Norwich boss, Alex Neil, has branded criticism of John Ruddy’s recent performances as ‘unfair’ despite the goalkeeper’s error that led to Norwich conceding a late penalty that ultimately lost them the game against Manchester City last weekend. He told BBC Radio Norfolk:
John made an error at the weekend but it’s not as if he’s been flinging balls into the net or dropping balls on a regular basis. I think that’s really unfair – but any sort of error then gets magnified because we’re not winning games.
Ruddy has not kept a clean sheet all season and Norwich are without a win in the league since beating Bournemouth 3-1 in September.
There have been calls from a whole host of Norwich fans to drop Ruddy for tomorrow’s visit of Swansea and give Declan Rudd his long-awaited chance after years as back-up at Norwich. However, Neil has refused to drop Ruddy just for the sake of it.
What you’ve got to remember is that in some positions there’s more competition than others, so the problem we’ve got is if you’re taking a player out of the team you’ve got to replace him with someone who’s either better or capable of doing the job. There’s no point in taking out someone to prove a point.
Norwich take on Swansea at Carrow Road tomorrow in what many fans describe as a “must win” game considering recent results.
