that was alien to him prior to his eleventh hour inclusion at Brentford, you can’t beat having a natural left-footer in that position; particularly one with energy who can whip in pinpoint crosses.
Against ‘middling’ Championship teams we were (very) successfully able to fill in the voids with players who could do a job given the quality elsewhere in the side, but against teams with better players, the weaknesses and flaws are exposed.
Watford’s goal was something of a horror show and so many fingers could be pointed it may be prudent to not point any. The four/five players who could have done better will know and will have been reminded.
A back five of Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Gibson and Quintilla can’t come soon enough, although Kieran Dowell last night did offer up the perfect example of the difference between being fit and being match fit. We still need to be patient given the length of time Quintilla in particular, has been absent.
But when those five are reunited, we’ll be a better team for it, not least because those soothing passing rhythms in which we specialise rely on a solid base. It wasn’t there last night
Dowell, as alluded to, is another who needs time. He struggled with Farkeball 4.0 early on in the season and, despite an especially pleasing cameo away at Reading, is still finding his place in this set-up.
There’s a very good player in there. We just haven’t seen much of him so far and Team Farke needs to find a way of getting him and Todd Cantwell to dovetail rather than battle for those same pockets of space in which they both thrive.
But, *perspective alert*, this was only City’s second defeat in their last 17 games and they responded to their last one – just 18 miles down the M1 – with five straight victories.
On this occasion, the next game can’t come soon enough, and on Tuesday night QPR will offer a different type of challenge.
A team that hasn’t won for eight games would normally send chills through the Canary Nation for obvious reasons, but I’m going for the positive spin… that a team that’s clearly struggling offers City the perfect chance to consign last night’s defeat to the history books.
We’re still in a good place. Last night hasn’t changed that.
But to finish, I have to return to the curious case of Don Goodman.
Now, co-commentating is a notoriously tricky gig and Jamie Carragher spoke only yesterday on TV of how doing so virtually guarantees you your own personal trend on Twitter, but DG’s performance yesterday was wholly deserving of scrutiny.
His pre-match ‘one to watch’ for Watford was Andre Gray – an odd choice given the striker has built a reputation for not scoring – and so determined was Don that said player would justify his choice, the slightest movement (“a smart run in the channel”) was met with praise so wholesome one could be forgiven for thinking Gray had developed a formula for world peace.
He ran around a lot, he did okay, but his 74th-minute substitution was undeserving of the one-man standing ovation afforded to him by big D.
And while Sarr may have been a reasonable choice for Sky’s man-of-the-match, given he was the scorer of the winning goal, part of Don’s justification was that he fouled someone and got booked. If ‘taking one for the team’ equates to MotM, why is Alex Tettey’s mantlepiece not full of them?
There were plenty more odd comments (Sarr’s “accidental” flailing arm that smashed Pukki in the face) but I’ll leave it there. There’s always the volume button when Don is in town.
We go again Tuesday. Let’s make last night a mere blip.
Never Mind the Danger
Quintilla is an interesting one. Not the best of defenders but at least he is playing in his proper position. His strength is crossing and set pieces but who is he crossing to in our current team? Onwards and upwards. OTBC.
Fair comment, that. Who indeed.
Gary did you not think there was a bit of “deja vu” about last nights game.
As for most of last season we come up against skilled athletes and found we cannot compete as we are muscled out.
I thought we were making progress but last night was an awful wake up call.
How are we ever going to fund establishing the club in the premier league, as is the clubs stated intention, when you look at how much the Watford players cost?
Last night Watford a big, athletic and street smart squad fired up by the new manager and we weren’t on it partly do to their quality. Although 3 at the back looked interesting last 25 minutes – with wing backs would suit Quintilla and Aarons
Agreed It takes 5 or 6 games to become match sharp quite a few of our returning players will need a little patience and it will take time re-gelling as a team – Farke loves a settled side as he proved in the run in in 2019
let’s hope Krul comes back sharp we can’t afford too many goalkeeping errors because of rustiness – ps what a fabulous signing he has been
The Coventry FA cup game a month ago looked like it would be an u23s game for us but it could now be a useful sharpener for the squad
First of all, Norwich didnt loose to Watford. Norwich loose to referee, so Referee 1-Norwich 0. Some people can say that bad refereeing is part of english football and you just have to accept it, its just without any sense. Fault on Pukki was 100% sure penalty basically everywhere else, in Premier league too thanks to VAR. Problem on these kind of refereeing is that you start playing differently, you start making 100% clear faults because there is always good chance that referees does not care at all. Then when you do same in international games you get booked and penalties are awarded to opponents. There was clear contact, so clear that its not possible that referee didnt see it. He just didnt care at all, or he was bribed. I just cant understand how Watford fans or any football fan feels that its part of the game. It ruins the game, thats all.
