Leicester City (h) – The ACN Review

Biggest Positive

We looked better than we did against Man City. Okay, given how dreadful our performance against the champions was, this may not seem like much, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Against Leicester we actually had shots! And some of them were on target! AND we looked like scoring! It really feels as if we’re the one/two fabled incoming players Farke keeps alluding to from being a solid outfit.

Although I was confident we could improve at every stage throughout the last Premier League season, so perhaps don’t take my words to heart.

Biggest Problem

We need a defensive midfielder. Again, not a revelation, but in Billy Gilmour we’ve got a Champions League winning midfielder and we’re forcing him to play out of position. It’s not exactly surprising that a lack of protection in front of the back four is leading to a real sense of defensive fragility. Ah well, still three days of the transfer window to go…

Funniest moment of the game

I’m writing this on the bus on the way home so none of it feels particularly funny. Jeering the halftime scores when it was announced Arsenal had also lost 5-0 to Manchester City is all that springs to mind.

Norwich’s best player

Two players who had fairly abysmal performances last week, Max Aarons and Todd Cantwell, seemed to view Leicester as an opportunity to prove their worth in the side. Cantwell in particular looked as his he could run for miles: he refused to shirk from a tackle, was vocal to the referee, and worked well with Lees-Melou.

Did an Along Come Norwich happen?

We had a long wait for VAR to award us a penalty, during which a chorus of ‘VAR, VAR,’ could be heard.

In the second half we then had a long wait for VAR to rule out our second goal, during which a chorus of ‘F**K VAR, F**K VAR,’ could be heard.

Perhaps not an Along Come Norwich by definition, but getting rewarded and screwed over by VAR in such a short period of time felt like a very Norwich-y thing to happen.

What was the atmosphere like?

Allow me a moment of indulgence. I love the flags in the Barclay. By and large, I think most fans in the Barclay also love the flags – and when we’re allowed to expand our flag operations into other stands we always get comments of ‘can’t we have these every week?’ It’s also a fairly undisputed point of view that having the flags has added to the atmosphere, as was the purpose of Along Come Norwich’s creation. They make the Barclay look beautiful before kick off and they make us feel buoyant. They’re waved during goals, they’re heralded on Twitter post match. It currently feels as if the Barclay (I can’t speak for the rest of the stadium) is weaker and quieter without them.

Summary

It feels so close. Norwich is currently operating like an orchestra where a few of the instruments are out of tune, or where one of the French Horns is playing on the offbeat. Sort those very fixable issues and you’ve got a sound that’s lovely to listen to and very effective. Fingers crossed Webber pulls something out of the blue before September.