Fuzzar

Exactly this.

Daniel Farke’s courage and conviction will reap reward for Norwich City Oliver Kay, Chief Football Correspondent There were some good signs for low-spending promoted club despite the one-sided first half. in a frantic marketplace, it cannot be easy to keep your head while all around are threatening to lose theirs. The call is to spend, spend, spend and, in the consumerist age, armed with all the riches that the world’s broadcasters offer, it must be hard — indeed often dangerous — to resist the clamour. If that is true of Jürgen Klopp, who made clear all summer that he saw no need to make any eye-catching additions to the Liverpool team that had just won the Champions League, it applies even more to Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke, the masterminds behind Norwich City’s promotion from the Sky Bet Championship. Norwich have bought two players over the course of the summer and loaned another three, but they have done so on a fraction of Sheffield United’s budget, never mind Aston Villa’s. Farke’s starting line-up at Anfield last night was made up entirely of the young players who led them to promotion — players who, in most cases, were unheralded even at Championship level until around the halfway stage of last season. “We actually don’t think we need a major rebuild,” Webber, the sporting director, said this week. “We cannot talk about the harmony of the group being a major strength and then panic.” By the time they returned to the away dressing room at Anfield at half-time, Norwich were 4-0 down. Talk about a rude awakening. Men against boys. European champions against Football League champions. The team whose victory parade around Liverpool in June looked like the most glorious process against the team whose open-top bus, emblazoned with the slogan “We are Premier League”, had conked out on their journey around Norwich a fortnight earlier. Yes Norwich are going to have to defend an awful lot better, but matches like this are not the norm. Liverpool’s record against the promoted teams in the Premier League last season was six wins out of six (14 goals scored, two goals conceded). Their record against the 18 teams who finished below them was 30 wins, six draws and no defeats (88 goals scored, 20 conceded). Nobody could live with them — except, of course, for Manchester City. This is what Liverpool do to visiting teams much more often than not. They have not lost a Premier League game at Anfield in the past two seasons. Norwich’s hopes were never going to hinge on whether they could keep Mohamed Salah quiet or whether they could stop Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right. It is probably just as well. There were a few troubling signs for Norwich — not so much Grant Hanley’s own goal inside seven minutes, which was freakish, as the non-existent marking for Virgil van Dijk’s header for the third — but Farke will have liked much of what he saw. Playing out from the back against a Liverpool team who press like this? It was not so much naive as uncompromising. And, under Farke, that will not change. Some of Norwich’s football was excellent. They look to use the speed and inventiveness of Max Aarons, 19, and Emi Buendía, 22, on the right and Jamal Lewis and Todd Cantwell, both 21, on the left. What is not to like? Yes they will need to tighten up — they conceded 57 goals en route to the Championship title, which is 18 more than Wolverhampton Wanderers the previous year and 17 more than Newcastle United 12 months before that — but they are not going to hoof it into Row Z. Playing out from the back is the basis of their system and the way they performed for long periods here should give them more confidence. There is a danger in becoming the type of team that receives plaudits without picking up points, but Norwich are rather more than that. They lost three of their first five Championship matches last season and only three more all season. They looked like a soft touch for a period in the first half last night, but this was against Liverpool. How many other teams are going to pen them in like that? To stick to your principles takes courage and conviction — and Farke, like Klopp, has plenty of both. Their respective ambitions are different, as are the budgets, but if they feel that reinforcing their team is easier said than done, it is a commendable viewpoint. And for Norwich, it will get easier after this.

Yup, some one-eyed scores above generally. I'm saving my 9s for clean sheets and victories.

Not sure about that - what about the save Alisson made in the first half?

This.

Plenty to be encouraged with there. I'm very confident this group will learn from their mistakes. And they didn't crumple at half time.

Pretty much everything you've said on here tonight makes me feel the same. Good to see you again, it's been a while.

Block button at the ready...

That's the spirit, we're better off without you.

Those who are about to die salute you! 😂

We've had 3 months to prepare for this. Where's the official match thread?! 😡

One pint?! You'd want to be completely w@nkered to watch that shower.

This, with Stieperman and McLean starting.

He speaks very highly of you!

Sh!t, it's hot down here.

About the same if he has a season like his. Towards double that if it's like Wan Bissaka's.

Very funny. I think the tractor driver is wearing a blue shirt. 😂

I'm sure Webber has only bid what we're comfortable paying. If that's not enough, I'm happy for us to walk away.

We've fallen into the trap of betting the house before. If the deal's not right for us in that it in any way over-commits, then we walk away. Simple! Remember how we were sweating over Maddison's knee injury and the implications of not being able to sell him in that summer? We do not want to over-expose ourselves again, regardless of how alluring the YouTube video is.

Didn't you use to say the same about Lambert?

Didn't have you down as a pant-wetter Crabby.

If Amadou and Maurice sign, then I think this has been a brilliant window - every bit as good as I hoped it could be in all respects. My only concern, having seen him in the flesh, would be Heise.

And I bought a packet of wine gums and a Boost Duo, costing £4 at the weekend game, so that should help.

It's certainly chunky money, but not crazy as a percentage relative to the coming season's projected turnover and obviously peanuts in PL terms.