Norwich City...Let’s Talk About It
Let’s call a spade a spade, Norwich is going down. I said it back in December that if they didn’t strengthen appropriately in January and change tactically that they would. Here we are in July, five games to go, and that picture tells the whole story. How’d they get here??
Well, when you only score 25 goals in 33 games but concede 61 (that’s 1.8 goals a game), you’re already in bad shape. I personally believe that Norwich possesses and moves the ball better than most teams in the league, and their 81% pass accuracy this season supports my opinion. But goodness me, THEY CAN’T DEFEND. And when you have a manager and ownership that are obsessed with “playing our way,” what do you expect? Playing your way is fine as long as you’re not constantly dropping points. But when you hit the bottom of the table, it’s either time to change the style or the manager. If you’re going to stand by the manager, then you have to abandon the style until you climb out of the relegation spots. You can always go back to playing more freely when you’re more secure.
The other nail in their coffin: not making simple changes or additions when necessary. I’ve lost track of how many goals Norwich conceded from Christoph Zimmerman mistakes this season; goals that actually cost them games on top of it. Other players haven’t done the job at the back too well either, but if your starting center back is bumbling on basic plays, your entire back line’s going to be lost; it’s just inevitable. So what does Farke do? He keeps starting him. Then comes the winter transfer window: do they pick up a solid defender or additional goal scorers? No. They picked up a 19-year-old-defender that never played and a central midfielder that only added more of what they already had, which isn’t much.
So here they are. And I feel sad for the players, because most of them gave their best, and they trusted their leadership to right the ship. Unfortunately for them, the captains are wearing patches on both eyes. Otherwise, they’d see how they let the club and the entire city down.
