I need to tread a bit carefully. I took some mild stick on Twitter yesterday for suggesting those who bemoaned City’s performance in the 2-0 defeat by Celtic were blubbing prematurely.
As I’ve said many times before, I pay little heed to results and performances in friendlies – even those that occur just seven days before the start of the season. But some do.
I can’t comment on what occurred on #NCFC Facebook as I don’t do Facebook, but am told that, typically, there was a brouhaha over the result, the performance, and everything that went with it. Twitter too, which I do frequent, was full of folk questioning the direction in which Dean Smith is taking us.
But what it looked like to me was City losing 2-0 to a decent Celtic side who, unusually for a friendly, benefitted from home advantage; whose first goal was clearly offside (not that it *really* matters); while City played okay but will obviously be better when our two new signings are fit.
Even at this relatively late stage, it’s still about getting minutes in the legs with some, like Andrew Onobamidele, getting a full 90 minutes for the first time – one of the big downsides to having a bloated squad.
There are just too many examples of a good pre-season equating to a bad start to the campaign and vice-versa – not least the pre-season of 2009-10 under poor ol’ Gunny – to get too invested in the outcome of every friendly.
Why should a 2-0 defeat by Celtic be any more significant than a 3-0 win in Marseilles?
One of the big questions being asked is around there being no identifiable pattern of play under Dean Smith and Craig Shakespeare – a point also raised during the second half of last season.
But, for me, it’s still a bit too soon.
To throw that one at Smith and Shakespeare when they were in the midst of a futile relegation battle seems a bit harsh, given they were trying every which way to try and find a formula that would earn some points.
In the end, of course, they neither found a formula nor enough points, but I had no problem with them trying different formations, personnel, and methods when firefighting in the most hostile of footballing environments.
And pre-season is pre-season – the time when you do experiment and try things you’ll be looking to use over the course of the season.
If after, say, ten games there is no discernible style of play then it does become an issue worthy of discussion, but this feels too soon. And I also think we’ve become a little precious over having a certain way of playing. In fact, we’ve been spoilt.
Under Daniel Farke there was undoubtedly a ‘way’ – a method of play that was clear and obvious, and would have been identifiable if the colour of the shirts and the players wearing them were changed – and can now be seen in Mönchengladbach.
There was a beauty to it. Football in its purest form. A perfect hybrid of the Netherland’s total football of the 1970s and Barcelona’s tiki-taka of the late Noughties/early-2010s. It was special.
But when Farke left he took Farkeball with him, and it isn’t for everyone (especially in the River End). There are plenty of managers and coaches who deem it one-dimensional and too easy to neutralise.
And, let’s be honest, until Farkeball became a thing, did we have an easily identifiable Norwich City way? Did Alex Neil have a style of play that had Alex Neil stamped all over it?
No, he didn’t, it was a hybrid of passing when passing was needed and going into the channels when the time was right.
And I couldn’t tell you in precise terms what the Paul Lambert way was when he was here, other than it was effective.
I’ll pass on Chris Hughton because, unfortunately, he did have a style all of his own, but my point is that prior to Farke, we’ve had managers whose style of play was adaptable depending on the personnel available and the opposition.
And besides, I don’t believe Dean Smith – someone whose teams have always had a reputation for playing possession-based, attacking football – would have been brought in if he was going to divert too far away from our existing method. The sporting director model is, after all, predicated on the idea that personnel can change but the basic method remains.
I do however sense there are some waiting for Smith to fail; who are looking to latch onto every negative in order to crank up the pressure. For a few that view has been formed simply because he is not Daniel Farke.
I admit the jury is still out and, to be honest, Smith wouldn’t have been my first choice, but he has to be given a chance. Right now he’s being judged on a Premier League disaster that was not of his making and a pre-season in which, if results do matter, we’ve won five and lost one.
But I fear for him.
There will almost inevitably be a hangover from last season, not least because those new faces brought in to freshen things up are yet to appear, and even in our last two Championship-winning seasons we were slow starters.
Smith doesn’t have the same credits in the bank that enabled Farke to ride out those difficult few weeks – in fact, he has none – and so an opening six games of D-L-L-W-L-D (as in 2018-19) or an opening four of W-D-L-L (2020-21) will make last night’s mild brouhaha seem like a W.I. tea party.
