Adam Idah scored as Norwich beat Everton 2-1 at Carrow Road
Morale has been so low around Norwich City Football Club recently that I didn’t even go to the Boxing Day game against Arsenal – I was pretty scathing in my latest column in the paper, too. Six straight defeats, no goals for more than nine hours, rock bottom of the league – I didn’t head to Carrow Road today in a particularly optimistic mood.
Wonders will never cease, however, and a couple of crazy minutes in the first half followed by a tense and scrappy second half brought the result of Norwich 2-1 Everton. We won a game of football! So what have we learnt?
Adam Idah may have found a role in this team
I’ll be honest, I’ve never really rated Adam Idah. He doesn’t score enough goals for me and he gets knocked off the ball too easily. But today might just be a turning point for him. Instead of playing as an out-and-out striker, he played in a position behind Teemu Pukki and it really seemed to suit him. His hold up play was as good as I’ve seen it, he helped the midfield out when they needed it and when his chance came he took it well for his first Premier League goal. One swallow does not make a summer, but this is definitely worth persisting with.
Let’s not lower ourselves to time wasting, please
I get it. Norwich hadn’t won for such a long time in the league that they’ve sort of forgotten how to do it. In the rare situation of having a lead to protect, they seemed to start wasting as much time as possible from a ludicrously early point in the second half. When Richarlison scored a rather excellent overhead kick to make it 2-1, we went into overdrive with the running down of the clock.
Some fans will lap this up, as so many teams have done it to us, they will have loved seeing Norwich do it to someone else. But I’d rather we didn’t lower ourselves to that level. I would prefer the team to have the belief that they can see a game out properly. The feigning of injuries made for a scrappy game.
Watford away is a massive game
As the clock ticked slowly through the seven minutes of added time, it felt like a crucial point in Norwich’s season – if they were to concede and only come away with a point, it would be a crushing blow that might well have put the final nail in the coffin. By seeing it out and getting the three points, suddenly the relegation battle is not over and with Watford and Newcastle drawing today our next game could see us move out of the bottom three.
Deliciously, our next game is at Watford, live on TV on Friday night. There’s every chance we’ll lose, but… you never know. It’s the hope that kills you.
Oh, how I’ve missed that winning feeling. Walking amongst the crowds back to my car after Norwich City 2-1 Southampton, there was a buzz that had been missing so far this season. Having won none of their first ten games, the Canaries now have back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time since 2016 and, having failed to win on any of the previous 32 occasions they had gone behind in a top-flight game, they secured the three points today.
New Norwich manager Dean Smith adorned the front of the matchday programme
I overheard someone talking on his phone near the burger van outside Carrow Road after the game. He was telling whoever was on the other end, quite rightly, that Norwich were poor in the first half (that was not the word he used, mind) but that new head coach Dean Smith ‘sorted it out at half time’ and said ‘he’s a coach. He knows what he’s doing.’ I agree with this unknown gentleman and, for me, that was the most impressive outcome from the game. City were dreadful in the first half and were very lucky to go in level at the break. Smith clearly noticed what was going wrong and corrected it, as they were a far better side when they came back out and deserved their win.
Max Aarons is more of a winger than a full back
Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters must not have been able to believe the amount of space he had on the Carrow Road pitch in the first half. The number of times that the ball was pinged to him completely unguarded beggared belief, and this was the fault of Max Aarons. There is a lot to admire about the academy product but he is constantly drawn out of position and it feels like he might be better suited to playing on the wing, running at the opposition and putting in crosses, with a more defensively minded player at full back.
Good to see Cantwell and Gilmour back in the fold
Billy Gilmour grew into the game for Norwich City
Daniel Farke seemed to have given up on both Todd Cantwell and Billy Gilmour towards the end of his tenure. It was positive to see both players very much involved with Dean Smith’s first couple of training sessions and certainly to see both in the starting eleven today. Cantwell didn’t have the best of games, clearly lacking in match sharpness and appearing to pull a muscle before being substituted at half time, but Gilmour grew into the game and his well-directed corner allowed Grant Hanley to head home Norwich’s winner. The Scot on loan from Chelsea was named the sponsor’s man of the match.
Off the bottom – is the great escape on?
It feels like a long time ago now but Norwich finally got their first win of the season at Brentford before the international break and backed that up with another three points today. Combined with the boost that a change in manager usually brings, there is a growing hope that City might be able to grind out enough points to stay in the Premier League. They have moved off the bottom of the table, thanks to Newcastle remaining winless, and appear to be on an upward trajectory. At the very least, they are no longer cut adrift.