Norwich struggled until Farke made changes. Dowell was not there, he was basically 0. Cantwell was ok, but changes were needed. Pukki and Buendia tried everything possible to get that 1-1 goal, actually they manage to do that but….Overall game was annoying to watch, Watford was not better, watford was more physical. Their game plan was trying to win better skilled team by physicality and aggressiviness. Sarr really is pathetic, his body language and attitude is joke. I can understand that he feels that he should not play in that level. He has not shown much anything in championship. Watford will play often against teams which are similar to them, physical and very defensive. No wonder they struggle against them. Their team is build as trying to avoid relegation, but not winning promotions. Norwich is opposite and because of that Norwich will get promoted back to premier league. I believe that Brentford is other team in top 2.
A poor performance all round I thought. Plenty of tippy tappy neat passing going nowhere. Too slow and no cutting edge which defines city when they have a bad day. I have to agree with Riverender above in picking you up on your comments about Quintilla’s crossing ability – when did we last score from a cross?? I still think we need a big “English style” centre forward to use as an option. After all two big “English style” centre backs have transformed our defense!! Put this one to bed agreed but learn the lessons because Watford showed everyone how to nullify our threats.
There is no sense that team which is technical would start playing kick and rush football. Extreme tactical change does not suite most of Norwich starting line up players, so its not only striker thing. If Norwich is looking for striker partner for Pukki, greyhound type of player suits best. To midfield Norwich needs technical rat type player who knows how to dive and when and who loves opponents shirts so much that his hands are all the time in their shirts. He basically pisses of opponent players. You dont have in britain player types like that, you are way too fair. You can fight against physicality in different ways, but there is no point destroy your game plan are start playing with style which does not suite to majority of players.
A curious team, Watford and it was frustrating that they scored from their only shot on target, although they also created three or four other decent opportunities, especially in the first half. Watford really deserve credit for the way they pressed NCFC, but they never really looked overly threatening.
City just weren’t at it in the second half, at least until the triple substitution was made.
I neither watched nor listened to the commentary on the game. It was a step too far for me to get a Sky pass for the day and as I had already feared a loss was on the cards I kept my involvement down to watching live text on BBC sport.. I believe in the percentage game and we were due to come away from Watford with nothing ( a typical bullish team but pretty decent at what they do ). As long as our confidence doesn’t suffer ( which it shouldn’t ) then we have two ideal opportunities at home to re-establish our position. It is important that we do not falter against weaker ( on paper ) teams especially as up next Brentford play Bournemouth, Swansea play Reading and Watfords game at Millwall is off. OTBC 🙂
Merry Christmas Gary. Unfortunately I’ve missed the last 4-5 matches so can’t really comment, but have to believe this is a blip. We’re still in a great position.
I think Norwich need to avoid sounding triumphalistic and get back to being realistic. The Watford game was a reminder of how we performed (or didn’t) in the Premier League and that there is a gulf we will need to bridge if we do go up. No point pretending. And Watford weren’t even good enough for the Premier League so that is a definite wake-up call for May 2020 if we finish in a promotion spot.
I’ve always quite liked Don Goodman until very recently. For some reason he’s gone all anti Norwich and I can’t fathom why. His comment last night that Sarr was booked while “defending for the team” was odd in the extreme. He was in our half and just lashed out an elbow! Could easily have been a Red as should have Capoue for his “tackle” on Emi.
They are not the reasons we lost, of course, we just weren’t on it last night. And that can happen, we are not going to win every game. Don’t want to be too harsh, but with our proper back 5, we don’t concede that goal. But, again, we have players who do make mistakes, that’s probably why they play for us and not some European giant.
But we are still top, have players still to return and 2021 looks very bright.
I think we needed some pace in the final third last night i.e. Plachetta or Hernandez, Someone who was prepared to run at Watford it might have opened up more spaces around their penalty area. Max seemed unwilling to take on their left back when he had the opportunity??
Capoue’s challenge on Buendia in the 1st half was terrible and 100% a red card in my opinion, it looked even worse in slow motion. How does the ref let that go when he was so close to the incident? Game changing but hey this is the championship!!
