The majority of Norwich fans were vastly disappointed with Norwich’s deadline day dealings. Fan favourite Bradley Johnson was sold to Derby County and Matt Jarvis was brought in on loan from West Ham. Fans were not necessarily angry at the signing of Jarvis, but at the fact Johnson left.
Bradley Johnson did score 15 league goals for Norwich from the left-wing last season as well as picking up Norwich’s player of the season award. However, most of his goals actually came from central positions. He started most games on the left hand side but actually spent the majority of the time more in the centre of the pitch. This left quite a bit of space on that left flank for opposition players to move into and gave Olsson a headache on more than one occasion.
Johnson didn’t have a good pre-season or start to the Premier League season and Alex Neil clearly took note of this and what I mentioned in the previous paragraph and decided that he was able to let him go. Derby were able to make Neil’s mind up on deadline day with a £6m offer, one Neil felt was too good to refuse.
Following this, Alex Neil needed someone out on the flank and he was able to bring in Jarvis from West Ham on loan, with the use of the extension on the deadline. Matthew Jarvis certainly is an out and out winger, unlike Johnson, and could potentially be a superb addition to the side.
In Johnson and Jarvis, you have two completely different types of wingers. Johnson came inside and almost disturbed the flow of the team at times, certainly the movement on the left hand side. However, with Jarvis, we won’t have that problem. As he showed today, he is prepared to stick to the touchline and really provide width for the Canaries on the left flank, with Redmond doing the same on the right.
The cohesion of the team on the pitch looks evidently more balanced, fluent and vibrant when going forward for Norwich. When the likes of Howson, Dorrans and Hoolahan pick up the ball, they now have the outlet of Redmond on the right and now Jarvis on the left. It gives Norwich so many more options going forward than when Johnson was in the side.
Another big point as to why Jarvis improves the team has to be that it gives our strikers more chances. With Jarvis, he loves to pick up the ball, run with it and get a cross in. All respect to Johnson, but he just doesn’t do that. This leaves the Norwich forward line with more deliveries into the box and therefore, more chances for the likes of Mbokani, Jerome and Lafferty to try and get on the end of.
Back in the 2012/13 season, Matt Jarvis finished the season with the most open play cross attempts in the whole of the Premier League with a staggering 171 attempted crosses (Via Opta stats). That is just a glimpse of what he can do and hopefully he can replicate a statistic such as that this season for Norwich.
Jarvis didn’t feature much for West Ham last season. He started just four Premier League games for the Hammers. He joined West Ham the season previous for a hefty fee of over £10m and had an average first season with the club. He scored 2 and set up 3 in the Premier League in 23 games. These two mediocre seasons for West Ham has left the former Wolves man starring down the barrel of another bit-part season with the London club, that was, until Alex Neil gave him a way out.
Having joined Norwich, he will be hoping to kick on and get back to the form at Wolves that made West Ham splash the cash on him only two years ago. There is no doubting his quality, all you have to do is look at his finish on Saturday and overall performance really, to see that he is a Premier League player.
He made a fantastic first impression, scoring his first goal for the club with his only shot in the game and putting in a superb all round performance, to which he received a warm round of applause when leaving the field.
If Jarvis is able to show more of this in the coming games and the rest of the season, there is no way any fans will be calling him a bad signing, or dare I say it, missing Bradley Johnson. Norwich have lacked that natural width on the left side since Pilkington left the club and Jarvis certainly looks to add that element of surprise for Norwich when they go forward.
Just as Nathan Redmond does on the right, Matthew Jarvis is able to cut inside or run to the byline. This leaves the defenders constantly wondering as to what he is going to do and gives the winger a slight edge when running one on one with the full-back. Add Jarvis’ clear quality to this and you give yourself a platform for a lot of goals. Something that Norwich are going to need this season if they are going to have any chance of staying in the Premier League this season.
The question now is, how well can Jarvis do this season in the Premier League? Well, in my opinion, I think he can do very well. Playing alongside players like Howson, Hoolahan, Redmond, Jerome and Mbokani will certainly help Jarvis and as he gels into the team and gets more minutes under his belt, he will just grow and grow in terms of importance in Alex Neil’s side.
Leave a comment below on your opinions relating to this.