Captain Grant Hanley headed the winning goal for Norwich from a corner
Earlier today I was contacted by someone from a website looking for a Norwich fan to answer a couple of questions about how the season has been going, what went wrong for Daniel Farke and what the hopes were for the new manager Dean Smith. As it turned out, by the time I’d written my piece they had found someone else and didn’t need me. So it doesn’t go to waste, here’s what I wrote:
Verdict on season so far
It couldn’t have gone much worse. I approached Norwich’s return to the Premier League with some trepidation because I feel as fans we are still damaged from the awful experience we had last time. When the fixture list came out and gave us the champions, the previous champions and the FA Cup winners in our first three games I was concerned that we would be playing catch up and low on confidence from a very early stage and that is exactly what happened.
Dean Smith is now the manager of Norwich City
Verdict on manager
There will always be a lot of love for Daniel Farke from Norwich fans. When he took over the club had a poor squad, full of players who either weren’t good enough or didn’t want to be here. He played a big role in the development of James Maddison and the money we received from selling him to Leicester helped to get the club back onto a sound financial footing. I have never seen a Norwich manager with such confidence in youth – Max Aarons, Ben Godfrey, Jamal Lewis, Todd Cantwell and Andrew Omobamidele are just some of the academy products that blossomed under his guidance. He had a real connection with the fans and, in supposedly one of the hardest leagues of them all to get out of, delivered the Championship title twice.
Sadly, he was never able to crack the Premier League. I had desperately hoped that he had learned from two years ago and this time would take us into the top flight with an attitude of ‘unfinished business’. Unfortunately, he shied away from the attractive, possession-based style of play that had brought us success and tried to make the team play in a way that they weren’t capable of. By the end, he didn’t seem to know what his best eleven was or how to arrange them on the pitch and he simply ran out of road. I have seen the world ‘underwhelming’ used a lot in the reaction to the appointment of Dean Smith (including from myself) but the more I think about it, the more I think he fits. He just needs to find the right combination to get the club feeling good about itself again. I am convinced that the squad have not shown anywhere near to what they can do so far and if he can get them going then I honestly think we could still stay up. Good luck to him, we will be right behind him.
Another dull international break finally over, Norwich City returned to action with a home game against Brighton & Hove Albion. There was hope in the air: the point and clean sheet gained at Burnley two weeks ago, the success our players had while away with their countries and a pleasingly short injury list combined to put a spring in the step of many City fans.
Five at the back. Dimitris Giannoulis and Max Aarons the full backs, with Ben Gibson, Grant Hanley and Ozan Kabak forming a wall in front of goalkeeper Tim Krul. This formation was first deployed at Burnley and it brought Norwich’s first Premier League clean sheet since February 2020. Ok, Brighton weren’t great. Certainly not the ‘top four challengers’ we’ve heard so much about. Credit where credit is due though. All of the defenders played well and worked together to keep them out.
Those five were aided by man-of-the-match Matthias Normann, who charged all over the pitch until cramp got the better of him. Pierre Lees-Melou also had his best game in a City shirt, demonstrating a handy ability to nick the ball off the opposition and move the ball away from danger.
Matthias Normann was excellent against Brighton
What does Farke see in Rupp?
I have to say I was rather surprised to see Lukas Rupp getting ready to come on in the second half, to replace the aforementioned Normann. What Norwich seemed to lack all afternoon was a bit of creativity, someone to play that pass or make that run that just opens things up. I thought this was a perfect time to bring on Billy Gilmour, confidence high after earning rave reviews in the Scotland team. I struggle to see what Rupp brings to the side to be honest, but Daniel Farke is clearly a big fan.
Wouldn’t Carrow Road be a better place without some of the Snake Pit?
The Snake Pit believes itself to be Norwich’s ‘ultras’ but so far this season that corner of the ground has come to represent exactly what I don’t want my football club to be. Some (and I stress, some) booed the taking of the knee (a simple anti-racism gesture), booed the team after a good performance, and in one particularly embarrassing moment booed the wrong black man until they could work out which one Yves Bissouma was, the unused Brighton substitute believed to be the one arrested earlier this month. Some of the Snake Pit crowd need to take a long look at themselves.
The best we’ve played this season
Despite the negativity I’ve seen on social media, I was actually proud of the performance of the Norwich team today and I applauded the players as they did a lap of the ground at full time. It was the best I’ve seen us play this season (a low bar, I am aware) and there have been real signs of improvement since the dreadful home defeat to Watford. There is also no sign of anyone not playing for the manager.
Four games into the Premier League season and with four defeats, the home game against Watford was as close to a must win as it is possible to be at this stage of the campaign. Sadly, Norwich didn’t have any answers on another dreadful day. Here are some thoughts on Norwich City 1-3 Watford.
