I don’t say it lightly.
I’d resisted the urge to demand change longer than most because I wanted to see a side with a Dean Smith imprint on it, and by that I meant one that contained Isaac Hayden, two fit South Americans and a proper left-back.
I’ve seen it now.
Amid the barrage of post-match exasperation, gloom, and anger I attempted to tweet something remotely positive. All I had was what a composed debut it was from Jonathan Tomkinson and how good it was to see Sam McCallum back.
In hindsight, I should have added what a more-than-tidy job Liam Gibbs did as an emergency right-back and the impact made by Onel Hernandez, but that was all I had.
Others have suggested that the whole back four did a good job and we ended up only being beaten by a late penalty.
Maybe.
But the gruel is thin. If in a month’s time you shut your eyes and picture Burnley (a) 2022-23, in your mind’s eye you’ll see City toiling, chasing, giving the ball away, plodding, and coming third in a two-team contest.
It wasn’t one of our classic horror shows, at least not a Premier League level, because we didn’t get walloped and could even have snatched an undeserved point late on, but it was just so so poor in terms of cohesion, energy, and shape.
That first half, in particular, was just awful. Burnley did to us what we’ve spent our last two Championship campaigns doing to other teams.
Their football was slick, precise, had zip, and, crucially, was achieved via an effective shape and plan. It was clear to see that every Burnley player knew exactly their role within that set-up, and they played with confidence.
But spin all of those things 180 degrees and that was City.
- Stodgy
- Imprecise
- Sluggish
- Ineffective
- No shape
- Muddled
- No confidence
To say it was a hard watch was an understatement. Seeing Rishi Sunak’s new cabinet emerge, one by one, from Number 10 would have made for lighter, more pleasant viewing.
And I hate to say it, but for it to be so disjointed, even allowing for two ‘new’ additions to our back four, simply has to come down to how they are being managed and coached.
We knew Burnley would try and dominate possession – it’s what they do – and that they have good players who are capable of hurting you if you let them have enough quality possession. But yet we conceded possession cheaply and frequently.
In terms of trying to progress through the thirds, forget it. There’s no obvious plan anymore to do that – at least there wasn’t last night.
Instead, presumably to try and exploit the spaces vacated by Burnley’s advancing fullbacks, the plan appeared to be to launch it long into the channels in order to give Teemu Pukki a scrap or two to feed off.
Pukki, bless him, did a tireless job in the circumstances but one of the Championship’s great goalscorers deserves better than to be ratting around, trying to create a half-chance or two for himself out of nothing.
As it transpired he could, and probably should, have rescued a point but this current system of asking him to perform his own miracles is unsustainable.
But it’s not just about wasting Pukki’s talents or having no obvious method of working the ball up the pitch.
The hope that our long-awaited midfield trio of Hayden, Gabriel Sara and Marcelino Nuñez would provide bite, verve and energy didn’t materialise and while I hear the ‘early days’ argument, I’m not sure it holds too much water.
It may be for Hayden, but the other two have had plenty of opportunities to impose themselves on a game with only very limited success. And in the case of Nuñez, you could argue the more time Smith and Shakespeare have had working with him on the training pitch, the lower his level of productivity.
It’s worth pointing out, I guess, that Burnley (a) is probably the toughest game teams in this division will have all season and the Clarets will probably pull away in the second half of the campign and cruise to the title. That wouldn’t surprise anyone.
But we’re supposed to be in that same group – a team that’s in the mix for an automatic promotion place.
We’re not supposed to go to Burnley, accept the fact we’ll have limited possession and act as subordinates. And our squad depth is supposed to be such that, compared to others in the division, we can cope with a few injuries and suspensions.
But we did kowtow to them. And our squad is showing signs of creaking.
All of which adds up to a great big steaming pile of you-know-what.
The direction of travel is not forward and if this continues we’re heading for mid-table obscurity. And the question we have to ask ourselves is, is the coaching team maximising the talent in this squad? And does this team at least equate to the sum of its parts.