On to QPR hopefully DF will get a reaction.
I think the referee last night had a philosophy that if he’d booked someone for one foul, then that was punishment enough, no matter what they did after that. As my wife said Sarr should have had three yellow cards. It was also totally inconsistent to give a foul against Maclean and book him, but not do the same when Aarons was bodychecked in their penalty area.
Hmm, I can’t totally buy into your comparison of Grant Holt and Deeney. Holty was no saint, but I don’t recall him trying to referee games or going around asking for opponents to be booked.
Thanks for the good read Gary. A few comments:
I think Capoue’s challenge was a red card and that may have changed the outcome.
Our build up was slow which gave Watford’s defence time to get tight.
We have not scored and lost to both Bournemouth and Watford 1-0. That suggests we are short of the physicality needed to beat poor let alone mediocre Premier League sides. Something that will need to be addressed. Our quality of football beats Championship sides but it won’t cut the mustard in the Premier League, so we may still pick up enough points to go up.
A number of players had an off day and there were too many to carry. Hugill and Dowell have yet to convince me. Let’s hope they get better with more game time.
One more game in this dreadful year in oh so many ways. Let’s hope the team can get another good run together.
Stay safe one and all.
Other than the goal I’ve not seen any of the match; I followed the text report on the BBC.
However, from all the comments today, it would seem that Mr Goodman wants to join the ranks of Mills; Sherwood and co……although I cannot recall him ever playing for us!!
Once Watford billed Ilic I feared that a defeat was unfortunately on the cards, as they played the same trick against us twice last season….and of course beat us twice!
Whilst last seson was truly dreadful, Watford did finish higher than NCFC, invested lots more money than NCFC, and (I think) have since sold the same number of players as NCFC…
So, to be 6 points ahead of them with almost half the season gone is no mean feat.
As you say Gary, a modicum of perspective is needed……particularly given that we still have a number of players to return, and indeed for those who are back to regain match fitness and sharpness.
Onwards to Tuesday…
O T B C
The one great piece of news was Krul signing a new contract. We just need 10 more players like him because he was the one genuinely Premiership-standard player last season and would not have been out of place in a Top 6 team, as well as playing at the Euros. If he stays fit for 3 or 4 more seasons then that overshadows any result against Watford as we will have the basis of a Premiership side to build on. And to think that there were serious question marks over his ability when we were promoted.
‘There’s always the volume button when Don is in town’
My wife has been looking for one for decades.
Hi Gary
A very interesting take on last nights game.
As for Don Goodman and his commentary it is possible as good as his football career second best.
Watford read the script for this game and their new Manager set up like his predecessor an 11 man defence, they also took the LIVARPOOL abd Leeds approach of sly niggling tackles to break up the opposition game.
The Ref’s take on the fame was poor he new that Watford were targeting certain players and gave them no protection just warned the player he would be booked for the next foul so up stepped another Watford player to foul till he git his warning.
Capoue should have seen red it was a deliberate rake down Buendia achilies and Sarr knew were Pukki was when he let fly with his backhander.
City gave a poor record of conversions and it is getting worse, I read in the box it is a good conversion rate but it is outside from distance that is killing us, so Watford set up to stop us getting into the box and it worked.
Penalties or not we will possibly find out on Ref’s Watch on Monday will Gallagher giving us hus FONT of Knowledge but he will never go against another Ref’s decision.
The next game city must show the chasing pack that this game was a hiccup that we have got over not something that has damaged our progress.
Last night we had no energy till the last 10/20mins maybe some of those returning are just not ready for a start or Farke believed after their performances as subs they were ready so possibly there might be some back on the bench V QPR.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 🙏
A bit early but let me wish all MFW writers and contributers a Happy New Year and a better 2021 than 2020 turned out to be and a successful conclusion to the season.
Well as last night proved we need better dm as no tetty or skipp next year Kenny not up to it how can a clean tackle on pukki be a penalty I don’t know clutching at straws springs to mind
Commiserations to Chris Sutton and his family.
Well the inevitable that has been predicted fir a couple of seasons has finally happened Carlton Morris is on his way I thought he would sign for MK Don’s at the end of the season but SW gave go a deal done with Barnsley now South Yorkshire will be a cultural shock to him but all the best for his career
Goodman was embarrassing and ref awful. Really poor game both sides looked as though they would rather be at home enjoying Christmas.
Looking forward to 3 pts v The super hoops.
Agree with Hanley Gibson combo. Thought Mario had a great late cameo too.