I’m not sure of the name of the individual charged with putting together the club’s official highlights package on YouTube, but whoever he or she is, I salute them.
They performed an online miracle yesterday and somehow found six minutes and 31 seconds worth of content from a game that had zero highlights.
Any performance-related bonuses dished out by Norwich City this week should have only two destinations. One should be the editor of said video clips and the other, Angus Gunn.
As for the rest…
Those who made the trip and those who watched the entire 96 minutes will know what I mean. While it is far too early to lay a single iota of this at the door of David Wagner, one can only imagine the flak that would have been directed towards Dean Smith if his City side had produced a performance like that.
As has been said many times, Smith was a problem but was far from being the only problem. Part of it has to lie with a group of players who can comfortably flit between being fluid, determined and clinical to being error-ridden, disjointed and casual in the space of four days. Part of it also lies with those who put together that group.
All of the things that were good and gave us hope on Tuesday evening were missing yesterday, And you had to feel for Wagner afterwards as he was left to explain the paucity of performance on a day when a win would have taken us to within a point of the playoff places.
As ever, he was brutally honest in his assessment and admitted the only positives were the clean sheet, the performance of Angus, and the excellent away support – again led by the incessant beat of the City Elite drum.
The German reluctantly cited tiredness as a possible factor – and put his half-time withdrawal of Andrew Omobamidele down to the player’s fatigue – but knew deep down he was on unstable ground, given that three games a week is standard in the Championship. He dared not mention either that Wigan played on Wednesday night, 24 hours later than City.
Wagner has spoken previously of the need to close the range between City’s upper and lower levels of performance but yesterday will have confirmed to him that there is still loads of work still to be done on that score.
Under Dean Smith, one of the many problems was that when his team was bad, it was really bad. They would rarely just drop off a couple of beats – instead, when things started to go awry they would drop off the edge of a cliff.
It seems we’re still in that place. Not somewhere you want to be when the aim is top six.
But maybe we just have to accept that this is us now and this is our lot. That we have a team capable of delivering excellence but only sometimes – like most mid-table teams in the Championship – and that for every good performance, there will be at least a couple of cr@p ones.
Perhaps that would make the inevitable disappointments easier to stomach.
At the moment, we seize upon the good moments and convince ourselves that a corner has been turned and that it’s full steam ahead for a charge to the playoffs. Then we thud into the buffers. And then two games later we click again, and the cycle continues.
For our own sanity, perhaps we have to reluctantly accept that we’re a bang average side in a league that contains lots of them. And that just because ours cost a bit more than most to put together, that doesn’t equate to it being any better than those around us.
I wouldn’t expect Wagner or Stuart Webber to settle for ‘average’ because that’s not what they’re paid to do but for us it may make no-shows like yesterday that little bit easier to comprehend.
For all of the things that clicked on Tuesday night, like the unerring grip that Kenny McLean and Gabriel Sara had in the centre of the pitch, yesterday there was nothing. Or very little.
After the Coventry game, and to a degree after the visit of Hull, McLean was spoken of as the answer to the quarterback role that Wagner deploys. Yesterday he was back to being someone you use as QB in the absence of having someone better and more suited for the job.
But it’d be wrong to single out the Mayor. Angus aside, there were rubbish performances across the board.
Wagner will, of course, demand a reaction to such a poor showing on Tuesday night against Birmingham and it’s quite possible he’ll get one. Then again, it’s equally possible we’ll stink the place out.
That, my friends, is where we are right now. Who knows what comes next – least of all Wagner.
I suspect, regardless of what occurs between now and the end of the season, he’s rather looking forward to a summer clearout.
I remember hearing an ex player saying that the difference between a good player and a great player is that the great player delivers the goods far more often. We have some good players, they can stand out on their day but they don’t deliver week in week out. This is not down to lack of effort or application it is just they can not reach these high standards every week. Some of this could be psychological and some of it could just be that some days things just go right. I can not dislike our crop of players but would not miss any of them if they left. The likes of Pukki, Krul, Hanley, McLean have served the club well and will be remembered for many years if their time has come. The younger players might be sold for good money that the club needs and then there a few honest pros who seem to be at a crossroads in their career. One thing to remember is that this average squad is paid much more than average for this division.