The answer to both questions is clearly no.
As one respected City tweeter put it last night, based on that performance, not one City player would make it into that Burnley starting XI.
The good players in our team are looking like average Championship players. The great players in our squad are no longer in demand. And when attractive-ish managerial vacancies crop up, our head coach’s name is never in the frame.
But, as I wrote at the weekend, the malaise runs deeper than just Dean Smith, and the problems aplenty are not confined to what is or isn’t happening on the pitch. Last week’s annual report confirmed it (and if you want a fascinating but sobering analysis of where it leaves us, read this thread)
Yet, before the chance of promotion disappears off into the distance, there are some quick wins to be had and I’m afraid one of those would be to look at refreshing the coaching team.
It feels as if we’re in a Neil Adams 2014-15 moment, where a new voice and some fresh ideas could be sufficient to reinvigorate a talented squad that looks demoralised and has lost its way.
And if, as we’re led to believe, Stuart Webber has an ever-evolving list of prospective candidates, then the task of finding a replacement shouldn’t be as onerous as it would be if he was starting the process from scratch.
The Dean Smith project just hasn’t worked. He’s a nice guy and I still believe there’s a decent coach in there, but he and Norwich City are unhappy bedfellows. From the word go it never felt a good fit.
Equally, no one wants to see a seething Carrow Road turn. That’s never nice. But whether his tenure is nearing its end, I’m not so sure.
We have a history of reluctance in pulling the trigger and I have a feeling this may be the same. Or at least a, ‘let’s give him until the World Cup break’.
Whether we can really afford to wait four more games is another matter.
We can get rid of Smith but it won’t change the fact we have consistently recruited the wrong players for years.
We need fresh ideas at the top. #webberout
Fair comment, Dave. Had neither the word count nor the energy to tackle that subject too. Another article for another day maybe.
We thought Sargent was the worst until we played him in his correct position.
We bought him for a Premier League campaign. I’m glad he’s doing better in The Championship, but there’s no evidence he’ll do the job IF we are promoted.
City are and have been for long time shambles from player’s to the board room and just the same as my team town today football is just about money Norwich and town don’t have the big money to bring in real class end of smith didn’t really do anything thing at villa and didn’t do City any good and why is it always the same path for City and town MONEY and spotting talent that is not going cost
Summed it up well Gary.
Last night we saw a well coached team playing a high tempo, high press game give a footballing lesson to a poorly coached shambles that is Norwich City.
I was amazed to read in this mornings EDP that Chris Sutton is suggesting we should be patient with Smith. It just shows how out of touch football is with the real world.
Everybody else starts a job on six months probation to ensure they are up to the work.
Smith has now had twelve months during which City have shown no discernible sign of improvement, indeed we’re starting to look like relegation material.
Last night was the final straw made obvious when he subbed the only player trying to up our tempo, Cantwell, while leaving our latest recruitment disasters from South America to amble about at their leisure.
Smith has to go now and if, as our accounts suggest, we cannot afford to Delia will have to facilitate the matter by dipping into her personal fortune as she is ultimately responsible for the current shambles.
It seems the only person associated with Norwich City who knows what he’s doing is Michael Foulger!
Hi Gary your spin on things is what we’re been like 90% of season to me I’ve seen nothing to make me think we’re going up people were excited when on earlier run with a lot of luck thrown in but I said before didn’t think it was goin to get better .see Mr Sutton said smith should be giving more time no chance. had plenty of time been here long enough to stamp his mark see no improvement whatsoever time to go he had one lucky season in championship and one in prem with failed technology done nothing at Brentford except flatter to decive only good thing last night was tommikinson well done lad deserve better coaching will go along way .
Totally my thoughts, Gary.
To think that in half the time given to DS&SS, and on a fraction of our budget, Kompany and Burnley have left us miles behind. Unless they are binned now, we will be changing places with those down the road next year.
