Most worrying display of the season sees Norwich lose three on the spin

Last weekend’s humiliation at the hands of Newcastle was, while very humiliating, fairly quickly brushed off among Norwich City supporters. After all, it was a crazy game of football and on another, more luck filled, day the mammoth scoreline could have gone in City’s favour. Furthermore, just six days away was a home game against West Bromwich Albion and a perfect opportunity to earn three points and get the season back on track. There was no need to panic just yet.

This idealistic situation, however, did not happen. Tony Pulis’ men came to Carrow Road and walked away with what will without doubt be their easiest three points of the season. Norwich have now slipped to 16th place, sitting just three points clear of the drop zone. For the first time in his short and unrelentingly successful Norwich City career, Alex Neil cut a beleaguered figure in his post-match interview. The Scot seemed to lack the positivity and determination that has characterised his tenure so far and that, more than any defeat, is a concerning sign for Norwich supporters. That being said, as a man so dedicated to success losing three on the spin was surely only going to conjure such a reaction.

Following the annihilation at the hands of Newcastle, changes - primarily defensive - were demanded and Alex Neil duly obliged. Both full-backs were sacrificed as Russell Martin finally returned to his more natural (although, in hindsight, upon his showing you wouldn’t have guessed it) right-back position at the expense of the much maligned Steven Whittaker, while Robbie Brady was reverted back to his early season left-back position in place of Martin Olsson. To accommodate Martin’s switch over to full-back, Ryan Bennett was brought into centre-back for his first Premier League appearance of the season.

On the face of things, the changes were successful as conceding just one as opposed to, er, six is an improvement, of course. However, for all that was gained defensively equal amounts and more were sacrificed offensively as City put in their most toothless display of the season. Somewhat understandably, the shambolic defensive performance at St James’ Park scarred Neil and his players and as a consequence the attacking, high-pressing ethos that epitomised Norwich’s first few games of the season was nowhere to be seen. One would be forgiven for thinking that it was a completely different side to the one whose fluid, flamboyant football so very nearly earned three points at Upton Park just four weeks ago.

I look back at that game and the heart-breaking last minute equaliser that City conceded and wonder how different our season would currently be looking if we had held out. On the back of a win over Bournemouth and a point at Anfield, we were quickly building a momentum and that was apparent in the self-assured display at Upton Park. However, ever since Cheikhou Kouyate’s aforementioned leveller Norwich have quite noticeably been a different side. It is these small margins that make football the exciting (and, in the case of Norwich fans, depressing) game that it is.

Anyway, Saturday saw Norwich put in their very best impression of a 2013/14 “Hughton-esque” performance, as large amounts of possession in the final third produced a meagre three shots on target. If one was to judge the game purely on the post-match statistics, then the 16 shots, 13 corners and 61% of possession that Norwich had would infer that Albion luckily escaped with the win having withstood wave after wave of City pressure. Sadly, this couldn’t have been more from the case as West Brom never looked duly panicked. Unlike most games with a one-goal margin there was no anticipation for the arrival of the fourth official and the announcement of added time, for you got the feeling that he could have put any figure up and City would never have scored. It is this aspect of the performance that concerned me most because regardless of the defensive servings Norwich have produced in recent months, you always got the impression that they were capable of scoring - even at Newcastle last week we could have scored double figures. On Saturday, this was simply not the case.

Coincidentally, the thought of Hughton’s tenure triggers flashbacks of the game that cost him his job - a 1-0 home defeat to, erm yes you’ve guessed it, West Bromwich Albion. A look at the comparative stats of the two games proves that they’re scarily, and somewhat worryingly, similar. 61% vs 69% possession, 16 shots vs 12 shots, 3 shots on target vs 4 - thankfully for Alex Neil’s safety, there were no clappers this time around! Curiosity led to me comparing the respective seasons after 10 games - at this stage in October 2013 we were just one point worse off. What worries me most is that time around we had already faced Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City - explaining our struggles. This season, we have all of them still to come.

Anyhow, it is still far too early to be drawing comparisons to that fateful relegation season. Time to recoup that belief once more, for I think, at the very least, Alex Neil has earned the right for a little bit of faith to be held in him.

It’s only Man City away next week, after all. It is at this time next week that I hope to be able to shoot down any further 2015/16 vs 2013/14 comparisons as we can’t do any worse than 2013’s 7-0 defeat at the Etihad, can we….?