The ACN Match Review – Preston North End (h)

The atmosphere

There’s been a lot of chit-chat about the poor atmosphere at Carrow Road recently and finally the team worked out how to shake it up:

• Play really well, score an early goal: the atmosphere is optimistic.
• Play really well a bit more, miss a few chances but don’t worry ‘cos we’re streets ahead of this Preston team in the lovely autumn sunshine: the atmosphere is nicely bubbling along.
• Forget how to defend, concede a pointless goal: the atmosphere deflates like a six-day-old party balloon.
• Forget how to defend, concede another pointless goal: the atmosphere gets hotter as the crowd gets riled!
• Score a well worked goal after responding to the atmosphere: the atmosphere is as good as it’s been all season!
• Minutes later, forget how to defend, concede a third pointless goal: the atmosphere subsides, gently dissipating under grumbles and mumbles as we rue another set of gloriously missed chances and goals given away on a platter of undeserved opportunities.

So, something for everyone, then.

The line-up

No real surprises in the starting line-up but no Todd Cantwell in the squad, despite Dean Smith’s assurances he would be there. We miss his creativity. Liam Gibbs looked sprightly and a lovely reminder of what happens when you play players in their actual positions.

However, the team started in a diamond formation which saw Josh Sargent in a central role and it paid off straight away. He may have had three goals by half time. Does he have to prove himself any further? The boy is SO MUCH BETTER in a central role – he has quick feet, he’s strong, and if you watch his goal you can see how he slightly disguises his shot to fool the ‘keeper. It’s quite clever and it makes you realise there is a lot more to his game when he’s not shoved out on the right. He and Pukki worked well and it should be the set up for the rest of the season.

Hurrah moment

Gabriel Sara played a full half and was everything he wasn’t against West Brom. He had energy, purpose, pace, movement, good vision, and deserved his goal. It’s as if we finally got a peek at the player we spent quite a lot of money on, and we liked what we saw.

Boooo moment

I mean, ALL the Preston goals, right? Look, it’s time to be honest about some players we have loved but need to be realistic about: four of today’s back five are showing visible scars of two horrific Premier League campaigns and I don’t see any improvement in their games. Why are they still here? Poor Andrew Omobamidele is buckling under the weight of responsibility and he’s getting no help from the more experienced players around him.

We’re spending £10m on wingers we’re loaning out to other clubs and yet we can’t spend decent money on a big, f***-off centre back who takes no sh*t from either the opposition or his own team. Who can organise, cajole, inspire and, well, just shout at people in a manner that makes them do stuff like look at where the player they’re marking is. That’s the kind of player Omobamidele needs to be learning from, not four players who are prone to mistakes and have forgotten how to raise the temperature of their teammates.

None of those players looked motivated to get up and at Preston after we gifted them their equaliser. It’s all so familiar and it has been under two different managers now. I applaud Smith’s attempts to inject some oomph into midfield but we are too easy to score against –  it has to change and that starts at the back.

Hero of the match

It’s hard to anoint a hero after watching us throw away a match where we were so much better than the opposition but despite what I wrote above, I’m going to give it to Kenny McLean. He’s been made to fill in so many gaps in his Norwich career, no one’s really sure where he plays and yet somehow he’s always there, doing what he’s asked, getting no thanks for it. He was moved to left back for the second half and actually, Kenny with a clear purpose is quite nice to watch. Just go up and down that left hand side, tackle, pass, move. Simple. It gave us more balance and he did it well.

I genuinely hope that when he leaves Norwich he’ll play for a manager who finds him the perfect position, where he can play out his days not having to do everything for everyone else. Thanks Kenny, I do appreciate you and I think many, many more of us do than you might think.

Our post-match takeaway

I’ve seen enough seasons of Norwich City football to acknowledge we go through cycles of ‘poor’, ‘meh’ and ‘wahey’ football and sometimes there isn’t much you can do about it. This is definitely a ‘meh’ period. The danger with a ‘meh’ season is it can turn cantankerous just as easily as it can turn into a promotion season and today’s result and, in particular, the defensive performance, doesn’t help the distraction from the fact that we are absolutely in promotion contention (statistically).

We are really very good going forward and will scare any team in this league. Forget about the Premier League, we have to win this league – especially as no other team looks like storming it – but if we’re not careful, the stars will align horribly and we’ll be playing that lot in blue and white down the road next season and they’ll be well up for it and well prepared for it.

As mentioned above, we have too many players in this team who are not improving and Dean Smith needs to get a grip on how we defend before things get cranky. It may take a bit of extra resilience from us fans – jeez, things could be a lot worse – but I can’t help thinking we need to either spend a fair bit of money in the transfer window or work some magic on our current defence if that resilience is to remain after displays like today’s.