‘Yo-yo’ club Norwich are back – but have they learnt their lessons?
Tightening defence as they stormed Championship last season, coach Farke could adopt more cautious approach
On the face of it, little has changed for Norwich City. After one season in the Championship, they return to the Premier League with the same manager and again written off by pundits. Even their opening-day opponents, Liverpool, are the same as their last sojourn at this level.
On that occasion, in 2019, City were swatted aside 4-1 at Anfield in a game that proved portentous in a number of ways.
Head coach Daniel Farke, goalkeeper Tim Krul, right-back Max Aarons, creator Todd Cantwell and striker Teemu Pukki all remain. Norwich have lost the outstanding Emiliano Buendia to Aston Villa, but replaced him with Milot Rashica from Werder Bremen. It is obvious that Norwich need to tighten up. They conceded 75 goals when they were relegated in 2019-20, with only Aston Villa allowing a higher expected goals against figure. Will Farke look to adopt a more circumspect tactical approach?
One encouraging sign is that they conceded 21 fewer goals in their 2020-21 Championship promotion season compared to when they came up in 2019. They were dominant league champions with 97 points, with comfortably the best expected goals difference.
They did not necessarily take a backward step. Comparing 20182019 and 2020-21, they forced an identical 6.3 high turnovers per game and their pressed sequences and passes per defensive action allowed more or less held steady. According to Statsbomb data, Norwich regained possession through counterpressing – pressurising opponents within five seconds of losing the ball – more than any team in the Championship.
They conceded one fewer shot per game in 2020-21 than in 2018-19, and 3.4 shots on target per game compared with 4.2 in their previous promotion season. The midfield partnership between Oliver Skipp
and Kenny Mclean helped shield Farke’s defence, and replacing Skipp’s contribution after he returned to parent club Tottenham is a key assignment for the season. One note of caution, however. Despite reducing the volume of shots faced, Norwich actually conceded a higher expected goals total last season than they did in 2018-19: 52.57, up from 48.02. So when Championship opponents did get chances against Norwich, they tended to be of higher quality.
Krul finished the season having saved a sky-high 80 per cent of shots faced, which would have been the best in the Premier League last season. Norwich will hope they are less reliant on him, but you sense his No1 shirt will be getting muddy again – starting this evening at Carrow Road.