O T B C
Don’t think we would beat Ipswich if we had to play them now! Could do no worse than to get their manager to replace Smith if our poor performances continue. After all, he is a more up-and-coming prospect having previously been assistant to Mourinho when at Man Utd.
The really damning indictment for Smith and co, is to look at what Kompany has done for Burnley in about half the time. They are unrecognisable from the team that went down and look set for an immediate return.
Our Management team have not improved one single player since they arrived and most have gone backwards. Your point about Nunez is telling.
Last night was just awful. Formation all wrong, players so low on confidence and our Captain giving away the most ridiculous penalty.
A change has to be made immediately. Rob Edwards is available, he would shake things up. We might not like his style but, at least he would have one. Failing that, go and get Liam Manning from MK. It’s not too late for this season to still come good but they need to be bold and admit this isn’t working and, in all honesty, never has.
Great read Gary – I think a very fair and balanced read. I had the ‘joy’ of making the long trip up to Burnley and am still really struggling to get my head around what I witnessed. What really struck me was you had one team who had a clear playing ethos and played with real enthusiasm, vigour and enterprise and another team who were slow, ponderous and lacked real enterprise. The former was obviously Burnley but could easily have been Norwich in their past two Championship seasons – how our standards have dropped.
Burnley look a class act and barring an absolute disaster, will get promoted from the Championship. They do look like a team that isn’t quite firing yet and I suspect when they click they will be impossible to stop.
Norwich by contrast were so disappointing – there seems little back-to-front cohesion with the team and forward play just seems to continually grind to a halt. I simply cannot see them getting automatic promotion or even the play-offs the way that they are playing currently. The pluses were a very promising debut for Jon Tomkinson and good chunk of match minutes for Sam McCullam and Isaac Hayden although the latter was poor. The game statistics with Burnley dominating possession and shots were alarming and more reminiscent of games against better opposition in the PL last year.
Perhaps what shocked me the most was DS comments about Burnley being good (which they were) but Norwich could have had a real go at them with a full strength team. Yes we had a debutant (who was probably our best player) and two players with very limited match minutes but yesterday’s line-up was pretty strong and I struggle to see how a ‘full strength team’ would have been that different. Those comments are pretty delusional and hint to me of an individual who has run-out of ideas. I hate to say this because its peoples jobs and livelihoods but we need a fresh face in charge of the team – much of the talk has been about relegation fatigue within some of the players but I just wonder whether it also extends to some of our coaching team. OTBC.
Yes couldn’t agree more I to thought this was a very strong line up young Tomkinson having his debut maybe being the weak link , but he wasn’t very good debut . How Smith can come out with that tosh shows how delusional he is
It feels very like the last year (arguably longer) of Hughtons time in charge. I watched the game as I’ve done several recently with no idea of what we’re trying to achieve. If we have the ball we just move it backwards til it ends up with the keeper. We are also ridiculously narrow and this has completely negated Aarons game and made him look imo a shadow of the player he was. I’m very miserable and watching the 3-3 draw with Forest on YouTube for about the thousandth time.
Smith blames injuries and wishes he could have taken a full strength team to Burnley.
In my opinion we were only 2 players away from a strongest XI – and those 2 players performed wonderfully well,perhaps better than others in those positions this season. Now they will fall victim to Dean-terioration.
No excuses for our excuse for a manager.
Hi Gary
The peoples that run the Club aren’t interested in the supporters till it comes to renewal of ST or a cooking demonstration and special occasion dinners all adding to Delia’s celebretity status.
Will our cousin from over the pond be making a call and asking why his Investment is drifting downwards at an alarming rate but he has no power to effect things he could buy out all other minority shareholders and still get out voted so Delia has found her patsy.
If as Webber states he has a list of potential candidates for the coaching role how come he went again everything the club had built under the previous manager was it a panic appointment or was his first supposed choice at Bido/Glimit unwilling to leave a successful club for one in turmoil.
DS&SS are just a shield taking all the flak for those that have got the club in this mess, getting in a Manager/Coach that could get something out of this team just blankets the every growing trouble within the club that starts with the majority shareholders that live in their own illusional world where they know what’s best for everyone.