He and Shakey desperately need wins on the board from the get-go.
On a more cheerful note, I couldn’t conclude without mentioning the performance of one Todd Cantwell at Celtic Park. While he may have faded a little in the final 20, for 70 minutes it was the Cantwell we all love – the one who’s committed and who looks to get on the ball and makes things happen.
To hear Dean Smith describe him as “being in a good place” and playing well is a bonus few of us saw coming.
Omobamidele too was mentioned in despatches, and so impressed have the coaching team been with the young Irishman over pre-season, I sense the battle may now be between Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson to see who partners him.
Anyway… whatever occurs in the next few weeks, we’ll be doing it without Christos Tzolis and Pierre Lees-Melou; the young Greek international departing on loan for the season to FC Twente, and the French beanpole heading off back to France to sign for Stade Brest on a permanent deal.
It seems Monsieur Lees-Melou declared his intention to depart early on in pre-season and so if he didn’t want to be here to help overcome a disastrous relegation that he was an integral part of, then to say a curt au revoir was undoubtedly the right thing to do.
We’ll manage without you, Pierre.
So, just 90 minutes of pre-season left – this afternoon against Hibs.
Whether we’ll be enjoying some Sunshine on Leith or whether there’ll be more ammunition for those looking for some, will all be revealed around 4pm this afternoon.
Either way, I’ll be giving Twitter a swerve. 😀
On the Ball City…
Well reasoned there GG. One thing on this pre season though has me scratching my head. With the last pre season game being at Hibees there is no way DS can start the Cardiff team as at least six of the starting 11 turned out at Celtic Park yesterday..
I guess the 11 for Cardiff will go out on the park not having started a pre season game together.
Dean Smith (along with his counterbalancing act, Craig Shakespeare) seemed too much of a cosy appointment to me, almost an old pals act. I suspect the board want an easy life and brought in someone who wouldn’t rock the boat. I’m unconvinced of their potential to succeed here, as they didn’t do wonders at Brentford or Aston Villa. At Brentford they were miles behind Norwich at the time, and at Villa a £200M spend earned an entirely unconvincing and fortunate 17th place in the Premier League.
The City board are so fortunate with the patience of the fans (and their appointed accommodating managers). No other club EVER sold their best player having won the Championship. It has never happened anywhere but here, with Buendia. No other manager in history was given NIL money to spend in their first transfer window when the club was struggling (it didn’t seem to do Newcastle any harm). And this transfer window has proved the opposite of the parachute payment advantage for relegated clubs as we’ve seen a clear-out in the style of a club threatened by administration rather than an attempt to improve a heap of steaming PL failures.
It disheartens me to see clubs who in my lifetime were our contemporaries or even vastly inferiors (in league positions) now spending many tens of millions willy-nilly on every player they sign. While we’ve devolved into irrelevant country cousins. Very depressing. We are becoming increasingly an irrelevance in the modern game. Very sad.
Of course there are also clubs who were our equals languishing, Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry, Charlton et al. Burnley and Watford spent during the window and came down with us.
As for the point about selling buendia, personally I think we would still have been relegated with him in which case not to sell him at potentially the point of maximum value would have been foolish
Hi Gary
Hope you have your tin hat on I think there could be a few barbed comments coming your way.
DS&SS as like many I feeled underwhelmed by the appointment and as other will give them the benefit to prove themselves but Webber must be looking over the edge of a large drop in his reputation as a DoF on his recent recruitment.
Watching yesterday’s game I think city were unlucky with conceding the first goal and McCallum had no help from his CB on the second, instead of passing it out he should have gone row13 a bit of inexperience to my thinking.
City made Celtic defence look poor at times and a few last ditch tackles and good keeping saved the day but also a couple of bad decisions from Rashica when Pukki was better placed to score.
Was it Rashica trying to impress possible clubs that m8ght come in for him not sureonly time will tell.
Chris Sutton Co-commentator accused Cantwell of show boating and then said that City will not find any teams as good as Celtic in the Championship not so sure on that comment but we will see.
Yesterday Placheta score for Birmingham and Mumba gets sent off for Plymouth Argyle let’s hope Tzolis has a good season-long loan.
