CANARIES FLY HIGH
STUNNING FIRST HALF IAN MCFARLANE EXAMINES NORWICH’S PROSPECTS… OF THE SEASON AND THEIR PROMOTION
Norwich’s superb season
THE Championship has been enthralling this season – and Daniel Farke’s Norwich City have been a revelation. Heading into the New Year, they were second in the table, only a few points behind leaders Leeds United.
It’s come as something of a surprise, since they laboured to a 14th place finish last term in the German’s first campaign in charge.
This season started rather slowly, too. Despite an opening day 2-2 draw at Birmingham, with the promising Onel Hernandez netting twice, it was followed by defeats at home to West Brom (4-3) and away to Sheffield United (2-1).
A victory at home against Preston (2-0) was followed by a 3-0 reverse at home to Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.
September heralded the turn-around, as the men from Norfolk won four out of five fixtures, only dropping points to bitter rivals Ipswich in a 1-1 stalemate in the opener of the month.
The defence was gaining plaudits, as only two goals were conceded in five league encounters.
And by the end of September it seemed a true talisman had been found - the Finland international Teemu Pukki already had five goals to his name.
Although he didn’t score in the league in October, Norwich secured three wins out of five. They dispatched Nottingham Forest away and Aston Villa at home, both 2-1, forgotten man Jordan Rhodes netting a brace against the Villans.
In November, the Canaries didn’t find any difficulty hitting the back of the net. Pukki scored five that month as Norwich won 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday, edged out Millwall 4-3 at home in a real thriller and thrashed Swansea 4-1 at the Liberty, before a goalless draw at Hull closed out the month.
Attacking midfielder Emi Buendia, 22, snapped up from Spanish outfit Getafe, was finding the target as well as entertaining the punters with his Argentine flair.
In a busy December, Norwich won three, drew two and lost one to keep their momentum going.
Wins against Rotherham (3-1) and Bolton (3-2) at home were followed by a battling 2-2 draw against Bristol City at Ashton Gate. They then ended Blackburn’s impressive unbeaten home record, with the game being decided by a late Pukki strike.
It was followed by a Boxing Day treat at Carrow Road for anyone there or who, like me, had elected to watch the game against Nottingham Forest on Sky’s red button option.
The Reds raced into a three-goal lead. However, Norwich’s tendency to score late goals once again came to fruition as Mario Vrancic pulled one back before super-sub Hernandez bagged a very late double to make it 3-3 - a true advert for Championship football.
The year ended with a 4-3 defeat against Frank Lampard’s Derby in another Carrow Road cracker before the Canaries rescued a point late on at Brentford on New Year’s Day in a 1-1 draw. Norwich are well and truly in the promotion mix and it seems Farke has gone by the notion ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’, a throwback to his twoyear association with the Borussia Dortmund B team. Full-back Jamal Lewis is already a full Northern Ireland international at the age
of 20. On the opposite flank, 19-year old Max Aarons looks wise beyond his years and even weighed in with the crucial headed equaliser against Bristol City.
Ben Godfrey, 21, has looked comfortable with the added pressure of being moved from central midfield to central defence.
In my opinion, though, the most impressive of the youngsters has to be attacking midfielder/winger Todd Cantwell.
Another 20-year-old, he is a local lad born in Dereham, a product of the youth team and had a fruitful loan spell at Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands last term, gaining a promotion from the second tier in the process. He also scored a crucial goal to set his boyhood club on the come-back trail after going a goal down to lowly Rotherham at Carrow Road. The lad has the look and even carries himself like a future star - one to watch. As well as the talented youth on show, there is also invaluable experience. The team’s spine of goalkeeper Tim Krul (30), centre-half Christoph Zimmermann (25), centre midfielder Alex Tettey (32), attacking midfielder Marco Stiepermann (27) and the well-travelled goal machine Pukki (28) is strong.
Heading into the New Year, the former Celtic striker had 16 goals to his name in all competitions – not bad for a free transfer from Danish club Brondby!
All of this makes for a side that is going in the right direction, under the right manager for the job at hand.
They have mainly been playing a strong but attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, with the young full-backs used as attacking outlets as well, helped with the extra defensive solidity of two defensive midfielders in front of the centre-halves.
Taking everything into account, it looks like the Canaries have a great chance of leaving their Championship perch and soaring back into the Premier League.