Wolves (a) – The Review

Random star performer

There are few positives to be taken from a match where your goalkeeper emerges as the best player – especially when you lose that match 3-0. Once again Tim Krul showed exactly what Farke and Webber saw in him 18 months ago and has rewarded their faith with a string of performances that don’t deserve to leave him bottom of the league.

Google Maps also deserves a shout out here – thanks to SatNav and M6 related difficulties we found ourselves relying on its services 30 miles out of Wolverhampton. A pat on the back for our corporate overlords.

Moment of the match

We’re going to twist this one slightly and opt for ‘most Norwich moment.’ When Wolves came to Carrow Road in December they were insistent on playing their corners short – a tactic that seemed strange due to our contrasting aerial abilities. Of course, it was a short corner that prompted their fight back and ultimately cost us three points. Once again, Wolves utilised the short corner to their advantage today, and once again Norwich couldn’t deal with it. To concede from a short corner is bad enough, but to do so two months later against the same opposition is excruciating.

Farke watch

This is the first weekend in many months where social media is truly alight with criticism of Daniel Farke – it might also be the first weekend where it’s justified. Since Farke found himself with the ability to choose his team based on form, not fitness, he’s come under fire for his selections. Why has Vrančic featured so little? Is that midfield pair right? Where the hell is Leitner? Recently, it’s been all about Emi. After Farke noted his lack of end product and offered some areas for improvement, Buendía was once again left on the bench – watching as the midfield ahead of him offered very little in terms of creativity. After Liverpool, Duda could probably have few complaints if Buendía took his place in the starting eleven, but beyond changes necessitated by injuries Farke stuck with the team that saw out the narrow defeat. Would the outcome today have been different if Buendía found himself on the pitch instead of the bench at the starting whistle? That one’s probably beyond our remit.

Weekend whinge

As we sat in the Wolverhampton traffic we tried to narrow our long list of complaints down to one short moan. We failed. This was not a vintage away day: from the fact that it takes forever to get anywhere from Norfolk, to the away fans’ pub being hotter than Hell during a heatwave, to the typically poor provision of ladies’ toilets at the stadium itself, we have a lot of whinges we need to get out. It’s the kind of away day where you sit in the car on the way home and hate everything about football, loudly and aggressively for four hours. We might be miserable bastards to be around for a little while.

Atmosphere rating

If you don’t like to see fans criticised then look away now, because we’re about to get into it. Norwich fans offered nothing except repeated abuse towards their own players. Misplace a pass? ‘Get him out of here Farke!’ Miss a shot? ‘You’re a fucking donkey! Fuck off to League One!’ ‘We’re losing 3-0, you waste of space!’ There were few attempts at singing: even 3 long and arduous VAR checks couldn’t rouse the fans from their bottom of the table induced slump.

Players know when they’re playing badly. Not one member of that team will have come off the pitch feeling satisfied with the result, telling themselves they played the best they could. They could have done better, but they know that.

As away fans, we’ve paid money to watch our team and some will use that as an excuse to make as little noise as possible – ‘why should I sing if they’re not putting the effort in?’ But if you’re saying that, how can you criticise the team for not being up for the fight if your towel’s already gone flying?

Summary

When we look back at this season, there will be moments we’ll remember fondly and many more we’ll desperately try to forget. This particular day out is one of the latter. It often feels as if there’s two Norwich teams in the Premier League this season. Sometimes we get the team who gave everything against Man City, the team who played some beautiful football against Sheffield United, the team who held Liverpool for so long. Then there’s the team who lost to Villa twice, who got battered by Manchester United, and who walked out of the tunnel at Molineux. We never know which one we’re getting, and that’s one of the stories of our season.