Norwich City crashed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Leicester to end their four match unbeaten run and provided a serious reminder of how hard this league really is. Norwich had a poor first half and a penalty from Jamie Vardy, followed by an early second half goal from Jeffery Schlupp left it all to do for the Canaries. But, Norwich striker Dieumerci Mbokani pulled one back and set up a nervy last 20 minutes for Leicester but they held on to win. Here, I will go over each Norwich City player’s performance and give them a rating out of 10.
John Ruddy – 7. Made some great saves to keep City in the game and wasn’t at fault for either goal.
Robbie Brady – 6. Struggled defensively to deal with Leicester’s attacking threats, particularly Mark Albrighton and didn’t really justify starting ahead of Olsson at left-back.
Sebastian Bassong – 5. Not the greatest game the Cameroonian international will ever have. He struggled to deal with the impressive Vardy and made a silly foul, although there was minimal contact, that led to referee, Mark Clattenberg, pointing to the spot.
Russell Martin – 6. Slightly more assured than his defensive partner Bassong but Vardy always looked like having the better of him.
Stephen Whittaker – 6. Didn’t let his side down in defence and seemed very solid but sloppy passes to give away possession didn’t help his cause.
Matt Jarvis – 5. Failed to show why he should have gone straight back into the side, Jarvis had a very quiet game and this helped fail to spark City to life.
Alex Tettey – 6.5. Poor in first half but improved dramatically in the second. Pushing further forward seemed to help his game and he was better for it.
Graham Dorrans – 6. A solid performance in the midfield defensively but Dorrans didn’t add anything going forward and it was the right decision to sacrifice him for Redmond.
Jonny Howson – 6.5. Quieter game than usual for Howson who had played very well last time out against West Ham. Looked more like his old self in the second half when Norwich were forcing the issue and provided the assist for Mbokani’s goal.
Wes Hoolahan – 7. Excellent defending from Leicester’s defence stopped the little Irishman from really shining but he still looked bright and ready to make something happen.
Cameron Jerome – 5. Poor game from Jerome who was bullied relentlessly by the Leicester defence and in particular, Robert Huth. Will be under pressure for his starting place following Mbokani’s goal.
Substitutions
Nathan Redmond – 7.5. Redmond was unlucky not to start following his good substitute appearance last week and his pace and skill caused all sorts of problems for the Leicester defence. He had a couple of efforts to score but Schmeichel was equal to them, tipping one onto the bar in a frustrating afternoon for the Canaries.
Dieumerci Mbokani – 7. Added the aerial threat that Norwich were lacking and looked more of a handful than Jerome. Flicked in the Norwich goal from close range and there will be calls from some fans for a starting place next week.
Kyle Lafferty – 6. The Northern Ireland man finally got his Premier League chance but unfortunately couldn’t get into the game in the 10 minutes he had.
Leave your ratings below.
[statsfc-player-rater key=”n3hIsXGmdJ6AnSMKzUo6i09cnqzZIPNpYYb7QNmF” team=”Norwich” date=”2015-10-04″]