Some good performances last night and a soft penalty, washis arm in an unnatural position while trying to protect his face I say not but I’m not a Ref and again city players got booked for silly fouls yet Burnley got away with cynical ones and bullied the Ref into making decisions in their favour.
Both teams got 3 yellows but city players must be getting near to suspensions already.
Led to believe his first choice was Cooper at Forest, but compo too much, then Smiff became available. No compo to spend. The cheaper option. Forest won promotion and spent shed loads. Sure bet much more than we would have to spend.
Everything done on the cheap. The next manager to take charge when they wake up and issue P45s will be either Neil Adams, Alan Neilson, or Chris Pope (Operations Manager – Catering) at Norwich City Football Club.
Finally, I heard more football sense coming from the section head of River End stewards – sadly do not know his name, but must be in with a shout
A good read from Gary and some telling points from Tim and yourself. You touch on one point that’s bugged me for twelve month’s and that’s Webber’s boasting of him having a list of replacements for everyone of importance at the club (including himself believe it or not ). We were led to believe the decision to sack Farke was made earlier that week before his dismissal after the Brentford game, in which case Webber would have firmed up a replacement. I don’t for a minute believe that. I think there was an altercation between the two after the game, and in a fit of pique Webber sacked him. Following that, unluckily for Norwich, Villa sacked Smith who was then gloriously hailed by Webber as one he’d long admired and so offered him the job.
Another point of interest after Farke’s sacking – the Cook in a rare statement said that Farke would be brought back so the fans could say a “Good Bye” some bloody hope of that.
Oh, dear Gary we are in a right pickle. An excellent piece.
I made most of my observations on just what a 💩 show we are in Martin’s piece on Monday, so I won’t repeat them here.
I have been a supporter of Dean Smith but now I must admit to having big, big doubts. But as you say above this goes far deeper than just Smith.
Brentford under Smith was a long time ago and perhaps the Smith’s, Bruce’s, Warnock’s of this world are being overtaken by young, clever, tactically innovative etc coaches.
Sound like anyone we know?
Brentford played the best football in the league until one D. Farke refined his City side.
But a week is a long time in football let alone a few years.
I admire Sean Dyche but I thought had he stayed at Burnley they may well have stayed up, but conversely, I didn’t see him being able to bring them back up. With an ageing squad I could see them struggling in the championship. But by employing a young hungry manager and ripping the old squad to bits has been a game changer.
Now back to us. It is becoming for Dean Smith like it did for, Nigel Worthington, Chris Hughton or more than anyone like Alex Neil’s end time and that is untenable.
You mention Neil Adams Gary, but he had a record of 3 wins, a draw and a loss in five league games before he left. It was a no show at Preston in the cup that made Neil decide admirably this wasn’t for him.
We are in a really bad place. Just look at the accounts.
The fans are understandably quiet at home games, the apathy governed by the football on show and the acknowledgement that any improvement could mean a return to the EPL. Burnley and others around us in the league do not have these scars. Burnley are treating this like we did our third division year under Lambert/Culverhouse. Dare I say fun?
The Board and the executive are in “Robert Chase” shut down mode. Talking to no one just ask anyone at Archant. Why? Archant and Michael Bailey are very balanced in their criticism and praise of Norwich City FC. And whether the club like or not they are a conduit to us the fans.
Stuart Webber came here with a philosophy of openness and communicating with the fans. Where has that all gone? It has got so bad they didn’t even advertise the vote for Player of the Year last season.
The finances are anything but self-funding. Again, no explanation from those in power on the millions wasted.
Too me a new coach may come in and revitalize this squad, but he will still have to operate with all the above going on.
But has this squad become stale? I looked at the 2016 Norwich team that beat Blackburn 4-1 on the opening day of that season away, some really good players in there (bar No 7) but that team faded and finished a way off the playoffs and Alex Neil lost his job.
And Webber and Farke ripped up that team and started again.