That final sentence – absolutely spot on.
If Wagner has a summer clearout would you want Webber doing the recruiting?He’s signed enough duds already!
If we fail to get promoted – as seems likely – we’ll face a challenge similar to that of 2017-18: to assemble a new and more effective team while making a big surplus on transfer dealings.
It’s not an easy trick to pull off – but Stuart Webber did it, with help from Daniel Farke. I suspect he wouldn’t mind another crack at it, if only to make up for less impressive recent transfer windows.
Gary I agree it’s a bang average squad. However, if you take the £50 million black hole and the £38 million for Buendia it’s an £88 million bang average squad!
This is hugely damaging to a club our size and yet action has not been taken to ensure there is no repeat performance. Well run club!!!
Yep… 100% agreed, John.
If we use cost as a measure of quality, where does that put Everton and Chelsea? Money guarantees nothing in football.
Throwing it away guarantees even less.
Well said Gary … it made a lot of sense, therefore, to get some minutes into the legs of Gibson, McCallum, Nunez, Tzolis and Gibbs.
It would have made even more sense to have brought on Sorensen at the back! Sometimes I think that guy is a figment of my imagination, so much unused talent, it should be a relief to have a utility player of that quality!
I have to say, I felt Hanley’s early error was unlucky, he was beaten by the ball rather than the man.
One question, I don’t know if anyone can answer it – what day did the squad travel up to Wigan?
COYYs !
Turn up on Tuesday and support the team, and hope for a win. As fans, that’s all we can do. The rest takes care of itself. Let’s hope the philosophy of the new manager can be supported by the board in the next window and beyond. The upper echelons of the big league are leaving the likes of us way behind – lets be satisfied for now with being plucky underdogs with aspirations of rattling a few cages instead of worrying about staying on the pedestal on which we’ve placed ourselves. We all know promotion this year would be a disaster, so let’s hope there’s a great reset coming and we can rebuild again.
Hi Gary
I like most couldn’t understand the poor performances under the Smith regime and wanted it laid at his door for not getting as he said the leagues best squad to preform on a regular basis to win or at least draw game.
It was said the players were unfit and there was no clear style or game plan, well no do those same thing things apply not so sure.
Wagner has stated he has a good squad is this a mantra pressed on them by Webber to show everyone is on the same plan, the players in one game look to be at another level to the opposition and as other say the next game not interested.
Many wise people will try and fathom it out coaches come and go but the supporters hang in there trying to make sense of it all where there really is none, doing a 9 to 5 job and under preform would get you the P45 but these players aren’t 9 to 5 their under lucrative contracts with win and points bonuses.
An ex Chelsea player boasted that he earned £10m as a basic contract his win, draw and appearance bonuses even when not playing just being in the 25man squad paid his taxes, he also admitted that the club had offers for him to leave but he stayed till he got a free transfer.
Now that’s at the top end of the game we have players that our out of contract and might have agreed deals else where so might not want to get injured, others could see these players blocking there path to the first-team or may just want out who knows.
The reset hasn’t worked for some reason and players will leave come may so let the clearout start now if there’s ones Wagner would like to keep then try and get a deal done if not pay them up and say thank you here’s you contract paid up there’s the door, Wagner says there’s talent in the academy so let’s give them a stage to shine on use this end of season run in to see who will make the grade.
Send Hayden back to Newcastle even if we have to continue to sub his wages, offer Mclean to Rangers for peanuts, bring Barden back as No2 he might start as No1 next season if Gunn goes north and Vampire Krul leaves.
Will Aarons land in Germany with Farke next season rumours are he made an offer in the last window now is the time to shape the squad not in the close season to many journeymen have reached the end of their city sojourn time to leave with happy memories not a bad taste of what went wrong.
