Norwich can thrive on Gerrard's emotions

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Norwich face a huge task against Liverpool but Steven Gerrard''s speech showed signs of weakness. By Daniel Brigham

Can you feel it? 

The rumble of the Liverpool juggernaut thundering towards Carrow Road, as direct and violent as an advancing Roman army. What started off weeks ago as mild vibrations has turned into a full-scale ground-churning bedlam of fear and anxiety across Norfolk. Liverpool are ravenous for silverware and Norwich are Tweety Pie in the face of a pack of slobbering Wolverines. 

Ok. Sorry. Bit dramatic, wasn''t it? And Tweety Pie was always too cunning. He always won. So the analogy doesn''t even work. 

It''s still a nerve-shredding thought though. Liverpool have scored 67 more goals than Norwich this season. As if you need reminding, they have put 15 past us in our last three meetings – the same number of goals that we''ve managed at home this year. Liverpool''s two strikers, Louis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, have scored 49 league goals between them. Lest we forget, Gary Hooper and Ricky van Wolfswinkel have scored six, and have now gone 2,537 combined minutes without a goal. Think about that for a moment. 2,537 minutes. That''s 84 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine, and Norwich are careering downhill faster than Compo in a bathtub.

Yet, perversely, the pressure is on Liverpool. Both sides will feel they have to win but the key difference is that Liverpool are expected to win. For the first time this season they go into a match as favourites for the Premier League title. 

Expectation can do funny things to you. It can make actors forget their lines, Romeos clam up on dates, Pink''Un bloggers trip over very noisy scaffolding when entering a studio full of glamorous women and an England cricketer. It can also muddle instinct, exposing a routine pass or goalscoring chance as mechanical rather than natural, creating that disastrous nano-second of doubt. It can make you do unfathomable things – just ask Wolfswinkel, who on the evidence of Craven Cottage has developed a sixth sense for seeing dead footballers and has started passing to them.

The claustrophobic weight of expectation showed in Steven Gerrard''s rallying cry after Liverpool''s win over Manchester City. Where many saw heroic, stirring tub-thumping in Gerrard''s words, to these ears they were too emotional, too desperate, too Keeganesque. 

It sounded like a man struggling to contain his hunger, his basic need for a title, of someone terrified of blowing their best shot instead of relishing the challenge. He is Sylvester unable to control his mad desperation for Tweety Pie, the trophy so close but oh so agonisingly out of reach. 

Where Roy Keane was dead-eyed as Manchester United leader, Gerrard is wild-eyed, and, as any Spaghetti Western will tell you, dead-eyed always wins in a shootout. This isn''t to say that the Liverpool juggernaut is going to skid off the road when it reaches Carrow Road. Brendan Rodgers has produced a side that mercilessly hunts in packs. They can be impossible to resist. Rarely has a Premier League side shown such vision and been so deft and dexterous at executing it. 

There is hope, however. Norwich can use their underdogs tag, can use the expectation surrounding Liverpool. Sturridge is a major doubt, meaning a change of system for Rodgers. Jordan Henderson is suspended, so Joe Allen or Lucas Leiva will have to be accommodated. 

While the potential loss of Sturridge is good news for Norwich, Henderson''s suspension is even better. He has started every league game this season not just because of his own vastly improved talent but because he allows Gerrard to dominate from the base of midfield. A weaker Gerrard is a weaker Liverpool and Neil Adams'' preference for his teams to press high and cause damage in the space between defence and midfield will (or should) make Gerrard''s job even harder. 

If Norwich can cut down the Liverpool captain, can preoccupy as well as nullify him, they may just have a chance to pull off a vital shock on Sunday. 

It''s never nice ending someone''s dreams but come full time there has to be no Liverpool huddles and empty rhetoric on the Carrow Road pitch, just the sight of Gerrard walking dejectedly towards the tunnel while the Norwich players celebrate. After all, Tweety Pie always wins.

Daniel Brigham is features editor of The Cricketer. He tweets at @cricketer_dan

[Thirsty Lizard 3,155]

Excellent article Daniel. Hope your premise proves to be correct.

[Sussexyellow 55]

Enjoyed the read Dan, and the veiled optimism!

However I fear I will still be a bag of nerves as I walk to Carrow Rd on Sunday!

[Daniel Brigham 0]

Thanks. Think the premise will probably work better for Chelsea against Liverpool than for us but you never know!

[Katie Borkins 1]

[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]The claustrophobic weight of expectation showed in Steven

Gerrard''s rallying cry after Liverpool''s win over Manchester City. Where

many saw heroic, stirring tub-thumping in Gerrard''s words, to these

ears they were too emotional, too desperate, too Keeganesque. [/quote]Reckon that people hear what they want to hear.  That Liverpool team had to play their title challengers at home in the wake of Hillsborough and all the emotional weight that came with it.  Gerrard''s shouting looked to me like a warning that coming to Carrow Road is not a case of  "after the Lord Mayor''s Show", and I reckon that took away our best chance, i.e. complacency.The question isn''t "will they", more "by how many will they".

[lake district canary 4,531]

I''m in total agreement with Daniel''s article.  Gerard is cool up to a point and his maturity has improved his composure under pressure, but he has had always had a weakness underlying his career, never quite on top of an England career and sometimes fading under pressure for Liverpool.  So if we get at them and if one of our strikers can upset the applecart, we might be able to pull off that surprise.    

[Hoolahans Left Foot 0]

Lake District canary''s avatar is complete gash

[Houston Canary 0]

Im loving this. ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Nice one Danny