Chris Goreham: City numbers game stacks up for Clement

Fans can’t wait to discover the next twist.

Picking an XI for a football match used to be such a simple thing.

“Never change a winning team” was the nugget of wisdom that we were all brought up on.

Like a lot of cliched golden rules it’s a sentiment that doesn’t stand up to a lot of interrogation.

Norwich City’s team photograph for 2026/27 was published last week. There are 36 people on it, including players and staff.

By coincidence a similar picture of the Canaries of 1971 was shared on social media on the same day.

Only 16 people, all of them players, made it in front of the photographer’s flashbulb on that occasion.

To underline the trend, the 1992-93 pre-season photo contained 28 people in total, most of whom were modelling that famous egg and cress kit for the first time.

Firstly, a word for the poor old photographers who have had to invest in a series of wide angled lenses to get everyone in.

Otherwise, they would now have to step back so far they’d be standing in Morrison’s car park rather than pitch side at Carrow Road.

From a footballing perspective the direction of travel has been fascinating. For a start, squads are so much bigger now.

During my time as a fan matchday selections have swelled from containing two replacements, to three, then five and now nine.

“You’re gonna need a bigger bench” as the police chief from Jaws might have said if he’d undergone an unlikely career change to being a sporting director.

Managers now name 20 players in their squad for each match. Aston Villa famously only used 14 all season when they won the league in 1981.

As a result, clubs now carry much bigger squads.

It means that poor form, or minor knocks no longer need to be played through or nursed. Back in the early 80s Villa were up against clubs who also had similar numerical limitations.

Trying to keep the same XI going week after week now would likely be found out eventually.

Better rested and more energetic opponents would be waiting in the season’s home straight.

Not everyone on these pre-season pictures is a player. Clubs now have access to all sorts of coaching expertise and sports science.

Eschewing all of that information would put a team at a significant disadvantage. How managers choose to interpret all this data is the key.

Clement gave a fascinating insight into what he has to juggle when he spoke to us after the win over Birmingham City.

His revelation that players’ blood values are being regularly tested serves as a reminder that those of us picking our desired starting line-ups don’t have anything like as much information to go on.

Clement was able to lift the lid on that part of his process with the knowledge that Oscar Schwartau and Papa Diallo had rewarded his rotation policy by coming into the team and scoring in a pleasing 2-1 win.

Norwich City’s last two seasons have been blighted by an injury list that has often been longer than a modern day substitutes’ bench.

Anything that might increase the chances of more players being available for more games during a long season has to be worth a try. Every footballer still wants to be in the line-up on a match day.

They can’t all be.

The success of this chop and change approach rests on how the manager communicates with his players.

Judging by the consistent nature of Norwich City’s performances this season, barring a poor display at Millwall and a sloppy first half against Middlesbrough, it feels as if the entire squad is buying into what’s being asked of them.

Whether it is Mo Toure or no Toure it’s good at least that there is a choice for Clement to make.

It hasn’t always been the case in recent seasons.

Trip down memory lane

Norwich City’s win over Birmingham City felt like a real throwback.

Carrow Road was absolutely jumping at the end of a hard fought 2-1 win. Perhaps it was the time of day.

Everyone knows that football under the floodlights feels particularly special but I’ve never heard a decent explanation as to why.

Birmingham were more direct than a lot of teams are in these possession-dominated times.

The Canaries had to mix it and earn the right to play.

This they did in what increasingly felt like a match that could have been played in the Endsleigh League in the late 1990s.

It was quite the spectacle.

It was a reminder of what really makes football fans tick.

Everybody wants to watch their team play attractive football but commitment is key.

The priority for supporters is that everyone gives all they have got for the Canary cause.

It doesn’t matter how many accurate passes a team plays, nothing gets the crowd going quite like the scenes witnessed in the closing stages last Tuesday.

Jovon Makama, Ante Crnac and Jacob Wright taking turns to fight with Birmingham defenders to hold the ball as close to the corner flag as possible.

At one stage Wright was laying on top of the ball and had at least two opponents trying to kick it out from under him.

It was more like the Six Nations Championship than the Championship.

Wright then punched his fists in the direction of the Barclay who roared their approval back. Wright, Crnac and Makama don’t have a league start between them this season.

The fact that all three, and Wright in particular because he hasn’t been injured, were prepared to put their bodies on the line shows that Clement has got players buying in to his methods.

They might not win every game but supporters will forgive the odd slip if players are showing that it means this much to them.

Wright then helped to haul City back into the game at the Riverside from 3-1 down to 3-3 until Middlesbrough’s stoppage time blow.

His recent Canary cameos suggest that first league start can’t be far away.