#farkelife

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.

Daniel Farke Is The German Frank Yallop

Remember this guy? If you follow MLS, you know that face and you know that look. Frank Yallop led a fairly capable San Jose Earthquakes team through one of the worst spells in the club’s history. I use the term “led” very loosely, because the team couldn’t have looked more rudderless when he was sacked. I remember many games near the end where the cameras, like the players, would look to the sidelines for any glimmer of hope only to find none. They’d just see Frank standing there with either his hands on his face with a look of concern, or his hands in his pockets with his bewildered head hanging down in resignation. I bring this up because I’m watching Norwich/West Ham right now and had a flashback moment when the cameras panned to Farke on the sideline. “Oh boy, I’ve seen that look before...”

Norwich’s main problem this season is on full display today, they can’t defend. But there’s another problem that no one’s talked about enough until now: lack of leadership. I’ve watched a lot of Norwich this season, and I can’t remember anyone on the field getting at players, organizing their teammates, trying to galvanize the group when they go down a goal. As a player, if you don’t have any leadership on the pitch, then you HAVE to be able to find some on the sideline. But you look to the technical area or the bench and the coach looks as lost as you are. He has no plan B, and doesn’t appear to have the tactical ingenuity to at least execute plan A better. I feel for the players, I really do, because with a better coach, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Props for style of play, but you can’t win a game. As the ref in Remember The Titans said, “You kidding me coach?”

WHAT THE FOOTBALL NORWICH??