I see real parallels with that side, good players but high earners with a relegation hangover.
This is a dilemma for the club, give Smith these 3 matches at home and one away before the World Cup or bring in a new young coach and give him those games to bed in before football resumes after the World Cup.
If Dean Smith gets those games, we need a minimum of 9-10 points, or his position will become untenable.
I watched a game and 1-0 was a fair result. Norwich defended and was not able to create much anything other than that again Pukki who created a scoring chance to Cantwell and later to himself. Also your defenders make vital individual errors every game. Its very difficult to win by that method, of course you can sack your manager but this looks to be very much a lack of quality issues.
Your recruitment is awful and its not only awful their mistakes are expensive to the club. South american player market has been in the hands of spanish and italians, mls also has good sight in there. For a club like Norwich, its obvious that you should concentrate on other so called big 5 leagues player markets, because they have already done their research who to buy from south america and players have already adapted to european football. Then you have again loaned a so-called huge british talent who looks to be making your team worse. His brother in Villa is no better, but he is british which makes him a huge talent in England. From Newcastle you loaned enforcer type defensive midfielder who lacks mobility and technicality and seems to be very injury prone also. Yesterday the referee saved him for some reason, he deserved a red card in the first half.
A depressing but not unexpected evening.
Its strange to think that we’re we able to reverse the outcome of 2 late penalty kicks over the space of a few days we would be discussing whether Smiths luck would hold and rescue us from delia smiths latest impending financial maelstrom.
However we aren’t able to alter the course of games post event sadly and the writing is now on the wall in big brown letters.
It has to begin at a higher level than Smiff and The Bard. Webber must go, I may be alone in saying I trust Neil Adams more than I do Webber with getting players. Of course, there is the old chestnut the other Smiff & Jones (Don’t panic) must be forced to retire.
But on to the lower Smiff. I hark back to a couple of days before Villa had enough with this following quote. “Players seem frustrated, reactively inept and on the pitch, extremely devoid of ideas. There is practically no midfield chemistry, with cohesion being nothing but wishful thinking.”
That was after a few years, in charge at Villa Park, we have not had a full 365 days yet, already our players fit into that above quote, scarily.
4 games before the waste of time World Cup, 3 games at home Stoke, QPR & Middlesbro, squeezed in amongst those is an away day to Rotherham. Normally I would be expecting a full house of points or very close to it. At the moment I see 3-4 being the sum total.
Surely if that is the case then this enforced break is the right time to have a new manager in place, to be able to work during the weeks without games. I believe that makes common sense, but that commodity and the board, do not fit together.
I fell asleep again during the radio coverage, sad as I like listening to the honesty of Mark Rivers, who believes the time is now. He did say he thought he could do a better job of managing etc, and he saw himself as hopeless. Credit to Jonathan Tomkinson and Sam McCallum Onel Hernandez and Liam Gibbs. Not the tonking I expected, but still the ineptness was
Having watched some of the games on TV I am constantly bemused by the fact that once the ball crosses the halfway line the player in control of it (and I use the term control loosely) invariably looks to pass the ball backwards rather than forwards as this appears the less risky alternative. This smacks of playing with fear and that can only come from poor coaching and comms from the management team. I can see this season being one ending in mid-table obscurity followed by a close season full of ‘should we or shouldn’t we replace Dean Smith?’ and next season being a case of press repeat. After all isn’t repeating the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome the very definition of stupidity? Change is needed and it needs to start now.
In the cold light of day is Dean Smith as bad as people seem to think he is?
Fans who don’t understand or know that our club made massive mistakes buying young expensive and inexperienced players on really high wages to try and keep us in the Premier League which was never going to work and put the club in financial difficulty.
I really loved the style of play under Daniel Farke and anybody who knows me will testify that, but not even Daniel could perform that miracle of keeping us up with what he had and ultimately bit the bullet and given the blame for how poorly we performed.
