- Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain provided a footballing throwback in Europe.
- Exciting attacking play and technical quality favoured over long throws and physicality.
- What Norwich can learn from the game heading into the summer transfer window.
A growing discourse in football fandom in recent years has been about the direction that the style of the Premier League is heading in.
Too many top-flight matches, particularly this season, have been borderline unwatchable due to the increasing emphasis on physicality, set-pieces, and, worst of all, long throws.
Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-4 win over Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final tie was a throwback to the kind of football that made people fall in love with the sport growing up.
It was end-to-end, free-flowing, attacking football with two teams choc full of technically brilliant players who wanted to run at defenders and create moments of magic, not just win corners and throw-ins.
Ben Knapper went down the wrong path
Potentially due to what has been happening with the Premier League in recent years, Ben Knapper decided to do a 180 on Norwich City’s style of play last summer.
He opted to sack Johannes Hoff Thorup, who played an attack-minded 4-3-3 system, to hire Liam Manning’s ‘pragmatic’ 3-4-2-1 style of play.
I say pragmatic in football speak, because the word is now almost exclusively used to describe negative football that is a chore to watch, rather than it’s actual definition.
The fact that Manning had to field questions about playing five defenders in his first Norwich match, a 2-1 defeat at home to Millwall, said it all.
Norwich’s former head coach, who we wish all the best after taking a leave from his job at Huddersfield to focus on his personal life, is not a bad manager, but he was not right for the Canaries.
Knapper tried to bring a style of play and way of viewing football that a lot of Norwich supporters, speaking with the benefit of hindsight after viewing the reaction to Manning’s football, do not want to see.
Playing football in a horseshoe manner, playing across the defence of five defenders before launching a hopeful ball forward, was tough to watch as a paying fan, particularly at Carrow Road.
Five defenders, long throws, long balls, and set-pieces. It felt like the Premier League bleeding down into the Championship, and that is not a compliment.
The continued fall-out of Knapper’s decision
Despite the terrific run under Philippe Clement to go from 23rd to ninth in the Championship, there is still fall-out being managed from Knapper’s decision to hire Manning last summer.
Norwich lost 2-1 to Hull City on the final day of the season on Saturday and ended the game with Paris Maghoma, a number ten, and Liam Gibbs, a defensive midfielder, starting in the wide areas.
Ali Ahmed has been Norwich’s only ‘natural’ wide player for the majority of Clement’s tenure, as Matej Jurasek and Ahmed Diallo have both been injured since January.
The fact that Norwich only have three natural wingers in their squad, though, is a direct result of Manning’s appointment last summer.
Lewis Dobbin, Onel Hernandez, and Borja Sainz all left the club last year, yet Diallo, who played as a left-back or left wing-back at times under Manning, was the only natural winger brought in.
The idea to play 3-4-2-1 system that provided width through the full-backs made wingers almost obsolete, but that is not the case under Clement and, in my footballing view, should never be the case.
What Norwich can learn from PSG and Bayern’s showpiece clash
Watching Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue, Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala, and Luiz Diaz share a pitch in PSG’s clash with Bayern was a joy to behold.
Technically brilliant attacking players who want to dribble at defenders and make things happen create the best brand of football, as we saw with Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell when Norwich last won the Championship.
The Canaries now need to learn from PSG’s clash with Bayern by placing a big emphasis on signing one-on-one specialists in the wide areas this summer.
There have been too many games this season where Norwich have dominated the game and consistently found their wide players in good positions under Clement, just for the ball to be at the feet of a player who should not be playing out wide.
Imagine the damage Buendia, Jonathan Rowe, Borja Sainz, or Nathan Redmond would do in a Clement team that consistently creates space out wide for their wide players.
Now, I am not asking Knapper to splash £150m on Olise, that is ridiculous. What Norwich should be doing, though, is looking for realistic targets who could come in to provide pace and quality out wide.
Clement’s style of play is brilliant to watch most of the time, until he is left without the proper tools on the pitch to make the most of the approach play.
If Knapper can provide him with the right tools – natural wingers – then next season could be even more enjoyable to watch…
