Norwich City, situation or urgent problem.

With the start of a new season, many questions are asked by fans of every football team and they all have their fair share of worries and concerns. Maybe these are about the signings or the manager, maybe they worry about the owners or the financial situation, maybe fans even ask about relegation or promotion. However, for most teams these questions usually get answered by around the 6 game mark, unless of course you are a Norwich City fan like myself. 12 games into The Canaries 2nd season in the Championship and they sit 10th behind the likes of West Brom, Birmingham and rivals Ipswich Town, who currently sit in 2nd. So the question being asked around Carrow Road and the Norwich City fanbase is if David Wagner is the man to lead them back into the Premier League, and if he can get it done with Delia Smith and Micheal Wynn-Jones at the helm of the club. This is an in-depth view of the Norwich City season so far.

The Start

At the start of the season hopes were high within the Norwich City camp. Investment from the Attanasio's to buy more shares of the club was the signal that a new era was on it's way to Norwich City, a signal that Norwich fans had been waiting years for. Norwich had also been busy in the summer transfer market, with signings such as Ashley Barnes from Burnley, Shane Duffy from Fulham, Christian Fassnacht from Swiss side Young Boys and Jack Stacey from Bournemouth, to replace the outgoing Max Aarons who went the opposite way. Norwich fans were excited for the new season, a disappointing season before under the helm of Dean Smith at the start of the season before David Wagner took over in the latter half left City fans annoyed and upset. However, this season had some promise and there was optimism from a fan perspective and some were even thinking about the Premier League promise land again.

The optimism the fans had would be proven right in the first game of the season at home against Hull, after a late winner from Irish striker Adam Idah gave Norwich their first 3 points of the season in a 2-1 victory at home. The game also featured academy player Jonathan Rowe, who had shined this game and even scored which earnt him a Player of the Match award. The Canaries next game was a tough trip down south against newly relagated side Southampton, which many fans felt would be a contest between 2 sides likely to go up. The game ended in a 4-4 draw in what many fans would deem a slobberknocker of a game at St Mary's, with Norwich starboy Gabriel Sara getting a player of the Match after assisting one and scoring another which would help him to achieve a Championship Player of the Month award.

The ride did not stop for Norwich, wins in the Carabao Cup as well as in the league led The Canaries to 6 unbeaten games which included a 3-1 win at home against Millwall and a 0-4 storming away at Huddersfield. However, the game against Huddersfield would see star striker Josh Sargent get injured after scoring, which many Norwich fans are associating with when it all went wrong for the club. The American striker would be out until near Christmas, meaning that both Ashley Barnes and Adam Idah would take turns leading the line, however David Wagner favoring to put one of these two behind the other as a CAM in a 4-2-3-1, similar to former manager Daniel Farke's tactics when he was at the club.

The tide has turnt

After a midweek win in the Carabao cup away at Bristol City, Norwich faced Rotherham away which most Norwich fans would expect the team to be winning. However, this turned to disaster after goals from Dexter Lembikisa and former Canary Jordan Hugill left Norwich stunned in a 2-1 defeat, the first of many. The next week Norwich won at home against former manager Alex Neil and his Stoke City team 1-0, a goal from Jack Stacey the decider. Norwich had also agreed a loan for Nottingham Forest's South Korean striker Ui-Jo-Hwang until the end of the season, as he came off from the bench during the game replacing Adam Idah after 60 minutes, however he did not have much impact on the game.

Norwich would then lose their next three games to league leaders Leicester, then being embarrassed away to Plymouth in a 6-2 drubbing and being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Premier league opposition Fulham at Craven Cottage. At this point, things around Norwich were getting tense, the fanbase was slowly becoming more toxic as the players and David Wagner looked shaky and unconfident, was Norwich going to turn back in time and be as toxic as the club was under Dean Smith?

A 2-0 win at home against mid table Birmingham regained some believers, however others would need more to be bought back into believing again. Goals from the 2 Norwich starboys Gabriel Sara and Jonathan Rowe gained The Canaries an important win, which they needed to look to build off of in order to get promotion hopes back again. Away at Swansea was the start of another downfall in Norwich's season so far, a 2-1 loss against lower half opposition threw Norwich off completely and their next games would not be any easier.

A tough 1-1 draw at Coventry after a late Ben Gibson own goal in a game where Norwich were lucky to be winning in the first place but all Norwich fans down, even fighting amongst themselves in the away end during the game. The first game after the international break hosted Leeds and the return of fan favorite manager Daniel Farke to Carrow Road, and he ended up leaving with the 3 points after Leeds came back from 2 nil down to win 3-2 after goals from Crysencio Summerville and another own goal from a Norwich defender, this time Shane Duffy in the 63rd minute. After the game Daniel Farke went around Carrow Road and spent some time with the Norwich fans who he never said a proper goodbye to after being sacked from Norwich in 2021.

Further downhill?

The Canaries next game is Middlesborough at home, a team that embarrassed David Wagner 5-1 last season at the Riverside Stadium and are looking to do the same again to a weakened Norwich side. Norwich will still be without Josh Sargent as well as Ashley Barnes who was injured in the Leicester defeat and even a new injury with main goalkeeper Angus Gunn who got an injury in the Leeds game, but may see a return in the likes of midfielder Marcelino Nunez, who picked up an ankle injury with Chile during the international break. Norwich need to win against Middlesborough before the hopes promotion slip away, as well as the fan support, which over the season so far has been incredible.

Even in his defeats, manager David Wagner has been adament in claiming that Norwich have played well whilst on the ball and that goals that Norwich concede are from mistakes off the ball. In his most recent press conference where he talked about the Leeds game: "In the second half, our biggest problem was out-of-ball possession, where we had too many wrong decisions and technical mistakes, and this then cost us." David Wagner is now facing increasing pressure by Norwich fans to get results after The Canaries have only got 1 win in 7 games in both league and cup competitions, as well as having the most goals conceded in the Championship, whilst also having the 3rd most goals scored. With Norwich currently sitting 10th place in the Championship and the likes of Ipswich, Leeds and Preston sitting above them in promotion places Norwich desperately need a win before promotion hopes for the club sink and the fans turn not only on David Wagner, but also Delia Smith and Micheal Wynn-Jones. The new era of Norwich City I mentioned at the start of this blog may not have arrived yet but it looks like whatever this new era under the Attanasio's delivers, they may need to start by picking up the pieces of the old.