Are Norwich City tough enough?

Remember in September when everyone was really optimistic that Norwich would finish mid-table and have a comfortable first season back in the top-flight?

Yeah, fun times.

Now we’re back in another fun relegation battle with only one win in 2016. Not only do we have that to deal with, but we also seemingly have the leakiest defence in the history of English football. With pretty much our entire back line, minus Timm Klose (Love Timm <3) being blamed for it.

So in the immortal words of Ed Balls’ mate Ed Miliband, are Norwich City tough enough?

Hell Yeah…? I think?

It’s safe to say that this season has been a learning experience for everyone. We’ve learnt that Norwich can actually win at Old Trafford. We’ve learnt that Norwich still can’t keep clean sheets, and we’ve again realised that we can’t defend, although that’s nothing new.

I’d like to say that Alex Neil has finally learnt something, especially with all the talk of the “new way of playing” that Neil and the players have supposedly agreed on, but then we show the same old errors. It’s the individuals shutting off, the lack of communication, the shambolic defending. It’s mistakes that keep on happening game after game, and if Norwich really wants to show their toughness, their resilience, their quality. Then they really really need to learn how to actually defend like a Premier League team.

I’m still kind of disappointed that Alex Tettey managed to get himself suspended for Aston Villa and West Ham, as it almost forced Neil’s hand to make changes.

Much has been spoken about how Neil has seemingly become “the tinkerman” this season, with the Scot rarely putting out the same team two games in a row. Is this a bad thing? Yes and No.

Yes, because you’re not going to get any cohesion and familiarity if you change the team on a weekly basis. This was especially a problem at the start of the season, with many being unable to name the back four pre-match.

You can also look at Leicester City, with Claudio “The Tinkerman” Ranieri in charge. Ranieri has approached management differently in his time at the King Power Stadium. This time, he’s simply not changed a winning team. As soon as the foxes found their rhythm they stuck with the same team, even up to now. You’ll rarely find a Leicester teamsheet without Vardy, Mahrez, Drinkwater etc on the teamsheet.

Keeping a familiar lineup for the rest of the season (within reason) could do Norwich a whole world load of good.

Then you could say that tinkering is a good thing.

Tinkering is allowing Alex Neil to find his perfect tactical style of play. He’s chopping and changing players who may have had a bad run of games for someone who’s been impressing him. This can be seen with Vadis’ brief place in the team, before being quickly shoved back on the bench. It also allows players to be dropped when they’re having a bad run, such as Nathan Redmond.

Talking of Redmond, he’s one of a number who really need to prove their worth to the club. At a time like this, you can’t have players just strolling around and not looking interested else we’ll just go and repeat what we did in 2014.

We won three Premier League games in 2014. Three. In those three games, Norwich stepped up and showed some fighting spirit.

You then have all the losses. Remember when Christian Benteke dismantled Norwich at Villa Park? When Norwich somehow still managed to lose to relegation rivals Fulham at Craven Cottage?

Those were all games when you could barely see any spark of passion, quality or anything remotely positive from Norwich City. We simply cannot afford to go down that route again, else we’ll do it again.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Quote there from Norwich’s January target George Santayana.

So are Norwich going to stay up? Hopefully yes. If you look at the fixture list there’s a run of 5 games where we only play teams around us. If we can manage to win them, then I think we’ll be fine. It’s still all to play for, and Norwich know they have the quality to keep themselves up.

So hell yeah! Norwich are tough enough!

But can somebody actually teach them to defend? Ta.