Oh, Josh 🙁
For all the whys and wherefores of team selections, formations and substitutions that did or didn’t happen, the main reason we’re not dissecting our first win of the season this morning is that poor ol’ Josh, when faced with an open goal from 25 yards, horribly under-hit it.
Really horribly.
He’ll not forget that one for a while, probably never, but luckily professional footballers are made of sterner stuff than yours truly, who can still recall in vivid detail misses for Wenhaston Reserves, aged 16, Estudiantes (from Beccles, not Argentina), aged 18, and Intachem (Lowestoft Sunday League), aged 34.
There were others in between, no doubt, but those are the three I’ve never forgotten. But I digress. The point is, they stay with you, regardless of whether you’re playing in front of 27,000 or three people and a dog,
It was no coincidence that Sargent, when presented with another good opportunity early in the second half, after being put through by Teemu Pukki, took a poor first touch that spared him another chance to shoot.
Such was the magnitude and significance of that miss, I really hope he is on the receiving end of some soothing words at Colney. What he doesn’t need is people writing about it. I’ll shush.
There were other chances of course but this worrying dearth of composure in front of goal is only going to end once City can finally hit the net. Even Pukki, fresh from breaking international scoring records, is showing an unusual degree of hesitancy in front of goal when wearing a yellow shirt.
I guess it’s all part of the bottom-of-the-table-with-no-wins effect.
The upside was obviously the much improved defensive solidity that produced that very un-Norwich City-like concept of two consecutive clean sheets. Even in the Championship that was a rarely experienced phenomenon.
So fair play to Daniel Farke for finding a solution to the first part of the conundrum around making us better. The second part, the trickier part, comes with finding a way to retain that solidity and that resilience while also carrying a consistent threat going forward.
As things stand, the chances we create come via persistence, hard work and scrapping but it helps to have in the locker the ability to create opportunities via some fluidity, or a flash of genius, or a well-worked move. Just like we did in the heady days of 2018-19 and 2020-21.
The difficulty for Farke is finding the right combo of midfielders and attackers among the current group who can provide that missing edge.
At the moment the chosen three of Lees-Melou, Normann and McLean are doing everything asked of them in terms of proving a protective barrier in front of Kabak, Hanley and Gibson, but of the three midfielders, only the Norwegian looks capable of picking a pass if given the time.
That’s not say there weren’t some good performances in that area of the pitch yesterday. Both Normann and his French colleague had their best games for City, with the former having an outstanding afternoon against his former club until cramp robbed him of the ability to even walk.
Against a Brighton midfield that was very comfortable in possession and, at times, slick in the way they shifted the ball, Normann more than matched them both in and out of possession. While his range of passing and a tendency to look for a longer pass has taken us away from the version of Farkeball we’re most familiar with, it has added a new dimension.
The crux is finding a way to best use it and finding the mix of attackers who will best benefit from it. Currently, we’re still searching but with a mixed bag of options available I remain hopeful this is another conundrum for which Team Farke will eventually find a solution.
Time, of course, is a rare commodity in the Premier League and to think we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the season already is a scary thought when you’re still scratching around for your first win and when your next game is Chelsea away.
A point against a thoroughly decent Brighton side was okay though, and had we have been in mid-table is just the type of result we would have accepted and moved on. But the fact we’re looking so perilous and win-less at the foot of the table just heightens the disappointment, especially as it was accompanied by so many what-if moments.
Until that first win arrives we’re likely to remain a nervy, tetchy, niggly bunch.
But move on we must although away trips to the current European champions do tend to come with a health warning. Now that will be a proper test of our newfound resilience.
The critics are out in force on social media this morning, and I get that. Teams that are bottom of the league and without a win are fair game and, obviously, there are still plenty of things that need to be improved upon, but I see enough signs to suggest we will get better and more competitive in the coming weeks and months.
Whether that improvement will be enough to see us kick on or even up is another matter. That’s for another day. Right now, I’d just take a win.
Most interesting thing I find is that 4 of our new recruits were on the bench! Poor recruitment from Webber or poor team selection?Or maybe they’re not good enough,whatever the case something has to change,I’ll leave that one for DF.
It seemed quite a balanced team selection to me Tonyb,
Back line is working well, the three centre-backs are blending well, we have some great wing backs. Krul looked in good form.
Midfield is looking good, solid and commanding, McLean, Lees-Melou and Normann will pay us back big soon, no doubt at all there!
Goals will come and once City find the net regularly things will seem more obvious and natural. The new guys will play their part over the season.