Who’s next in or out could be an interesting 38 days
Well summed up Gary I don’t see where we’re heading under Smith it’s very underwhelming.people keep asking for millions to be spent it’s money up the wall stick to the bargains they have something to prove as our past history has shown spending out has got us nowhere hope Sara is goin to turn that tide we will see but omens not good 😭
I usually dont watch training or friendly games. Yesterday I watched the same time both Rangers-Tottenham and Celtic-Norwich. Seeing that both played with their best lineups and that season starts soon those were as close as training games can be to league games. Main reasons to watch were of course Glen Kamara and Teemu Pukki.
Both games were exactly how I thought they would be. Rangers-Spurs were a higher quality game, Spurs deserved to win by 1 goal, but a draw would not have been a completely unfair result. Rangers are a good team, much better than people seem to think. They were last season even in europa league final, at the same time premier league clubs didnt win anything in Europe. Rangers would be a middle table club in the premier league, probably they could be seventh. After top 6 level drops in the premier league and Spurs is either third or fourth best club in premier league or possibly even better under Conte? In the second half Conte made tactical changes which were the reason why Spurs won. Van Bronckhorst is way better manager than Gerrard was. Kamara was excellent, when you put someone physical defensive midfielder to play with him, it works every time. There is no need for them to be anything special, Lundstram and Sparv are able to do basics and their physical presence is the main factor why they can play together with Kamara.
Celtic is better than Norwich, they would avoid premier league relegation. This was clear before the game. Their japanese players are especially fun to watch. I have difficult to see what is Norwich game plan, pressing and trying yes but outside that? After the game I got the feeling that maybe it was like that in Aston Villa too with Dean Smith? Grealish was everywhere, they were 1 player team and the plan was trying to pass the ball to Grealish. Others were running a lot. Pukki played 70 minutes without any influence on the game. Only positive thing is that championship clubs are not in Celtic level.
In almost every possible league about 2 best clubs are always good. So called top 5 leagues are very much overrated, level drops a lot as closer you get to bottom clubs. When sometimes new clubs in top 5 leagues gets european experience, they find levels too high for them to compete. There is so many good players around the world and those small leagues top 2 clubs no matter how small their league looks like are always rather good teams.
Meanwhile, latest email from Club re Carabou Cup v Birmingham…
“Please note, Block H in the South Stand, situated next to the away fans, will be our designated ‘singing section’. Fans purchasing tickets in this area should be aware that singing fans sometimes stand to enhance atmosphere, which may obscure views.”
😂😂😂
Winning the Championship twice in three years is hardly an irrelevance. And for every team that has overtaken us you can name one or more famous club that has gone backwards. (I hardly need name names.)
If we don’t have investment, then any sporting director has to gamble on recruitment, hope a couple of prospects come through and find a coach who can deliver at least a sum of the parts.
Daniel and Farkeball was great. Without Newcastle type investment post Emi it had gone as far as it could.
For me, it makes sense to have Dean and Shakey in post now. Experienced football people. Safe hands. Good black book of players to aid recruitment.
Reinventing the squad and going top six would be an achievement. After Cardiff and Wigan, I hope I’m still feeling optimistic…
Interesting take Gary, and I eagerly await the comments it generates.
I watched the game yesterday, I found it accidentally on YouTube free and gratis and watched intently.
It appears to me that Smith has done very little to alter the course the club is taking. The creativity is still absent, the crossing and final balls are poor as is our decision making and in spite of the acquisition of a supposed set pieces guru we still carry little or no threat from that area.
That’s before we even mention our ever present propensity for bone headed mistakes at the back costing goals.
Given his already abysmal record of results its quite right that Smith should feel under pressure, he needs to hit the ground running on Saturday, no excuses. It’s at least partly down to him that the only 2 players signed under his tenure, encompassing 2 transfer windows are crocked and unavailable.
Let’s not forget that in January he made the in all likelihood politically expedient statement that he was perfectly content with his squad and needed no new signings.
A continuation of the year long torrent of defeats is unthinkable and as a result Smith and indeed all those above and beneath him should be on very thin ice
But it was a friendly.
If we aren’t allowed to glean any information from it, then why bother in the first place.
Because the players need to be fit before the first league game?