Norwich had another bad day at the office against Watford
Running out of answers
It doesn’t seem to matter how much money Norwich spend, what team they put out, or what formation they play – the Premier League is a nut they just can’t crack. I was pleased with the team news before kick off today. New signings Ozan Kabak and Mathias Normann were given their debuts, and there were two recognised strikers in the eleven in Teemu Pukki and Josh Sargent – rare to say the least in a Daniel Farke side. Both of the new boys were brought in to try to strengthen our rather leaky defence, Kabak as part of the back four and Normann in a defensive midfielder role acting as an extra barrier. Kabak was good in places, read the game well and looked comfortable on the ball. Normann showed only a glimpse of his passing ability. There will be much more to come from both of them, but today it was the same old story for City.
Just as they had done against Leicester, the Canaries conceded an early goal. When you’re always having to chase the game, it’s really tough to get anything out of it. In the first half they actually looked quite bright going forward and Teemu Pukki’s lovely finish was a reminder of what the team are actually capable of – but it was all too fleeting as more needless mistakes at the back saw Watford run out pretty comfortable winners.
For the first time, Farke hears the boos
It’s been four years and four months since Daniel Farke was appointed Norwich City manager. Today may well have the been first time he’s ever received boos from the Carrow Road crowd. It was sad, but not unexpected, as the frustrated City fans told the boss exactly what they thought of the performance as he manfully acknowledged each side of the ground at full time. It really isn’t easy to turn the atmosphere in a football ground around once it’s turned toxic. Only goals and wins will get the boo boys back on his side.
Daniel Farke has work to do
Watford are nothing special
Towards the end of the game the Watford players were literally running rounds around their Norwich opponents. It was actually quite embarrassing. You can sort of take losing to the likes of Liverpool and Man City, but being taught a lesson at home by a team as ordinary as Watford? The Canaries have got serious problems. There really doesn’t seem much that sets Watford apart from Norwich, they just showed a bit more guts on the day. I can see it being a relegation battle for the Hornets, but given how easy it was for them in the end that really isn’t a good sign for Norwich.
A good cup result is important
With Norwich’s 38 game battle to stay in the Premier League now reduced to a 33 game one, some fans might think it right to put out a second string against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday so we can ‘concentrate on the league’. With confidence as low as it is, however, a decent performance and a good result against the Reds could do wonders ahead of our next league assignment at Everton next weekend.
Some thoughts on Norwich City 1-2 Leicester City, as the Canaries go into the first international break of theseason winless and without a goal from open play in the Premier League.
Trouble getting a pre-match coffee should have been a warning
I met my mother and her significant other for a coffee and a muffin in the Morrisons café opposite Carrow Road before the match, only to have my dream of a refreshment break having raced down there from work thwarted by mum being told that ‘they had no cups left for hot drinks’. Excuse me? It’s 1.30pm on a Saturday, a matchday, and a big shop like that has run out of cups to have a hot drink in? Mum was furious, but thinking about it now it’s so hilariously rubbish. We left and found refreshment elsewhere but, Morrisons, you really have to plan ahead for when Norwich are at home. It shouldn’t be a surprise to you that you’re extra busy when there’s a match on. I guess it should have been a warning of what was to come on the pitch.
The Morrisons supermarket opposite Carrow Road, who had run out of cups for hot drinks by 1.30pm on a matchday. I didn’t call the police on them – this photo is from when the store was subject to a bomb threat.
VAR just isn’t worth it
The dreaded Video Assistant Referee (VAR) played its part in two major incidents in today’s game, having been virtually absent from Norwich’s first two Premier League matches. First, they were awarded a penalty in the first half when Leicester’s Turkish defender Çağlar Söyüncü went to ground clumsily near the byline with Pierre Lees-Melou. The referee gave only a corner, but after a lengthy delay with his hand to his ear was advised by the VAR to go and look at the screen next to the pitch. Teemu Pukki sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to get Norwich back into the match.
Having gone 2-1 down, the home side looked like they had equalised when Kenny McLean headed in from a corner. The whole of Carrow Road, barring those in blue and white at one end of the South Stand, jumped up in delight and it took some time for the crowd to notice the awful sight of the referee with his hand in the air, disallowing the goal, seemingly based on something seen by his assistant. After what felt like an age, VAR had decided it was indeed offside – 5ft 8in Todd Cantwell was standing in an offside position, apparently blocking the view of 6ft 2in goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The mind boggles.