Its getting better! We had more attempts and were unlucky a couple of times.
COYY !!
I think the key point of your article is that our chances came from persistence, errors on their part. I see no formula for us scoring and that’s alarming.
Sadly we’re now at the point where “one win shoots you up to 15th” no longer holds true. We’re now two wins from escaping the relegation zone. So to your headline, I don’t think drawing our way to safety is possible.
We must beat Leeds. To go into Nov. without a win is not worth thinking about.
All the rumours surrounding Gilmour and Williams getting a recall by their clubs if it happens so what neither have set the canary world on fire yet
As Farke has said players need to fight for a place not expect it to be given on an international performance and Gilmour can’t play this coming weekend so such it up.
The big choice will be Dimitrios or Williams and how to handle the dirty tricks brigade of this Chelsea side.
City have show a new resilience in defence but Chelsea takes niggling fouls to a new level it reminds me of the Leeds United side of the late 60’s.
But you never know they just might think city aren’t worth turning up with their A game and be so confident in winning they lack purpose.
Can Chelsea be our turning point with a surprise result with Sargent getting on the score board.
To early in the week to dream but then they gave a big midweek game in the CL
“All the rumours”. Really? Don’t be ridiculous. We’re barely into the season.
Prior to the season starting rumours said Gilmour had chosen the wrong club and it was only the 2 managers friendship that convinced him, Williams said he came after seeing Skipp career blossom at city.
And rumours start no matter how far we are into the season
I agree Gary to a certain degree yesterday was frustrating.
But come next week we will have played 5 of the top 6 plus Arsenal and Leicester.
The Watford result really being the only outlier this season.
But that is perhaps taking a rather optimistic view. 2 goals and one a penalty from 8 games is absolutely dreadful.
But Daniel has seemingly found a way for us to stop shipping goals like we were.
Tony makes a great point in the fact that 4 of the new recruits were only on the bench, but I wouldn’t judge Stuart Webber’s signings just yet.
I have said before I do think he may have signed too many younger players when we needed in our own PM’s words “oven ready” players. Time will tell.
I also think Josh’s miss was bad but we have to cut him some slack as even had he scored there was a still lot of time left in the game. I think both him, Teemu and even Adam Idah look bereft of confidence at the moment.
Personally I would have given Adam a start yesterday.
It seems every so often we learn of a different player who has had covid, I think the ramifications of that may be as decisive this time around in the EPL as our injury crisis was last time.
Lets put it this way I do think it was more than four players affected by covid. I know the last thing the Club want to do is make excuses but I really believe covid and the late arrival of some of our signings hasn’t helped.
Finally Daniels does seem reluctant to “go for it ” with any meaningful substitutions at present. That old dilemma of stick or twist.
Soon he will have no choice.
It’s not going to help Adam Idah confidence to come on with only a few minutes to go, needs to start just after halftime at least, pukki and Sargent have had a run in the team, About time some others pair need giving the same amount of games, say Idah and Rashica or Tzolis, no point in spending all that transfers and they are warming the bench.
First of all, there was clear penalty not given for Brighton. Also in that Krul-Maupay situation it would have possible also been red card. I just dont understand why do you keep rules in english football if you are not willing to use them? Because that was second time when referees helped Norwich and Krul, only conclusion what comes in mind is that premier league dislikes idea that there is club without any points. Referees are overall bad in England, but now they have var to correct their obvious mistakes which has been basically such a mess all the time unlike nowhere else. Its of course possible that referees are idiots, so bad mistakes keep on coming but that is not good thing at all.
Norwich had 2 very good scoring chances, both came to Sargent. Empty net mistake was of course best scoring chance of game. His other chance he spoiled technically, nice pass from Teemu but like I said Sargent was not able to run with the ball. Teemu had 2 some kind of scoring chances. First 1 was combo play with Aarons, who made perfect pass but honestly scoring angle was very tight so I have impossible to understand Teemus ground punching. It proved only that he is taking too much pressure about scoring for Norwich and because other players are nowhere near of scoring any goals he starts behaving like little baby. His other chance was spoiled once again by Rashica, that was not difficult pass but he spoiled it and Teemu had to run first wide and it took just those seconds which made Brighton defender possible to block his shot.
Brighton also had couple of very good scoring chances, both came to Maupay. Trossard made fantastic shoot which sadly ends to crossbar. Its always sad when something brilliant happen but it gets spoiled because of bad luck.