I agree with all of the above Gary.
I don’t know how true this story is but it was told to me by someone from the club years ago so I 100% believe it.
Mike Walker our former manager was having some building work done during his reign and a builder said to him” That Rob Newman is a bloody good player but he has no pace” too which Walker replied quick as a flash, ” If he had pace he would be playing for Manchester United”
That is the problem we face a lot of the players we sign, especially with self-funding, will not be the fully furnished article or we sign them for their potential.
Even with Attanasio’s arrival every signing will be a gamble, a higher quality signing maybe but still a gamble.
These players we have at present have no consistency from week to week.
Daniel Farke’s first Championship win was won by losing 3 of the first 5 games we then only lost 3 in 41 games. His second Championship win had a 21 game unbeaten run in it, which unlucky came to an end with Dimi’s sending off against Bournemouth.
He achieved that kind of consistency not because those players were world beaters but because they were brilliantly coached, were a spirited bunch, and we had the right players in the right holes. And we had a way of playing where everyone knew their job.
Recruitment. We have played two full season’s now without an “Alex Tettey” type. I think Smith tried umpteen players in that roll while Wagner settled on King Kenny. Still I am not convinced.
Goalkeeper, Centre forward and playmaker are all vital to building a team. But the holding midfielder is also on that list, Tettey and Skipp allowed the forward players to do their stuff, knowing we had security at the back.
We need a more balanced team.
And I wonder if we won’t see the best of a David Wagner until next season after a full pre-season, where he can get the players super fit to play his style of play.
Hi Tim
As I said above now would be the time to start the clearout getting those that Wagner doesn’t want out early and giving those he wants more game time plus seeing if the under 21s can fill holes or are good enough for consideration.
Krul will be gone I suspect
Hanley still has something to offer
Gibson not sure if Wagner will trust him
Dowell flatter to deceive can Wagner get more out of him
Hayden will be gone unless a miracle happens
Arse-nal loanee will return fitter to them
Aarons possible move to Germany
Mumba will possibly be our Right Back
Dickson-Peters could be gone not setting Grimsby on fire
Tomkinson might get another loan
Sam Sick Note will he get another year
Nacho might find his way to Spain
Norwich got 1 point thanks to Wigans abysmal scoring qualities. Your goalkeeper didnt really do much, just covering what he could. Their shots were without any sense, very very low level footballers. Norwich defenders made again awful individual mistakes and Norwich should have lost. Against Hull, Norwich was not good. Hull was really bad.
Sorry 1×2,
Hull really were bad, we made them thus, Norwich were pretty good, most of that game we achieved 65% domination occasionally rising to 70%.
Had we been better than pretty good we would have won by a far greater margin.
I like several others on these excellent MFW message boards believe Teemu to be very special, but I also believe that he would like to move away now – after all, he has a little girl about to start her education, and only a few years football left in him.
I for one wouldn’t blame him for putting his family first! I doubt whether Teemu would get much flack from NCFC fans, and I would expect the club to act honourably given his enormous deeds for us, also given that he came to us on a freebie.
I certainly hope his time with the Canaries ends well, and not with anybody throwing their toys out of the proverbial pram!
Cheers 1×2
KevH, Hull has no legs. Its possible that they were very tired, but it is also possible that they play like that. I dont understand talks that Norwich impresses vs Hull, after that it was claimed way worse against Wigan. It does not work like that, Norwich fans and local media are lying to themselves and do not want to accept reality. Game vs Wigan had way higher tempo, lack of physicality and opponents pressing seems to cause problems to Norwich. Your goalkeepers have problems with their foot playing, they are kind of old school goalkeepers.
There are international schools everywhere around the world or its possible to hire a private teacher. I have difficulty believing that Teemus kids schooling would be much of an issue in his next summer transfer. He will still play as a pro for about 7 seasons. He is physically in fine form, has never had any bad injuries and surely has plenty of footballing ambitious left. From next season should start his very best seasons as a footballer and he can finally look carefully where.