Both of these, as far as I’m concerned, are further proof that VAR has to go – I’m not just saying this because Norwich were on the rough end of it today. Supporting a football club is about those moments of joy, those roars of delight, that greet a goal. Especially an important equaliser like McLean’s would have been. The VAR took so long to look at it that it surely cannot have been a cut-and-shut decision. Is this really worth destroying the soul of the game for? VAR doesn’t solve an issue, it just creates a new one. Norwich fans are still haunted by the perfectly good goal Pukki had disallowed for offside by VAR against Spurs in 2019 – to this day I cannot fathom how anyone could think he was offside.
Teemu Pukki was apparently offside here against Spurs in December 2019
Lees-Melou and Söyüncü came together at the opposite end of the pitch to me in my Barclay seat, but it looked like one of those incidents where everyone shouts for a penalty but no one really expects to get one. If VAR hadn’t been there, and the referee had just given the corner, I would have been fine with it. As it is, the system is ruining the experience of being inside the ground. With each VAR decision cutting short scenes of joyous celebration, a small part of football dies. Get rid of it.
Williams looks a useful addition
Brandon Williams is on loan from Manchester United for the season
I was slightly surprised at the signing of Brandon Williams on loan from Manchester United when it was announced on Monday. I had been impressed with Dimitris Giannoulis at left back in the first game of the season against Liverpool, and thought that a club like United wouldn’t be sending one of their players to us if they didn’t think he’d be playing a lot. I saw him for the first time against Bournemouth in the cup on Tuesday night and he caused plenty of problems down the left, though I found a right-footed left back to be rather odd. On another difficult day for the Norwich defence, I thought he was really good against Leicester. He is able to think quickly, put in the perfect tackle, and has a knack of nipping in just when needed. He could be very handy for the Canaries this season and it shows that there’s quality out there if you look for it in the final days of the transfer window.
We might be too nice for the Premier League
It’s fair to say that the step up in class from the Championship to the Premier League is huge, but there’s more to it than pure ability on the pitch. Leicester finished 5th last season, and for all their talent, were still time wasting, diving and getting away with sneaky little fouls all over the pitch today. If Norwich are going to stay up they should think about taking a leaf out of Leicester’s book – they won’t be the only ones who play like that. We’ve got to show more of a nasty side.
Disappointing to hear the taking of the knee being booed
There were audible boos when the players took the knee before kick off, and it was incredibly disappointing to hear. I can’t speak for any Leicester fans but I definitely heard jeering coming from the home supporters. What is it about a simple anti-racism stance that gets some people so worked up? The more they boo it, the more it shows that a stance like the knee is needed. If you boo it, you’re not the sort of person we want supporting our club.
The last time I, and most of the others at the ground today, had been inside Carrow Road was on 27th February last year. Norwich beat Leicester 1-0 with a driven half-volley from left back Jamal Lewis. 534 days on, almost all coronavirus related restrictions have been lifted and Carrow Road was back to full capacity. Having swiftly got through a long queue outside the ground, I took the familiar route to my seat in the upper tier of the Barclay end, where I saw familiar faces all together once again. It was as if we’d never been away – the masks on those faces the only sign that the pandemic had ever happened.
Carrow Road, ten minutes before kick off against Liverpool
It was quite emotional when a video was played on the big screen with the message ‘Welcome home, Canaries fans’ and the welcome the players received as they came out onto the pitch was something to behold. It’s good to be back and hopefully we’ll never be forced away again.
We’re not as good as Liverpool
Really, the main thing we learned from this game is that Norwich are not as good as Liverpool. We knew that already, so there’s no reason to be too downbeat about the result. Champions League winners in 2019, Premier League champions in 2020, Liverpool can put their slump in form last season down to the injury crisis they suffered in defence. Jurgen Klopp has a settled side that he has spent several years building and with Virgil van Dijk back from ten months out they look good for another push for the title. They also have a spell over Norwich, having beaten us in 13 of our last 15 encounters, so anything other than a Liverpool win would have been a major shock.
Positives to take
If you’re a pessimist, you might point out that Norwich starting brightly, fading away and then conceding goals is very much what they did on a regular basis when they were last playing at this level two years ago. It was the first game of the season, though, so let’s be lenient. All of Daniel Farke’s new signings did well and look like they will fit in just fine – when Milot Rashica and Teemu Pukki have played a few games together and developed an understanding their link up play could prove very fruitful. Billy Gilmour can pick one hell of a pass and Josh Sargent looked threatening in his brief substitute appearance. After a disrupted pre-season due to Covid-19 (which forced two friendlies to be cancelled) and players away at Euro 2020, things will get a lot better in the weeks ahead for City.
Less than a month after the end of the season, they were no longer rumours. My first reaction was disappointment. I was desperate for Norwich to keep their most creative player, believing him to be crucial to our hopes of staying in the Premier League.
