In my last Fan Zone piece for the Pink Un, which was coincidentally also the first week after the international break, it is fair to say the mood around Norwich was considerably different.
Norwich were on a run of good form and hadn’t been beaten at Carrow Road for over a year.
In the weeks to come after that, Norwich have failed to win for seven matches, lost their unbeaten status at home and suffered numerous injury issues that are largely the cause for the issues in form.
Whether those injuries were unfortunate, or self-inflicted by pushing too many players too hard for too long, is up for debate.
What is for certain is that Norwich have gone from being touted as ‘dark horses’ in the promotion race to now looking like a mid-table team in the space of a month. How Thorup bounces back from this will be a big test of his credentials; building momentum is incredibly hard when compared to how easy it is to lose it.
Hopefully, it will just be a case of when the walking wounded return to the first team, Thorup will be able to get his best XI back onto the pitch and start to show the high levels of performance Norwich were given not that long ago. The key will be to then manage players he has to be able to do so consistently.
The recent absentees list has gone to highlight that beneath the strong starting XI, there is a fairly significant drop off when delving deeper into the squad.
While this issue is far from unique to Norwich, especially in the Championship, it is something that will have to be improved.
This doesn’t automatically mean reaching for Mark Attanasio’s chequebook (if such things still exist), but can come from improving the coaching of the fringe players, or taking a greater look at the academy to see if solutions can come from inside the club.
Speaking of the Mr Attanasio, it would be remiss of me to not mention the momentous occasion of the club passing control from Delia and Michael.
We have seen a huge number of meaningful tributes made to them recently thanking and congratulating them for their hard work at Norwich.
The sad reality is that we will likely never see Norwich owned by such dedicated fans again as the world of football has moved beyond such a model and leans increasingly into hedge funds and investment groups.
While in many ways the Norfolk Holdings’ buy out of Norwich represents a form of progress, we should not feel some wariness of the club passing out of the hands of two well-meaning, if not of the same monetary means, fans of the club.
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