Norwich’s defensive frailties exposed again during 2-2 draw at Fulham

Norwich City slipped from their position at the top of the Championship table on Tuesday evening as they spurned a two goal lead to draw 2-2 at Fulham. Two first half penalties from Graham Dorrans looked to have put his side in pole position to earn their first victory at Craven Cottage in over 30 years, but City’s defensive frailties were exposed once more as goals from Stefan Johansen and ex-Norwich striker Chris Martin cost Norwich the win.

The post-match inquisition into the disappointing result has to begin by looking at Alex Neil’s team selection and, more importantly, the absence of Alex Pritchard from the starting eleven. Having been largely overlooked for the most part of the season, Pritchard made his first league start in the 3-1 win over Rotherham last weekend and hugely impressed - recording one assist and being heavily involved in everything good that City did going forward. I am always apprehensive about Neil’s team selection but had faith that he would reward Pritchard for last weekend’s performance by keeping him in the starting eleven. As it transpired, however, Robbie Brady - evidently one of Neil’s ‘favourites’ - was given the nod upon his return from injury, whilst Pritchard was dropped to the bench.

It is difficult to see this as anything other than very poor man-management from Neil: what does this say to Pritchard? At long last he has been given an opportunity, which he grabbed with both hands - his reward? Dropped to the bench. To make it worse, upon substituting Wes Hoolahan just after the hour mark, Neil again overlooked Pritchard - who seemed the obvious option - in favour of Steven Naismith, a player who has been struggling to even make the bench in recent weeks. For all of his skills as a manager, City’s Scot does make his fair share of baffling decisions - and the dropping of Pritchard will rank upon the most baffling of them all.

Nonetheless, Brady is hardly an incapable replacement and we had more than enough quality in the line-up to overcome a Fulham side destined for mid-table mediocrity. After an even opening to the game, it soon looked like this extra quality would tell as Jacob Murphy was felled inside the Fulham area in the 17th minute, leaving Graham Dorrans to cooly slot home the resulting penalty. Despite going behind, Fulham continued to cause City problems and, as always seems to be the case, Norwich were never in a position of so called comfort, but it was indeed City who went on to extend their lead. Much to the anger of the Craven Cottage crowd, the second also came from a Dorrans penalty after Jerome theatrically fell under a clumsy Scott Malone challenge. To go in at the break 2-0 up was by no means what Norwich deserved and, whilst, for most promotion challenging teams such a lead would seem unassailable, there was a sense of inevitability during the break that Fulham would be let back into the game.

It didn’t take long for this inevitability to arrive as within ten minutes of the restart City’s lead was halved following what was, yet again, a criminally soft goal to concede. Weak defending from Russell Martin and Timm Klose allowed Chris Martin to evade both of them, turn, and get a shot away - a shot which subsequently deflected off both Martin Olsson and Stefan Johansen before trickling into the bottom left corner of Michael McGovern’s goal. The momentum was now all with Fulham as Norwich cowered into their shell and it was only a matter of time before the teams were on level terms. Little over ten minutes following Johansen’s first and Fulham were indeed level as a mis-placed Graham Dorrans pass put Slaviša Jokanović’s on the attack - an attack which resulted with Chris Martin being played in on goal and, following Russell Martin’s inability to thwart him, he fired home. A frantic end to the game, in which both sides had chances to win it, ensued, but 2-2 was how it went on to finish.

As the more positive Norwich fans have argued, in any other circumstances we wouldn’t be too aggrieved with a draw away at Fulham - especially considering our recent record at Craven Cottage. Nonetheless, to be 2-0 up at half time and not go on to win is hugely disappointing. City have now twice thrown away two goal leads in the last month and but for some fortune this figure could have been far higher. On paper, a defence of Ivo Pinto, Timm Klose, Russell Martin and Martin Olsson should be one of the strongest in the division, yet in reality they represent a back four that is hugely vulnerable and prone to at least one mistake every game. If they don’t improve, any dreams of a top two finish can be instantly forgotten. There is only so long that we can continue to defend so weakly, and perform so unconvincingly, yet still pick up points.

A convincing win over Preston on Saturday is required. That being said, I’ll take yet another nervy one-goal margin win if it is offered to me right now…