We knew this period would be tough

[Petriix 2,835]

Football is (obviously) highly unpredictable and supporting Norwich has been a roller-coaster ride for many years. Nothing can beat the elation of scoring the late winners and equalisers of recent months, and those moments of excitement are made all the sweeter by the moments of despair like those last 10 minutes yesterday. You can lament the defence or the tactical changes after the delay, for sure; or you can simply accept that all good runs come to an end, games will be lost against the run of play and, sometimes, the footballing gods will not smile upon us.

While it would have been great to go into the next run of games with a buffer, we have everything to play for and have it in our own hands to climb back to the top of the table. After Brentford (a must win?) we play 4 of the other top 7 sides in a row. Any points we gain are taken directly from our rivals - the proverbial 6 pointers. Maybe the last couple of games will be the wakeup call that we need to ensure we tighten up our defence for these big games.

In any case, this season is providing far more entertainment than I ever recall in the Championship. It's ironic that we are chasing promotion out of this league in order to likely be scrapping around for the occasional win in between hammerings in the Premier League. I'd much rather watch us fighting it out at the top of the Championship. If only it was financially sustainable.

[Citycitycity 0]

All good runs come to an end. But Brom and Leeds aren't shipping three or four every game are they. 

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

3 minutes ago, Citycitycity said:

All good runs come to an end. But Brom and Leeds aren't shipping three or four every game are they. 

West Brom’s goal against column is only one better than ours. Middlesbrough have let in very few goals but are having trouble scoring. Just goes to show how difficult it is to get both ends of the pitch right at the same time.

[lake district canary 4,531]

2 minutes ago, Citycitycity said:

All good runs come to an end. But Brom and Leeds aren't shipping three or four every game are they. 

It doesn't matter as long a you outscore the opposition. If we had won 4-3 yesterday, we would all be celebrating yet another exciting win and but for the lights going out, we probably had the momentum to do that. 

We lost (first time in 13 matches), but do we really want to change much when we are in the top two?  Away from home we are tighter defensively and picking up points, so if we keep going and say we win at Brentford and do well at West Brom we will recover our momentum after these last two matches, where let's face it, we have been playing some brilliant football.

 

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

We got what we deserved yesterday. For a few weeks at home now, we’ve eased off when in total control and let teams back in. There seems to be a casual nature to us when the players feel the game is won. We need to be more cynical and cut throat and kill the game off. Indeed, yesterday we maybe should have been three or four up. I’d like to see us be more ruthless and go in for the kill. Also, Farke’s subs just have to improve. He only seems to make one if he’s forced too - some of the players have looked knackered recently and the game needs to be freshened up. We also need to desperately work on defending set pieces. We’re letting in far too many. As much as it has been good st home, the coach needs to consider how we play.

[Aggy 755]

The defence needs to be looked at. Whether that’s a change of personnel in the January window, or a slight tactical tweak. Outscoring the opposition is all well and good, but there will be days when your forwards have a bad day and you need to grind out a result. It’s also easier to outscore the opposition if you don’t concede 3 or 4!

It’s hard to grumble really because at the start of the season, I wasn’t expecting to be anywhere near the top two at this point. However, just because we are now there doesn’t mean we should ignore obvious deficiencies. Tighten up the defence slightly and we’ll be better placed to keep our push for promotion going.

[nutty nigel 7,535]

Expectations seem to have risen faster than our meteoric rise up the table!

Start of the season - We've sold our best players so the best we can hope for is more mid-table mediocrity. 

End of August - We are in a relegation battle and will do well to stay up.

End of December - we need to be winning these games to consolidate our place in the top two.

What will the new year bring?

Who knows! But what a great time to be a City supporter🙃

[nutty nigel 7,535]

Didn't see your post before I replied Aggy🙃

[Essjayess 307]

Not just this period will it be tough..that's a fallacy. It may seem tougher because we've just played Forest and Derby and the next few weeks brings away trips to Leeds, WBA and Sheff. Utd, but in reality all the final 21 games will be tough...there is no easy final run in. Leeds lost at home to Hull, few weeks back we sqweaked late home wins against Millwall and Bolton. Does not matter who we play on any given day, they can beat us and we them.

