Can City turn their possession into goals this weekend against Burnley?
Norwich City’s last two games have been complete contrasts in the fight to stay away from the Championship relegation dogfight.
Last weekend we absolutely dominated promotion challenging Bristol City and somehow managed to lose but the match before that we managed to hit five against bottom of the table Colchester with much less effort, organisation and quality passing football.
When Bristol City got their late and wholly undeserved winner at Ashton Gate it reminded me of when we were promoted as Champions and everything went our way. Sometimes it’s just your year, Phil Mulryne’s Easter Monday goal at the Madjeski Stadium, after the ball had bounced off the referee’s back anyone?
Quite a few of Glenn Roeder’s plans seem to be coming to fruition at the moment, the full-backs are linking with the wingers well and their pace and quality is shining through, the midfielders are battling hard and bursting into the opposition penalty areas, and generally we appear to have formed a strong team spirit and work ethic.
If we are to persist with playing attractive, passing football then we must remember something valuable that we have learned from firstly Martin Taylor this season and now from on-loan Reading centre-back Alex Pearce, and that is to not miss out the midfield when bringing the ball out from the back.
Both Taylor and Pearce have been popular at Carrow Road for their cool, calm defending and simple passing to the midfield, unlike the Gary Doherty angled long-ball style that has plagued us for the past few seasons.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Doherty and think he has had a pretty decent season but I think if Roeder can bring in a couple of new centre-back’s then he will do and one of Doherty or Shackell will fall under Glenn’s axe. As Doherty is older, still prone to the odd calamity, generally has less natural ability than Shackell and out is of contract this summer I think he may well be the candidate.
I spoke to City Captain Mark Fotheringham for this week’s show and I was pleased to hear him saying that he wants to stay on at Norwich as he likes it here and thinks we are a great club. If he can consistently produce the performances like he did at Ashton Gate on Saturday then he will be a real asset for us and can be the driving force in our engine room, just like you want your captain to be.
He seemed to be taking a bit more time on the ball against Bristol, using his bundles of energy to get forward and out wide, and produced a wonderful passing display as well as tackling back and wanting to have the ball at his feet all the time. I’m sure Glenn will offer him a new contract as he is only 24 but I still feel we’ll need a top-class consistent centre-midfielder if we’re to be challenging at the right end of the table.
If we play like we did against Bristol City again this weekend against Burnley at a full Carrow Road, then we should be able to put a serious dent in their play-off hopes and take a huge leap towards ensuring Championship football for next season.
Ched Evans looked lively when he came on but he will need to score some more goals this season to persuade Sven to keep him on at Manchester City and the whole team will have to combine their goal scoring performance against Col U with their excellent all-round performance against Bristol to overcome Owen Coyle’s men.
To listen to this week’s Norwich City Football FanCast in association with The Pink ‘Un click here. Dave spoke to Norwich captain Mark Fotheringham and Canaries ‘keeper Matty Gilks this week as well as all the other Norwich City news and views so make sure you have a listen.
