Norwich City Football Club have been promoted four times to the top division during the Premier League era.
Manager Nigel Worthington’s side were promoted automatically as champions in 2003/04. Paul Lambert also achieved automatic promotion finishing second in 2010/11.
Neil Adams generously stood aside halfway through the 2014/15 season allowing Alex Neil to swoop City up into third place and play-off success at Wembley. And Daniel Farke memorably topped the division to win automatic promotion in 2018/19.
Four promotions so far and sitting pretty this season at the top of the Championship… Is a fifth promotion on the cards?
Let’s check progress this season against the other promotion seasons in 2003/04, 2010/11, 2014/15, and 2018/19…
Percentage of games won/lost
Farke has done fantastically well this season winning three out of every five games (60.9%) and losing only one in six (17.4%). Although this record is very, very good, it doesn’t quite match Alex Neil’s astonishing run during the second half of the 2014/15 season where he won two games out of every three (68.0%) and lost only one in eight (12.0%).
Despite this, Farke’s record remains extremely impressive. In addition, Farke’s high win percentage exactly matches Nigel Worthington’s in 2003/04 and his low loss percentage exactly matches both Paul Lambert’s in 2010/11 and Worthington’s (again) in 2003/04.
Daniel Farke definitely has NCFC in the frame for promotion.
Average goals scored/conceded per game
Imagine a team at the halfway point of the Championship season only having three players who’d scored more than one league goal after 23 games. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? In fact, you’d expect that side to be embroiled in a relegation battle.
But that is the situation for the Canaries – only three players (Teemu Pukki, Emi Buendia, and MarioVrancic) have scored more than one league goal this season.
The lack of regular goalscorers from alternate areas of the pitch is a slight concern. With only three players posing a regular goal threat surely that makes it easier for opposing teams to target and snuff out potential problems? Particularly should the standard of opposition improve in due course… (Promotion anyone?)
This view might seem ungrateful considering City’s current league position but it would be encouraging to see a regular supply of goals from other contributors.
A recent comparison with our last league opponents, Barnsley, shows they had seven players who’d scored more than one league goal this season compared to City’s three.
Surely it must be more difficult to plan to play against a more diverse goal threat (despite City’s eventual 1-0 win)? Unfortunately against higher quality opposition, I feel this flaw, however minor, will get us found out.
City are top though so I almost feel a need to apologise for bringing it up.
Of course, the other – and much more positive – side of this coin is City’s 31 league goals have come from 11 different players. The goals have been spread around – however thinly – which is very much a positive. So, pick yer potato…
Looking at the charts, average goals conceded per game are at an all-time low during Farke’s tenure, which is brilliant. Conceding less than a goal a game is a really good indicator of a solid defence and a great basis for success.
As hinted earlier, the average goals scored per game stats are somewhat less impressive. In fact, City have only scored two-thirds (66.8%) as many goals as in Farke’s last successful promotion season two years ago.
I’m hopeful this will improve as chances continue to be created and perhaps the last ingredient to add to the mix is confidence in front of goal. A brief varied flurry anytime in the near future would help this enormously.
Things are going so well it almost seems churlish to raise the point but it wouldn’t half help to have a few games comfortably killed-off by being two or three goals up after 70 minutes or so! An almost unimagined luxury. And I’m sure everyone at the club feels exactly the same.
Looking up, looking bright, looking positive – and full faith in the management team and players.
OTBC
(NB. This article details all NCFC promotions from the second tier since 1992/93 and the figures include results for league and play-off matches only. Stats for this season are correct up to and including the 1-0 win over Barnsley FC on 2nd January 2021.)
Thanks Gary. Any chance of adding an ‘s’ to the title: ‘How does this one compare with other promotion season?’ please? Ta. Excellent KK piece. 80, eh? He looks great on it too!
Oops… sorry about that, mate. All sorted.
Interesting read, good to know there’s more than one way to gain promotion.
To me it’s how different each of these campaigns have felt to me as a fan. All are unique and have very different memories, players and managers create this. Iwan & Hucks, Holty, & Wes, the whole team in 2015, Teemu most recently.