No matter what scoring chances Sargent spoils, I would play him. Reason to that is that now there is possibility that Teemu might get good scoring chance. Sargent is somewhat similar type of player with Jensen and because Joel Pohjanpalo got injured during the game against Kazakstan its true that it was vital for Teemu and he scored 2. Otherwise I doubt that Teemu would have scored any, Pohjanpalo would have scored and Teemus goal against Ukraine was already 80% pohjanpalos goal. This is difficult situation for Finland to choose which one plays, Norwich situation is different because Norwich players besides Pukki are scared of getting scoring chances and after that experience against Brighton even more. Defence has been finally good at least on results, penalties might have changed that stat a lot.
Absolutely brilliant Brentford was surely best thing again in premier league football. Incredible Mendy and very good luck + referee decisions favored Chelsea. When Brentford took Marcus Forss to game, their dominance was so 1 sided that you rarely see. Forss was brilliant, I had difficulties to believe me yes but his improvement has been fantastic all the time. Brentford is so good overall and Toney and Mbeumo (unlucky 2 post shots) are playing fantastically too. Brentford have positive problem, its clearly best thing in premier league at least so far in premier league and if they keep that level its not surprising that they would get even top 4 placement.
I find it totally laughable that anybody can come onto a Norwich City website and state in all seriousness that we are getting help from VAR.
Even more ridiculous was your explanation for the favouritism we are experiencing.
This is what we have to deal with. This is the perception of people who just watch on the tellybox and listen to commentators who know very little about us. Almost everything in this post is complete garbage.
Yes normal Brentford until Xmas then watch them dive someone said during the week that Norwich come out to funeral music I think dire straights might be more appropriate 😃
Hi Kev
I think they played a bit of lightweight….
Ha Kev!
One of our dogs made me press the send key early by jumping at me and there’s no remote edit!
What I meant to say is that was it was lightweight metal by a band I didn’t recognise and nothing too funerary – you need Sabbath and Electric Funeral for that or just about any doom metal band of your choice.
You could have a point about Dire Straits though 🙂
Wow. So negative. Yes it could be better. But realistically we improved again. We made chances. The focus is on Sargent’s misses but he caused Brighton so much trouble. But for several brilliant last ditch tackles by Brighton defenders we would have won that 3-0. We deserved to. Brighton really didn’t look like scoring.
We are taking steps. There is still a long way to go before the end of the season. Are you going to give up now? What are you? Sunderland/Newcastle fans? Fans who walk out at half time? Against Spurs today Newcastle fans gave up after going a goal down. Let’s not be like that. With a dreadful sense of entitlement so deep that we skip the supporting bit and go straight to dejection. We’re better than that and Farke deserves better than that.
Agreed 1×2, sadly the rules were not adhered to……
Maupey should have been booked for diving as there is no chance that was even close to being a penalty
Good article, although I disagree that had Sargent’s miss gone in that we would have been celebrating a win. Who knows what would have happened in the second half. We may have gone on to win 3-0 or lose 1-3. Either way though there have been a lot of positives recently.
Normann and Kabak look to have been the panacea to make us defensively solid. Teams stay up in the Prem by having a strong foundation at the back. Yes we obviously need to score at the other end, but Burnley, Brighton, Palace and previously teams like Stoke have had extended stays due to that. The fragility we showed last time around in the Prem is the reason we went down feebly. Arguably Farke started addressing it when in the championship last season, and now we may have the personnel to keep it tight. Whether we need both McLean and Lees-Melou ahead of Normann and a back 5 is debatable. Especially at home. But I’m sure Gilmour or Dowell will get an opportunity to be creative soon if the defence remains secure. Much as I love Sargent’s energy and spirit I’m not sure he will score many, but with the pace and width of Rashica and Tzolis there’s a prospect of being more expansive in the coming weeks.
We avoided defeat and that’s about it, we didn’t look as strong as Brighton and we shouldn’t paint this as a match we deserved to win (especially 3-0 as I’ve seen mentioned a few times) as we were on the whole second best to a Brighton team who will finish in the bottom 6 not the top 6 when they start playing top half of the table teams. We put a lot of effort in but it looked like we played at the top of our game, so we have to maintain this just to grab a few points. At the time Sargent’s miss didn’t look too bad but when I saw it back on TV I could see that it was unlikely to have reached the goal, however, I can understand that he went for accuracy rather than power and just over did it. He wasn’t to know that he wasn’t about to be tackled. My own playing career probably contained more moments like the mix up between the Brighton defender and keeper that caused Sargent to have an open goal. One good thing is it sounds like Leeds will offer us very beatable opposition