As for the so called recent leaky defence at home shipping in goals, that has been the way since the season started. WBA scored 4 and Leeds 3 in the first 6 games, Stoke got 3, even Millwall and Bolton above got 3 and 2. Each season with City, as with all clubs, brings certain stats and certain definite pattens. For City this season, for whatever reason, we are iffy at home but surprisingly solid away. I for one would not have changed this for the world, it has got us in the top two after 25 games, but of course nobody has won or lost anything yet. As Daniel Farke would point out, first objective is 50 points or maybe a few more, to avoid relegation, its always best to take a step at a time, especially in the Champs, the most competitive division in all of Europe.

[Surfer 1,547]

I had us down for a loss and a draw against Forest and Derby, partly because we always seem to have a terrible XMAS run, so as disappointed as I was with yesterday's results, we are exactly on track for where I expect us to be at the end of the season - 2nd. 

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

The next month or so will really test the resolve of the players and we'll see what they are made of. Will they choke or will they bounce back? One thing for sure we need leaders on the pitch. Time for the more senior players to get us over the line.

[Aggy 755]

 

6 hours ago, FenwayFrank said:

West Brom’s goal against column is only one better than ours. Middlesbrough have let in very few goals but are having trouble scoring. Just goes to show how difficult it is to get both ends of the pitch right at the same time.

 

6 hours ago, lake district canary said:

It doesn't matter as long a you outscore the opposition. If we had won 4-3 yesterday, we would all be celebrating yet another exciting win and but for the lights going out, we probably had the momentum to do that. 

We lost (first time in 13 matches), but do we really want to change much when we are in the top two?  Away from home we are tighter defensively and picking up points, so if we keep going and say we win at Brentford and do well at West Brom we will recover our momentum after these last two matches, where let's face it, we have been playing some brilliant football. 

 

Our goal scoring has been fairly consistent all season. 

In the first five games and last five games combined we scored 2 goals per game but conceded 2.2 goals a game (averaging only 1.1 point per game).

In the fifteen games in between, we scored 1.8 goals a game but conceded only 0.7 a game (averaging 2.4 points per game!).

• Conceded 11 in our first 5 games (2.2 a game). Scored 8 in the same period (1.6 per game). 4 points (0.8 per game).

 

• Conceded 6 in the following 11 games (0.55 per game). Scored 16 in the same period (1.45 per game). 26 points (2.4 per game). 
• You could extend that run to cover the next four games (which does include conceding three against Milwall) so the total for those 15 games is 11 conceded (0.7 per game), 27 scored (1.8 per game) and 36 points (2.4 per game).

 

• In the last 5 games we’ve conceded 11 (2.2), scored 12 (2.4 goals per game) and got 8 points (1.6 points per game).

I’ve chosen where to end these “runs” so it’s subjective to an extent, but what you can clearly see is that we went on a run for over half of the season so far, and for a third of the whole season, in which we managed to sure up the defence without really sacrificing our goal scoring threat.

For the other 10 games, we haven’t really scored any more but have conceded significantly more. 

It would be interesting to look back and see if that’s because of certain players missing/playing, or if it’s just a slight tactical tweak. Whatever it is, hopefully we can tighten up the defence again - much easier to outscore the opposition when they don’t even score a goal a game!

 

 

[westcoastcanary 173]

On 30/12/2018 at 11:23, Aggy said:

It would be interesting to look back and see if that’s because of certain players missing/playing, or if it’s just a slight tactical tweak. Whatever it is, hopefully we can tighten up the defence again - much easier to outscore the opposition when they don’t even score a goal a game!

Great post Aggy. Going back to the start of the good run, which I see as dating from Match 7, against 'Boro (the first when the reaction was "Wow! Where did that suddenly come from?"), the key IMO was certain players missing, playing or getting fully back to speed after early season/pre-season injuries:

1. Aarons taking over at RB
2. Lewis recovered and restored at LB
3. Zimmermann for Hanley (forced by injury, but Zimmermann has been instrumental in the run)
4. Leitner restored to full fitness after his interrupted pre-season
5. Tettey apparently becoming impervious to injury (fantastic job by our medical and fitness guys?)
6. Buendia establishing himself, playing in a much freer role.

 The most significant factors IMO have been (a) the emergence of Aarons and (b) Lewis's continued development at LB. Despite their youthful susceptibility to error, their pace, apparent inexhaustibility, and good understanding of their roles, allied to their sheer talent, has enabled others including Leitner, Tettey, Stiepermann and Buendia, to flourish without the additional burden of trying to make up for serious shortcomings behind them.