Connor Southwell delivers his Swansea verdict after Norwich City fell to their sixth defeat of the Championship season in South Wales.
1) Make it stop
Six defeats in nine games. 19 goals conceded. You could be forgiven for feeling as though you’ve read this script before.
Philippe Clement was quick to dismiss those numbers post-match, but it is also true that you don’t need to be a mathematician to know it won’t be the top eight, but the bottom, that Norwich will have to worry about if this continues.
The truth is that this was a step forward. But that isn’t a high bar compared to the wreckage left after that pitiful 4-3 defeat. Norwich were more compact and defended with greater collective purpose, but this remains a team making games of football far too difficult.
Eight minutes was all it took for Swansea to unpick them. They are top of the Championship, unbeaten at home and had only conceded once prior to kick-off so it was always going to be a tricky encounter, be it before or after an extended international break.
There were positives. Norwich were better out of possession, but Vladan Kovacevic was still called into action and Adam Idah scuffed his lines on numerous occasions before heading into the net. Anthony Musaba, Jovon Makama and Sam Field all had opportunities to salvage a point, but be it quality, luck or anything else in between, they could not find it.
Both Clement and Pelle Mattsson felt City deserved a point in South Wales. The stats disagree. Swansea had a higher quality of chance compared to the Canaries. Could they have rescued a point? Absolutely. But that is becoming part of the problem. Too much of Norwich’s season is being discussed through the prism of what might have happened rather than what actually did.
They could have got a point after fighting back at Boro. They could even have got a point against Bolton. How about at Stoke? West Brom on the opening day? All games that have slipped through their fingers.
Fine margins. Small chances. Luck. However you want to couch it, something is missing to turn those fine margins into points – deserved or otherwise. Until that happens, this narrative will continue.
2) Blame game
The easiest thing in football after a defeat is to point fingers and play the blame game.
Typically it is the head coach, but sometimes higher ups are found in the firing line. Players have to take their fair share of criticism both within grounds but most notably online, where every defeat is a catastrophe and every victory a triumph.
Clement is the latest boss to get it. He achieved miracles last season. Norwich would, quite frankly, be playing in the third tier without his impact. He has credit in the bank to sift through and find answers to their current issues. That does not make him immune, but this run doesn’t mean the second half of last season was a fluke, either. He turned water into wine last season - City are better with him at the helm.
Broaden it out further. This is year five in the Championship. Norwich are on their second owner, second sporting director and fifth head coach. They’ve spent big, sold well and yet only have one top six finish to show for it, even then that ended in a 4-0 play-off defeat to their former boss.
Dean Smith – 24 Championship games. Sacked. David Wagner, the only to hit a year in charge since relegation if you exclude Smith’s top-flight spell, fell to 17th before a surge to the top six. Then sacked. Johannes Hoff Thorup – 45 games. Sacked. Liam Manning – 15 games. Sacked.
Take that point further. Smith thrived at Brentford and Aston Villa. Wagner achieved promotion with Huddersfield. Thorup is enjoying a renaissance in Austria. Manning enjoyed an upward trajectory before arriving at Carrow Road. These are not bad coaches. What is much harder to identify is the thread connecting them, or the overarching footballing idea that has survived each change in the dugout.
All of that evidence points towards something bigger. This is not about a single head coach or one person. It is a club that has underperformed consistently since their relegation from the Premier League. That is collective.
The season is but young. There is still time to turn the ship around, but the wider concern is that if this becomes another season of treading water, with little cause for excitement or genuine belief it can end in success, Norwich risk losing the people they need most. The fans.
That is a real concern, there only needs to be a glance into Suffolk for the darkness that a prolonged spell in the second tier can bring. Let’s hope these fears can be shaken off quickly with results in the next two Carrow Road games.
3) Jacob on the Wright track
Norwich City have played just four times without Kenny McLean in their midfield in the past two seasons. They’ve only won once.
That is a statistic that offers a small window into what McLean offers and what City lack when he isn’t adorning the captain’s armband and leading the team out.
This was the youngest Norwich starting XI of the season at 24.7. Clement attributed their second half start to players ‘freezing’ and being concerned about the result. Pre-game, he spoke about the need for improved communication and leadership in the moments that matter.
Parking his own individual performances at the start of this season, McLean remains a huge presence in this Norwich side. He is the player others look towards in moments of adversity.
That explains the huge shoes that Jacob Wright had to fill in midfield alongside Pelle Mattsson against the early pacesetters in the Championship. In the opening 30 minutes, he initiated two attacks and scored a key opening goal.
From his public utterances to the impact made on matches on the pitch, there has been a different swagger to the way the midfielder has conducted himself since the summer. It is the kind of itchy feet that does not bode well for those higher up the pecking order.
It feels like Wright has discovered what is required to perform in the Championship but, bigger than that, has accompanied that with a sense of purpose that is making him hard to ignore.
His out of possession work, an area where Clement challenged him to show improvement, has been taken on with confidence and vigour. There is an intensity to him that others within that City squad are currently lacking.
Questions about whether he can eventually succeed McLean can wait. Right now, the argument is much simpler - Wright is making himself increasingly difficult to leave out.
4) Crunch time
Three straight defeats. Shipping goals at an alarming rate. Norwich City have their backs against the wall heading into a Carrow Road double header against Southampton and Portsmouth.
It is in those conditions last season that Clement helped to inspire a run of form that matched automatic promotion numbers. It was a win against Saints in December that sparked that remarkable uplift – how City could do with a repeat of that again.
Key to that win was Jovon Makama, who really introduced himself as a number nine in Josh Sargent’s absence. Given he was left on the bench in South Wales, perhaps Clement does have one eye on the upcoming clash in midweek.
Southampton are buoyed by the news Tonda Eckert will be permitted to continue leading them despite the ‘SpyGate’ scandal. Portsmouth are searching for another season of improvement under the impressive John Mousinho, who has extracted results in their previous two visits to Carrow Road.
Nothing will be gift wrapped for them. For all the positives that Clement felt he saw at Swansea, this will require another uplift in performance to unlock points.
It is an opportunity to quieten the doubters and ease fears that another season is beginning to spiral out of control. Two performances married with results would go a long way towards changing the mood.
The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about. It will be a return to the grumpy Carrow Road that existed 12 months ago. Everyone hoped those days were left firmly in the rear view mirror – that could still be the case.
Big week. Points needed. Deep breaths, everyone.
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