Kyle Lafferty has to be given a chance at Norwich City - what is there to lose?

Kyle Lafferty continued his rich vein of international goal-scoring form this weekend as he scored the opener in Northern Ireland’s 4-0 win over Azerbaijan on Friday evening. This comes after the striker scored his first league goal for Norwich in over 18 months during the 3-2 defeat to Leeds United and, having been overlooked by Alex Neil for so long, could the time now finally have arrived for Lafferty to be given a proper opportunity at the club?

I must admit: I have never been Lafferty’s biggest fan. The past two and half seasons have seemingly been riddled with City fans calling for him to be given a chance, whilst I always believed that it was simply another case of the Luciano Becchio’s and Ricky van Wolfswinkel’s - whereby supporters seem to invent an overinflated image of someone’s ability simply because they haven’t been playing.

Now, just because I think that Lafferty should be given a chance doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t still believe this to be true, but it has got to the stage now when I have to ask myself, and Alex Neil has to ask himself, what is there to lose?

He is evidently desperate to play for us, which is more than can be said for some of our players at the moment. When Alex Neil brought him on in the dying moments against Leeds, he could very easily have moped around and tried very little - after all, in his eyes, Neil being sacked would probably be his quickest route to breaking into the City first-team. Nonetheless, he applied himself well, demonstrated a willingness to get Norwich side back into the game, and, of course, scored within moments of coming on. Forgetting the fact that we somehow still went onto lose, and the fact that Neil wasn’t sacked in the aftermath of the defeat - for the split moment that were level, courtesy of Lafferty, it looked like he had saved his managers job.

We are currently far too reliant on Cameron Jerome. He has performed brilliantly this season in what is a thankless role, and has a decent goal return to show for it, but he can’t do it all on his own. Whilst the woeful defending at the other end of the pitch has taken the headlines in recent weeks, in each game our offensive play has been totally negated by the fact that Jerome has been left totally isolated. He will run the channels, he will win headers, he will hold the ball up - but what’s the point, if there is no-one up there with him?

If, and it’s a big if, Lafferty is given a chance then it raises the possibility for Neil to play two up front. It has been pretty obvious throughout his tenure at the club that this is not a preferred option for the Scot, but desperate times call for desperate measures and, at the very least, Jerome will no longer be so isolated. They may not be the most technically gifted strikers to grace the game, but I am certain that no Championship defence would have an easy ride against them. What they may lack in talent, they more than make up for in physicality, work-rate and desire and, right now, this is what we need. The more talented players on our side have repeatedly been letting us down and it is now time to return to basics.

Neil is clearly not a fan of Kyle Lafferty, but any excuses he may have for not playing him are looking more and more tenuous by the week. He is in goalscoring form and is desperate to play: the current system is evidently not working, so why not change it up?