The recruitment was shocking and very expensive which is one of the reasons we have no money to spend. Smith has lost Tzolis and Rachica to clubs on loan to try and recoup some of the wages they were given. They were out of their depth in the Prem but am sure would have been a massive asset to Smith in the Championship.
The pressure they were put under was too much for these young players and confidence was drained. Two exciting players taken away from the equation and with what Dean Smith was left with he has had to change our teams style of play accordingly which I am not a fan of but what choices does he have?
Performances haven’t been pretty or entertaining to watch even taking in the injuries we have had to endure. Fans are now beginning to turn on Smith, the last two away games Sheff Utd and Burnley (who I thought played some good football) were two hard games but a missed penalty and a golden chance spurned at Burnley in the dying minutes was the difference between getting 1 point or 4.
Is this the manager’s fault?
There are some positives – McCallum, Tomkinson and the last few games Todd Cantwell is getting back to the player he can be and his work rate and effort is improving every game which is good to see! Once Isaac Hayden gains full fitness and game time he will prove to be a massive asset to us.
So is it Smith’s fault or is he taking the flak for people higher up in the running of the club who seem to have disappeared of the face of the earth for a long time now and not given him the finance or backing he needs?
I personally would like to see some comments from these people regarding our situation and go back to free-flowing and entertaining football we are known for.
100 % agree with that Marty.
The money spent on the young player’s last season was a massive mistake. One we saw coming.
If we do manage to get Klopp or Guardiola they will still have to work under the top brass at Norwich. Best of luck with that boys.
It has just been announced that Norwich City Club officials have been listed as “endangered” due to the fact that they are rarely seen or heard in the wild, or anywhere for that bloody matter !!!
It’s probably time to accept mid-table tier 2 and refocus on a youthful rebuild, sadly the owners and Board have allowed themselves into being pressured into being a little over-ambitious and, to quote Lord Widgery, our strategy has ‘ bordered on the reckless’. Of course Lord Widgery was referring to the Parachute Regiment on a different battlefield.
I will quite simply add, at this moment I dread NCFC managing to scrape back to the Prem’ what a horror show that would be yet again. Mr Webber please give us your notice after all its only a month isn’t it?
Hi Gary. A bloody good read, very telling and I agree with all you have to say. I have noticed your reluctance in previous articles to go the distance as you’ve done this time, but enough is enough as they say and the time to say “Good bye Dean” is now while there is still time to salvage this season, giving a new coach a little breathing space before and during the World Cup break. Unfortunately the club is in dire straits, and I can only see the downward spiral continuing, I feel the $!!t is about to hit the fan, and that’s all on the Cook and Mr Magoo, Webber is just the fall guy. All so very sad.
It strikes me that someone at the club thinks that if a player is recruited from South America then he must, by definition, have stardust on his boots.
There are plenty of average ones out there as well as in Europe.
Plenty of bored ones at Norwich too going through the motions until their contracts expire next June. Will they miss us? No. Will we miss any of them? No.
And there’s the rub. Unmotivated players in a large and unbalanced squad seeing out time because there minds have already gone elsewhere.
Supporting Norwich is like playing Jenga. The tower is initially tall and strong yet, bit by bit, its chipped away at before, ultimately, it collapses and a rebuild is necessary.
Lambert was the last to inherit a pile of yellow and green debris. Smith’s successor (and Neil Critchley is my call (though he’ll be back in work long before Smith departs) and it may take an ex Norwich manager to help things along a bit.
Ed; I just wonder why under Webber we have never tried the Paul Lambert approach of giving someone from the lower reaches of English football a chance?
Brentford did, and continue to do so…..even though it seems they will be in the PL for a few more seasons….
O T B C
Great piece Gary as ever ,very well put. How it’s panned out , we may have well kept DF the outcome would possibly have been the same , in the meantime Webber could have had a good look for a replacement, maybe even Vincent or Michael Beale who is doing a fantastic job at QPR ,in both managers as said , have been there half the time as DS . Delia has given SW to much power . And yes the football along with the players has gone backwards . Relegation hangover doesn’t cut any ice