My second reaction was surprise at his destination. This brilliant, skillful, tenacious midfielder with most of his career still ahead of him. One of the best players Norwich have ever had, one who can make things happen and do things that other players just can’t. One who has just made it into the Argentina squad for the first time, surely to hang around for a long time to come. His new club? Aston Villa.
I felt sure that, with Premier League football now on offer at Carrow Road, were Buendia to leave it would be to a club in a European competition. When Arsenal (who will not play in any of the three European competitions next season) were touted as his next club, I said he could do better than them – and I meant it.
Buendia is rough around the edges, not the complete package by any means. He can win games on his own but if he’s having an off day he can quickly get frustrated. When that happens, he can be a bit of a passenger. Also, he tends to be so much better than his opponents that the only way they can stop him is by kicking him around the pitch. Occasionally, Buendia will react to this harsh treatment and more than once got himself sent off.
The talent is undoubtedly there, however, and I am convinced he will reach the very top. Which is why I am rather surprised that he has chosen mid-table Villa, and their not exactly inspiring manager, as the next step in his career. Having said that, I wish him every success (apart from when he plays against us) and I am grateful for the three years we had him.
From Norwich’s point of view, Buendia’s sale has come relatively early in the summer and the club have plenty of time to invest the transfer fee in new players to replace him. It’s a sizeable fee, too. City have an irritating policy of labelling all of their transfer dealings as ‘undisclosed’ fees, but Aston Villa are reportedly paying an initial £33m with another £5m potentially coming if certain, though unspecified, performance criteria are met. Should he move from Villa to the big club I expected him to in the first place, Norwich will benefit once again from a 10% sell-on fee.
This makes the 24-year-old comfortably Norwich’s biggest sale. Until 2018, the club had never sold a player for £20m or more. They have since sold three – James Maddison to Leicester, Ben Godfrey to Everton and now Buendia. In an interview with the BBC last week, sporting director Stuart Webber said that if the club sold one of their top players the figure is ‘probably going to start with a number three in front of it’ and ‘we’re really relaxed on that front’. He has been true to his word.
It is reassuring that this doesn’t appear to have come as a shock to the people in power at Carrow Road. While I was hoping they would stick their heels in, refuse to sell Buendia and build the team around him to take on the Premier League – like Villa did with Jack Grealish – the relaxed response from Webber suggests that new faces are already being lined up. I thought it would be worth our while spending a fair bit convincing Buendia to stay for just one more season, and that it would be much easier to replace Max Aarons if the club needed a big sale. For the size of the fee, we could potentially buy three players to replace the one we have sold. Speaking of Grealish, I imagine Villa must be expecting to sell him this summer now and have bought Buendia to take his place.
I do think Norwich have taken a risk in selling their star man. Buendia created an incredible number of chances in the Premier League last time, considering he was in the side that finished bottom. It will be difficult to find someone with as much creativity in midfield as him. It’s hard for me not to believe that our chances of staying up next season have taken a hit. However, if we’ve learned one thing in the four years since Webber and Farke took over, it’s that they know what they are doing and to question their judgement often leaves you looking a fool.
This morning, a major social media boycott by the world of sport came to an end.
Clubs and governing bodies from football, cricket, netball, rugby union and rugby league were joined by companies including Barclays and Adidas and broadcasters Sky Sports and BT Sport in not posting anything on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube between 3pm on Friday and 11:59pm on Monday.
The boycott took place with the aim of pressuring the social media companies into doing more to identify and punish people who post racist, sexist and homophobic messages on their platforms. The problem has been getting worse in recent months with several high profile cases highlighted by the media.
My team, Norwich City, were part of the boycott and encouraged their fans to join in – which I did. This meant that there was no official content from the club on the weekend it won the Championship title.
I see a lot of racist, sexist and homophobic messages online and, while I am a straight, white male, I find it very difficult to ignore and will often call people out on it. Usually it is because I am so astounded by some of the things they say that I feel the need for them to confirm that they really do mean the bile that they type. I am under no illusion that I can ‘talk them round’. I have written about sexism in sport in the past.
Some say that those on the receiving end of such abuse on social media should simply ignore, block or report it. I think that is the wrong stance. This pushes the responsibility onto the victim of the abuse rather than challenging those who write it in the first place. The fight against abuse has to be about changing attitudes, not simply keeping them quiet.
I hope this has helped to explain why the social media boycott was important and why I took part in it. No one involved expects online abuse to stop because of it, but if Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are shocked into action by a taste of what their platforms without the country’s biggest sports using them would be like then that can only be a good thing.
LEE PAYNE 