Norwich City have risen up the table since Alex Neil was appointed to replace Neil Adams. We all know that. But we haven’t analysed the numbers between the two managers, excluding their win percentages. Including the two Play-Off matches, both Adams and Neil managed the Canaries in 24 Championship appearances. Below is a breakdown of their statistics, as well as theories for what went wrong for Adams and right for Neil.
Neil Adams
Played – 24, Wins – 10, Draws – 7, Losses – 7, Goals For – 45, Goals Against – 29
Points – 37, Goal Differential +16
Alex Neil
Played – 24, Wins – 16, Draws – 5, Losses – 3, Goals For – 47, Goals Against – 20
Points – 53, Goal Differential +27
First thoughts…
Clearly Alex Neil has the best numbers as the Norwich manager. It’s simple: most wins, fewest losses and best goal difference. Surprisingly, the goals scored are fairly equal, with the latter manager winning by a brace. While the Canaries play better football currently, their most impressive goal tallies came in the Adams Era (Huddersfield 5-0, Millwall 6-1). Of course they also gave up more goals, too.
A major Adams’ downfall
The club never confirmed it, but Adams and centre back Sebastien Bassong had a fall out. The Cameroon international went from captain to reserves the first week the ex-Canary took control. In the summer, Bassong was loaned out to Watford. Yet even when the backline faltered and there was a central crisis, Adams never fell back on the former player of the year. When Neil was brought in as a replacement, he welcomed Bassong back into the squad. The consequence: more wins and more clean sheets. When Adams was in command City won 41.7 per cent of league games. With Neil, that numbers jumped to 66.7 per cent. (Note: Think back to the Reading fixtures and the late winner from Nottingham Forest. They could’ve been an easy three points, minimum, instead of zero, had Bassong returned.)
Neil ushered in consistency
In City’s turnaround match (10 January v Bournemouth), Neil was on the touchline for only 30 minutes. He then had another win, followed by a loss and a draw. From that point forward (when the six-game winning streak began), the City lineup was consistent and rarely altered. Many of Adams’ matches brought questions from the press about positions even before a fixture’s first whistle. Who plays right back? Is it Russell Martin or Steven Whittaker? What about left midfielder? Kyle Lafferty? Wes Hoolahan? Josh Murphy? There were too many questions.
The root of all-evil
It’s important to stress the most significant differences between the times when each took the managerial role. Adams finished the last five Premier League matches before relegation, and assembled a squad packaged for automatic promotion. There was no thought of anything else. Everything he had to do was perfect—or at least close. When the October and November slump began, doubt surely crept into Adams’ mind as fans grew restless.
For Neil, it was much different. City sat in seventh, 11 points off league leading Bournemouth. The goal placed upon the replacement from Hamilton Academical was to at least finish the season in a promotion Play-Off spot. Automatic promotion would be the ultimate goal, but it was a dream more than a realistic feat. On top of that, no one had any idea who Alex Neil was, let alone his tactics or individual expectations!
Final verdict
Yes, Alex Neil is the better manager. He’s taken the squad and injected his own style while generating results that nearly got himself automatically promoted to the Premier League. Now he’s a match away at Wembley from making that objective happen.
As for Neil Adams, surely City fans wanted to see him successful—arguably more than Alex Neil. He’s one of our own. He played for Norwich, had a brilliant summer bolstering the squad, and his dream job came crashing to a halt at Preston North End in a Third Round FA Cup loss. That’s heartbreaking. Luckily he’ll be back next season assisting the club. Hopefully this time the players will have revised patches on their sleeves. If nothing else, the “New Neyul” and Norwich are more than capable of making that happen.
