It's difficult to make a case for Norwich City boss David Wagner

An under pressure Norwich City manager requires a big performance at Carrow Road and within a few minutes of the kick-off it’s pretty obvious which way it’s all heading.

It was painful watching Blackburn Rovers carve the Canaries open twice inside the first 15 minutes but it was no surprise. It was a performance from City that suited the kick-off time. Just like your average Sunday roast, despite hours of preparation it was all gone within a quarter of an hour. The only defence that has been anything like as meek in recent weeks has been England’s of the Cricket World Cup they won so famously in 2019.

That was the summer after Norwich City’s first promotion under Daniel Farke. The mood around the two sides has changed significantly over the past four years. If anything it’s a reminder, as a fan, to savour the good times when they do come along for your team.

At both NCFC and the ECB there are calls for root and branch reviews. These are justifiable and understandable for many reasons. Nothing ever improves unless issues are properly addressed. Whatever’s happening off the pitch doesn’t excuse some of the mistakes being made match after match.

The structure that was introduced at Carrow Road after Alex Neil’s departure in 2017 made one thing abundantly clear. The team’s performance on the pitch is the responsibility of the head coach. People often say ‘it’s a results business’ which assumes the job is simply to win every week. There is more to it than that.

There are other ways of judging the success or otherwise of a head coach. Can they organise a team? Are they correcting problems that occur during games? Can they influence matches with substitutions and tactical switches? It’s difficult to make a case for any of those boxes being ticked during this miserable run of one win in 10.

Blackburn tore through the Canaries in the first half and then broke away and scored from a City attacking set piece. Just as Leeds United had done two weeks earlier.

Even during a run of poor results, it is possible to see some elements of progress. Perhaps in the shape of promising patterns of play, improvement of individual performances or a general feeling that a head coach is beginning to impose his ideas on a squad. That’s why the aforementioned Daniel Farke was persevered with after an opening season which had more troughs than peaks and ended in a 14th place finish in the Championship.

Again, other than the emergence of Jonathan Rowe this season, it’s not easy to see that Wagner has been able to achieve any of the above.

There has been some sympathy for the City boss in the wake of the injuries that robbed him of both Ashley Barnes and Josh Sargent after a promising start. It’s now been nine games without Barnes, the first of which was a 6-2 defeat at Plymouth. An occasion that set the tone of how to play against Wagner’s Norwich and he hasn’t been able to find solutions. Rather than nine games it’s felt like watching the same game nine times.

Recently relieved Championship managers like Gary Rowett, John Eustace or Nigel Pearson might be casting an envious eye in the direction of the levels of patience being afforded to a head coach with one win in 10.

It was difficult not to fear for Wagner’s job prospects from the moment sporting director Stuart Webber announced he was leaving.

Any replacement worth their salt would have turned up with a good idea of who they might want as the next head coach. One would like to think the candidates were asked that sort of question during the recruitment process which saw Ben Knapper succeed.

Wagner was always going to need a solid set of results to help get that new working relationship off to a decent start.

There are many causes for concern amongst Norwich City supporters. That shouldn’t cloud the fact that this current set of players ought to be capable of winning more than just one of their last 10 games.

The lines of responsibility for that are clear. If David Wagner remains in charge on Saturday when Norwich go to Cardiff he will have to consider himself fortunate.

Post-match…

Part of my job on a matchday is to interview the Norwich City head coach and usually a player after the game.

It’s the part of the programme that’s hardest to prepare for.

For commentary purposes it’s possible to do your homework in terms of facts and figures, what number a player wears and what sort of form they have been in.

The post-match interviews tend to take place within 20 minutes or so of the final whistle with emotions running high. On Sunday it was skipper Kenny McLean who faced our microphones before David Wagner did the same. We don’t often know which player is the nominated spokesperson for that day until they appear before us.

What are you supposed to say to a manager or player after a result like that? I know they get paid handsomely for their troubles (as made clear in the club’s accounts last week) and that facing the music after a defeat comes with the territory.

Ultimately these are human beings who have done their best and it just hasn’t worked. They don’t need smart Alec’s with press passes to tell them that they have just experienced a poor afternoon.

Thank goodness we don’t all have to face the media after days at work that haven’t gone to plan.

I don’t think it’s a time to go full Paxman.

Managers in particular deserve a chance to explain their thinking on key decisions. If supporters still don’t agree with them after that, at least they know why.