If its just an exercise in physical fitness just get in the gym. As a team we continue to look clueless under Smith be it in friendlies, league or Cup.
You can’t get match-fit in the gym, can you?
Gary, a lot of home truths in this article, well done. With Danny it was an holistic approach, tremendously successful in the Chump and a complete failure in the Prem. No point on dwelling on the why and what’s, Norwich doesn’t have the resources to make it work at the top level so we have to do differently, not just a tweak but a non Farke approach. Smith needs time just as Danny needed time, will he succeed? Who knows, but there’s no point in carping on about losing a friendly game at Celtic we’ll know what’s what by Christmas, until then OTBC.
Good sum up gary, watched the game on streaming, didn’t expect much all else to honest for a friendly at their place. They are a decent side better than a few seasons ago when I last watched a game of theirs. Not into Scottish interpretation of the game, with only two teams are really serious. No disrespects to others.
Cantwell looked pretty good too, wanted the ball a lot sometimes I felt too much, but he tried one trick in their area and got labelled as showboating, somewhat harsh, but being a ex Celtic player and on their channel, he has to sound good.
Rachica still doesn’t cut the Colmans for me, poor decisions and weak finishing, There are two ways they appear to set up , The Pukki way, play through the lines Then the Hugill way, more crosses into the box, where Hernadez is the better option than Rachica in both ways. Sorenson along with Sinai I hope will be given more chances, Sam McCallum not enough seen for any comment,
Different coaches, some different players but still the same silly mistakes at the back, especially for the 2nd goal, short and not looking at the intercepting player.
More about time on the pitch for the legs than beating Scottish champions. As for criticising S&S still with probably 1st choice players not yet kicking a ball in anger I stay on the fence and risk the splinters for 10-12 games. I am not a huge fan of Smithy, but he has to be given a decent go at it. I didn;t hold out much hope that we would finish above 10th, I still hold to that, and hopefully and am happy to be proved wrong.
Even suffering another promotion under this regime, is making me reach for Imodium .
Good piece Gary.
One thing that is clear, is that the fans are not going to give Smith thre time that Farke had in the Championship, which by modern standards given the results was extremely generous, though that was as much as weakness of the majority shareholders rather than some great foresight.
Smith’s appointment was safe, but who would want it? Few managers would be banging down the door at CR. Fans are already moaning about him, but his current position is hardly a jewel in the crown of football. You’ve got no money and you’re working under a director of football – a person I might add is extremely fortunate to still be in his position given his attitude towards the fans, PR disasters and his dreadful recruitment to stay up – who buys the players and whose limitations are all too clear. That isn’t fun.
I don’t see a real identity in our football either – and that of the club – but these aren’t his players. They are mainly Webber’s players. He probably knows he would never have bought any of them in a month of Sundays, but nobody put a gun to his head to sign on the dotted line.
In Delia’s Catholic world, was Dean Smith & NCFC an unholy alliance or a marriage of convenience? In the coming weeks and months, we may get the answer.
I agree wholeheartedly with your article Gary.
There are without a doubt some canary fans who want Dean Smith to fail.
And he may well do. But let’s be honest in the battle of Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke on whether last summers recruitment was good enough has as long been settled and it wasn’t close, Farke won by a landslide.
Whoever replaced Daniel was going to have problems, Farke is and always be a Canary legend despite his EPL record.
Smith stated ok but then lost Adam and Andrew, both huge blows who he had drafted into the first team.
He was then left with the same squad as Daniel and only Stuart Webber and some patients in a secure insane asylum think they were good enough.
He had no chance.
And I said the other day he won’t be given time by the fans if he gets a similar start to Daniel’s 3 starts in the championship.
The club hopefully will be a bit more patient. I can remember fans wanting Farke gone during and after his first season but I felt I could see what he was doing was interesting
I wanted him to be given a chance just as I do Dean Smith.
Being judged on 5-6 games would be ridiculous, especially as Sara and Hayden are at least 3-4 weeks behind the other players fitness wise.
On selling Buendia, Emi refused to play for us ever again. We had no choice in the matter.
I have put on here a rigorous defence of keeping Teemu. He has never refused to play for us. It’s as simple as that, if he did which I don’t think is in his character, We would have no choice but to sell.