Sorry again 1×2, I don’t agree with much that you’re saying here, and your views on NCFC have often been rather jaundiced in the past anyway.
So Hull had no legs what of it? They were actually played off those legs by Norwich. Sorry to hear the poor dears were tired too, and if our fans and local media were lying, why did the national media, including the BBC, lie too? Maybe NCFC had no legs on Saturday – not much of an excuse, is it?
We kept Hull where we wanted them, 1×2.
The schooling thing? Not everyone wants their kids to get the kind of dippy hippy mobile education you describe. I refer to kids education because it is often a factor with footballers – used to be a factor with military kids too.
I entirely hope you are right and Teemu is still playing in 2030, I am assuming here that will be in Finland as at 39-40 years old .quite often its not so much fun anymore.
Cheers
Jaundiced? Im staying neutral when I comment. The clear majority of fans everywhere seems to see their favorite club playing fantastic games when they win and complete opposite when they lose.
I suppose bbc copies local presses or has a local office which writes those articles.
If Teemu ever is going to play in Finland again, he might have to be ready to pay his club expenses. Instead of playing, he should just help his local club KTP financially when his playing career is over. Young players league to so much older would be too harsh and they would not respect or even know who he is.
Perhaps someone forgot to mention that Wigan are fighting for their lives, and unlike Norwich in a relegation scrap will not roll over and have their tummies tickled.
The Blackburn home game persuaded me that this squad wasn’t good enough. Its difficult To put a finger on why as in theory they certainly ought to be. Perhaps they struggle playing together the “chemistry” that’s used in FIFA and other computer games
Alternatively the tactics are incapable of being grasped by 1 or more of the team which effectively means we might be trying to compete with less than a full deck
One thing is for sure the difference between Hull and Wigan was the level of press and difficulty to dealing with that
We ARE an open book to that end..
World Beaters one game Carpet beaters the next simply put not good enough. I would put money on the following. If they the squad was put up sale, how many would be picked up by championship squads. and how many L1 & L2 sides.
One or two would stay in this league many down lower. Wagner can not make a silk purse out of a sow’ A***e not even near an ear
This current team is suffering a hangover from the Dean Smith era. .. As most of you have experienced with a hangover one minute you think I’m feeling a little better and the next a nausea filled turn of the stomach..oh maybe not.. That’s how I feel about watching this current crop of premier league hopeful’s.. I hate myself for saying this but i sincerely hope promotion is not achieved as I fear another term of watching my team struggle and outclassed in a a league they are out of their depth in… A summer of reflection and some much considered recruitment is needed, dealing in the middle of the market rather than the 8-9 million pound bracket that is proving to be so unsuccessful..perhaps the shares being released will bring in more much needed investment for player recruitment..
I an hopeful that David Wagner will be the man to take this club forward and back to the promised land but when the team is competitive enough to sustain a worthy challenge ..
I agree Gary we are where we are but I still believe the potential is there for the club to get back, not necessarily where it deserves to be but where it has earn!t the right to be certainly with better recruitment is the key for me,
,
The players haven’t turned up for a season and a half. Don’t know why that is, but clearly our managers don’t either. This squad is and never has been “the best squad in the league”. Some of our supporters are completely delusional. Some still hold on to the Aarons is worth £20m mantra of two or three years ago – a player with no left foot and no heading ability, who looks quite good going forward sometimes.
We are where we are. We tried to do stuff within what we could afford and it didn’t work. Clearly Wagner still thinks Tzolis and Idah have something and Sargent and Gunn may still be worth what we paid. As for most of the rest, they wouldn’t really trouble a top 6 squad. Too old, too one paced or out of contract. Get rid of all of the out of contract players, play some youngsters (we have plenty) and use the Rashica money to get two experienced Champs or League One players at CB and CDM.