At seasons end, whenever that will be, we will form our opinions of this strange, crowd free season but if we can continue in similar vein reckon I’ll look back on this as ‘The Daniel Farke season’ and his finest achievement.
Agreed Colin, all the promotion seasons and circumstances around them were very different (albeit they all happened within a few years of each other). Like you, I just hope we end up with a positive result. Either way, these are exciting times!
This article perfectly explains, why way too often when I comment here I am basically forced to talk about Pukki. He is not my favourite player, I dont even know do I even have such a thing. I suppose because he is striker, its more interesting to follow than for example how left back or central defender plays. Other reason is that Norwich plays football which is nice to watch, it was not that in second half of last season. I dont mean results, but style started to look like West Bromwich plays now. I tried to look Rangers-Celtic last weekend because its derby but of course very much because of Glen Kamara. After first half I changed to Spurs-Leeds game which just was way more entertaining game.
Little bit about tactical point, Finland plays with 2 “strikers”. I say “strikers” because Pukki plays as striker but when he plays with other “striker” that other striker is more like player between striker and winger. I believe because of that reason, opponents cant go so much against Pukki and they are forced to follow that “greyhound” type of player all the time too. Before mr Kanerva took national team manager job, Pukki or Pohjanpalo got often isolated just like happened in Norwich too last season. Pukki-Pohjanpalo striker partnership hasnt really worked, even they are different player types they too often goes to same balls. Finland plays kind of chameleon football, formation and players changes based on opponents and of course depending who are available for selection. 2 or 3 central defenders changes formation right away, player roles changes and starting lineup changes. Basic playing style does not change and that is reason why players can adapt to different roles depending of the game. National teams are of course little bit different, selection pools are way much larger and teams have more time to prepare. So, Norwich has its own playing identity. They should not change it, but maybe have more varieties to help key players who can make difference. This season Buendia has improved area which he was lacking before, scoring goals. Its very important improvement to Norwich, because statistics prove that otherwise Pukki would have to score stats like Dixie Dean has scored to make Norwich promotion possible. Stats also shows how difficult is score goals, we dont really expect Pukki to score for Finland. If he scores its fantastic, but comments like should score are ridiculous in clear majority of “scoring chances”. Buendia is becoming more and more marked now, that will show how he can handle that. Statistically Norwich scoring stats are surely rare, main concern is injuries to players who have scored. If other players does not score, Norwich fans should support their scorers and absolutely not blame those couple of players if they dont do impossible which means scoring everywhere they try. Its sad to see how some Barcelona fans are blaming Messi that he is main reason why Barcelona does not do so well anymore. And who is Finland national team main man? Glen Kamara. Very good goalkeeper and striker are vital, but you need engine. So main areas are just like in Norwich strongest ones, that surely is behind to good results for both.
Excellent comment 1×2.
I would say Farke identified that NCFC needed a different option to Pukki being the sole isolated striker for this season…..and was intending (certainly in some games) to pair him with a pacy wide man. However, in typical Norwich fashion, both protagonists for the supporting role (Hernandez and Placheta) have been missing through injury for many of the games.
It’s still quite astonishing for NCFC to be 4 points clear, halfway through the season, given the number of injuries they have had to cope with.
O T B C
Agreed with you John. It’s a pity the two pacy wing-men have been injured so much as they would have added fire to the flanks of the spearhead and could well have been very successful. Still time though.
Thanks 1×2. Always enjoy your comments and they always provide something new. Of course we’d all love Pukki to continue scoring, but it would be even nicer if a few others chipped in significantly too to give the opposition something else to worry about!
First thanks to both John and Chris S for your kind words to me.. Maybe I have different opinions because of distance. There is no right or wrong opinions. Player type what I mean, Fredrik Jensen played that kind of role in nations league for Finland. Workhorse who is skilled and have good football brain, but also physically enough strong to battle. He scored most goals for Finland in Nations league. What I have seen Norwich, you dont have player type like that.