The season 2020 - 2021.

Bit of a squeeze over at the Colney treatment and physio centre tomorrow. Take a ticket and wait for your number.

 

10 out injured then. Getting as bad as last season ! At least we are not away to Man City on Saturday.

 

It actually feels worse, doesn’t it? I suppose the only miracle is it doesn’t include centre backs.

But with Stieps suspected concussed and Pukki also twinging a hamstring, we’re very close to not being able to field an experienced first team.

 

So, even if we end up relegated, I guess DF is now officially uncriticisable on here until at least the end of this season.

 

If it’s a straw man game we’re playing, then yes.

 

There are lots of straw men in Norfolk, it's the (agri)culture ......

 

The end of next for me. As long as we keep out of League 2.

 

He's never been beyond criticism, but neither is he responsible for every ill that befalls the club. He's done incredibly well since he's joined us, particularly if you factor in that this is his first head coaching job. Of course he's made mistakes, but relatively few compared to his overall performance. You play the hand you are dealt, not the hand you wish you had. The club has progressed significant under his and Webber's stewardship and both of them are destined to move on to bigger and better things.

 

Michael Bailey reporting the club fear Krul will miss 6 weeks - which could be 10 games.

 

Thigh injury? If so, that's bad news. Wasn't it a thigh injury that John Ruddy suffered and took ages to fully recover from?

 

DF said 5 or 6 games but worrying all the same. The bright spark was the play of Josh Martin:

"Farke revealed after a full debut at Stoke brimming with promise Martin’s recent training performances were simply too good to ignore any longer. His quick feet triggered the move that led to Norwich’s opener. His threaded pass brought Pukki a second goal on the night and, as it turned out, vital insurance to quell Stoke’s fightback. There was also a pinpoint corner dropped on the head of the unmarked Grant Hanley."

The way he beat his man to start the move for the first goal was crucial, as was his threaded ball through to Teemu for the third. We had a glimpse of this in pre-season but an injury delayed his breakthrough.

https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/canaries-stoke-city-paddy-davitt-pointers-championship-1-6944114

 

So would it be unfair to say that we seem to create a disproportionately high amount of injuries over the last two seasons? Why do we think this is? Are we gambling on getting players for less due to them being more injury prone? Or are we doing something wrong in training? What do people think?

 

Screwed with his kicking, and he lost a lot of confidence in it. That was a much longer spell out though from memory, and Krul is much less reliant on long kicks.

Speaking of distribution, curious to see what McGovern's is like, given a run of games. We've seen Farke can teach one old dog new tricks in terms of passing (Tettey), hopefully it's been a focus for McGovern too. I mean he's into his 4th season as deputy in our system, and earned a new contract in that time - he must be doing something in training?

 

@DHCanary
When McGovern was given his new contract there was a lot in the media about how much he contributed to the dressing room and generally off the field -- e.g. with our young keepers.

 

Yeah I remember seeing that, I'm not disputing that he has value to the squad. But in terms of his own development, he's only made 11 senior appearances in the last three seasons for NCFC, he might double that in the next few weeks. And in that time, Farke's demand on a goalkeeper have been pretty consistent. So I'm curious to see if he's developed to suit that role.

 

DF also mentioned post match how professional McGovern was, first on the training pitch last off.

 

i'm very worried about McGoverns distribution. When our game management was so poor in the later stages of last nights game, was this in part because we do not trust his distribution? He lumped pretty much everything long (one exception I can remember when Arrons ballsed up on a reasonable pass out his way. ) which of course came straight back at us.
If it wasn't what Farke wanted, he didn't seem to try to prevent it. After either of their goals periods of possession could have taken the wind out of their sails but we just kept lumping it long and straight back to them.

Bah!

 

If McGovern’s distribution isn’t good enough, then I am happy with him lumping it up field. We cannot afford to risk it. Yes, that might mean we have less possession but I think we can cope with a slightly different system for ten games. Also, McGovern’s tactics when we have ten men is probably not the whole measure.

I actually think he’s a decent keeper on his day. It’s a huge loss Krul being out as I have little doubt he’s the best keeper in the Championship, but I can’t help feeling that with our settled defence and McGovern not being too bad, we will pull through and it might only cost us a few points. Injuries happen.

It is worrying that the injury is his thigh though. What was it that saw him leave Newcastle? Was that thigh too?

 

Apart from Burnley in the EPL, coming on against a hurting Stoke must surely be the worst prospect for a replacement keeper. In the circumstances I thought McGovern acquitted himself well. I disagree with 1950canary that he was in any way to blame for the second goal. Zimmermann was the guilty party for that one. McGovern came out several times, claiming the ball and taking the heat out of the situation; and despite his height he cleared two dangerous corners by punching the ball clear. As for distribution, we were under constant pressure in the second half, and trying to play out had got us into big trouble several times. Prior to his sending off, Emi had been putting in the best defensive performance I've ever seen from him. With Emi gone, Vrancic wandering about like a lost soul, Tettey tiring, and deprived of the experience of Stiepermann and Pukki as well, I don't see any practical alternative to what the guys did.

 

I also don't think it makes sense to try to play out from the back when you're down to ten men - the chances of losing possession or giving away dangerous free kicks is just too high. McGovern's distribution was reasonable before the sending off, but then shifted to kicks for that reason.

Our next 4 games are against teams well below us - even mid-table Luton have a negative goal difference, but they will be the toughest challenge at their place. Coventry, Wednesday and Forest at CR should be manageable and give McGovern and others time to settle in and pick up match fitness.