This season the performances of the Norwich starting 11 have ranged from good (only fantastic performance was vs Blackburn) to abysmal (Brighton). What’s alarming is the abysmal performances are starting to rack up in the league. The last four games spring to mind. Four performances where defending has been non-existent and where we have had no attacking threat.
Firstly, looking at the defence this season, every time we play a half-decent team at the moment we concede a hatful of goals. Five were conceded against Brighton, four at Newcastle and three against a rather average Leeds attack. Although we were down to ten men for the majority of the game at QPR, we still conceded two very sloppy goals.
When seeing Norwich at Blackburn on the opening day, I had extreme optimism when looking at a back four of Pinto, Klose, Bennett and Olsson. Unfortunately, during the excitement of watching that great attacking display at Ewood Park, I forgot how few alternatives we had in the defensive department. Turner and Whittaker are lucky to have received new contracts. Bassong is half the player he was during the last Championship campaign and Martin seems to try and do something every game to wind up the Norwich faithful.
What’s alarming now is even Klose and Bennett as a back two are looking extremely leaky. How many times this season will we have to watch a cross go into the box and see an opposition player have a free header to score? It simply isn’t good enough, Klose is a Premier League quality defender but is not showing it. However the problem for Alex Neil is he has no alternatives to turn to which improve the team, so what is he supposed to do? He tried to change it by putting Bassong in at QPR, but the defending was just as poor as usual. The board should have taken advantage of the parachute payments to buy a top quality Championship centre-back. For example Brighton’s Lewis Dunk or Grant Hanley who Newcastle ended up signing. So the blame has to be attributed mainly to the board, although Alex Neil still has a lot to answer for. Goals definitely seem to be going in too easily.
This leads me on to the problems in attack. At the moment if passing neatly around the opposition isn’t working, then the plan seems to be to play the ball into the channel to Cameron Jerome. This would work, however, Jerome is played up front by himself and this leads to him being incredibly isolated. So inevitably the attack breaks down. What’s concerning is that Alex Neil’s tactics seem so easy to defend against at the moment, that any team can just come along, sit back and score past our leaky defence at the other end.
So is Lafferty the answer? From what Norwich fans have seen, Oliveira does not seem to be the answer to all of our problems and his performances have left a lot to be desired. Admittedly he was left with a tough job against QPR, but what has Lafferty got to do to get a start? Lafferty played for only a handful of minutes against Leeds but managed to score, so he has done all he can to secure a place in the starting line-up. So why not give him a chance? Alex Neil should play a two up front, it would give defenders so much more to think about. Jerome, Lafferty and potentially Carlton Morris could all flourish if given a chance with two up front. However, if we keep the current system, nothing will change because it is not working.
Finally, if Pritchard is being played, it needs to be in the middle of the park. Alex Neil once again has tried his square pegs in round holes by playing Pritchard out wide, but it just isn’t working. Pritchard looks so much more dangerous when he can pick these dangerous passes in the centre of the pitch and playing him out wide is limiting him no doubt. Most Norwich fans agree Pritchard is a quality player but was he what we needed? A Championship proven striker e.g. Jordan Rhodes was surely what was needed at the time. Again the board is clearly at fault here, though Alex Neil is not making the best of what he has in the forward department.
After Saturday’s game at QPR, Alex Neil’s future seems to be in serious danger. We are now in a terrible slump and, although circumstances didn’t help, the way we are playing is unacceptable. The board now need to take a good hard look at themselves and decide whether they want to contribute to the club’s success. I hope things get better at Derby with whoever we have at the helm, but if we keep playing the same way, we could get battered. Let’s just hope for the best and keep supporting the lads, as that’s all we can do.
