Chris Goreham: City turbulence comes with the territory

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0 Comments This article is brought to you by our exclusive subscriber partnership with our sister title USA Today, and has been written by our American colleagues. It does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald. Has there ever been a more ‘Norwich City’ week than the one we’ve just experienced? Losing against a team who hadn’t won followed by winning against a team who hadn’t lost.

The trips to Stoke City and Sheffield United have served only to underline why trying to analyse the Canaries in the Championship is a fool’s errand.

It’s a good job that Norwich City have someone with the experience of Philippe Clement overseeing what has felt like a chaotic start to the campaign.

He was measured in the aftermath of what felt like a crushing defeat at the hands of a previously pointless Stoke City.

Neither was he turning Andre Brooks-style cartwheels after a brilliant win at Bramall Lane.

Maintaining that level of Canary consistency is an underrated quality.

Being both the first team to lose to Stoke and the first team to beat Sheffield United this season has been a test of the temperament of many of us who follow Norwich.

Clement’s clarity helped rescue the club from the Championship doldrums last season and it remains City’s best chance to stay on the straight and narrow this time.

It’s often said that football is a ‘results business’ but sometimes, and particularly this early in the season, it does pay to look a little bit deeper than just the scoreline.

With five matches played Norwich City have taken six points in the Championship.

After the same number of games last season they had seven.

The fifth of those matches under Liam Manning was a 1-1 draw at Coventry City, the team that would go on to win the league.

The Sky Blues didn’t equalise until stoppage time.

It was tempting at the time to think of it as a battling point for Norwich City against a really good team.

There was, though, an uneasy feeling because the truth was that Manning’s side had spent most of the game hanging on for dear life as Coventry spurned chance after chance to get back into the game.

The same thing happened two games later at Stoke.

Another 1-1 draw and another ‘decent point on the road’ if you wanted to keep that yellow and green glass half-full.

A red-faced Mark Robins stormed into his press conference after that game and described his team’s failure to win as “a travesty”.

While Norwich were unbeaten away from Carrow Road there was a growing number of whispers amongst supporters that this really wasn’t a sustainable way of playing.

Even the two early season wins at Portsmouth and Blackburn had been aided by Pompey having a penalty saved and Rovers playing the majority of the game with ten men.

When they finally did lose away from home it happened at Portman Road.

I have often reflected on a comment Manning made after that game about having some talented players but needing to work out how to meld them into a team.

The biggest difference in Norwich City’s recent work in the transfer market compared to previous windows is that it’s obvious exactly where each new signing features in Clement’s plans.

Previously there was a tendency to bring in players with undoubted talent and potential but too often square pegs were being slotted into round holes.

It felt more like a footballing experiment than a proper thought-through plan.

This time Norwich City did lose at Stoke but the numbers behind the performance will tell you that it was actually a much better display than the game in which they earned a point last season.

There is resistance to things like ‘expected goals’ in football but it can be a useful way to judge the direction in which a team is trending.

It’s not meant to be used to excuse results in individual games.

There are so many statistics around football now that you can usually find something to suit whatever argument you are trying to make.

These things are only useful if they are put in context.

Possession percentages are often bandied about without the state of matches being considered.

Norwich had 71pc of the ball against Stoke but only 37pc in the 4-1 win over Burnley.

In one game they were playing against a team defending an early lead while in the other they were protecting a handsome advantage of their own.

It didn’t feel like Norwich City approached the matches at Stoke or Sheffield United this week any differently.

In one they took their chances and found moments of quality when it mattered, in the other they were more wasteful and allowed Stoke the freedom to protect their slender lead.

Nothing is guaranteed in the Championship but there’s no doubt the outlook for the Canaries is more promising than it was at the same stage last season even if they are a point shy.

That’s not to suggest it will be plain sailing from here on in because that wouldn’t be very ‘Norwich City’ now would it?

Norwich City fans savour a winning Championship trip to Sheffield United (Image: Max Tomlinson/Focus Images Ltd)

Anthony Musaba achieved a bit of Norwich City history on Saturday.

When the Dutchman expertly fired the Canaries into a 1-0 lead at Bramall Lane he became the player with the highest squad number ever to score for City.

Credit to the excellent NCFC Numbers social media account for confirming this.

Footballing traditionalists may bristle at the very idea of City’s left winger wearing the number 49 but it may be a sign of things to come.

The departures of Liam Gibbs, Jakov Medic, Matej Jurasek and Shane Duffy this summer has had a devastating impact on City’s 1-11.

They currently have no number 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 or 10.

It doesn’t really matter in this day and age and I have written before about how helpful it is for us commentators to be able to learn squad numbers for players.

The strange thing about this is that while harking back to the days before names on shirts can make one feel like a dinosaur, the language around football has failed to keep up.

You often hear managers and pundits refer to players in ‘the number 10’ role or to centre forwards as being true ‘number 9s’.

City’s sporting director Ben Knapper is one of many who talk in terms of the profile of some midfielders being ‘a number 6’ or ‘a number 8’.

Yet very few players actually take to the field in the numbers to match their positions.

I wonder how long it will be before Musaba’s record goes?

Who will be Norwich City’s first goal scorer with 50 or higher on their back?

It will happen one day.